{"id":97006,"date":"2019-12-28T13:54:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-28T20:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97006"},"modified":"2019-12-28T13:54:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T20:54:17","slug":"sixth-week-of-the-gr-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/28\/sixth-week-of-the-gr-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixth week of the GR Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The<\/span> Island<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n

*\u00a0 No whinging and complaining<\/strong>
*\u00a0 No daily rants about the previous government <\/strong>
*\u00a0 Business of governing back on track<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"article_image\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\n are now past the fifth week of the Gotabhaya Rajapaksa presidency \nwhich officially began on November 18, but have not yet completed six \nweeks. The six weeks will be completed only on January 2. That we are \nnow rid of the raving lunacy of the yahapalana regime seems almost too \ngood to be true. But it is true, the yahapalanites are no longer in \ncharge! We no longer have to switch on the TV and watch a demented \nyahapalana leader screaming into the camera that the \u2018Raaajapaksas\u2019 \nwill be be jailed, that they will be made to wear jumpers, that they \nwill be made to hang on to windows of the Medamulana walauuwa, that \nthey should be reborn as earthworms so that they can be cut in two with a\n mammoty and more to that effect.  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It was not just we \nSri Lankans who realized that Sri Lanka had been taken over by madmen \nin January 2015. The whole world was aware of it. When Sri Lanka was \nunder siege in the UN Human Rights Council in 2012, 2013 and 2014, \nthere were a significant number of countries that supported us outright \nand voted in our favour. Yet another group while sympathizing with us, \nand even speaking in our favour in the Council refrained form voting \ndue to pressure from the Obama administration which they could not \nresist because they were dependent on the USA for security or foreign \naid or trade. Both groups of countries were our friends. In 2015, when \nthe yahapalana government embarked on the self destructive course of \nco-sponsoring resolutions against itself, not one of these friendly \ncountries joined Sri Lanka but chose to watch silently from the \nsidelines while Sri Lanka proceeded to shoot herself in her own rear \nend.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Normally, one would expect countries that were \nfriendly with Sri Lanka to support any decision that the elected \ngovernment of Sri Lanka takes, and if Sri Lanka\u2019s elected government \ndecides to try its own armed forces for war crimes at the behest of \nforeign powers, then Sri Lanka\u2019s friends would be expected to shrug \ntheir shoulders and say “well if that\u2019s what you want, who are we to \nthink that we know better?” and help Sri Lanka do whatever she wants. \nThat however was not how our international friends saw things. They \ncould see that Sri Lanka\u2019s new government was treading a path that \nwould not do Sri Lanka any good and indeed would even jeopardize the \ninterests of the entire bloc of non-aligned nations. Hence, not a \nsingle friendly country joined in the co-sponsored resolutions that Sri\n Lanka passed against herself in the UNHRC. Sri Lanka was surrounded \nonly by the traditional enemies of Sri Lanka when she co-sponsored \nresolutions against herself in the Council after 2015. No votes were \ntaken because Sri Lanka was also a party to the resolutions. Our \ninternational friends were acutely aware that lunatics had taken over \nthe reigns of power in Sir Lanka and they wanted no part in what Sri \nLanka was doing to herself.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Government by madmen 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n February 2018, on the day that campaigning closed for the local \ngovernment elections held that year, no less a personality than the \nAuditor General of Sri Lanka called a press conference and announced \npublicly that he does not know how much Sri Lanka owes to foreign \ncreditors. He said that foreign loans had been taken by the previous \n(Rajapaksa) government in a haphazard manner with foreign debt being \ntaken on by certain state owned institutions as well in addition to the\n debt taken directly by the government and therefore, nobody had kept \ntrack of how much the country owed to outside parties. This was an \nextremely dangerous statement for a responsible state official like the\n Auditor General to make. This is the kind of statement that would make\n existing investors panic and withdraw their investments from the bond \nand stock markets and discourage any new investors from coming in. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\n listening to the Auditor General\u2019s revelations, foreign investors in \nSri Lanka should have been girding their loins to flee. But the Central\n Bank of Sri Lanka issued an immediate correction and said that even \nthough the Auditor General says he does not know how much Sri Lanka owes\n foreign creditors, THEY knew exactly how much Sri Lanka owed and to \nwhom and that Sri Lanka had never defaulted on a payment and that that \nthere was no need to panic. It was not only the Auditor General who \nsaid that he did not know how much Sri Lanka owes, the President and \nPrime Minister of that government and many ministers were also in the \nhabit of making public statements  to the fact that Sri Lanka was in \nthe midst of a huge debt crisis created by the previous government.  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statements\n like these would have destroyed the economy of any other country. The \ncollapse in Greece was brought about as a result of the Greek \ngovernment admitting that they had fudged the budget deficit figures and\n that their deficit was actually much larger than depicted officially. \nBut in Sri Lanka despite important functionaries of the government \nranging from the President, Prime Minister and Auditor General falling \nover one another to say how much in debt the country was, we did not \nsuffer a similar fate.