Says Sri Lanka can enter new politics after fixing urgent economic issues

By Sanath Nanayakkare

President Ranil Wickramasinghe said on Saturday that Podu Jana Peramuna and UNP politicians should talk to all other political parties including the SJB, JVP and TNA in order to create a mass movement at the ground level to push for an all-party government.

“If our economy slides any further, the country wouldn’t be in existence. Our inflation will increase further. This year our GDP will contract by 7%. That’s a big negative growth number. Next year, with the steps we have taken, the contraction would be about 3%. In the following year, we will be able to achieve 1% surplus in our primary account. I am not saying these to frighten anyone. Solutions for these challenges must be found first. Sri Lanka can enter new politics after finding solutions to its urgent problems at hand,” he said.

The President made these remarks in Kandy on Saturday addressing a group of Podu Jana Peramuna and UNP politicians functioning mainly at local government level.Some excerpts from his speech are as follows.

“Don’t restrict your unity to just two political parties. Take that spirit of unity beyond, and rally round everyone to rebuild the country. If their preferred political parties want to contest elections separately, that’s okay. But you should talk to the people in the villages, tell them the truth and win them over to work together and pull the country out of its economic abyss. Don’t remain silent.”

“As you know, a massive economic pressure emerged in the country. A political change occurred as a result of this economic pressure. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa exited, I became the President and Dinesh Gunawardena took over as Prime Minister. This change occurred because of the economic explosion which stemmed from severe shortages of fuel, fertilizer etc. These unprecedented events motivated the people to start a peaceful struggle against the government. But later on this peaceful struggle (Aragalaya) was taken over by other organizations under the pretext of Aragalaya. For the first time in Sri Lanka, we experienced Fascist terrorism. The LTTE assassinated people by shooting and bombing. Setting fire to houses and book collections was something learnt from Adolf Hitler. Surprisingly, these Fascist groups were joined by many others in the civil society. At such crossroads, I took over the presidency. Although I took it over, the economic burdens of the people have not alleviated. People’s day-to-day issues are still the same. They still live amid shortages of fuel, fertilizer, cooking gas and job insecurity. Also, we lack the capital to carry out development programmes in the villages. Now the question before us is; are we going to reduce the burdens faced by the people or increase them instead?

“Repeating old slogans won’t help us if we don’t find solutions. Some people say that this economic crisis was created because of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decision to ban the import of chemical fertilizer. The UNP says the crisis came about because we didn’t seek assistance from the IMF in time. The Podu Jana Peramuna says it happened because the previous government took out large loans. Now, what are we going to do? Are we going to debate continuously, or act to resolve the issues together? Debating would be productive if it could bring in a shipment of fuel or fertilizer. Debating would be productive if that could get us USD 50 million funding from the IMF. If that doesn’t happen, no debate will help develop the country. We have now got to this point and one can write books and analyses about them. Some people want to organize processions demanding ‘Ranil Go Home’. I’d like to tell them, please don’t do it. I don’t have a home to go to. If you are willing, bring in a crowd of people to rebuild my torched house. And once I have resettled there, you can go past my house saying, ‘Ranil Go Home’. Otherwise there is no point in asking a man without a home to go home.”

“We are in traditional politics where we point fingers at one another and put the blame on others. But doing so will not help decelerate our high inflation. Doing so will not help increase our GDP. We have to find the money to purchase fuel, and fertilizer for Maha season. That’s the challenge and our politics should be able to enable it, to facilitate it. That’s what we should be doing. As prime minister and finance minister I discussed with the IMF and we found a potential recovery programme. My objective was to reach the IMF staff level agreement in July 2022 and have it approved by the IMF Executive Committee in the beginning of August 2022. Now it will defer till end of August because discussions stalled since July 9. In this backdrop, a staff level agreement could be reached by end of August also because of the holidays of the month. So we would be able to get an IMF facility approved by its Executive Board in September 2022.”

“The political instability delayed the IMF programme. Unless we have consensus among us nobody will lend us any money. Are we going to continue our familiar behavior in politics? We must think anew. The youth first came to the site of Aragalaya insisting on political and economic reforms. I have no debate about it. What the youth insisted on in the first place was very relevant and they need to be accepted. However, later on others took it over and diverted the peaceful protests towards violence.”

“Let’s not think that once we get a facility from the IMF, our problems will go away. The weight of our loans will increase. So how do we repay the loans? To repay our loans, we need more foreign exchange. We need to explore new ways of boosting our external revenue. Modernization of agriculture is one way to do it. Are we going to make policies and implement result-oriented reforms, or are we going to just shout slogans?”

“Politicians of Podu Jana Peramuna and UNP need to understand this and work together. If we don’t do that the country will be ruined and the younger generation will curse us. Today’s challenge before us is; are we going to fall or stand back on our feet. The Parliament is facing this very challenge today. The President, the Cabinet and other organizations are facing it today. How do we face up to this and build a new Sri Lanka? How do we create a stronger middle class? How do we embrace modern agricultural practices to harness the best yield and productivity? How do we pursue an export-oriented economy? That’s the path we should take right now. The economic model that exists today is the one that initiated by President J.R.Jayawardena. I was part of it. Its effectiveness has lasted its time. We can’t go back to those policies or economic models in British or Kandy eras. We must think anew, understand the global market and adapt to it as a country to gain from it. We must modernize our villages. We don’t still have a digital economy and we must establish it. We must take on the responsibility of these initiatives and move on.

Which is better; are we going to the villages with this message as separate political parties or are we going to do it as one unified group of people? Because of your quietude, there is a political vacuum in the villages today. Are we going to let others divide the people? I would never have agreed with setting fire to houses, books and property. We shouldn’t let our political differences destroy our friendships. We should have a new beginning. So as people’s representatives you should carry the message of unity – which is meant to resolve the crisis – to the villages without being quiet. Your best effort would be working at the ground level to create a massive people’s voice to push for the formation of an all-party government. For that you have to reach out to everyone without any political differences.”

President Wickramasinghe also said that a programme would be introduced in two weeks at village level to tackle food insecurity and livelihoods insecurity.