Features
The Last of the Mohicans
Capt Elmo Jayawardena
elmojay1@gmail.com
The lane down Nugegoda which is in the outskirts of Colombo, is named Mudaliar Avenue. Two left turns after that would bring you to number 1/8. This is Uncle Siri and Aunty Olga’s domain. Sadly, she passed away. As Uncle Siri says, “she went to heaven in 2021”, a sentiment whispered softly sounding more like a person finding it impossible to fill the huge empty space she left. Perhaps painful heartstrings may be tugging when he mentions her. Sixty eight years is a very long time to share a blissfully happy life and lose your soul partner.Now Lionel Sirimane is alone.
He is 103 years old and is a classic example for those of us who have gone beyond 75 and are pre-occupied contemplating when the bell will knell for us. Let’s take a look at this wonderful man who greets every day that dawns with a positive awakening and makes the best of it. He is on Facebook, a real fast bunny with emails and up to date with aviation technology and is well aware of what is happening in our planet. On a sunny day you would see him mowing his lawn and he scoots out driving his Suzuki to Keell’s Supermarket to buy knick-knacks and groceries. Not bad at all Uncle Siri, you do show junior oldies like me how to count our blessings.
Uncle Siri was born on January 31, in 1920 in Kurunegala and studied at the Catholic College in Kotahena. He completed his SSC and left school join the Technical College in, Colombo and learned shorthand and typewriting and got employed as a typist.
That was the beginning, common to most of the young of that era. He then applied to the Fleet Air Arm was selected to the an aviation related trade. In 1942 he was sent to RNAS school (Royal Navy Air Service) in Maharagama which was called ‘HMS Bherunda’. It was a four-month course and Uncle Siri passed out of that institution as an aircraft electrician.
There were many young men entering aviation who had their baptism in Maharagama, and they were mainly riggers, electricians and fitters. And so started Lionel Sirimanne’s career in aviation which lasted 36 years in multiple roles that were connected to aeroplanes.
His first posting in Fleet Air Arm was at the Katukurunda Airport where some Italian prisoners of war had concreted the temporary metallic runway to a length of 3,300 feet. At this time the Katukurunda airfield was operating as a Royal Air Force base named ‘Ukussa’ with a reasonably equipped aeronautical repair center.
RAF pilots, engineers and WRENS were all billeted in different huts in the vicinity and so were the mechanics.
Electrician Sirimanne started working on aeroplanes specializing in electrical systems and radio transmitters. They had all types of war kites that came to this airfield, some on regular operations and some for repairs. The types they treated at Katukurunda at times were rather way past their prime such as Swordfish, Barracuda dive bombers rigged with torpedoes, Fairly Fulmars and Sea-Fire Fighters etc.
The work consisted of checking serviceability, repairs and modifications on aircraft brought to the single large hangar.
“Wiring in those aircraft were rather primitive circuits for landing gear, bomb release and Megger tests on circuits” says Uncle Siri. “The most important part was always the condition of the batteries,” he emphasizes to me giving me a 103-year-old smile with a ‘you see’ nod of his head.
Subsequently more modern aeroplanes too came to Katukurunda such as Grumman Martlets, Corsair fighters and Hellcats. Uncle Siri worked on them all. He was a master-craftsman comfortable with all types of electrical malfunctions in an airplane. The boy from Kurunegala had learned a valuable trade related to aeroplanes.
By this time the war ended and the participants, the winners and the losers both breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Lionel Sirimanne left Katukurunda and found employment in the radio section of the Department of Post and Telegraph. From there, he was sent to the Ratmalana Airport to repair communication facilities and navigational aids at the aerodrome.”I came to know the first Air Traffic Controller, Mr Maurice Jansz and he advised me to learn Morse Code and get a PMG’s License to operate radio communications.
He was a kind man who later became my good friend. There was talk of a new national airline being formed and the word was out that they will be needing pilots, engineers and flight radio officers. Sirimanne hastened to learn his da da da and di di da di (- – – and ..-.) codes of the alphabet and passed his exams to become a radio officer. In 1947, Uncle Siri joined Air Ceylon as a flight radio officer and worked on charter flights.
