Features
The founding of Buddhist Ladies College
Excerpted from Chosen Ground: The Clara Motwani saga
by Goolbai Gunasekera
When Mother left Musaeus College, it was again because of her displeasure over the Board’s reaction to her dictates. Each side believed the other to be wrong. The story was this.A young girl of the Southern Province had repulsed a night-time intruder by slashing him and almost killing him, (or perhaps she actually did kill him) with a sword which happened to be owned by her father. She became quite a heroine. Those were the days of total non-violence, and the newspapers played up the incident for about a week. When the ‘heroine’ was asked what she would like in recognition of her bravery, she replied that it was her ambition to study at Musaeus College. The School Board decided to grant her request.
She was brought to Colombo by the Manager of the school (who was then Chief Justice of Ceylon, Mr. Hema Basnayake), and eventually sent to the Hostel. She proved to be an abysmal student and never fitted into the atmosphere of Musaeus. After two years of trying to do something with her, Mother felt it was time she left. Accordingly, she sent her back to Mr. Basnayake’s home. He promptly returned her to the hostel.
Feeling that her authority had been flouted in a tactless and arbitrary manner, Mother took issue with the Board. There was no question on whose banner victory would perch, and Mother was asked to leave. She was not given the option of resigning, and I have often wondered what could have caused seemingly educated men to behave so unceremoniously towards a person as gentle as Mother.
Of course it would be foolish to assume that this minor disagreement caused her dismissal. It was actually the straw that broke the camel’s back. Disagreement had been simmering for quite a while. Mother did not enjoy having the Board breathing down her neck at all times and countermanding orders which she felt were necessary to give.
The inability of the School Board to deal with strong Principals was noticed a few years after Mother left when yet another highly popular Principal, Mrs. Dulcie de Silva, was arbitrarily sacked . Dulcie did not accept her unfair dismissal gracefully. She fought back.
Su and I felt that Mother’s American attitudes did not work in her favour when dealing with Asian men who expected a docility from women which Mother just did not have. As far as personal relationships went Mother was totally non-combative, but in school she could be almost authoritarian. She could have got whatever she wanted had she approached the gentlemen of the Board in the customary oblique fashion of Sri Lankan ladies. Her American directness was not a quality those in authority over her appreciated.
Mother’s dismissal caused a reaction that the Musaeus College Board had not foreseen: the entire school went on strike. It made headline news in the papers. Reading of these exciting goings-on, Mr. Mohandas de Mel, an affluent lawyer from Avissawella, decided the time was ripe to fulfil a dream of his own. He got in touch with Mother – and a new school was born.
It was April when Mother ended her days as Principal of Musaeus. In May of the same year, Buddhist Ladies’ College opened. I was away in University at the time but I was told that BLC, the new, fledgling school, opened with nearly 400 girls on the Registers while Musaeus had an extremely depleted student body for a short while.
There was scarcely a hiccup between Mother’s leaving Musaeus one month, and beginning a brand-new school the very next month. It was a time of frenzied activity and excitement. Buildings had to be bought, furniture ordered, the entire hostel organized and playing fields got ready. The fact that everything was ready in a country like ours, where ‘tomorrow’ is an accepted norm of work, says much for the energy of Mr. de Mel and Mother.
But there was another factor – an unexpected factor – that played an important part in the founding of this new school. Upon Mother’s summary dismissal, outraged parents with children at Musaeus voiced their protests, but to no avail. Several hundred students camped in front of the home of the Manager, Mr. Basnayake, whereupon he locked the door on them, refusing to change his decree.
Parents then took the drastic step of removing their children from a well-established school to install them in a new and untried school of which Mother was the Head. The parental trust in Mother that was evidenced in this way was almost humbling to her. Certainly she was touched to the heart. Teachers followed suit: they gave up regular jobs without even seeing their new contracts, such was the affection and confidence Mother inspired.
Mr. Gunasena de Zoysa, civil servant and later Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Britain, was a parent whose daughter, Ranji, was thus transferred. Srikanthi Salgado, daughter of the Director of the Coconut Research Institute, was similarly transferred. Musaeus opened the following term with one eighth of its former student strength. Children were removed from Musaeus overnight. Sunila, wife of Tilak de Zoysa, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Associated Motor Ways (AMW), says she remembers her father scooping her out of bed in the Musaeus hostel, saying: “You are going to Mrs. Motwani’s new school!”
