"Previous regime used racism to achieve personal objectives" - Fr. Anthony Cyril

COLOMBO (News1 st): A seminar of the Viyathmaga intellectual dialogue themed, 'The country and its future', took place in Wattala yesterday (July 20). Former chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Dr Priyath Bandu Wickrama made the following comments regarding the government's decision to develop the Hambantota port with Chinese assistance. He said that when the government was planning on selling the port that one company had offered a sum of US$ 1.1 billion. He further said that now this company is making massive profits out of the company by dividing the entire port into separate segments and selling it to various other companies because of which the port now has a value of more than US$ 5 billion. The former chairman continued to say that they had constructed an island with an area of more than 110 acres inside the port which exceeds US$ 500 million. He said that in 2014 an investor had offered this sum, however, he said that they refused to sell it then since the construction activities were not complete. He said that instead, it ended up being handed over free of charge. He also claimed that the development activities of the eastern terminal of the Colombo port has been handed over to India and Japan ironically when all of the main ports in India are being operated by a company based in Dubai. Rev. Fr Anthony Cyril criticized the current and previous government on their capabilities to develop the country as promised. He said that when the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was informed that the LTTE was on the verge of being defeated that he had arrived at the country and kissed the ground while falling on his knees with the hope of building the nation. He said that between 2009 and 2015, that the leaders had made use of racism for their personal objectives after which followed nepotism and family members amassing wealth resulting in the public voting them out of power. He further said that although he would not directly claim that the Yahapalanaya government did nothing, that whatever they did was done properly remains a question since the two main heads are now divided. He also said that both the Prime Minister and the President go on a number of foreign visits for various purposes even sometimes to meet their friends that what they only bring back to the country is only massive debt which is left to be paid by the people of the country.