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Thursday, 14 February 2013

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AH THESE 'CON'OMISTS!

The brouhaha now being made about the Central Bank governor's statement that the IMF loan will not be necessary, has given cause to a tantrum being thrown by Harsha de Silva, alleged economic affairs advisor to the UNP. As a preamble to this comment, let it be said that it might be wise, not merely to save this country, but to save the science of economics itself from the 'intellectual' depredations of an 'economist' of de Silva's ilk.

De Silva is quite the statistician, and being no economist, he says as a statistician would, that the country should have availed itself of the IMF's offer of a new facility, which comes by some other name and not 'structural adjustment', ( ... but its better that the jargon is ignored, as a loan is a loan is a loan.)

De Silva then takes issue with the new decision to reject the IMF facility as the Sri Lankan government takes up the position it has sufficient reserves to service debts, and if need be, engage in some sort of commercial borrowing.

Any 'economist' with anything called a conscience would salute a policymaker's decision to forego an IMF facility as even the most uninitiated of dunderheads know that facilities such as this from the IMF come with conditionalities which heap untold burdens on the people, in the name of austerity.

But in what must be unique to Sri Lanka, you seen an opposition 'economist' goading on the country to opt for a loan facility that will, as night follows day, definitely impose more financial burdens on the people of this country through conditionalities that have wreaked havoc in several countries, if the record of international lending agencies is anything to go by.

Argentina of course has to be the best example. Right now, even as this comment is being penned, the President of Argentina Christina Fernandez Kerchner is doing battle with the International Monetary Fund, at risk of her country being summarily removed from the IMF members list.

But Kerchner is ever keyed up for a good fight! It will be remembered that her late husband, Nestor Kirchner rejected IMF conditionalities with disdain, and basically told the lending organization to go to hell.

As a result, Argentina, having spurned the quick and easy fix offered by the Bretton-Woods lending twin, was able to borrow from the unlikeliest of sources and turn the national economy around, registering unprecedented growth of 8 per cent, whereas the countries that swallowed the bitter pill of austerity prescribed by the IMF didn't either grow or prevent a massive swathe of their populations from sliding below the poverty line.

De Silva's hideous argument is that Sri Lanka by turning our backs on the IMF facility would have to indulge in high interest commercial borrowing that will increase the debt burden and further impoverish the people.

Contrast this with Sri Lanka having to keel over and meekly accept IMF conditionalities! The people would neither have a future or a present, if this were to be the case.

Progress is not easy, and the trick is to find the money to lift the country out of middle income status and into prosperity, by securing the funding for accelerating infrastructural development, and then securing growth. Pseudo-economists such as Kumar David who has been crying out hyena like for eons that the sky will fall down on us tomorrow, have for instance, decried projects such as the Mattala airport -- which is so ludicrous considering that the entire Eastern belt is going to take a quantum jump in terms of tourism progress due to the establishment of the new Mattala strip.

No country progressed on savings and savings alone - indeed, no individual did. Risk takers are the success stories of tomorrow, and this is so axiomatic that it has to be explained only to the Davids and the Harshas who have their heads perennially buried in the sand.

Ostriches - the birds -- probably have a keener sense of what it takes to grow a country than these oxymoronic pettifogging-'progressives'.

GENEVA:

Naveen Pillai naive or nonsensical?

While Naveen Pillai had the brass to warn Sri Lanka not to intimidate citizens who lobbied for the American motion against Sri Lanka last year. If she seeks to protect blood sucking NGOs representing Western countries and their ilk, well fed and well funded, making millions of dollars by selling their country and their souls. Undoubtedly, there is a special place in Hell reserved for these Judases. These made merry during the 30 years of LTTE terrorism styling Prabhakaran and his gangs of murdering, marauding, ruthless criminals who even committed horrendous acts of genocide of Sinhalese, and Muslims - men, women and children, as ‘Freedom Fighters’

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COURAGE leads MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA

To me if anyone had the unparalleled virtue of courage it is President Mahinda Rajapaksa. When the greatest boxer ever Muhammad Ali visited Newcastle Upon Tyne in the North East of England in 1976 he was asked by a young Pakistani Muslim girl, Shameem Mirza,

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