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The reason for this was because \neverybody in the world, including friendly countries and investors knew\n that Sri Lanka had been taken over by madmen after January 9, 2015 and\n their statements need not be taken at face value. When prominent \nmembers of the government kept trying to accuse the previous government\n of taking on debt that could not be repaid, the Rajapaksa led Joint \nOpposition was forced to react and to point out that it was not the \nprevious government that was responsible for the debt crisis and to \nbring to the attention of the public the quantum of foreign loans taken\n by the yahapalana government. Such matters have never been discussed \npublicly to such an extent under any previous government that this \nwriter can remember. Truly there are guardian deities watching over \nthis country. We were ruled by raving madmen for five years and the \ncountry is still here. The four guardian deities of Sri Lanka. Sri \nVishnu, Kataragama, Sumana Saman and Vibhishana, have to be among the \nbest there is in the world as far as guardian deities go.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After\n the yahapalanites captured the Presidency in January 2015, they had to\n face the inconvenient reality that they had lied and conspired their \nway into power leaving the public reeling with shock and disbelief after\n the result of the Presidential election was announced and they had to \ndo something fast, to consolidate their hold on power or risk defeat at\n the Parliamentary elections that were to follow. So they set about \nbribing the voter by increasing public sector monthly salaries by Rs. \n10,000 and reducing the taxes on many essential foodstuffs. Thus at one\n and the same time, government revenue decreased and expenditure \nincreased resulting in the government having to make up the shortfall \nthrough borrowings.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  The salary hike alone increased public\n expenditure by about USD 1.1 billion a year without any concommittant \nincrease in government revenue. When the salary increase went into the \nhands of the public with many families receiving an increase of Rs. \n20,000 a month where both parents were state employees, this led to a \nspending and importing frenzy leading to balance of payments problems. \nThen inevitably, under the tutelage of the IMF, they started collecting\n taxes to raise revenue to meet the increased government expenditure.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At last a govt. of doers not whingers
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Within\n about a year, the economic chickens had come home to roost and taxes \nwere increased all round. Ultimately, the public was actually made to \npay for the privilege of having the lunatics whom they had elected to \npower, running the country! The total government debt which was Rs. 7.39\n trillion at the time the yahapalana government came into power in \nJanuary 2015, had skyrocketed to Rs. 12.64 trillion by the end of July \n2019 \u2013 an increase of 71%. This due to no other reason than the \nexpenditure incurred by the yahapalanites to get themselves elected to \npower at the Parliamentary election of 2015. This is the worst crisis \nin public finances ever experienced in this country. This country has \nnever experienced such recklessness and irresponsibility in the \nmanagement of public finances at any point in the past.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\n UNP government of 1977 when Ronnie de Mel was the Finance Minister had\n been very careful with public finances. Even Chandrika Kumaratunga, \ndespite her \u2018fish woman\u2019 style of governance, was never as reckless as \nthe yahapalana government when it came to public finances. In \ncomparison to the yahapalanites even CBK was a paragon of probity and \ncircumspection. No government in its right senses would mess with \npublic fiances because finally it is those wielding power who will have\n to deal with the consequences sooner rather than later and every \ngovernment wants to extend its stay in power for as long as is possible\n – this was the factor that brought self discipline into the system. \nThat commonsense however did not apply to the yahapalana government.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 That\n is how government debt increased by over 71% in less than five years \nduring which no investment was made on any major projects. All that \nhappened during the past five years is the completion of some of the \nprojects that had been started by the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa \ngovernment. Public finances today are in the worst state ever. Yet we \nhave not heard any whinging or complaining by anybody in the new \ngovernment saying that the country is in debt and that the government \nis helpless.  Compare this with the persistent whinging by Maithripala \nSirisena, Ranil Wickremasinghe and virtually everyone else in the \nprevious government to the effect that the Rajapaksa government had \ntaken on debt which could not be repaid. Despite this whinging for \npublic consumption, what the yahapalanites had actually inherited from \nthe previous Rajapaksa government was one of the strongest economies in\n Asia.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The growth rate was second only to that of China, \nthe stock market was at its peak, the Rupee had been holding steady for\n years, interest rates were the in the single digits, development \nprojects that had been dreamed of by many governments but could never \nbe implemented were being built and the country was poised for an \neconomic take off. The change of government that took place in 2015 was\n undoubtedly the most destructive in Sri Lanka\u2019s post independence \nhistory. It was like the sack of Rome by the Vandals. While sacking \nRome, and in the midst of the burning and pillaging, the Vandals were \nloudly complaining that the Romans had been doing things the wrong way \nand that they had come to put things right for the people of Rome! From\n the time the yahapalana government came into power, they kept claiming\n that the economy was in a bad shape when they took over and that it \nwas their job to put things right. This was obviously not true but they\n kept repeating it in the Goebbelsian hope that if it is repeated often\n enough, it will come to be accepted as the truth.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Envy of the Rajapaksas
