Mahinda on his knees before World Bank to escape from Chandrika!
- Saturday, 12 April 2014
The Sri Lankan government, at the instigation of president Mahinda Rajapaksa, has gone down on its knees before the IMF and pleaded that former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga be not allowed to attend a meeting of Club Madrid, a grouping of former heads of states, that is being held parallel to the annual meeting of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington.
Club Madrid had organized a workshop on Roles of the WB and IMF for the development of unstable and weak economies, and Mrs. Kumaratunga had been invited to deliver the keynote speech.
The air ticket and hotel accommodation had already been booked for her to go to Washington for the lecture that was to be delivered yesterday (11). However, after coming to know that Mrs. Kumaratunga was to address the workshop, one of the participants, a top official of Sri Lanka Central Bank by the name Duralage Ranasinghe, had immediately informed finance ministry secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara about it.
Right away, P.B. Jayasundara had told that to president Rajapaksa, which has made him very much concerned, thinking that his predecessor would gain political advantage by addressing Club Madrid. Therefore, he has told P.B. Jayasundara to make any promise to the IMF in order to prevent her speech.
Accordingly, the finance ministry secretary has promptly spoken to top officials of the IMF on behalf of the Sri Lankan government and pleaded that Mrs. Kumaratunga’s lecture be cancelled, and promised in return to implement any condition the IMF has imposed on Sri Lanka. At first, IMF officials had totally rejected the request, but thinking twice about it, later decided to cancel the speech.
Then, an official has informed Mrs. Kumaratunga that her lecture had been cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances. But, upon making her own inquiries, she found the actual reason. Anyhow, the government is now bound to implement any condition that will be laid down by the IMF. This act has earned the finance ministry secretary much admiration from the president.