His major break came when Air Ceylon undertook to do a Colombo to Sydney flight manned by a full Ceylonese crew. Lionel Sirimanne was slotted as the second radio officer under the senior Head of Communications, Mr John Vedavanam, a very kind professional gentleman who I too had the privilege of knowing personally when I was a fledgling pilot.
Air Ceylon flew its first commercial flight to Jaffna and onwards to Madras on December 10, 1947. In the 40s commercial aviation in Asia was at its infancy. The navigational facilities were at best mediocre, and their reliability was at most times questionable. The pilots communicated with aerodromes on VHF which may have had a possible maximum range of 200 miles at best.
The rest of the communication was on HF which had extended range but was not easy to operate. The flight radio officer is the one who handled all the extended communications and assisted in map reading and dead reckoning aircraft positions in navigation.
In the early 50s the Muslim community in Ceylon chartered a DC-3 from the national carrier to fly them to Jeddah for their annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The company did not have charts to fly this unknown route. They had very capable crews but certainly were lacking in the ‘know-how’ of flying in the isolated skies over rugged desert land.
The RAF pilots operating out of Katunayake were well versed in long-range flying and they had all the charts covering Asia and the Middle East. Air Ceylon picked a capable crew and sent them to Katunayake to obtain all the charts pertaining to the journey and they were given a thorough briefing for the route by the RAF. The plan was to fly from Ratmalana to Bombay and then to Karachi and do a ‘night-stop’.
The next day they were to fly to Salala in Oman as a pit stop to refuel and then fly on to Aden for another night-stop. The final leg was to fly along the Red Sea to Jeddah. From there the pilgrims would travel by road transport to Mecca. The crew was Capt Peter Fernando, Capt Emil Jayawardena, Flight Engineer G V Perera and Radio Officer Lionel Sirimanne.
“Flying from Karachi to Salala we faced a very dangerous situation” Uncle Siri explained. “Salala was completely covered with clouds, eight Octas of it and we could not descend as the visibility would be zero once we get into the cloud layer. There were mountains surrounding the airfield. The worst was, the airport radio beacon the only landing aid was not working and so also the communication equipment,” he sighed and continued. “It was a total dead end, nothing to see except clouds and no communication and no radio beacon to guide us to the airport.
But the pilots were very clever. They were both ‘seat of the pants’ flyers with excellent situational awareness. The airport was by the coast and east of that was the Arabian Sea. We flew eastwards till we were sure we were over the water and descended through the cloud till we saw the sea and a fishing boat. We were below 1,000 feet by then. We turned 180 degrees and backtracked the way we came. Just then the radio beacon came alive pointing to where the airport was, and the VHF radio started working. We managed to land safely in Salala,” explained Uncle Siri.
“The signal of the DC-3 arrival had not reached the Salala Airport and the RAF staff manning the airfield had closed the airport and gone for a sea bath as they were not expecting any aircraft to land in Salala that day. They were enjoying the beach and the Arabian Sea when they heard an aircraft circling the cloud covered sky and realized someone was trying to land in Salala. They ran and got into their vehicle and drove as fast as they could to the airport and switched on the communications and the navigational equipment.
“We refueled and were ready to depart and the RAF staff gifted us two cases of beer for the serious mistake they made closing the airport. The rest of the trip to Aden and Jeddah and the return flight was uneventful.”
The pilot in me always wondered how these ancient Mohicans flew their magnificent old aeroplanes with such limited technology and survived the sky? They carved the path for us to follow, and the aviation fraternity owes them at least the remembrance.
Back to Uncle Siri. In 1954 he got married to Olga de Silva who was a flight stewardess with Air Ceylon. She had joined the company in the first batch of cabin crew recruited by the national airline. Uncle Siri and Aunty Olga had an exceptionally wonderful marriage and raised two sons and a daughter, Sunil, Laksen and Minoli who always adored their parents.
I had met the senior Sirimannes when I was young and re-connected with them again in 2012 when I was writing the 100-year-old history of aviation in Sri Lanka. Uncle Siri was hale and hearty, but Aunty Olga was wheelchair bound. My wife and I at times visited them and shared a few lunches with palatable conversation. Of course, the subject was always aeroplanes and the people who flew them in bygone years. They knew stories that we loved to hear as they both had flown as fellow crew members with my father who was a DC-3 Captain.
