{"id":57577,"date":"2016-08-12T23:04:48","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T05:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=57577"},"modified":"2016-08-12T13:40:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T20:40:57","slug":"can-we-afford-five-years-of-yahapalanaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/08\/12\/can-we-afford-five-years-of-yahapalanaya\/","title":{"rendered":"Can we afford five years of \u2018Yahapalanaya\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

N.A.de S.Amaratunga\u00a0<\/span>Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

August 12, 2016, 8:18 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

Both heads of \u2018yahapalanaya\u2019 say that nothing can stop them from going on merrily for five years until 2020, although the two heads are pulling in two directions and the two tails try to wag each other and sometimes their heads. In 2014 we had a government with one powerful head and one powerless tail, but it was doing alright as it had managed to eliminate totally the terrorism that had plagued the country for three decades overcoming huge obstacles local and foreign, a feat no other government in the world, including world powers, had been able to do in their own countries or in somebody else\u2019s country. And then that all powerful head had launched a massive development project that took the country into the fast track of growth with all economic parameters showing positive values. Roads, electricity and water visibly reached the four corners of the country. New harbours and redundant airports were built disregarding all opposition within and without. Unemployment, inflation, GDP, foreign exchange reserves, foreign debt\/GDP ratio etc., improved. Corruption and nepotism, however, as always, were rampant but things were better than what we have now.<\/p>\n

What do we have now? There is rampant corruption and nepotism but no development whatsoever. Corruption + Nepotism + Massive Development have to be better than Corruption + Nepotism + Zero Development. The present government bent backwards trying to please the West expecting them to solve all its problems, going to the extent of betraying the country by co-sponsoring a UNHRC resolution that is inimical to the sovereignty of the country, and worse than the betrayal of the country to the colonialists in 1815. The West has taken our country in its grip without giving us a cent except promises with strings attached, and IMF assistance with impossible conditions. Thus the economy is in the doldrums, development projects started by the previous head had been stopped by either or both present heads or tails. No foreign direct investments are coming in, unemployment is rising, people are being burdened with heavy taxes, cost of living is rising, the share market lethargic and what is worse is that this government of two heads and two tails cannot take a clear cut decision on any vital issue.<\/p>\n

Take for example the VAT issue. They could not get it through as they had disregarded procedural requirements. Moreover, the government is uncertain about every aspect of taxation, though they are cash strapped. Minister Dilan Perera says people should be taxed the way bees extract nectar without hurting the flower and that is how the SLFP taxes the people, whereas the UNP bludgeons the people with taxes! Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe seems to have an opposition both inside and outside! Tax policy is vital for any government and more so for a government that is almost bankrupt. If this government is divided along party lines regarding this vital issue, how could the people have any confidence that they have put in place a reliable government which could look after them until the year 2020? What more monumental blunders would this divided government commit before its tenure ends? The waste is equally bad, the Ministry of Agriculture has rented a building unnecessarily for Rs.20 million a month. Gen. Sarath Fonseka\u2019s ministry has asked for a vote beyond imagination. Luxury vehicles for MPs would cost the taxpayer dearly. Is VAT being increased to meet these wasteful expenditures?<\/p>\n

All this goes to prove the inherent difference between the UNP and the SLFP. People of this country formed the SLFP in order to safeguard themselves against the policies of the UNP, which were subservient to the colonialists who had placed the UNP in power to serve their interests. These imperialist powers have again succeeded in helping the UNP to come back to power as the SLFP was protecting the people and their sovereignty, and not allowing the West to destabilize the country and take control of it to further their imperialist agenda. And the UNP obligingly follows the dictates of the imperialists to the detriment of the security, economy, constitution and sovereignty of the country. It has antagonised our friends who had stood by us through thick and thin without asking anything in return, except space for heavy investment which has helped the country to achieve rapid development. It has made friends, due to whom we don\u2019t need enemies. This inherent contradiction of the coalition partners would make it virtually impossible to run the government. A set of policies agreeable to one partner would not be so to the other.<\/p>\n

This is the main reason why the Government has not been able to attract foreign investment, why the share market is sluggish, and not even ever willing China is interested. Sri Lanka has been given a low rating by the international investment and credit worthiness monitors such as Fitch. All these negative outcomes reflect on the dichotomous nature of the governing body, which does not seem to know where it is going. Can the country afford five years of such confused, deranged, bungling “Yahapalanaya”?<\/p>\n

N.A.de S.Amaratunga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N.A.de S.Amaratunga\u00a0Courtesy The Island August 12, 2016, 8:18 pm Both heads of \u2018yahapalanaya\u2019 say that nothing can stop them from going on merrily for five years until 2020, although the two heads are pulling in two directions and the two tails try to wag each other and sometimes their heads. In 2014 we had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57577","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=57577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}