Even though Sri Lanka obtained the loan facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the crisis is not over.
Despite the concession to restructure debt, many steps remain to be taken to strengthen the economy. President Ranil Wickremesinghe is working hard to implement the program to uplift the economy. It is like walking a tightrope.
President Wickremesinghe visited Homagama Diyagama Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex last Saturday bearing in mind a proposal he had presented as Prime Minister in 2016. Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, Minister Bandula Gunawardena, President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Rathnayaka, former cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga and Sports Ministry Advisor Sudath Chandrasekara were also present.
Before touring the Sports Complex, he sat down for a discussion with the officials in the Sports Complex conference hall. An officer presented a project proposal regarding the construction of a sports university. On questioning about the matters he spoke about, the President realised that it was a report prepared immediately.
Sensing that he was playing a false role in front of him, the President asked him to stop his speech, but because of his continuous comments, the President had to shout loudly to stop the speech.
“After 2016, you have not even looked at the sports university proposal that I presented. Now don’t lie. We need to be accountable for every cent we spend,” the President said loudly. Arjuna Ranatunga also spoke about cricket and later the President told him that he could not recognise him. The Chief of Staff of the President Sagala Ratnayaka,who was there also said that he was also unable to recognise Arjuna at once.
After that, the group went to inspect the sports complex. A group of children who were playing baseball met the President.
“Sir, we are playing baseball. We are the only team playing baseball in Sri Lanka. Help us to take this to an international level,” the children requested. The President instructed the administration to take necessary measures. One of the players there showed a baseball to the President and when he appreciated it, the President said, “Let’s pass this ball to the Opposition.” Then the audience could not stop laughing at the President’s answer.
On Sunday, on the directive of the President, Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayaka participated in a program to distribute free rice to low-income earners. The Cabinet meeting was held on Sunday evening and the Cabinet of Ministers passed the proposal to offer part of the filling stations owned by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to three foreign companies.
Service extension
The proposal to give a three-month service extension to the Inspector General of Police C.D. Wickramaratne was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. The activities of ‘Harak Kata’, a notorious criminal now in custody, was also discussed.
“Any lawyer has the right to appear for ‘Harak Kata’. But the President of the Bar Association appearing for him means that the country is giving a wrong picture to the world,” Minister Bandula Gunawardena said. “During the Aragalaya, the people said to make the President of the Bar Association the Acting President. I had doubts about this since then. Today, that doubt has become true. It is now confirmed that many of the youth who were in the Aragalaya were drunk.” This is how Minister Prasanna Ranatunga cleared his doubts.
“Most Latin American countries are ruled by Presidents and Prime Ministers appointed by the drug mafia. Now it is very clear that Sri Lanka also attempted to do the same,” said Minister Kanchana Wijesekara chipping in.
The investors who came to participate in the Sri Lanka Green Energy Summit met the President at the Presidential Secretariat that evening. The President said that Sri Lanka will be the first country in the region to enter the green economy.
A group of officials from the United Nations Population Fund also met the President that day. Opposition MP Kabir Hashim was also present.
The Green Energy Conference was held on Monday morning and President’s Senior Advisor on Climate Change Ruwan Wijewardene participated.
A discussion on the problems in the construction sector was held at the President’s Office under the patronage of Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayaka. A discussion regarding the Sri Lanka-Thailand Free Trade Agreement was held on March 28 and 29. The main activity was organised by President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake.
The President was the chief guest at the prize-giving of Ananda College, Colombo which was held on Wednesday. President Wickremesinghe had participated in a prize-giving at Ananda College many years ago during the tenure of its Principal V.S. Kudaligama.
An invitation was made in English by a student of Ananda College requesting the President to deliver the keynote address in English. The President who accepted the invitation said, “Many people invite me to speak in English, but the tradition of Ananda College was to speak in Sinhala, the mother tongue.” The President said this with a smile and continued his speech in Sinhala.
When the President outlined the past and present of the college and future technology, everyone present was amazed at his knowledge on new technology. He also talked about Tik Tok, Facebook and AI technology.
