Open letter to President

Dear Mr. President,

Quote and Unquote – “I foresaw the coming crisis”

This is what struck me as your primary point in your speech.

My first comment, … “Get yourself a competent speech writer”.

You may not see what we are doing but don’t forget that we see what you are doing and have done. 

Let us go through some of your own actions taken as below after your self-proclaimed foresight of the looming crisis. 

1. Pushed the Central Bank to peg the dollar and as a result lost nearly $ 4 billion trying to artificially defend the indefensible. Basically threw away $ 4 billion of people’s money down the drain. 

2. Lost State revenue reportedly by Rs. 600 billion per year by making the rich richer when unasked for tax cuts were implemented, perhaps by listening to those in the Finance Ministry or the Central Bank acting as agents of the rich. 

3. Lost about $ 2.5 billion to informal banking channels that short-circuited Sri Lanka because you kept the dollar artificially depressed by your own advice or bad advice.

4. You want the public to be careful with fuel and electricity. There is no fuel or electricity to waste at all. Hardly any is available when needed.

5. You listened to some and introduced an organic fertiliser policy. Everyone knows who advised you and what happened. The large farming community will never forgive.

6. I will not even begin with the large-scale corrupt deals that took place right under your nose for which you are or may not be part of but as the president responsible unless you expose the culprits. 

7. Printed money by listening to economic assassins and quack economists.

8. Appointed selfish, arrogant, incompetent to the highest positions in State agencies.

9. Never even consulted real practical proven economists or independent agencies (Advotata, IPS, etc..) for economic advice.

10. Let the Central Bank rob the savers by keeping loose monetary policy to make credit cheap for the wealthy when inflation was running double digits. 

11. Less said about your unelected brother in the Cabinet who came through the back door and ruined the already fragile economy, the better. Right now, he does not represent anyone in this country or the country except perhaps your extended family. His very presence as the minister of finance is an indictment on your entire Government.

At least now you have to admit that you or your advisers or no one in your party or your family has any understanding of even the fundamentals of economics.

In the meantime, you still have time to wash your hands off all this mess if you do as advised by the hitherto untapped real experts and sort out the bigger mess of the “Easter attack” or else you will have to take that blame too. 

However, now that you have had first-hand experience of “how not to do things” and ignorantly managed to plunge the country into bankruptcy, you better do the right thing starting now, so that your name will not go down in history as the man who made the country go broke. 

You and your entire Government have zero credibility or public respect as of now.

You are under advisement to get yourself surrounded by the smartest and the finest minds from the industry and the political arena, assemble a crack commando team of economic, technical, business experts to form the “A-Team” who are not afraid to talk back to you or your cabinet of ministers.

Remove the Governor of the Central Bank and the entire Monetary Board. Remove BR from the Parliament as he is the biggest liability to the people and perhaps you.

Find Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy from wherever he is and get him to Parliament and to the post of Minister of Finance. IMF/WB, international lenders and rating agencies will like no one better in that position. 

Appoint Dr. Weerakoon A. Wijewardena as caretaker governor of CBSL at least until the bank can regain its heading. He is the only living person who is sincere, credible and a resident citizen of the country who happens to also know the central banking inside out.

Then, abolish the monetary board and set up a currency board.

Start with assembling the CEOs of the blue-chip companies and give them each one vote in financial matters within this proposed group. Run the economy like the UN security council, obviously with no one having veto power, not even you.

If you still think people should believe in you, you must be thinking this country is a lunatic asylum like your Cabinet and your Government.

Remember, you are answerable to the people first, not to your party, or not even to your family but only to the people and the country who elected you and gave you an unprecedented 20A like no other Head of State in the civilised world has.

See you during the next election in 2024.

Good luck to you Mr. President and to all of us.

 

Sincerely, 

True lover of common sense