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| Tuesday, 30 March 2004 |
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Interview with Ranil Wickremesinghe 'SLFP's nationalisation policies hit the Sinhalese businessman' by a Staff Writer (Reproduced from the Daily News of August 12, 1983) One of the first to give thought to the economic implications of the destruction caused during the recent disturbances was Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Minister of Education. He was seen inspecting the gutted factories in Colombo's suburbs the morning after the destruction. This was not merely to assess the damage but to see what could be salvaged from the ruins. In Parliament last Thursday during the debate on the sixth amendment banning the call to divide the country, the youthful minister gave expression to his thoughts and very eloquently expressed his findings and his fears. Sri Lanka is now faced with the massive task of reconstruction. fortunately, there are mitigating factors such as the near completion of the major development programs that will enable investment in reconstruction in the years to come. Also technology is readily available to get factories going once the funds are raised for construction. However, the authorities should be constrained in the process of reconstruction to give serious thought to Mr. Wickremesinghe's studied warnings concerning tragedies that faced local industry as a result of shortsighted policies and blundering administrators of the two Bandaranaike regimes. Elaborating on his speech in Parliament, in an exclusive interview with the 'Daily News', Mr. Wickremesinghe accused the regimes of the late Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and of Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike of having ruined local industry by pursuing policies which broke the back of Sinhala industrialists, businessmen and traders. Every step of their nationalisation crippled the Sinhala entrepreneur. First came the nationalisation of transport, then insurance, lands, housing and finally book publication and the newspapers, which were all areas variously monopolised by Sinhalese. The areas then by non-Sinhalese went unscathed. The non-Sinhalese entrepreneur thrived not through any contriving on his part but because of government policies at that time. Tracing the historical development of industry in Sri Lanka from British times, Mr. wickremesinghe said it was in the latter half of the last century, after railways and other infrastructure were constructed, that capital accumulation among the Ceylonese began. Some made money through transport, others by ship chandling, arrack renting, wholesale business, plumbago, coconut, rubber and even insurance. Both individuals and families plunged into business. However the pattern was clear. Different communities specialised in selected areas. The wholesale business was by Indians, retail business by Ceylon Tamils. This pattern continued through till 1956 when nationalisation began. The governments of the Bandaranaikes aimed at the areas where the Sinhala entrepreneurs operated. During the second and third Bandaranaike regimes, when manufacturing industries were encouraged, the bulk of licences except for a few exceptions, went to non-Sinhala ventures. Compensation was not paid to Sinhala ventures that were nationalised. To make matters worse a capital levy was imposed as was a ceiling on incomes. Enterprising Sinhala entrepreneurs like Upali Wijewardene and Buddy Wettasinghe went abroad to make their mark and returned only after the current UNP government assumed office. Mr. Wickremesinghe opined that the tragedy that had now struck the non-Sinhala trader due to be machinations of an extreme political party as a result of their factories and business places being burnt down, was nothing compared to the tragedy imposed on the Sinhala entrepreneur by the Bandaranaikes since 1956. With capital being provided and know-how and expertise being available, the destroyed establishments could soon recover. The Sinhala businessman was stripped of his wealth, not paid any compensation and was sometimes driven to suicide and insanity. "These are the people," he stressed "who now tell us that we are discriminating against the Sinhala trader". |
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