• Democratic United National Front Presidential candidate Agampodi Prasanga Suranjeewa Anoj de Silva opined that SL should shift to projects using the indigenous expertise in exchange for goods from foreign countries, as such projects require no capital & only expertise & resources 

The Democratic United National Front’s Presidential candidate Agampodi Prasanga Suranjeewa Anoj de Silva in an interview with The Daily Morning, said that he wishes to create a nation where people can live with dignity and harmony. Bringing in various aspects of economic recovery, including the development of a production-based economy, and broadening the tourism sector, he added that the high potential of Sri Lanka’s tourism sector must go beyond the beaches and Sigiriya.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

Currently, the economic crisis has become the number one challenge for Sri Lanka. Many comment on possible policies and strategies. What are the economic recovery policies and strategies that you propose to implement?

If the economy of a country has collapsed, it is due to globalisation. Developing countries are most affected by the effects of globalisation. It has collapsed all sectors of the country. Globally, countries can agree only on the consent of imperialistic countries or organisations of such nature. International organisations are established in support of the existence of imperialistic nations. Such States would not support any of these international organisations to create a conducive global atmosphere for any other country to rise. Therefore, if someone says that Sri Lanka can move out of the economic crisis with the help of such international organisations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or get benefits with development through United Nations’ support, that would be the biggest lie.

Therefore, the United States Dollar issue that has created an economic crisis in Sri Lanka is only a phobia created by these imperialistic countries creating fear psychosis in the developing nations. Sri Lanka owns US Dollars; there is a US Dollar inflow, but what creates the crisis is stealing US Dollars. In order to get out of the economic crisis, what we need to do is bring an end to this Dollar theft.

If I elaborate further on that, when Ranil Wickremesinghe took the Presidency in 2020, petrol and diesel fuel were around Rs. 340 per litre; I’m giving you a rough figure. At that time, we had 500,000 migrant workers. As of today, migrant workers have increased to 1,300,000 – 1.3 million, and the income from tourism has increased. Last year (2023), over 100,000 tourists from the United Kingdom visited Sri Lanka. With these developments, we could have observed a significant increase in the foreign reserves. But, it has not happened. Therefore, the problem is Dollars being stolen. Ending this Dollar theft is the number one priority. It is important to preserve the US Dollar reserve in order to import the essentials for the country.

There is an immovable financial reserve of 60% of the entire financial capacity of the country. Ideally, 25% of this should be deposited in banks. But, in the backdrop that we discussed earlier, this money is nowhere to be found. Hence, we must understand that these transactions are happening illegally. It is to clear this void that the Rupee is printed to distribute to the people. This is how part of the inflow of US Dollars goes missing without reaching the people, and to avoid creating a lacuna in the financial status of the country, the State has to print extra money.

When the country faced a severe economic crisis, following the Covid-19 pandemic, many popular multinational companies functioned as usual – they didn’t collapse. This is an indication that the US Dollar inflow was not damaged. I have a well-detailed plan with specific time periods for a better economy for the country. We need to plan out a strategy to take our knowledge and resources to the world and earn Dollars.

The world is moving towards using organic food and products. We can easily supply products, as well as agriculture services for organic manufacturing. We can trade projects for such productions. But, we don’t even attempt it. I plan to broaden the tourism sector. It needs to go beyond the beaches and Sigiriya. We must best use our natural resources and archaeological resources. We can develop our energy sector – we only need the technical equipment from foreign countries. I have deeply and broadly studied the Sri Lankan economy. And with that knowledge, I can assure that Sri Lanka has multiple ways to generate foreign revenue without much hassle.

Sri Lanka has already entered into an agreement with the IMF as part of its efforts to manage the ongoing debt crisis. How would you approach this existing agreement if elected? Should we deviate or continue with it?

There is no point in trying to find an answer when there is no problem. These foreign forces are used to breaking the unity of the country. The IMF is not a necessary factor for our country. The Government needs to properly manage the funds within the country to facilitate the people. If we have a problem, we need to find alternatives.

Obviously, we cannot reject this in a rush. But, we definitely need to get rid of our dependency on globalisation. Otherwise, we will continue to depend on foreign medicine and education.  We can develop services and the security sector to earn foreign exchange. We can shift to projects using our indigenous expertise in exchange of goods from foreign countries. For such projects, we don’t need to have capital – our expertise and resources are enough. I believe that this is the first time in Sri Lanka that we speak about project trading. I’m a medical practitioner – my expertise is in ‘Hela Wedakama’. There is no other medical practice other than ‘Hela Wedakama’ with treatment methods for almost all illnesses that our country never attempts. Sri Lankans are heavily used to depending on exports – we are not in the habit of using the readily available sunlight, the trees in the surrounding environment, the cool breeze, the sea waves, etc., to fulfil our needs. These attitudes and habits need to change.

As a method to emerge from the economic crisis, the Government introduced tax reforms. What are your thoughts on that? What would you propose as ways to increase State revenue? 

First, we must evaluate whether this is reasonable. In my opinion, imposing tax is not reasonable. This is not implemented equally – it serves different social strata differently.

To overcome the economic crisis, we must end bribery and corruption when bringing in foreign investments. We must understand that all this is done to fill the Treasury of our country and create a better place for our people. No one needs to charge bribes for that. We must provide the foreign investors with 100% tax exemptions. We must make them use local resources to build the logistics and infrastructure for these businesses. These businesses don’t need to invest in Sri Lanka for very lengthy periods. We don’t need a lengthy period to build Sri Lanka – in three months we can make a significant change and in three years we can create a self-sufficient nation. 

When this happens, the foreign powers won’t have the opportunity to make us sick, interfere in our politics, or destroy our country. They will not be able to lay hands on our sovereignty and integrity. Let us not allow our petty-minded politicians to use the vulnerabilities of our people to go and beg the world for funds.

What is your approach to dealing with the ethnic issues and calls for self-determination in the North and the East?

Before 1815, who reigned in our country? It was a king of Tamil origin. Sinhala people lived under his rule without any issues. Sri Lankans lived under the rule of King Elara. Since ancient times, Sri Lankans never had a problem with having a Tamil king. There were no records to indicate the existence of racism, separatism, or terrorism before 1815. These concepts were implanted by the colonial masters. It was their strategy to eradicate resistance to protect their power. The modern politician does the same. 

Aren't they our own people? When there is a problem in the family, do we consider our family members as outsiders? They are our own people. This is a problem created by politicians. The only challenge is the language. At different stages in our history, people adopted either Sinhala or Tamil to speak and that continued for generations. That later became their regional language. That would have been the language that was mostly used due to political and administrative reasons. But, that doesn’t make them non-Sri Lankans.

I believe that there is no ethnic or racial issue. If there is a problem, the only solution is adopting a strategy to settle people in regional areas in accordance with the ethnic percentage. That would eliminate the Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim villages. This can be adapted to schools as well. All should be living under one law.

What is your strategy on the foreign policy?

We must give the world humanity, the Buddhist philosophy, and the philosophy of living. We need to deal with the world with humanity. We should not deal with the world for begging. We must develop our foreign policies to work with other nations intellectually, technically, and for cooperation.