By Faraz Shauketaly
The appointment of Sri Lankan billionaire Dhammika Perera as a Member of Parliament and subsequently as the Cabinet-ranked Minister for Investment Promotion provides for a fairly new trajectory in Sri Lankan politics.
Ever since independence from its colonial masters, the island nation in the Indian Ocean has consistently not failed to miss golden opportunities. In fact, gilded prospects awaited Sri Lanka – then Ceylon – but successive legislators either lacked the vision or the commitment to take on the interest of the people of this country.
By 1977 Sri Lanka pursued a laissez faire economic system. Cheap imports meant that successive governments rested on what they perceived to be a bed of roses and was very inactive in terms of promoting local production – agriculture and industrial sectors included. We lived a 1st world life but with a bank account befitting a 3rd world nation. The rest is economic history – as this country started to live way above its means, fuelled in part by the collateral interests on politicians and their henchmen. The Public Service was entirely corrupted, previously solid procurement guidelines fell by the wayside and checks and balances were tampered with. Who could blame anybody? Then President Jayawardene’s constitution was heavily loaded in favour of him and his party.
Mr Perera’s commercial ascendancy in Sri Lanka has been the source of claim and innuendo. The facts speak for themselves: publicly available documentation reveals that of the total corporate taxes collected in Sri Lanka, Perera-controlled corporates are responsible for over 9.9% of all such taxes.
Although plenty of negativity surrounds Mr Perera’s world of commercialdom including his previous ownership of a gaming license many fail to examine the scope of his involvement in everyday life in Sri Lanka.
Fuelled by the advent of Corona CV19 Perera’s information technology investments took a steady rise and his on-line education portal has attracted immense interest amongst the youth of the country. Post the Covid 19 pandemic, his export-oriented corporates reported unprecedented profits. Perera joined several other corporates and high nett worth individuals in joining the move to assist the country with COVID 19: donating several units of ICU ventilators and upgrading hospitals.
Perera has caused to be published a comprehensive strategy for over 20 Ministries which he maintains will increase the lot of the people of Sri Lanka. Many felt he had a political agenda but nothing materialised until he was asked by President Gothabya Rajapaksa to assist in the aftermath of the worst ever crisis to afflict the people of Sri Lanka since independence. Originally, he was offered the position of Treasury Secretary but sources say he turned it down.
The resignation of Basil Rajapaksa saw the President making a move towards appointing him a Member of Parliament; such was the opposition to his appointment that Perera’s appointment as a MP from the SLPP was challenged by various detractors who appealed for Supreme Court interpretation. Perera’s legal team assured the Supreme Court that their client will not accept any position until after a decision from the island’s highest court. A majority decision of the three-member bench did not grant leave to proceed – ending the legal opposition to his appointment.
The appointment of Dhammika Perera – with zero political experience – is being viewed in a national ambiance of serious allegations of state sponsored corruption and mismanagement of the economy by the government of the day and their various lackeys.
Observers say that Perera himself, who is the subject of unsubstantiated and at times wild allegations, is unlikely to sour his own track record for the collateral purpose of benefitting his corporates or himself. In any event Mr Perera’s control of publicly listed entities has never crossed the 60% mark. Perera himself points to the over 58,000 his companies employ, the substantial foreign exchange brought in to Sri Lanka and the fact that his companies contribute 9.9% to corporate taxes paid to the Inland Revenue.
Mr Perera assured reporters soon after being sworn-in as a Member of Parliament that he is committed to assisting Sri Lanka to come out of the current scenario. He also pointed out to reporters that he had handed in his declaration of Assets to the Speaker.
In an ambiance where Sri Lanka has reached the bottom, is in a perilous economic state and appears to have nothing more than a begging bowl, the appointment of Dhammika Perera can give rise to some glimmer of hope in terms of the sectors entrusted to him – and very little to lose.
It is hoped that his delivery will be inconsistent with the unkept promises of other legislators.
(Faraz Shauketaly is the host of Newsline Live TV1 – farazcolombo@gmail.com)