For this mass withdrawal of students from Musaeus, the Head Girl of that school, Lalitha Thilakasena (now Gunawardena, and also a professor at one of one of the Sri Lankan universities) was responsible. She spoke so persuasively at meetings of the parents and students that she pretty much led the cross-over. Mother was unaware of all these meetings and organized protests until the shifting student population began registering at Buddhist Ladies’ College. Naturally, Lalitha continued her Head Girlship in the new school without a break, and entered the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya in a blaze of glory.
To the fury of the Musaeus Board of that era, Buddhist Ladies’ was a full blown school from day one. Thankfully, attitudes have since changed. Today’s Chairman, Mr. Ajitha de Zoysa, has no recollection of that time at all – hardly surprising, since he must have been barely out of diapers himself!
So life at BLC began…
One incident springs to mind. Just round the corner from BLC was ‘Bake House’ a popular bakery that had the creamiest eclairs and the softest bread to be found in Colombo. Hostellers of schools were not allowed to go outside the school unaccompanied, so no one would dream of asking if they could run up the road for an ice cream at Bake House. As far as Mother was aware, no one in the school boarding would dare to ask permission for such an unlikely jaunt.
One evening, the Prefects of the school decided that they would really live life on the edge. They planned to visit ‘Bake House’, timing their expedition for an evening when Mrs. Blake, the Hostel Matron, had her weekly day off, and Mother had left the school for home. Feeling terribly adventurous, the group had a great time. They ate all they possibly could, and got back to the hostel over a conveniently low section of the surrounding wall. Alack and alas, they were spotted by a neighbour who decided to alert Mother.
The next day Mother summoned her Head Girl, one of BLC’s most popular senior Prefects, Janeswari Wijesekera.
“Janeswari,” she said while Janeswari trembled, “is what I hear true?”
“No, Mrs. Motwani,” Janeswari replied, but she looked so guilty that Mother needed no further evidence.Mother looked Janeswari straight in the eye.
“If you tell me you did not break out of the hostel last night,” she said, “I will believe you, and I will drop the matter.”
Quaking, Janeswari gave her word that she and the other Prefects had been safely within the enveloping wall of BLC all evening. Mother let her go.
For the rest of the day and the whole of the next, Janeswari was the sorriest being ever to walk the corridors of BLC. Finally she could bear it no longer. On the third day, she was waiting in Mother’s office to confess. Pleased that her faith in Janeswari had been vindicated, Mother said no more about the matter to anyone outside the Prefect body, but to this day Janeswari and the Prefects remember what Mother said to them that day.
“I tried never to lie about things like that again,” she told me recently.
The morale of the new school was high, and a spirit of closeness and camaraderie pervaded it that touched the entire student and teacher body. There was a kind of pioneering air about the whole experience, which I personally found quite heady when I returned from University two years later to be a teacher myself in Mother’s new school.
The founding of BLC is something that those who were actually the pioneering teachers and students of the school never forgot. Years later, in far away America, I would meet middle-aged ladies who would say to me with a distant look in their eyes and pride in their voices;
“I was one of those who crossed over with Mrs. Motwani.”
Mother now set about turning this new school into as fine an institution as she could. Mr. de Mel had leased “Calverly”, a large property belonging to the Virasinghe family. Classrooms were soon built, and Mother began the Lady Irwin Home Science course, which was a usual feature of any school she happened to be heading.
The Buddhist Ladies’ hostel was governed with a stern but extremely kind hand. Mrs. Blake, a smart and highly efficient Matron, came to Mother at a time when she was most needed.
“I really do not know how I could have managed without her,” Mother used to say.The boarders had a great time, with Matron turning a blind eye to midnight feasts and all the other things hostelers dream up during the day.
Sriya Radalgoda, a former pupil of Musaeus, was Mother’s secretary at BLC, and had the responsibility of dealing with correspondence in the new school. She spent many agonized moments trying to comprehend Mother’s tendency to elide certain vowels. ‘Turret Road’, for instance, became ‘Trrt Road’, and poor Sriya had not the vaguest idea what Mother meant. She came to me for clarification.
“Just add vowels of your own and you’ll be just fine,” I told her, and presumably she managed.
Since Su had opted to go to Lady Irwin for her Home Science degree, Mother was able to keep an eye on her doings in New Delhi. Examiners were coming out annually to Sri Lanka from Lady Irwin College, to check the course work of the BLC entrants and also to hold the Home Science exams. Su was not happy with this personal relationship her mother had with her university.
