Features
The Republicans
CANDIDATES FOR THE US PRESIDENCY IN 2024 PART 1
by Vijaya Chandrasoma
Many political pundits believe that the choice for the contestants for the 2024 presidential elections has already been decided by the American electorate, that it will be a Trump v. Biden repeat of the 2020 election. This is a most unrealistic projection. It’s only May 2023, the primary seasons have not yet begun and the spectrum of the political colors of the nation, from deep-blue Woke to deep-red neo-Nazi, can change beyond recognition in 18 months. So really, nothing has been decided. The race is wide open.
Besides, there is an element of doubt if both these candidates, already over the current US life-expectancy rate for white men of 76.4 years, will even be alive in November 2024. Also, obesity is a major cause of death for white men. These are established facts; they do not disclose any personal hopes.
The Republican Party has a few candidates who have already announced their presidential ambitions. The list is headed by twice impeached former President Trump, a serial loser who has, during his administration from 2016 to 2020, seen his Party lose its majority in the Senate, perform abysmally in the House midterms in 2018, and lose the 2020 Presidency to President Biden by a landslide.
Trump, who has been convicted, arrested and under investigation for numerous felonies, including espionage and sedition, is still amazingly the Republican front runner. He continues to spew the Big Lie, that the 2020 election was stolen from him, a lie believed by 52% of Republicans against all evidence to the contrary,
Other Republicans who have announced their candidature for nomination claim they also represent the Trump agenda, without Trump’s criminal and personal baggage. They are: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, currently second to Trump in the polls by over 30% points, is running a sort of Trump-like campaign, offering a more effective and less flamboyant continuation of Trump’s authoritarian white supremacist policies. He is trying to win the support of moderate Republicans and a section of Trump’s base, who may be showing signs of antipathy in the face of his continuing vulgarity and criminal behavior. This strategy requires him, and other candidates, to be publicly critical of Trump and his transgressions, without overly alienating his base, and so position themselves as more electable alternatives. A task of formidable nuance.
The only other credible announced contender is former South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley. She presently runs 40% behind Trump in the polls. The public shifting of her views of Trump after the January 6 insurrection threatens her chances as a viable candidate.
There are many other announced and “thinking about it” candidates, ready to jump in if the Trump balloon bursts. Not an impossibility, as there are a number of reasons for such a collapse, mainly investigations against him on multiple felonies. Conviction of Trump in any of these cases, which will probably be concluded before November 2024, could disqualify his candidacy.
In that event, the fortunes of DeSantis, Haley and a host of other Republican hopefuls will take a significant upward turn. Also, there is a distinct possibility that a moderate Republican, of the mold of 2008 presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain, may vie for the Republican nomination. If such a Republican wins the nomination, America will finally wake up from the political nightmare of eight years of racism, cruelty and criminal incompetence of the Trump years.
As Dr. Martin Luther King wrote from Birmingham jail in April 1963, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”.
A win for the Republicans in 2024 will capture us all in an inescapable network of intransigent enmity, which will continue to threaten the very essence of our freedoms and our democracy.
There are numerous domestic and international issues which Trump or the Republican who wins the White House will continue, issues which will take us back to the criminal incompetence and unconstitutional behavior of the previous Trump administration, which very nearly brought about the end of our democracy.
The current wafer-thin Republican majority in the House and the Trump-packed Supreme Court have already given us a glimpse of their future radical right-wing intentions if they win the presidency in 2024, especially if that winner is Trump.
Domestic Issues
The Trump-packed Supreme Court fired the first Republican salvo across the bows of democracy when it overturned Roe v. Wade, which had, in 1973, ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to have an abortion. The current Supreme Court ruled, in June 2022, that abortion be only permitted according to the laws of individual states. The laws in some conservative, Christian states do not permit abortion, even with exceptions for “rape, incest or the safety of the mother”, so the new ruling seriously compromises the reproductive freedom of women, especially the black, the brown-skinned immigrants and the poor.
There is no doubt that a future Federal Government controlled by Republicans will impose a national ban on abortion. America will then return to the good old days of illegal, “coat hanger” abortions, dangerous to the health of both the mother and the fetus.
Trump and the Republican Party have opinions about climate change completely at odds with those of 97% of the scientific community. The first act of Trump when he took over the presidency in 2017 was to withdraw the US from the 195-nation backed Paris Climate Agreement, calling climate change a “hoax’’. Trump continued with US reliance on fossil fuels, resisting the development of renewable sources of energy, like solar, wind and ocean.
President Biden has since rejoined the Paris Accord, but a future Republican president will undoubtedly revert to reliance to fossil fuels.The regulations imposed by President Obama to curb oil companies and other corporate polluters from contaminating the environment were immediately deregulated by Trump in 2017.
These regulations have been reimposed by President Biden, but there is no doubt that a future Republican administration will revert to deregulation, for which they will be amply compensated by their grateful Masters, the Big Oil companies and other corporate polluters.
