{"id":108175,"date":"2020-10-29T17:48:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T00:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108175"},"modified":"2020-10-29T17:48:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T00:48:50","slug":"a-boquet-to-president-gotabhaya-and-his-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/29\/a-boquet-to-president-gotabhaya-and-his-team\/","title":{"rendered":"A Boquet to President Gotabhaya and his team"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It was a great sight to see Paper roll out of Valachenai once\nagain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to our President and his team, including Minister\nWeerawamsa, officials of he Paper Mill and the Armed Forces that\ncontributed  to Mother Lanka to bring\nback Valachenai to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago I had spent a few cosy nights at Bay Vista in Arugam\nBay and on my way to Laya Waves, Pasikuda, I ventured out to see what was left\nof the Valachenai Paper Mill, one of my favourite haunts on my never ending\ncircuits long ago. I motored to the gates that were shut, held firmly by trees\nand shrubs. I alighted from my car walked upto the gates, held the gate firmly\nwith my hands and gazed at the buildings in ruins, with creepers and trees\ngrowing in them. I was sad, and gazed \nfor at least ten minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was my humble veneration. It was the Circuit Bungalow of this\nMill that offered me a home perhaps a dozen times on my circuits to the East\nlong ago. The purring engine of my Humber Hawk did that distance with easy with\na single stop at a store inspection at Polonnaruwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very recently we had the occasion to get lost in the jungles\naround  Tantirimale. We were motoring to\nSandamal Eliya to the temple  to donate a\nwheel chair, to anyone who needs it,   in\nthe ancient manner in inscriptions- agata anagata chatudiga sagasa”(for\nthe Ven. Monks that came or will come from the four directions)_  and having known the roads once, turning here\nand there we got lost in the illuk jungles of Mahawillachchiya. I had for a\nmoment forgotten that the roads I traveled on in the Sixties, when I commanded\nmy troops in agrarian services in the march at paddy cultivation, succeeding in\nreaching self sufficiency by 1970, had been changed with new roads. We were\nlost and illuk was everywhere. It took long to find our way back  as the illuk could not speak back to show us\nthe way. Finally when we reached Sandamal Eliya, very late, Ven Sangarakkita\ngreeted us and provided dane- a mid day meal to the weary travellers, I inquired\nabout the illuk that was threatening human existence- growing everywhere. He\nreplied <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illuk is a nuisance. We set fire to it when it invades us. We\nknow not what to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way back after a cosy nights sleep at Miridiya, in\nAnuradhapura, it struck me that originally the Valachenai Paper Mill machinery\nwas intended to make paper out of illuk. Illuk is a stronger product than straw\nand did provide both the long fibre and the short fibre that was required to\nmake paper.  Valachenai mill proved great\nand devoured the illuk all around and the machinery grounded to a halt in a few\nyears.  All was lost. But not so, due to\nthe ingenuity of our engineers and scientists. They unearthed for the first\ntime how straw can be used to make paper. It was then that I came on the scene,\ngoing behind the straw lorries for miles on \nend,  enroute to the East. The\nstraw provided only the short fibre and we had to import paper pulp to mix with\nthe straw. Even then we produced paper till the LTTE took over.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony of it all is that we, who unearthed how to make paper\nout of straw   do not use straw( till\nPresident Gotabhaya got it working recently) while India and China have marched\nmiles ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have in my Papers suggested that a few small paper mills be\nimported from China or India, set them up in Padaviya, Tissa and\nMahavillachchiya and turn our straw into paper. The cost of the paper machines\nand installing it can be recouped in one year from the savings on the obviated\nimports of paper. Actually we need not import any paper from the end of 2021,\nif only the Government will allow the import of three small scale mills costing\nless that a fifth of the cost of paper imports in any one year. If required I\nwill be there to bell the cat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once long ago in 1982 in the Bangladesh Secretariat,  about the third day after the military coup,\nin the room of the Hon Minister for Labour and Manpower in the Military\nGovernment of General Ershard I was commanded; What can you do for\nBangladesh?