Does the Government really lack the competency to run the economy?

Bert Gunawardena’s letter (21 October) carries more vituperative invective against some key personalities in the Government than economic issues that he tried to comment on under the above heading.

His first attack is against Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake. Even if the Minister’s experience is only running a ‘travel agency,’ as Gunawardena prefers to describe, Karunanayake, a management accountant by profession, is doing a better job than his predecessor who didn’t have a clue on the economy or monetary policy. He ran the Finance Ministry for 10 years and there was nothing tangible except for general decay in the economy with the debt burden rising and the foreign investments drying up, which prompted the Central Bank to use manipulative intervention to maintain at least a semblance of balance in the economy.

His censure of Malik Samarawickrama is equally offensive in that he denigrates him without a valid basis. Samarawickrama’s capacities are not advertised and he with the ‘experience of selling a few garments’ has done well in negotiations than what Gunawardena is prepared to give credit to. 

His disparaging remark about the age of Tourism Minister, obviously John Amaratunga, is in poor taste. John Amaratunga was in the team of President J.R. Jayawardena who built the tourism infrastructure in this country in 1977. J.R. as popularly known was 71 when he became Premier and the ‘People’s Pope’ Francis was 78 when he ascended the throne of the Catholic Church as Pope, the Holy Father. Is Bert Gunawardena such a ‘hot-blooded’ 20-year-old to cast disparaging remarks like this? A 20 year old, I am sure, would not do it.

The ‘Fashion designer’ manning the Foreign Ministry is doing quite well as evidenced by the recent improvements in foreign relations with US, Europe, India, Japan and China and also a host of other countries, enabling Sri Lanka to have access to assistance by way of concessionary grants and loans. This is in contrast to the reign of the so-called learned Professor who was supervised by an MP not even having his O/Levels. There is no doubt that late Lakshman Kadirgamar was an exemplary diplomat par excellence and it will not be possible for any Foreign Minister to even achieve half his stature. 

The writer is irked by the internal transfers that have taken place at the Central Bank and he tries a potshot at the Governor. The Central Bank has given its reasoning for the transfers and it is a widely-used method to prevent staff becoming entrenched in departments or divisions which is not healthy for an institution. This Governor is better compared to the previous one who made unwise investments (Greek bonds) and wasting millions of dollars to hire lobbyists and engage in foolish propaganda activities, even going round dancing in a ‘train’.

Some of the economic factors causing strains on the reserves and the exchange rates are the legacies of previous mismanaged economy and wasteful expenditure. These certainly have to be corrected but it cannot be done overnight. Sri Lanka has to get its act right by reinstating a proper legal and regulatory framework, restructuring the judicial system and also get the appropriate legislature passed to enable equitable socio-economic development to attract more foreign investments. It is only then that most of these economic strains can be eliminated. This Government is on the right path but the saboteurs are also lurking in the shadows!

T. Mallawatantri