The President was invited for the tea party by the students of the Student Executive Board of Ananda College. Director General of Government Information Dinith Chinthaka Karunaratne, an old Anandian who arrived when the President was enjoying himself at the tea party said, “I have some knowledge about Tik Tok, Facebook and WhatsApp but the President does not know about this new Chat GPT.”
New technology
Then the President said with a smile, “I am always looking for new technology. We should be updated with the new world every day, Director Information.”
The students were tempted to take selfies with the President because even though he was older in age, he was on par with them in terms of views. Although he had planned to stay there for two hours, he stayed for over three hours. President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayaka was also present along with Minister Susil Premajayantha.
The President participated in the 51st death anniversary of illustrious politician Philip Gunawardena. The moment the President came to know that the hunger strike started by the CPC employees against the Cabinet decision to hand over CPC owned filling stations to three foreign companies had escalated into a strike, he asked his Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayaka to look into the matter. Then he immediately discussed this with Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera.
“We have talked about this on several occasions with the trade unions, haven’t we?” Sagala asked the Minister. “Yes, we have spoken about this three to four times. But they don’t agree with the proposal to allow these companies to set up 150 new filling stations, 50 by each company.”
“Inform the President about this,” Minister Kanchana told the President’s Chief of Staff.
The Chief of Staff told the Minister, “You do the right thing. The President is with you. Don’t doubt it.”
Agreements to grant permission to three foreign companies to set up 150 new filling stations are due to be signed in the next two months.
The President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayaka and a group of others joined a dinner at the Indian High Commissioner’s official residence last week. The Indian representatives had informed him that they are ready to work with the Government and the President.
President Wickremesinghe came to the Parliament complex on Thursday morning to pay his last respects to an old parliamentary colleague and former Speaker Joseph Michael Perera. After expressing his condolences for his party colleague, the President spent some time there and left.
‘Aluth Sahal Mangalya’
After leaving the Parliament complex, he came directly to deliver the keynote address at the discussion titled “IMF and Beyond”. The President did not forget to join the discussion table and answer the questions of businessmen and professionals. The President left for Anuradhapura over the weekend to attend the ‘Aluth Sahal Mangalya’ and attend an Air Force function.
The Institute of Engineering Technology, Katunayake, governed by the National Apprenticeship and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Vocational Training and the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, is a national institute producing second level engineers under the free education for over 35 years since 1985.
Government Gazette No. 2311 (2022.12.16) for the recruitment of fresh students for the National Diploma in Engineering at the Institute of Engineering Technology for 2023 has led to many problems. According to clause 12, “The course may be subject to such minimum fee as may be prescribed by the Government, if such fee shall be notified in advance”.
Previously, no such thing was mentioned in any gazette issued to pursue this course and no such charge was made. But this time, it has been stated that if a student is eligible to follow the course for r 2023, a fee of Rs. 225,000 will be charged.
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa recently questioned about this in Parliament and, a group of students from the College of Engineering and Technology discussed with the Opposition Leader Sajith at his office in Colombo.
Sajith telephoned Education Minister Susil Premajayantha, after gathering information about this. “Engineers are produced there. It is very important for this country. Therefore, give relief to the students participating in this course,” Sajith told Susil.
“Okay, Opposition Leader, I will have a discussion with those people,” said Susil.
“We cannot imagine how practically you intervened in this. We did not believe that you were such an active and practical leader when we came here. Thank you very much, Opposition Leader.”
This is how the students of the Institute of Engineering Technology thanked Sajith. “That’s my responsibility. I’ll stay with you until this job is done,” Sajith replied.
Smartboards for friendly classrooms and the ‘Sakwala’ program, which is being implemented to raise the hands of the children in an online world and modern computers, had to be suspended for several months while the 23rd phase was in operation, because computer equipment could not be sent to Sri Lanka.
Sajith continued to discuss this with the relevant departments and as a result, the equipment was brought in. Thereby Sajith was able to start three friendly classrooms with essential computer equipment in three schools last week.