Trump, soon after his inauguration, unveiled a new tax cut amounting to $ 1.5 trillion in 2017, billed as “a middle-class miracle” by the Republicans. In their book “The Triumph of Injustice,” Berkeley economists, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, argue that Trump’s tax cut “helped billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than the working class for the first time in history”. In the 1950s, during the administration of Republican President Eisenhower, 0.1% of the nation’s richest and corporations paid as much as 60% in taxes, which made for a thriving middle class. During the Reagan years in the 1980s, that rate had plummeted to 40%, which saw the beginning of the erosion of that prosperous middle class.
Trump’s 2017 tax cuts reduced the tax rates payable by the 0.1% of the wealthiest and corporations to 20%, which made the income and wealth gap between the billionaires and 90% of the poorest section of the population at its highest levels in history. And such low taxes to benefit the super-wealthy are likely to continue under future Republican administrations.
President Biden in a recent speech warned that white supremacy “is the most dangerous domestic terrorist threat to our homeland, and that “sinister forces” embraced by Trump and his white supremacist base “are trying to reverse generations of racial progress in America”.
A Republican win in 2024 will see an increase in racial discrimination, including violence against blacks and non-white immigrants.
Gun violence is the scourge of America. So far, there have been over 200 mass shootings in 2023, and we are only in the middle of May. Deaths caused by gun violence so far this year exceed 15,600, including 658 toddlers and children killed and over 1,600 injured. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death of children in the USA.
In spite of over 40,000 people being killed every year by gun violence, the Republican Party has resisted the imposition of any gun control laws. Anyone over 18 can go to their local Walmart’s, buy their groceries, stroll down to the gun shop and buy a military style assault rifle/pistol, (even an AR 15, the popular choice of today’s shooters), over the counter. No questions asked, no waiting time, no background check, easy-peasy.
Any future Republican administration, totally bought and paid for by the gun lobby, the military industrial complex represented by the National Rifle Association (NRA), will continue to resist any laws preventing the free purchase of guns and ammunition.
Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act which provides health insurance for most Americans, will be repealed by a future Republican administration, leaving over 50 million Americans without health insurance.
The Republican Party policy about education, already the law in many states like Florida and Virginia, is to ban the reading and teaching the history of the country, including the brutality of the genocide of native Americans and 400 years of slavery. They feel that such education will create feelings of guilt among white children because of the atrocities committed by their ancestors. A most racist and shortsighted strategy, against the First Amendment, as blindness to the facts of history will only succeed in such history being repeated.
In contrast, a mandatory class in modern early grade education in Germany is the history of the horrors of Nazism and the holocaust, with the slogan, “Never Again”.
The rights of the LGBTQ community are already being trampled in states like Florida, Alabama and many other “red” states. These harassment’s will translate into national laws restricting the rights of that community under a Republican administration.
Immigration continues to be the most difficult problem faced by the USA over the last few decades. The economic and political crises in countries like Venezuela and Guatemala have forced their citizens to flee their homelands, as their liberty and lives were in imminent danger, a legal reason to seek asylum according to the laws of the United States. Unfortunately, the sheer numbers of immigrants make it impossible for US immigration authorities to process all applications expeditiously, because of a lack of resources. Various administrations have tried to arrive at humane solutions, which have so far met with very limited success.
Under the Trump administration, immigration authorities were encouraged to take inhumane and cruel measures to curb this flood of immigration, including separation of children from their parents. The conditions of the shelters provided for these asylum seekers were comparable to those of German WWII concentration camps.
Biden’s administration has been trying to increase the facilities to deal with this problem, with limited success. The immigration crisis at the southern border will only get better with an improvement of living conditions in the home countries of the immigrants.
A new Republican administration will revert to the inhumane measures practiced by the Trump administration.
These are some of the domestic injustices we could expect with the election of a Republican president in 2024. There will be more, which will provide more hardship and injustice to all but the corporations, the NRA and the billionaires, whose numbers will increase with the entry into its fold of a large number of corrupt, MAGA Republican politicians.
International Issues.
Trump’s followers have already indicated that they will stop giving military aid to the Ukraine in their war against Russian aggression. That will mean the end of the sovereignty of Ukraine, and open the path to Putin’s dream of the glory days of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It will also hasten the crumbling of NATO, as Putin, with no retaliation from Trump’s America, will invade Poland, Hungary and other members of NATO, who were previously under Soviet rule.
China will be allowed to invade Taiwan and possibly other sovereign nations in the China Sea, taking geopolitical control of the region, again with no military opposition from the USA.
The election of a Republican to the presidency, especially if that Republican is Trump, will enable the Party to complete the job Trump started on January 6, 2021, to bring about the termination of the Constitution and end democracy in the oldest democracy in the world. And President Trump will start his second term with a lily-white record, having pardoned himself and his followers of all the treasonous and vicious crimes committed during his first term.
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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