{"id":50474,"date":"2015-12-26T22:16:57","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T04:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=50474"},"modified":"2015-12-25T15:55:52","modified_gmt":"2015-12-25T22:55:52","slug":"president-mahinda-rajapakse-lover-of-the-nation-will-sri-lanka-be-next-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/12\/26\/president-mahinda-rajapakse-lover-of-the-nation-will-sri-lanka-be-next-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESIDENT MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE- LOVER OF THE NATION!\u00a0 WILL SRI LANKA BE NEXT BRAZIL?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

MAN WITH A MISSION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The President Mahinda Rajapakse is continuing to command the respect and administration of the Sri Lankans.\u00a0 His Report Card of nine years of performance showed the qualities of a rare politician who placed his love for the country above everything else.\u00a0 He did not blink a moment during the nine year period, to allow the country to go backward.\u00a0 Instead he gave leadership to begin new ventures, one after another, to enhance the gross domestic productivity and per capita income.<\/p>\n

Adam Smith was the first to realize\u00a0 “<\/strong>that the\u00a0Wealth of a Nation<\/em>\u00a0was not in the accumulation of commodities nor in the resource reserves that a nation may happen to possess. But rather wealth exists in the productive knowledge of its people. The ability to efficiently transform resources (factor inputs) into desired goods and services represents the true source of a nation’s wealth<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

President Mahinda Rajapakse in his nine year business plan and plan implementation had identified the new avenues and major capital expenditure projects that are needed to increase the wealth of the nation.\u00a0 In order to achieve this important factor, he has upgraded the education sector from\u00a0 Primary, Secondary, High School and through to University Level.\u00a0 He did not restrict the education to selected few Schools in Colombo, instead upgraded the teacher training, development, curriculum changes and equipped the schools throughout the country with modern technologies.<\/p>\n

The capital formation is a long process and it involves a waiting period for the transformation of the economy.\u00a0\u00a0 The President Mahinda Rajapakse had a major problem to solve as the first priority.\u00a0 That was winning the war against the Tamil Terrorists.\u00a0 Many other leaders would have spent most of the time concentrating on winning the war first, before embarking on expansion of the economy.<\/p>\n

WINNING TWO WARS SIMULTANEOUSLY<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

But President Mahinda Rajapakse did operate a double barrel strategy.\u00a0 In the first phase,\u00a0 he put in place the best strategies and plans to win the War and entrusted the plan implementation to professional soldiers.\u00a0 As the Chief Commanding Officer he did provide the leadership, but did not interfere.\u00a0 He had a distinct plan when to complete the war and was confident of accomplishing his target, even though major western leaders, United Nations and Indian politicians attempted to derail his plans.<\/p>\n

Having placed the War Plans in full gear, he simultaneously embarked on addressing the key issues of rebuilding country and its neglected infrastructure.\u00a0 He was able to display his achievements to the world leaders through regular visits to Sri Lanka\u00a0 and by holding major events such as Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.\u00a0 He build international confidence to attract major foreign investment conglomerates. International Insurers such as Lloyd had projected reduced risk factors in Sri Lanka and their premiums were drastically reduced by ranking Sri Lanka into a low risk country, thus enhancing the investment climate.<\/p>\n

The management skills of this leader had shocked the world and some might have even\u00a0 been irked.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

DISASTER AFTER JANUARY 8 CHANGE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The change of President Mahinda Rajapakse regime nearly a year ago, had been a severe mistake and a drawback for the country. The economy and the entire country is now in total disarray.\u00a0 Most of the projects that were nearing completion have been put on hold.\u00a0 The new regime was unable to determine whether or not to go ahead with the Port Capital City Project.\u00a0\u00a0 Initially the new regime heavily attacked the project on the grounds of lack of proper feasibility study.\u00a0 Then it turned into alleged corruption scandals.\u00a0 After hibernating and lingering for nearly one year, this idiotic government had now finally decided to go ahead with the Port Capital City Project.<\/p>\n

ECONOMIC CRISIS TO HIT SRI LANKA:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The International Monetary Fund had issued a warning on 17 December 2015 highlighting the deterioration of foreign currency reserves in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 It said in the statement that “Deterioration in the overall balance of payments, the loss of central bank foreign exchange reserves, the weak state of public finances, and growing public debt are reasons for concern”.<\/p>\n

In September and October this year, the Central Bank sold US800 million\u00a0 to avoid a major financial crisis in the country. to defend the ailing Sri Lankan currency. This injection of funds were intended to finance oil imports and foreign outflows\u00a0 from the government securities.<\/p>\n

On December 19, the Prime Minister Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe made a candid comment that “Sri Lanka would seek an IMF stand-by arrangement to fend off risks from impacts of events affecting major economies next year”.<\/strong> Since making this statement, the Prime Minister and the President have made several changes to the budget, that will increase expenditure and decrease the revenue, further increasing the budget deficit.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka was on a strong footing till the end of last year.\u00a0\u00a0 The economy was moving at a speed, suddenly the new regime stalled economic activity.\u00a0\u00a0 This has decreased circulation of money, increased unemployment, decreased potential savings and investments.\u00a0 The foreign investors are in two minds on the political stability of the country and delaying investing in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there are no effective leaders in Sri Lanka to manage the economy.\u00a0 Without \u00a0a War and reduced expenditure on defence, why the government is failing to meet its economic targets?<\/p>\n

Sri Lankan rupee is expected to depreciate to Rs 160\/USD by mid 2016. By end of November, the official foreign currency reserves were USD 7.3 billion. By November 2016, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka must repay foreign loans amounting to USD 4.75 billion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a fast depreciating local currency against the USDollar coupled with an\u00a0 increase in budget deficit, rise in unemployment, fall in savings and investments, Sri Lanka is unfortunately is meeting the “BRAZIL CRISIS”\u00a0 economic fundamentals. \u00a0For 2016, Brazil is brazing itself for a possible economic turnaround through Rio de Janerio International Olympics to be held in August.\u00a0\u00a0 What back-up is Sri Lanka\u00a0 planning?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is now evident that January 8 change should not have happened.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Those who provided leadership for the change are most likely to face public protests of massive scale.<\/p>\n

Where will they hide?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dhammapada Verse 67<\/strong>
\nKassaka Vatthu<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Na tam kammam katam sadhu<\/em>
\nyam katva anutappati
\nyassa assumukho rodam
\nvipakam patisevati.<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse 67: That deed is not well done, if one has to repent for having done it, and if, with a tearful face, one has to weep as a result of that deed.<\/p>\n

Dhammapada Verse 69<\/strong>
\nUppalavannattheri Vatthu<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Madhumva mannati balo<\/em>
\nyava papam na paccati
\nyada ca paccati papam
\natha dukkham nigacchati.<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse 69: As long as the evil deed does not bear fruit, the fool thinks it is sweet like honey; but when his evil deed does bear fruit, the fool suffers for it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dhammapada Verse 68<\/strong>
\nSumanamalakara Vatthu<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tanca kammam katam sadhu<\/em>
\nyam katva nanutappati
\nyassa patito sumano
\nvipikam patisevati.<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse 68: That deed is well done if one has not to repent for having done it, and if one is delightful and happy with the result of that deed.<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of\u00a0 Nibbana.com. T<\/strong>ranslated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE MAN WITH A MISSION: The President Mahinda Rajapakse is continuing to command the respect and administration of the Sri Lankans.\u00a0 His Report Card of nine years of performance showed the qualities of a rare politician who placed his love for the country above everything else.\u00a0 He did not blink a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-m-d-p-dissanayake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50474","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=50474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}