Apropos the article by Dr. Wimal Wickramasinghe (WW) in The Island of Feb. 15, I wish to make some comments about facts mentioned therein. It is apparent that some of the ministers mentioned in WW’s article were his parliamentary colleagues.

One has to agree with WW that Minister Bandula Gunawardane is the first post- independence trade minister in Sri Lanka to face the consequences of insurmountable challenges arising form high global prices of food commodities and international petroleum prices.

Minister BG is helpless without any effective arms of the state sector to prevent the cost of living from soaring. All trade ministers from T. B. Illangaratne to Kingsly Wickramaratne had the strength of the state machinery to counter any kind of market distortions as regards food commodities. They used the Food Department, the CWE, PMB and the Co-ops for that purpose. They could maintain three months buffer stocks. Minister Lalith Athulathmudali used to import any commodity in short supply through the CWE. One remembers how he imported even cigarettes, when the CTC went on strike. Once he imported chicken from China, when the local producers created a scarcity. Of course, that was an era when world prices were much lower.

It is pertinent to note that president J.R. Jayewardene, ably assisted by ministers Ronnie De Mel and Lalith Athlathmudali, never underestimated the importance of the state sector organisations necessary for maintaining essential services. Minister Athulathmudali ensured that Food Dept had a monopoly over the import of rice and sugar and the CWE had the same status as regards the importation of dhal, potatoes, chllies, dried fish, canned fish and big onions. They also ensured that local agriculture was not affected by imported rice, onions and chillies. They managed these institutions with minimum government interference and political pressure.

It was under the Premadasa government that the State machinery was debilitated at the behest of the Treasury Secretary Paskaralingam.

Minister Gunawardana does not have strong state machinery to control prices. Nor does he seem to be keen to use whatever left of it. Instead, he depends on a group of Pettah traders to bring the cost of living down! He has also found some scapegoats (Prima, local rice millers et al) in a bid to avoid the wrath of consumers. He has neither a vision nor the ability of his predecessor like Athulathmudali and Illangaratne. He is groping in the dark.

WW, in his article, fails to make mention of the purpose of the Franchise Scheme launched by Minister Kingsly Wickramaratne. It was launched to expand the distribution network of the CWE and to reach out to a larger segment of customers. The scheme collapsed on account of the Minister giving in to his parliament colleagues to appoint their supporters who had no experience in trading. Even sweep ticket sellers were nominated as franchise holders by some members of parliament. One other little known fact is that Kingsly used his Franchise Scheme to withstand pressure from the Treasury and the World Bank to privatise the CWE. Like Athulathmudali, Wickramaratne never wanted the CWE privatised. Another little known fact is that with the collapse of the PMB in the late 1990s, Minister Wickramaratne took over the challenge of purchasing paddy from farmers and did it successfully through the CWE. He set up two of the largest paddy mills in the country at Hingurakgoda and Lunugamwehera by utilising an Indian credit line. These two paddy mills were successfully managed by the CWE till the UNF government came to power in 2001 with Ravi Karunanyake as the Trade Minister..

It is incorrect for WW to claim that rehabilitation and refurbishment of the Sathosa outlets took place during Minister Ravi Karunanyake’s time. Minister Wickramaratne had built on what Minister Athlathmudali had initiated. He planned to convert some major Sathosa outlets such as the ones at Welisara, Rajagiriya and Jawatte into modern super markets. In fact, Minister Karnanyake opened the modernised Welisara Sathosa supermarket immediately after becoming the Minister because most work had been completed by his predecessor by that time.

It is Minister Karunanayake’s decision to keep the Sathosa outlets open 24 hours a day that drove the last nail into the coffin of that institution. It was a harebrained project as in most parts of the country, people don’t venture out at night to shop. Later, Minister Karunanyake privatised Sathosa bypassing the PERC.

WW’s article would have served some useful purpose, had he not tried to protect some of his former parliamentary colleagues.