Su collected boyfriends as some people collect books. She always managed to come up smelling of roses even when two hot-headed Arab students tried to scale the walls at Lady Irwin one memorable night, in the hope of seeing her. Su just disclaimed all knowledge of them and their questionable passion, although she privately told me, her envious sister, that the young men in question were ‘absolutely cute’. They were deported by the way.
At Lady Irwin with Su were several other Sri Lankans. One was Vinita Warasuvitharna (now Gunaratne) a shining light of the College, and Chitra Kanadavanam, with whom I have lost touch.
On one never-to-be-forgotten occasion, Su’s luck deserted her. As usual she got into trouble over some young man. My parents heard about it and made agitated calls to Sir Richard Aluvihare, our High Commissioner in Delhi. Poor Sir Richard had no idea that Father expected him to keep a beady eye on Su. The earlier High Commissioner, Sir Edwin Wijeyaratne, was a friend of the family, and his wife often had Su over for tea. Su spoke beautiful Sinhala and Lady Wijeyaratne enjoyed talking to her. She would send glowing reports to Father on Su’s progress though, how she knew what was happening at Lady Irwin was obviously what Su felt was on a need-to-know basis only.
Su was finally returned to the bosom of her enraged family as insouciant as always and quite impenitent.
“What can I do if I’m pretty, and boys like me?” she asked airily.
Father was speechless. Mother was more understanding with her independent and unconventional daughter.
At BLC, I began my own teaching career. Armed with a brand-new degree, I thought I knew all there was to know about teaching. Mother disabused me of that idea soon enough. Truth to tell, I could not have had a better start to what eventually became a full-time career for me. It is one of my lasting sorrows that Mother never saw the building of the Asian International School by its Founder/ Chairman, Mr. W P. Perera. She would have been so proud, and her praise would have been sweet indeed: all the more so because she had not greeted my choice of a teaching career with enthusiasm.
She expected her teachers to be like Chandra Godakumbure or Dr. Dharma Ponnusamy — dedicated, thoroughly versed in the subjects they taught, and willing to work far beyond the call of duty. She did not quite see me bathed in this rosy aura. She told me (very unenthusiastically) that she would give me a try.
“I really don’t see why you seem so doubtful, Mother. I’m a chip off the old block…..both of them,” i would boast.
“You’ll need to be more than just a chip darling. If you don’t want to incur criticism and even critical comparisons, you will need to be a fully hewn model from the old blocks.” Guardedly, she gave me a job, starting with English teaching in Grade Six.
As the daughter of the BLC Principal, I was given a far heavier timetable than my contemporaries. I was rarely allowed any medical leave. “Take an aspirin and get to school,” was all the comfort I got, even when I really did have a temperature. On the day I got engaged to my husband ‘Bunchy’, Mother graciously granted me the last two periods of the day off. I might say that in those less stressful times the average teacher got at least two days off on her engagement, and a further ten days in which to get married and go on her honeymoon.
Predictably, Mother saw to it that I married in December … a holiday month. Not only was no leave needed, but I did not need to honeymoon on school time. Finding an auspicious time for the wedding was not on Mother’s agenda.
by Dr Gotabhya Ranasinghe
Senior Consultant Cardiologist
National Hospital Sri Lanka
When we sought a meeting with Hon Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Health, he graciously cleared his busy schedule to accommodate us. Renowned for his attentive listening and deep understanding, Minister Pathirana is dedicated to advancing the health sector. His openness and transparency exemplify the qualities of an exemplary politician and minister.
Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the current Health Secretary, demonstrates both commendable enthusiasm and unwavering support. This combination of attributes makes him a highly compatible colleague for the esteemed Minister of Health.
Our discussion centered on a project that has been in the works for the past 30 years, one that no other minister had managed to advance.
Minister Pathirana, however, recognized the project’s significance and its potential to revolutionize care for heart patients.
The project involves the construction of a state-of-the-art facility at the premises of the National Hospital Colombo. The project’s location within the premises of the National Hospital underscores its importance and relevance to the healthcare infrastructure of the nation.
This facility will include a cardiology building and a tertiary care center, equipped with the latest technology to handle and treat all types of heart-related conditions and surgeries.
Securing funding was a major milestone for this initiative. Minister Pathirana successfully obtained approval for a $40 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank. With the funding in place, the foundation stone is scheduled to be laid in September this year, and construction will begin in January 2025.