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\n yahapalanites came into power harbouring a visceral jealousy for what \nthe Rajapaksa government had achieved. They claimed that all the \ninfrastructure projects built by the Rajapaksa government were white \nelephants. They claimed that the economy was not doing as well as the \nRajapaksas claimed and that the figures had been cooked. One of the \nfirst things that the yahapalanites did after capturing power was to \nredo the figures to show that the country had not been growing as fast \nas claimed by the Rajapaksa government. A time when we experienced a \nkind of insanity similar to that of yahapalana rule was when Chandrika \nKumaratunga came into power in 1994. Where the CBK government of 1994 \nto 2001 was closest to the yahapalana government was in the relentless \npersecution of the opposition. However, the similarities end there.  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even\n the persecution of the opposition by the CBK government never reached \nthe levels of the yahapalana government. The insanity in that \ngovernment was largely caused by the behavior CBK herself and her \nclosest henchmen. CBK however never claimed that the previous UNP \ngovernment had been cooking the books to make things look good. At one \nTV appearance she in fact acknowledged that considerable development \nhad taken place under the 1977 UNP government. The yahapalanites \nhowever came into power with the sole intention of claiming that the \nRajapaksa government had done nothing that was worthwhile. SLFP types \nalways held the view that the UNP was better than them in running the \neconomy and especially in achieving high growth. The UNP types for their\n part always thought they were better than the SLFP at running the \neconomy. That in fact had been the actual historical experience until \nthe Rajapaksas took over the SLFP.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 After 2005, for the \nfirst time in history, the SLFP started running the economy better than\n the UNP. This was obviously something that the UNP types simply could \nnot stomach. Even the terms used to describe the SLFP \u2018baiyyas\u2019 as \nagainst the UNP \u2018toyiyas\u2019 shows a certain snooty attitude of mind. For \nthe first time in history the Rajapaksa led SLFP outdid the UNP in \neconomic development by a margin that could never be closed. This is \nobviously the reason why the UNP expended so much powder and shot \ntrying to denigrate the Rajapaksa led SLFP\u2019s achievements between 2006 \nand 2014. But the flatfooted, incompetent, ignorant and arrogant way \nthe yahapalana government went about running the country has now ended \nup destroying for good the economic credentials of the UNP.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 After\n 2015, for the first time in history, the economy went into a tailspin \nafter a UNP government took office. The growth rate plummeted, the \nstock market crashed. Now the historic roles have been reversed. The UNP\n have become \u2018baiyyas\u2019 the mere sight of whom sends the economy into \nreverse gear, and the SLPP which has emerged out of the old SLFP have \nbecome the new \u2018toiyyas\u2019 the doers, who can put the economy right. The \nUNP might as well now stop speaking in English and use only the \nvernacular. They might as well drop the traditional UNP attaire of \njacket and tie and wear a traditional \u2018amude\u2019 (loin cloth) instead. The\n UNP is now not a party of economic managers, but a party of tree \nclimbers at best. What they are fit for, is to shin up trees wearing \namudes, to pluck coconuts.  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, less than six weeks into\n a new government, the difference is palpable. The English speaking \ntree climbers have been defeated and the economic managers are back. \nAll complaining and whinging has stopped. Even though the new \ngovernment has inherited the biggest debt crisis that this country has \never faced, no one has still spoken about it or complained. When Dr \nNandalal Weerasinghe of the Central Bank was asked at a press conference\n last Friday, as to how much foreign debt will have to be paid back in \nthe year 2020, he said it was about 4.8 billion USD. Without any doubt \nthis country is in dire straits due to the debt crisis created by the \nyahapalana government.  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the only sign that the new \ngovernment has given of a crisis are the austerity measures that have \nbeen adopted by everyone from the President downwards. Despite the debt\n crisis, drastic tax cuts have been made in order to get the economy \ngoing again. There was no unavoidable global reason for the lack of \neconomic growth during the yahapalana government. The economy was doing \nbadly only due to their baneful presence as leaders of the country. \nDuring the past five years, countries like India and Bangladesh were \ngrowing at unprecedented rates while Sri Lanka stagnated. The \ninternational conditions were propitious for growth. World crude oil \nprices were less than half of what it had been before 2015 and yet the \nyahapalana government failed to make any headway.  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of \nnow, the new government is engaged in an effort to jump start the \neconomy. If this government can\u2019t do it, no one else can do it. Last \nmonth\u2019s election result showed that the people wanted the insanity of \nthe past five years to come to an end. The voters did ensure that it \ncame to an end, and how!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island *\u00a0 No whinging and complaining*\u00a0 No daily rants about the previous government *\u00a0 Business of governing back on track We are now past the fifth week of the Gotabhaya Rajapaksa presidency which officially began on November 18, but have not yet completed six weeks. The six weeks will be completed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97006","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=97006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}