KAMALIKA PIERIS

 J.R .Jayewardene decided to step down after his second term and Premadasa was nominated as the party candidate for the presidential election set for December 1988. Premadasa insisted that his nomination for   President had to be unanimous.

Premadasa became Executive President from 1988 -1993. But the election of 1988 was not a walk over for the UNP. It was a hard fought election where many died, said Bradman Weerakoon. Premadasa had squeaked in with a much reduced poll, commented Sarath Amunugama. Election results indicated that Premadasa got     50.43% and Sirimavo got 44.95% but SLFP had won 49.5% of the postal vote, said analysts.

Premadasa had two opponents in this election, Sirimavo and JVP. Premadasa arranged to keep voter turnout low in pro-Sirima electorates and keep it high where he had the advantage, said Victor Ivan.  The voter turnout was 12% in Wellawaya, 19% in Mulkirigala, 49% in Galle.  

JVP tried to sabotage the election. Premadasa’s chief of staff Sirisena Cooray employed Soththi Upali, a gangster and municipal contractor to rival the JVP in launching their poster campaign in one night, thereby challenging the notion that JVP could enforce its will countrywide, said Sarath Amunugama. Kandy, which was UNP anyway, welcomed Premadasa with a mammoth    rally. It ignored death threats from the JVP.  

Premadasa outwitted the JVP in other ways too. JVP had forbidden the public to attend Premadasa’s election meetings. At Dodanduwa meeting Premadasa spoke through loudspeakers and the people listened from behind closed doors. He did so at other meetings as well. He spoke for hours to empty seats, knowing that they were listening to him behind closed doors, said Evans Cooray.

The greatest contribution made by Premadasa as President, was the 200 Garment factories programme. The 200 garment factories programme could be considered one of the main achievements and contributions made by President Premadasa to uplift the rural economy of Sri Lanka and promote exports with the help and support of big companies in the private sector, said Lakshman Watawala.

It started when Kumar Dewapura, Chairman of the Tri Star Group was given land in the Kurunegala district by Jayawickrema Perera, then chief Minister, to set up a garment factory and President Premadasa was invited for the opening. It was there that the idea of the 200 factories programme was developed. Dewapura was instrumental in setting up the first few factories and helped to interest other investors in the project.

The target was to set up 200 factories  all over the country, in neglected areas. Owners were given low interest loans and a share in the textile quotas for USA and Europe.Each garment factory was to have a minimum of 500 employees each. Preference was given to Janasaviya certificate holders in the granting of jobs. All factories had to give free breakfast to the workers.

The factories would be run by private firms who were already in the industry. These firms would be responsible for the technology, the investment, the recruitment of workers, and ensuring that the product had a market.

The climate for this was good.  Garment manufacturers had exhausted their preferential quotas elsewhere and were    willing to transfer some of their production to Sri Lanka.We also had investors from UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany investing in factories in rural areas. Increases in garment export quotas were also obtained to sustain the expansion, said Watawala.

The private sector was drawn into the programme with tax incentives, infrastructure such as land, electricity, telephones, water, roadways and other benefits and assured quotas depending on factory location, said Watawala.

What the government did was to use carrots and sticks to achieve the relocation, said Rohan Samarajiwa. The companies had some incentives to go to the rural areas. More willing and trainable workers were available there for lower salaries, he agreed. They had disincentives too such as power supplies, transport to and from the port were unreliable and costlier than in the cities.  If the infrastructure then had been as good as it is today, the task would have been easier.

I remember the frequent meetings we had at Sucharitha where President Premadasa invited investors who were due to open factories and solved any problems they brought up, said Watawala. The Chairmen of the CEB, Road Development Authority and the Water Board were always present as these meetings as investor complaints were mainly about non availability of electricity, roadways and water.

Premadasa was present at all the official openings of factories. He gave dates to all investors so they had to work round the clock to have their factories ready by the deadline. The opening of each factory was marked by the construction of a clock tower, paid for by the investor, in all the areas they were set up. The clock towers were opened by the President before he opened the factory.

For the first time we saw factories shifting out of the Katunayake and Biyagama in the Colombo and Gampaha Districts to other provinces. Workers who had to leave their villages and come to Colombo and Katunayake and live in expensive boarding houses were now able to travel to work from their homes and have a substantial take home pay.Factories were opened  in districts like Batticaloa, Puttalam, Ampara and Vavuniya as wel.  By 1993, 160 locations had been allocated to construct factories and 117 factories, were running. Six were ready for opening and 37 under construction, said Watawala.

The 200 garment factories project transformed a vast network of rural villages, said Sarath de Silva. An example of this transformation is Dehiattakandiya. However, when garment factories came to  rural Sri Lanka, women workers found themselves having to battle the notion of “Juki girls with loose morals, observed feminists.

Premadasa‘s 200-garment factories project was the butt end of jokes and was roundly ridiculed as the ‘jungi industry’. Today, just 10 years later, the garment industry is a USD 2 billion enterprise, runs 890 factories, employs a million people and is the mainstay of the country’s export economy, said Evans Cooray.

The 200 Garment Factory Programme was continued by all successive governments although while in the opposition they criticized it. The garment industry became the largest industrial exporter from Sri Lanka. In 1991 the Apparel and Garment exports were approx. US $ 764 M. with the 200 garment factory programme the exports increased and in 2022 reached US $ 5.4 billion.

 Many who criticized the garments industry as a sunset industry” could now see its sustainability for themselves as well as benefits reaped by the country. These included becoming the highest export earner and biggest employer of females. Tough environmental and working conditions were met to achieve global standards. Today we have many ‘green’ garment factories and investors striking out overseas to set up factories, observed Watawala.

The 200 garment factory project enabled Sri Lanka to be one of the top exporters in garments and this continued even after abolition of the quota system to produce quality products at competitive prices.

 Majority of the original operators were operating under the Multi-fiber Agreement on the European quota system.  When this ended in 2005, many of the factories went out of business.  The larger Sri Lankan exporters took over and expanded these rural factories. They adapted to the new market environment, added greater value to their products, created higher volumes and generated more jobs.  (continued)