When crocs weep

Thursday 26th October, 2023

Some SLPP MPs are shedding copious tears for the public who are struggling to keep their heads above water. Prominent among them is former Minister Namal Rajapaksa, who is trying to absolve the SLPP of the blame for exponential increases in taxes and tariffs. Attributing the people’s economic woes to the IMF bailout conditions, he has reportedly lamented that no proper action has been taken to bring the cost of living to an affordable level; President Ranil Wickremesinghe should consult the ruling coalition when vital decisions are made on the basis of discussions with the IMF, Namal has said. Minister of Urban Development Prasanna Ranatunga has taken exception to the government’s decision to restructure the Urban Settlement Development Authority (USDA) at the behest of the IMF. SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam has condemned the postponement of elections and demanded that the people’s franchise be respected. He is pretending that his party is ready for elections.

The SLPP bigwigs seem to think the people are so stupid as to buy into their claim that they have nothing to do with the current economic crisis, which has inflicted unbearable suffering on the public. It is they who brought in Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister and then enabled him to secure the presidency; they continue to provide legislative backing for his efforts to sort out the economy. Most of all, they had the ‘Resolution for the Implementation of the Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility of the International Monetary Fund’ ratified by Parliament, in April, 2023. The President’s party, the UNP, has only a single parliamentary seat, but 120 MPs voted for the aforesaid resolution. So, how can the SLPP deny responsibility for the ill-effects of the IMF programme?

The SLPP MPs should stop insulting the intelligence of the public by peddling cretinous arguments. We would not have been in the current predicament if they had not bankrupted the country by mismanaging the economy, slashing taxes for the benefit of their cronies, printing money excessively, wasting public funds and aggravating the debt crisis. If they had not ruined the economy, the need for an IMF bailout would not have arisen, and the people would not have had to face the adverse effects of the constricting loan conditions. Or, they should have sought IMF assistance at the first signs of trouble on the economic front, the way the Mahinda Rajapaksa government did in the late noughties. If they had done so before the depletion of the country’s foreign currency reserves, they would have been able to negotiate with the IMF from a position of strength and secure a loan on favourable terms.

There is no gainsaying that strategic national assets must not be sold, especially in the energy sector. One cannot but agree with Minister Ranatunga that USDA should not be restructured. But the country has been left with no alternative; it has had to do as the IMF says. Does the SLPP have any alternative solution? If so, will it explain why it overwhelmingly backed the IMF programme in Parliament? If they think President Wickremesinghe’s economic crisis management plan is flawed, will they propose an alternative? They are right in demanding that the public be granted some relief, but will they tell us how they think funds could be raised for that purpose?

The SLPP leaders are running with the public and hunting with the IMF, so to speak. There is no way they could dissociate themselves from the IMF programme they have endorsed and undertaken to carry out, much less blame its adverse effects solely on President Wickremesinghe. They had better stop trying to trip the man who is carrying their burden.