This project guarantees a consistent and uninterrupted supply of stents and related medications for heart patients. As a result, patients will have timely access to essential medical supplies during their treatment and recovery. By securing these critical resources, the project aims to enhance patient outcomes, minimize treatment delays, and maintain the highest standards of cardiac care.
Upon its fruition, this monumental building will serve as a beacon of hope and healing, symbolizing the unwavering dedication to improving patient outcomes and fostering a healthier society.We anticipate a future marked by significant progress and positive outcomes in Sri Lanka’s cardiovascular treatment landscape within the foreseeable timeframe.
by Fr. Emmanuel Fernando, OMI
Jesuit Fr. Aloysius Pieris (affectionately called Fr. Aloy) celebrated his 90th birthday on April 9, 2024 and I, as the editor of our Oblate Journal, THE MISSIONARY OBLATE had gone to press by that time. Immediately I decided to publish an article, appreciating the untiring selfless services he continues to offer for inter-Faith dialogue, the renewal of the Catholic Church, his concern for the poor and the suffering Sri Lankan masses and to me, the present writer.
It was in 1988, when I was appointed Director of the Oblate Scholastics at Ampitiya by the then Oblate Provincial Fr. Anselm Silva, that I came to know Fr. Aloy more closely. Knowing well his expertise in matters spiritual, theological, Indological and pastoral, and with the collaborative spirit of my companion-formators, our Oblate Scholastics were sent to Tulana, the Research and Encounter Centre, Kelaniya, of which he is the Founder-Director, for ‘exposure-programmes’ on matters spiritual, biblical, theological and pastoral. Some of these dimensions according to my view and that of my companion-formators, were not available at the National Seminary, Ampitiya.
Ever since that time, our Oblate formators/ accompaniers at the Oblate Scholasticate, Ampitiya , have continued to send our Oblate Scholastics to Tulana Centre for deepening their insights and convictions regarding matters needed to serve the people in today’s context. Fr. Aloy also had tried very enthusiastically with the Oblate team headed by Frs. Oswald Firth and Clement Waidyasekara to begin a Theologate, directed by the Religious Congregations in Sri Lanka, for the contextual formation/ accompaniment of their members. It should very well be a desired goal of the Leaders / Provincials of the Religious Congregations.
Besides being a formator/accompanier at the Oblate Scholasticate, I was entrusted also with the task of editing and publishing our Oblate journal, ‘The Missionary Oblate’. To maintain the quality of the journal I continue to depend on Fr. Aloy for his thought-provoking and stimulating articles on Biblical Spirituality, Biblical Theology and Ecclesiology. I am very grateful to him for his generous assistance. Of late, his writings on renewal of the Church, initiated by Pope St. John XX111 and continued by Pope Francis through the Synodal path, published in our Oblate journal, enable our readers to focus their attention also on the needed renewal in the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Fr. Aloy appreciated very much the Synodal path adopted by the Jesuit Pope Francis for the renewal of the Church, rooted very much on prayerful discernment. In my Religious and presbyteral life, Fr.Aloy continues to be my spiritual animator / guide and ongoing formator / acccompanier.
Fr. Aloysius Pieris, BA Hons (Lond), LPh (SHC, India), STL (PFT, Naples), PhD (SLU/VC), ThD (Tilburg), D.Ltt (KU), has been one of the eminent Asian theologians well recognized internationally and one who has lectured and held visiting chairs in many universities both in the West and in the East. Many members of Religious Congregations from Asian countries have benefited from his lectures and guidance in the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in Manila, Philippines. He had been a Theologian consulted by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences for many years. During his professorship at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was called to be a member of a special group of advisers on other religions consulted by Pope Paul VI.
Fr. Aloy is the author of more than 30 books and well over 500 Research Papers. Some of his books and articles have been translated and published in several countries. Among those books, one can find the following: 1) The Genesis of an Asian Theology of Liberation (An Autobiographical Excursus on the Art of Theologising in Asia, 2) An Asian Theology of Liberation, 3) Providential Timeliness of Vatican 11 (a long-overdue halt to a scandalous millennium, 4) Give Vatican 11 a chance, 5) Leadership in the Church, 6) Relishing our faith in working for justice (Themes for study and discussion), 7) A Message meant mainly, not exclusively for Jesuits (Background information necessary for helping Francis renew the Church), 8) Lent in Lanka (Reflections and Resolutions, 9) Love meets wisdom (A Christian Experience of Buddhism, 10) Fire and Water 11) God’s Reign for God’s poor, 12) Our Unhiddden Agenda (How we Jesuits work, pray and form our men). He is also the Editor of two journals, Vagdevi, Journal of Religious Reflection and Dialogue, New Series.
