Features
Trump Star prosecution witness in espionage case – against himself
President Biden – Retire with Great Honors?
by Vijaya Chandrasoma
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jnr., born on November 20 1942, has not led the life of an ordinary octogenarian. It is more a saga of unspeakable tragedy, grief, disease, combined with a character of resilience, courage and tenacity, which has enabled him to overcome the misfortunes of the past and reach the pinnacles of success in his chosen career.
Raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania and educated at the Universities of Delaware and Syracuse Law, New York, Biden married Neilia Hunter in 1966. They had three children. He turned to politics and was elected to the US Senate from Delaware in 1972. A month later, his wife and daughter were killed and his two sons seriously injured in a car accident. He contemplated suspending his political career, but was persuaded to remain in the Senate, the longest-serving Senator from Delaware.
In 1977, Biden married Jill Jacobs, an educator, and they have one daughter. As a Senator, Biden focused on foreign relations, criminal justice and drug control. In 1988, Biden ran for the Democratic presidency, but withdrew for health reasons. He ran again in 2008, but his political campaign never gained momentum. When Obama won the Democratic nomination, he named Biden as his running mate. The Obama-Biden ticket defeated Republicans McCain-Palin in November 2008. They were re-elected for a second term when they defeated Romney-Ryan handily in 2012.
Yet another tragedy struck Biden’s life in 2015, when his eldest son, Beau, died of brain cancer. Losing a wife and one child is the ultimate tragedy any man should have to endure. Losing a second child is unbelievable torture.
Biden was high in the favorability ratings for the presidency in 2016, with his candor, affability and five-decade long experience in politics, including eight years of outstanding service as Vice President in the most successful and scandal-free Obama administration.
However, with his wife, Jill and President Obama at his side in the Rose Garden, Biden said that “the window for a successful campaign has closed”, consequent to the family’s grief on Beau’s death.
In addition to these tragedies, Biden suffered two life-threatening brain aneurysms in 1988. In February, he underwent microsurgical craniotomy at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The chances of surviving the surgery were more than 50%, but “the chances of waking up with serious deficits were even more concerning”.
Biden was kept completely isolated during his recovery. However, he suffered a second brain aneurysm in May. The surgeon said before the operation that his chances of recovering from a second aneurysm were not great.But recover he did. By August, he was pronounced “fully recovered” and was given the OK by his doctors to return to normal life, a return to Congress.
Dr. Neal Kassell, who performed the surgery nearly three decades ago. said that Biden shows no signs of brain damage “either from the hemorrhage or from the operations he had. He is every bit as sharp as he was 31 years ago. I can tell you with absolute certainty that he has no brain damage whatsoever”.
A statement made in 2019, four years ago, before Biden won the presidency.
Biden proved that his brain was indeed as sharp as a needle when he “stole” the 2020 election from Republican incumbent Donald J. Trump. The perfect crime, as he defeated the self-confessed “greatest president in the history of the United States” by the popular vote of seven million votes, and an Electoral College margin of 302/236.
Trump disputed the result and has refused to concede, claiming that he had indisputable evidence of election fraud. The Dominion voting machines had been manipulated with lasers by Jews from outer space to change Trump votes to Biden. Venezuelan friends of long dead President Hugo Chavez had bribed Republican election officials in the swing states. Finally, he had documentary proof that dead people voted for Biden in large numbers in Pennsylvania. Strangely, all these dead voters were Democrats.
His lawyers submitted 60 cases of election fraud, which were all dismissed for lack of a shred of evidence by the Justice System, including the Trump controlled Republican Supreme Court.
Thousands of Trump patriots staged a peaceful protest on January 6, 2021, at the Capitol, to challenge the stolen 2020 election. They implored Vice President Pence to act according to the Constitution and declare the 2020 election null and void. No violence whatsoever, just a bunch of tourists enjoying a picnic at the Capitol grounds. After all, their beloved leader had gained international recognition over the years as the Law and Order President.
This is the version of the worst attack on the nation’s democracy propagated by Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republicans. An account against all video evidence of a violent insurrection, with threats to lynch Vice President Pence. An insurrection Trump incited, for which he is now facing imminent indictment and arrest for sedition.
Pence certified the election of President-elect Biden, in defiance of the orders of his leader, at the risk to his life and that of his family. Pence is the unlikely unsung hero who saved the democracy of the country on that fateful day.
The law stipulates that top-secret and classified documents belong to the government and have to be returned to the National Archives when the outgoing president vacates the White House.Trump had stolen boxes of classified and top-secret documents when he left the White House, storing them in insecure locations at his properties in Mar a Lago, Florida and Bedminster, New Jersey. He was requested to return these to the NARA on numerous occasions. When he refused, the FBI raided Mar a Lago, with the authority of a subpoena, and seized most of the stolen boxes of documents stored in insecure locations.
Trump, in his defense, acknowledged that he had taken and retained these top-secret documents, but had declassified all of them, some telepathically. However, he denied that stealing and refusing to return government documents, classified or not, is against the law, claiming that the documents belonged to him in his capacity of president.
