Sri Lanka is no longer a functioning state because of the shortcomings in the administration and the continuous changes in policy decisions, former Speaker and the President of the National Movement for a Just Society, Karu Jayasuriya said yesterday addressing a press conference.

Jayasuriya said that the only thing that the country had got right in the last year was the vaccination drive that has put Sri Lanka in a better position than other countries in Asia to tackle COVID-19.

“We are pleased that the President has taken immediate steps to look into the accidents related to LP gas by appointing an expert committee. This is a timely intervention. If the advice of intellectuals were similarly sought to resolve other issues faced by the country, the problems that have cropped up in the agriculture and other sectors would have not arisen,” he said.

Jayasuriya said that experts in the agriculture sector are of the opinion that there will be a large-scale (about 30%) drop in production as many farmers have given up farming due to lack of fertilizer. However, importation of rice is not a solution to this problem, he said.

“Can a country not able to import medicines, milk powder, sugar and other essentials due to the lack of foreign exchange, afford to waste foreign reserves on the importation of rice? In addition, about 1000 containers of food items at the port are stuck due to lack of dollars. We must make our management systems stronger to face the looming forex crisis,” he said.

The people are facing severe food shortages and the cost of living has skyrocketed. There are a large number of people in the country who cannot afford to have three meals a day, he said.

The former Speaker insisted that had the President taken necessary advice from intellectuals before introducing the fertilizer ban, the chaos the country is currently facing today would not have arisen. The government needs to understand that listening to experts is a very important factor in governance. The farming families today are in a very helpless state and that they are deeply frustrated and angry at the current regime, he said.

“It is with regret that one must point out that our country was not invited to the Summit for Democracy to be held in the United States. This can be considered as a great dishonour to Sri Lanka. As we have repeated many times before, it is an honour for our country to be recognised in the democratic world. This is an essential element in attracting investors and boosting trade. However, it will be difficult to earn that recognition and respect once again until the democratic mechanism functions in a proper manner,” he said.

Jayasuriya added that one of the reasons why the country was not invited to the summit is that at present the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka is not functioning as new members had not been appointed. In the recent past, the Human Rights Commission in our country has been highly recognized internationally.

“In the past the members were independent from political parties. At that time they were selected by the members of the Constitutional Council. Therefore, we should not be surprised that Sri Lanka was not invited to the Democratic Summit. We request that these errors be rectified without delay. Meanwhile the killing of prisoners in Police custody has also brought our country into disrepute. Therefore it must be noted with great regret that the ‘One country, One Law’ policy has still not been implemented in Sri Lanka. In a country where this concept is correctly implemented, veteran artists like Ranjan Ramanayake would not be in prison. We hope the above matters will be brought to the notice of the relevant authorities,” he said.