Fr. Aloy has a BA in Pali and Sanskrit from the University of London and a Ph.D in Buddhist Philosophy from the University of Sri Lankan, Vidyodaya Campus. On Nov. 23, 2019, he was awarded the prestigious honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt) by the Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, the Most Venerable Welamitiyawe Dharmakirthi Sri Kusala Dhamma Thera.
Fr. Aloy continues to be a promoter of Gospel values and virtues. Justice as a constitutive dimension of love and social concern for the downtrodden masses are very much noted in his life and work. He had very much appreciated the commitment of the late Fr. Joseph (Joe) Fernando, the National Director of the Social and Economic Centre (SEDEC) for the poor.
In Sri Lanka, a few religious Congregations – the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers and the Oblates – have invited him to animate their members especially during their Provincial Congresses, Chapters and International Conferences. The mainline Christian Churches also have sought his advice and followed his seminars. I, for one, regret very much, that the Sri Lankan authorities of the Catholic Church –today’s Hierarchy—- have not sought Fr.
Aloy’s expertise for the renewal of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka and thus have not benefited from the immense store of wisdom and insight that he can offer to our local Church while the Sri Lankan bishops who governed the Catholic church in the immediate aftermath of the Second Vatican Council (Edmund Fernando OMI, Anthony de Saram, Leo Nanayakkara OSB, Frank Marcus Fernando, Paul Perera,) visited him and consulted him on many matters. Among the Tamil Bishops, Bishop Rayappu Joseph was keeping close contact with him and Bishop J. Deogupillai hosted him and his team visiting him after the horrible Black July massacre of Tamils.
Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
By Gomi Senadhira
senadhiragomi@gmail.com
“You might tell fairy tales, but the progress of a country cannot be achieved through such narratives. A country cannot be developed by making false promises. The country moved backward because of the electoral promises made by political parties throughout time. We have witnessed that the ultimate result of this is the country becoming bankrupt. Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet.” – President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 2024 Budget speech
Any Sri Lankan would agree with the above words of President Wickremesinghe on the false promises our politicians and officials make and the fairy tales they narrate which bankrupted this country. So, to understand this, let’s look at one such fairy tale with lots of false promises; Ranil Wickremesinghe’s greatest achievement in the area of international trade and investment promotion during the Yahapalana period, Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA).
It is appropriate and timely to do it now as Finance Minister Wickremesinghe has just presented to parliament a bill on the National Policy on Economic Transformation which includes the establishment of an Office for International Trade and the Sri Lanka Institute of Economics and International Trade.
Was SLSFTA a “Cleverly negotiated Free Trade Agreement” as stated by the (former) Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate on the SLSFTA in July 2018, or a colossal blunder covered up with lies, false promises, and fairy tales? After SLSFTA was signed there were a number of fairy tales published on this agreement by the Ministry of Development Strategies and International, Institute of Policy Studies, and others.
However, for this article, I would like to limit my comments to the speech by Minister Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate, and the two most important areas in the agreement which were covered up with lies, fairy tales, and false promises, namely: revenue loss for Sri Lanka and Investment from Singapore. On the other important area, “Waste products dumping” I do not want to comment here as I have written extensively on the issue.
1. The revenue loss
During the Parliamentary Debate in July 2018, Minister Samarawickrama stated “…. let me reiterate that this FTA with Singapore has been very cleverly negotiated by us…. The liberalisation programme under this FTA has been carefully designed to have the least impact on domestic industry and revenue collection. We have included all revenue sensitive items in the negative list of items which will not be subject to removal of tariff. Therefore, 97.8% revenue from Customs duty is protected. Our tariff liberalisation will take place over a period of 12-15 years! In fact, the revenue earned through tariffs on goods imported from Singapore last year was Rs. 35 billion.
The revenue loss for over the next 15 years due to the FTA is only Rs. 733 million– which when annualised, on average, is just Rs. 51 million. That is just 0.14% per year! So anyone who claims the Singapore FTA causes revenue loss to the Government cannot do basic arithmetic! Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I call on my fellow members of this House – don’t mislead the public with baseless criticism that is not grounded in facts. Don’t look at petty politics and use these issues for your own political survival.”