He has been charged, indicted and arrested of stealing and refusing to return top-secret documents belonging to the government, on 37 felony counts under the Espionage Act.Special Counsel, Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Garland to investigate the charges, has been gifted with a star witness to the Prosecution: Donald J. Trump, himself.
Last Monday, a Summer 2021 audio recording of a Trump speech at a meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club was released. The attendees did not have security clearance to access classified information. Actually, neither did Trump.
At this meeting, Trump was waving documents which he said gave details of a US plan to attack Iran during his presidency. He acknowledged that he had held on to these classified, top-secret Pentagon documents, undercutting his earlier lies that he had declassified all documents illegally retained by him.
His latest defense against what seems to be a blatant act of espionage is that he was just trying to impress the audience by lying to “show off”, it was “sheer bravado”. He had done nothing wrong, the documents he was waving were just magazine articles, newspaper clippings and personal documents. Lies completely at variance with his statements in the audio.
In spite of these new alleged crimes, added to his past convictions, Trump still leads the polls for the Republican nomination. Polls have always been a snapshot of time. Trump’s currently and seemingly superiority in the numbers have recently been shown signs of plummeting like the Titan submersible. His candidacy will probably implode similarly before long.
It sure looks like Trump’s luck is running out. Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court delivered what has been hailed as one of the most consequential rulings since the framing of the constitution. A ruling that preserves the integrity of future presidential elections, the cornerstone of our democracy, by preventing state legislatures from interfering or playing any role in these elections. This was the loophole Trump used in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The strategy he would have tried again in 2024, with even more violence, had he been the Republican candidate who lost that presidency.
After his arrest under the Espionage Act, Trump thundered that “Biden will forever be remembered as the worst president in history, and, even more importantly, together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists, tried to destroy American democracy”.
There has never been a better example of classic projection, the insane hallucination that his enemy has committed the exact crimes of which he is guilty.
Biden inherited from the Trump administration an economy teetering on recession, a raging pandemic and a completely polarized nation plagued with racial and religious violence. Predictably, Trump accepted no responsibility for this economic failure, systemic racism and polarization. It was always someone’s else fault, according to Trump.
President Biden has delivered 30 months of productive legislation. The economy is improving. Unemployment figures are at their lowest levels, with over 13 million new jobs being added to date. Inflation is high but under control. The enactment of his American Rescue Plan, Part 1 of his Build Back Better Framework, has already given immediate financial assistance to Americans reeling under the vagaries of the pandemic.
The Act also addresses climate change, income equality and the rebuilding of the country’s crumbling infrastructure. His Build Back Better Framework promises to rebuild the backbone of the country, the middle class, by making the billionaires and corporations pay their fair share for the development of the nation.
However, in the past few weeks, Biden has shown mental and physical deterioration – more verbal gaffes than normal, stumbling (thrice) climbing airline steps, falling over a sandbag; and these are only examples of decay seen when the cameras were on him. My concerns are not entirely about age. They are about the symptoms Biden is showing as a result of the extreme grief of his personal tragedies and long-term after-effects of brain aneurysms, symptoms of cognitive problems, muscle weakness and numbness, imbalance, which may well get worse, come November 2024, still 16 months away.
The problem for Democrats will arise if conservative, non-MAGA Republicans dump Trump and nominate a pre-Trump brand of a conservative Republican. Former Arkansas Governor, Asa Hutchinson, former Texas Congressman, Will Hurd, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, among many others, fit the bill and have already declared their candidatures. More will follow, as Trump’s fortunes keep declining.
So the Democratic choice is clear. We could continue with our historic tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory – as we did in 2000 and 2016. Gore and Hillary Clinton conceded when they should have kept on fighting, while the results of both elections were hardly conclusive. They both won the popular vote by 500,000 and three million, respectively.
Or we could get serious about winning, and come to terms that the odds of Biden remaining capable of handling the exigencies of the toughest job in the world for four more years from 2024, or speaking candidly, even remaining alive till the end of his second term, are zero to nothing.
We should therefore persuade Biden to retire, with great honors, with universal gratitude for his magnificent service to the nation for over a half century, in the face of unspeakable personal tragedy and life-threatening health episodes.
However, if Biden insists on contesting a second term, then we should encourage Democratic candidates from an extremely talented pool – Harris, Newsom, Buttigieg, Whitmer, Klobuchar, Warren, Goldman, and many others – to challenge him in the primaries. According to the polls today, 64% of Democratic voters don’t want Biden to run, but will vote for him if there is no viable alternative.
So let the voters nominate, through the primaries, that viable alternative they seek as the Democratic candidate for 2024. Any one of the Democrats named above will defeat a contender from a Party which came damn close to destroying our democracy in 2020.
A likely series of future progressive Democratic administrations will enable us to continue with the progressive, Woke, if you will, movement initiated by Roosevelt, followed by Clinton, Obama and Biden, never to forget Bernie Sanders.
The movement which will finally ease us into the 21st century, and join all the other developed nations of socialist democracy, whose citizens enjoy a high degree of social justice and economic equality. Which we, as the citizens of the richest and most powerful nation in the world, have been denied for too long.
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 . )
US sports envoys to Lanka to champion youth development
Rahuman questions sudden cancellation of leave of CEB employees
