Dilrook Kannangara

Since he entered active politics almost 50 years ago, Ranil only had very short-term plans targeting elections. These plans subsequently turned sour and caused long term destruction. He simply bolted when their disastrous long-term consequences emerged. Catastrophic austerity measures have been agreed to with the IMF that will decimate the economies of the poor, middle class and even sections of the investing upper class people if Ranil wins the election. These have been cunningly delayed until 2025 March to be implemented knowing very well there are important elections before that. If Ranil becomes president, it will be too late for the people of Sri Lanka and for the nation itself.

Ranil’s Short-Term Plans – An Early Sign of Disaster

The UN declared 1985 as the year of the youth and JR used it to promote his nephew Ranil; appointed him as the youth services minister and generously dished out money for his short-term popularity gimmicks. These gimmicks were popular in the short term during the year 1985 and propelled Ranil to stardom at the same level of Premadasa, Lalith and Gamini, however, these short-term measures did not target youth unemployment, unrest and other real problems which boiled over just 2 years later by 1987! Other countries used the international year of the youth in 1985 to invest in their youth, diffuse youth unrest and empowerment. Not in Sri Lanka. That’s why the youth of Sri Lanka turned against the regime just two years later. This rebellion lasted until 1989 where violence was used against unarmed civilians to quell it. Ranil who promoted the youth in 1985 was supervising their killing in 1987, 1988 and 1989 just two years later in Biyagama, Batalanda and Sapugaskanda. This is a case in point for anyone to understand Ranil’s plans – they are based on short-term fun, disastrous in the long term.

Other Plans are Just as Bad

Ranil’s other plans are as bad. In 1993 he became Prime Minister and had a number of short-term programs to appease voters with the intention of winning the 1994 election. His money-wasting programs fizzled out and his UNP crashed to massive election defeats.

In 2002 he signed a sham ceasefire agreement (CFA) with the LTTE when the whole world declared war against terrorism! A totally unwise decision targeting upcoming elections. That too caused immense destruction to the nation, killed scores of top intelligence offices and the iconic foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar. It made subsequent national security measures very difficult as terrorists had infiltrated into every nook and corner during the sham ceasefire agreement.

His other short-term popular programs including Regain Sri Lanka, 100-day program and other hilarious initiatives were just as bad that left the nation in ruin without any long-term benefit.

His most disastrous economic plan led to borrowing $12.5 billion from expensive International Sovereign Bonds markets from 2015 to 2019. But the nation didn’t benefit at all. Most of it went into loan repayment, appeasement of various political groups (a very large number of political groups helped him win the election in 2015) and recover astronomical loss of the 2015 Bond Scams (2 of them). Nothing was invested.  This foolish move landed Sri Lanka in economic bankruptcy in 2022 and negative GDP growth from 2020 when those bonds started maturing. They were 5-year bonds.

His other short-term plans include leasing out the Hambantota Port for 99 years to China instead of investing in it to turn it to the next Colombo port which has reached full capacity. By the time he sold off the Hambantota port, it was making a modest profit. After he sold it to China, mainly Chinese vessels patronize it and Sri Lanka lost its potential and even bunkering profits. The Treasury is yet to receive the full amount of funds of its sale!

What Sri Lanka is going through currently is a period of clam before the storm. The IMF program is set to destroy Sri Lanka’s local industries by opening up local labor, professional and manufacturing markets to global competition. It also exposes Sri Lanka’s resources, profitable corporations and the finance sector to international auctions. Their assets will be stripped and sold by their buyers as they have no plans to run them. Part of the proceeds will go to repay loans including the $3 billion new IMF loan. But Sri Lanka’s economy will crash due to lack of local industries that employ locals, pay taxes to the government and contribute to the GDP.

Those who followed Ranil in his short-term fun projects also suffered. In 2010 Ranil used Fonseka to do his bidding and Fonseka essentially ended his political career as a result. In 2015 Ranil used Sirisena who also ended his and his clan’s political future as a result. The JVP also joined these Ranil tricks and paid a very heavy price crashing from 39 seats in Parliament in 2010 to just a handful by today. Ranil’s closest politicians including Range Bandana, Ravi K, Dianna, Harin and Manusha crashed out of parliament. The fate of Ranil’s former elections organizers is nothing short of tragic. His appointees to the Central Bank and state institutions including the Bribery and Corruption Commission also proved poor choices to say the very least. They too crashed out, untimely.

For these reasons, Ranil must be defeated at the election. However, the next leader will have to be smart enough to untangle and fix the mess created by Ranil for short-term election-oriented fun and diffuse multiple economic time-bombs Ranil has already left behind.