I was surprised to read the minister’s speech because an article published in January 2018 in “The Straits Times“, based on information released by the Singaporean Negotiators stated, “…. With the FTA, tariff savings for Singapore exports are estimated to hit $10 million annually“.
As the annual tariff savings (that is the revenue loss for Sri Lanka) calculated by the Singaporean Negotiators, Singaporean $ 10 million (Sri Lankan rupees 1,200 million in 2018) was way above the rupees’ 733 million revenue loss for 15 years estimated by the Sri Lankan negotiators, it was clear to any observer that one of the parties to the agreement had not done the basic arithmetic!
Six years later, according to a report published by “The Morning” newspaper, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) on 7th May 2024, Mr Samarawickrama’s chief trade negotiator K.J. Weerasinghehad had admitted “…. that forecasted revenue loss for the Government of Sri Lanka through the Singapore FTA is Rs. 450 million in 2023 and Rs. 1.3 billion in 2024.”
If these numbers are correct, as tariff liberalisation under the SLSFTA has just started, we will pass Rs 2 billion very soon. Then, the question is how Sri Lanka’s trade negotiators made such a colossal blunder. Didn’t they do their basic arithmetic? If they didn’t know how to do basic arithmetic they should have at least done their basic readings. For example, the headline of the article published in The Straits Times in January 2018 was “Singapore, Sri Lanka sign FTA, annual savings of $10m expected”.
Anyway, as Sri Lanka’s chief negotiator reiterated at the COPF meeting that “…. since 99% of the tariffs in Singapore have zero rates of duty, Sri Lanka has agreed on 80% tariff liberalisation over a period of 15 years while expecting Singapore investments to address the imbalance in trade,” let’s turn towards investment.
Investment from Singapore
In July 2018, speaking during the Parliamentary Debate on the FTA this is what Minister Malik Samarawickrama stated on investment from Singapore, “Already, thanks to this FTA, in just the past two-and-a-half months since the agreement came into effect we have received a proposal from Singapore for investment amounting to $ 14.8 billion in an oil refinery for export of petroleum products. In addition, we have proposals for a steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million), sugar refinery ($ 200 million). This adds up to more than $ 16.05 billion in the pipeline on these projects alone.
And all of these projects will create thousands of more jobs for our people. In principle approval has already been granted by the BOI and the investors are awaiting the release of land the environmental approvals to commence the project.
I request the Opposition and those with vested interests to change their narrow-minded thinking and join us to develop our country. We must always look at what is best for the whole community, not just the few who may oppose. We owe it to our people to courageously take decisions that will change their lives for the better.”
According to the media report I quoted earlier, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chief Negotiator Weerasinghe has admitted that Sri Lanka was not happy with overall Singapore investments that have come in the past few years in return for the trade liberalisation under the Singapore-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. He has added that between 2021 and 2023 the total investment from Singapore had been around $162 million!
What happened to those projects worth $16 billion negotiated, thanks to the SLSFTA, in just the two-and-a-half months after the agreement came into effect and approved by the BOI? I do not know about the steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million) and sugar refinery ($ 200 million).
However, story of the multibillion-dollar investment in the Petroleum Refinery unfolded in a manner that would qualify it as the best fairy tale with false promises presented by our politicians and the officials, prior to 2019 elections.
Though many Sri Lankans got to know, through the media which repeatedly highlighted a plethora of issues surrounding the project and the questionable credentials of the Singaporean investor, the construction work on the Mirrijiwela Oil Refinery along with the cement factory began on the24th of March 2019 with a bang and Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ministers along with the foreign and local dignitaries laid the foundation stones.
That was few months before the 2019 Presidential elections. Inaugurating the construction work Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the projects will create thousands of job opportunities in the area and surrounding districts.
The oil refinery, which was to be built over 200 acres of land, with the capacity to refine 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was to generate US$7 billion of exports and create 1,500 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs. The construction of the refinery was to be completed in 44 months. Four years later, in August 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to cancel the agreement with the investors of the refinery as the project has not been implemented! Can they explain to the country how much money was wasted to produce that fairy tale?
It is obvious that the President, ministers, and officials had made huge blunders and had deliberately misled the public and the parliament on the revenue loss and potential investment from SLSFTA with fairy tales and false promises.
As the president himself said, a country cannot be developed by making false promises or with fairy tales and these false promises and fairy tales had bankrupted the country. “Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet”.
(The writer, a specialist and an activist on trade and development issues . )
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