Sajith decided to launch thirty special ‘Sakwala’ programs to mark President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s thirtieth death anniversary. “President Ranasinghe Premadasa was a leader who dedicated himself to the problems of schoolchildren. It is a great act of charity to do something like this for such a great leader,” a school teacher in Nadigamwala told Opposition Leader Sajith.
“Some people laugh when you give a bus to schools. Some people laugh when you distribute computer equipment to these innocent children in schools. Some people laugh when you distribute medical equipment to hospitals. But you are not shaken by all that and you continue your good work,” another teacher told the Opposition Leader.
“Opposition Leader, some people say that we are living in the cyber era. But there are houses in these areas that do not even have a radio. We are indebted to you for the great work you are doing. We know that there are some people who laugh at your work. So I say this for you:
Itu kota kala uthu uthukam
Labunath loken gerahum
Iwasannata puluwannam
Nubai mage putha uthum
A girl in a school appreciated the mission of the Opposition Leader by remembering this poem by Ven. S. Mahinda Thera.
“Sometimes when you are going to learn English, people ask why do you want to learn English? They say only Sinhala is enough? It should not be like that. My dear daughter and son should learn English. If possible, learn Hindi and Chinese. Do you know why? They are the countries with the largest populations in the world.
Language laboratory
“Knowledge of languages would become a strength for us to cross the market of those countries and sell our products. Learn every language that can be learned. Every school should have a language laboratory. Our idea is to create that too.Syllabuses should be completely changed.
“There should be a stream of education such as Science, Technology, English, Engineering and Mathematics. There is a high demand for this in the international labour market,” Sajith said
Sajith has also worked to provide computer tools for the Suhuru classroom and five large Sinhala-English dictionaries to school libraries.
The Galle district “The Blueprint” economic summit of the Samagi Jana Balawega was held in Galle recently. There was a long discussion about the economic vision of the SJB for building a country with sustainable development.
The conference was chaired by Opposition Leader Sajith and Parliamentarians Dr. Harsha de Silva, Eran Wickramaratne and Kabir Hashim led the program across the country. A large number of MPs representing the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, economic experts and well-known businessmen were present.
“All the trends that were faked in the past few days have collapsed now. Only the Samagi Jana Balawegaya has scientifically presented the program that will build the country,” a businessman at the event said.
“Some people who say that they are wearing clothes given by their friends are coming to build the country in the same manner. We don’t need leaders to build a country who asks the next door person and friends to eat and live because we are proud. We ask all of you to read the economic program of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya,” another businessman said.
“When I came to this blueprint program, I realised that the most practical solution and the answer to solve the problems of this country is here,” he said. Over 200 business community people attended the event and they were pleased with the economic program of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.
As usual, fake news is being planted against the Samagi Jana Balawegaya he said. The latest news is that 40 SJB MPs will join President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Previously, on several occasions, such fake news was brought to the fore from time to time and all of them were planted by the same people he said.
“There are 46 MPs in our party. It is said that 40 of them will join the Government. Even if it’s a lie, it should be planted in a way that you can accept it,” MP Nalin Bandara said with a smile.
“Four of those who raised their hands for the 20th Amendment came back. Except for the two and three who went for money and deals, no one else went. We don’t have people who go for perks. The biggest joke is that the party from which hundreds of MPs left saying that the leadership is messed up, is planting such news,” MP Ashok Abeysinghe said.
“Didn’t Ashok say in the press the other day about a Kollupitiya conspiracy? What is it? Asked MP Mujibur Rahuman.
“I spoke about a conspiracy. Now we have to look into the phone call details of some officials of the Election Commission. Why did some people in the Government Press often go to Kollupitiya?” Ashoka replied.
“According to what we heard, that’s where the people who do the news planting go,” an MP said.
“A Member of Parliament from Galle, who is known for that work, and the person in the Kollupitiya apartment are doing this work together,” MP Kins Nelson said.
“The orders to do that come from above. But whatever conspiracies are hatched, it would not break the Samagi Jana Balawegaya,” he said.