\u201d. In short,   as an Advisor I\nwas not wanted. I replied that the Government should approve my establishing a\nYouth Self Employment Programme to guide the 40,000 youths that were being\ntrained every year to become self employed. The Secretary to the Treasury, the\nhighest official in the land, objected. No one can establish self employment\nprogrammes. The ILO failed miserably in the past three years at Tangail and\nBangladesh is not going to waste any money again. The ILO are the United\nNations specialists and they did fail.” I argued with the Secretary to the\nTreasury for a full two hours, with the Minister listening. Finally the\nMinister stopped our duel and ordered me to design and establish a self\nemployment programme.  The Secretary to\nthe Treasury thought he could stop me by telling that he will provide no funds\nto which I replied that I needed no funds. I said I would find savings within\napproved budgets and vary the remits of officers. That was approved by the\nMinister. The rest is history. The self employment programme I designed and\nestablished is today the largest and premier employment creation programme the\nworld has known, having guided over three million youths to be self employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am quoting instances of my work to indicate that what I suggest\nis not out of the blue, but targets that can be achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get back to the Illuk at Tantirimale I wrote a paper and fanned\nit out. Prabath at The Island took up the cause and did publish a version:\nIlluk can reduce poverty and save foreign exchange\u201d in the Island of  29\/9\/20. Lanka Web published it on 23\/9\/20-\nMahavillachchiya Illuk to alleviate poverty and also to save foreign\nexchange\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making Paper is a clear area where we can be self sufficient in\nany one year.  The resurrection of\nValachenai proves it to the hilt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the Divisional Secretary at Kotmale set up a small industry\nto make paper out of waste Paper. It was a great success. It is sad to note\nthat Sri Lanka is perhaps the only country in the entire world that wastes its\nwaste paper and not make paper out of it. \nGo about anywhere in Colombo and one can see people collecting waste\npaper and waste cardboard. We do not process it to paper. Instead   we export \u2013 some 30 tons a month to India\nand the ridiculous part of it is that we buy paper and board from India.  Truly we need to have our heads examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember that a few youths on my Youth Self Employment  programme in Bangladesh were collecting waste\npaper to make paper and they made incomes out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get back to the Illuk at Sandamal Eliya the Ven Sangarakkhita\nhad spoken to the chief Venerable Chrandaratana the chief at Tantirimale Raja\nMaha Vihare, and he came on the phone to me. I have told him  that it is only President Gotabhaya or Prime\nMinister Mahinda that can call the shots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Installing a small scale paper mill at Sandamal Eliya can be done\nin three months, working at the speed I did once in 1971 in establishing the\nMechanized Boatyard at Matara.  Then my\nteam did also unearth how to make crayons, within the small science lab at\nRahula College Matara, and Sumanapala Dahanayake the Member of Parliament at\nDeniyaya in his capacity of the President of the Morawak Korale Coop Union\nestablished the hand made crayon factory working day and night in two weeks and\nthat Coop Crayon Factory provided all the crayons we needed. Harry Guneratne\nthe Import Controller cancelled the import of all crayons and Coop Crayon ruled\nthe waves till President Jayawardena put a stop to the factory in 1978. That\nwas the development” that the UNP brought to our country!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I can only write out my ideas and hope that my thoughts\nreach his Excellencies President Gotabhaya \nand Prime Minister Mahinda and spur them to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Garvin Karunaratne, Ph D\nMichigan State University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Government Agent, Matara<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author of How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternate\nProgrammes of Success, Godages 2006 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development,Kindle\/Godages, 2017 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

29\/10\/2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara It was a great sight to see Paper roll out of Valachenai once again. Thanks to our President and his team, including Minister Weerawamsa, officials of he Paper Mill and the Armed Forces that contributed  to Mother Lanka to bring back Valachenai to life. Two years ago I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}