The year 1955 was a new chapter for Mr Sirimanne. He was seconded to KLM along with a few others to work as flight crew. He started as a radio officer and operated on DC-4, DC-6, DC-7, Lockheed Constellations and Electras. The routes covered the whole world. The ‘Flying Dutchman’ flew everywhere. Aviation communication and en route Air Traffic Control steadily became more sophisticated and the Radio Officers became redundant Internationally.
Uncle Siri shifted seats and became a Flight Navigator sponsored by KLM. A whole new world of Astro Navigation opened to him. It is a poetic art of calculating an aircraft’s position by measuring the elevation of a star and its azimuth and using an almanac to draw a possible location. Mark St Helaya method was used for celestial navigation work. This was also how they navigated the sailing ships of the new world. Modified and improved versions came to aeroplanes and specialized navigators used their sextants to accurately plot aircraft positions.
This is what Navigator Sirimanne did from 1957 to 1961 flying mainly the Atlantic on KLM’s triple rudder Allison engine powered Super Constellations. He may have used popular navigational stars such as Aldebaran from Taurus, or Sirius from the leg of Orion and the ever-popular Altair to cross the Atlantic from Amsterdam to New York. The navigators picked their stars and pre calculated positions of the aircraft and waited for the calculated time to use the periscopic sextant and measure the stars.
The Lockheed Constellation flew around 18,000 ft and often the Atlantic sky was cloud laden leaving no possibility to see stars to make calculations. I too flew the same route crossing the Atlantic many times on Jumbo Jets. On such flights we pressed a few buttons and commanded the aeroplane to go to New York and back with pinpoint accuracy navigating from FMS (Flight Management System) equipment. We were blessed. Uncle Siri crossed the Atlantic looking perhaps at the same stars that Christopher Columbus used to navigate the Santa Maria.
The last of the original Mohicans Lionel Sirimanne
Three cheers to you Uncle Siri, I certainly envy you for that serene act of shooting stars with a sextant from an aeroplane.
The Navigator returned home after six years of flying with KLM. He was back in Air Ceylon and worked as an aircraft electrical engineer and moved to jets when the Trident 1E came into service in 1969. He also qualified to sign Qantas and BOAC planes that landed in Katunayake. Air Ceylon stopped operations in 1979 with the birth of Air Lanka and Uncle Siri said his fond farewell to aviation after 36 long years. He has had his moments and was left with memories of wonderful aeroplanes he flew with unforgettable crew members.
Lionel Sirimanne was a well experienced and efficient Flight Radio Officer. He found alternate employment to man the communications in ships and switched to being a sailing radio officer in the Merchant Navy. Sailor Sirimanne went all over the world traversing the popular sea routes and heading to ports in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Indian Ocean, almost all seas except the Pacific.
In 1986 he said good-bye to his working life, just so he could be home with his lovely wife Aunty Olga. Home was the aviator from the skies and home was the sailor from the seas. The children had flown the nest to pitch their tents in foreign lands and Uncle Siri and Aunty Olga settled in good old Sri Lanka to a well-deserved restful twilight.
“It is only at the going down of the sun one would know how beautiful the day has been.” The Sirimanne couple enjoyed their time together thanking the good lord that gifted them a beautiful life. I saw them in 2012, Uncle Siri was 92 and Aunty Olga a tad behind. True the sun was disappearing from the horizon but there was enough light still to paint in clear pastel colours the remainder of their lives.
The final ‘good-bye’ of Aunty Olga must have been extremely difficult for Uncle Siri to accept. But he still keeps on batting, loved and adored by his children and their friends. At 103, I do not think there is any friend of his vintage walking this planet. That must be sad, but he makes the best of it still, doing little household chores and pruning his white-leafed shoe flower plants in the yard.
He sure is an admirable example for the elderly, a man who has the wisdom of words to share with the younger generations on how precious life is and how lucky we are to count our blessings. Off and on he would meet another old pelican like me, and he still lights up bright when the conversation shifts to old aeroplanes and old pilots who flew them who are not with us anymore.
“Such is life” says Uncle Siri, the Face Book and email ‘fast bunny’ who drives his little Suzuki and mows his lawn on a sunny day.
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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