Lost in translation? Harsha, Chathuranga spar in English

Friday, 9 October 2026 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe

SJB MP Dr. Harsha de Silva

Parliament’s debate on the economy on Wednesday turned into an exchange over language as much as numbers, with both sides choosing English to make their case.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Dr. Harsha de Silva said he spoke in English so that everyone, including markets, could understand him, warning the Government it could not hide from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by speaking in Sinhala. “With Google Translate, everybody understands what is being said,” he said.

Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe responded, also in English, that the IMF had attributed Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy to structural and institutional corruption. “The problems we have today are due to the mismanagement of the economy by so-called experts who could speak in English,” he said, adding that such experts had failed to meet a single revenue target in 76 years.

Dr. de Silva said 63% of the Rs. 1.4 trillion revenue increase in 2025 came from vehicle imports, which he termed unsustainable. Abeysinghe countered that vehicles accounted for only 1.2 percentage points of a rise in revenue from 13.5% to 16.7% of GDP, and said the same critic had predicted last year that the vehicle import strategy would fail.

On Dr. de Silva’s call for a Macro-Linked Bond buyback, Abeysinghe said the theory and practice of Bonds differed, and that the Government would not reveal market-sensitive decisions. Dr. de Silva had argued that waiting would allow markets to reprice the Bonds and cost the country up to $ 400 million in potential savings (see: https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Harsha-urges-MLB-buy-back-to-save-up-to-400-m/44-798337).