by H. Godage
(March 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was reported in a daily newspaper that the President had said that the opposition when in power did not develop agriculture, made this country dependent on other countries and today the people had to pay for those blunders. The UNP in power implemented the Galoya project with funds raised locally. The same goes for the Laxapana hydro power project. During the time of the late Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake the country was almost self-sufficient in rice.
We had three billion pounds sterling in foreign exchange reserves when the UNP lost the election in 1956. By the time Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was assassinate in 1959, the foreign reserves had come down to one billion pounds!
Both Mr. and Mrs. Badaranaike spent those funds and in 1965, when Dudley S. took over once more, the coffers were empty. He was forced to go to the World Bank in 1965.
The daughter of the Bandaranaikes, Chandrika, retired as President, a senior professor of economics declared in public that her period had been disastrous for the national economy which had even recorded negative growth at one time.
So, one cannot agree with the current President at all that the UNP did not do anything for the country. He may be trying to fool the young generation but his is a futile attempt.
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