It's high time to hit back at economic hit-men

During the 2006 - 2009 humanitarian operation, the UNP made many despicable efforts to stop the forward march of the Government forces because they rightly knew that the UNP would be finished as a political force, if the war was won by the country under an UPFA Government. Consequently, the UNP resorted to some insulting comments, such as "Thoppigala is just a jungle", "Government has captured Pamankada, and not Alimankada", "Any donkey can fight a war", etc.

The bottom line was that the Government won the war and every election thereafter, and the UNP got egg on their face and lost every election thereafter.

At present, the UNP sees the economy moving at a rapid pace even while the rest of the world economy is faltering. As a result, they are now desperate to make every endeavour to stop the economic war from being won by the Government.

The UNP's new battle plan seems to be to target the Central Bank, the Stock Exchange, the Ministry of Finance, the EPF, and the BOI, with allegations of insider trading, corruption, mismanagement, fraud, losses, poor governance, etc.

Since of late, it is seen that the Government and other agencies have realized this modus operandi of the UNP, and is hitting back with statements, press releases, interviews, etc.

Therefore, it is likely that soon the malicious intentions of the UNP would be exposed, just like what happened during the humanitarian operation. Of course, by that time, the UNP will once again be relegated to the dustbin of economic shame as well, but will have only themselves to blame!

In the meantime, the question that now needs to be raised is as to why the Government does not still deem it fit to mobilize all forces to expose this type of blatantly anti-national elements from continuing their destabilizing actions which are directly detrimental to the economic well being of the nation. Many are of the view that it is time that the Government and all patriotic forces in this country get together and named and shamed these anti-national economic elements, globally identified as "economic hit men" from attempting to destabilize the economy of the country.

For purposes of easy identification, the definition of an "economic hit-man" in the Sri Lankan context, may be described as a person who:

a) Publicly announces on behalf of a political party that a loan obtained by the country from foreign investors will not be honoured by an incoming government;

b) Frightens economic stakeholders in the country by stating that a concession granted by a foreign nation (eg.GSP+), if removed, would cause widespread unemployment and economic panic in the country;

c) Claims to be an economic expert and announces publicly that the country will go though a phase of hyper-inflation similar to Zimbabwe, knowing fully well that inflation in Sri Lanka is in check;

d) Deliberately scares investors by stating that the share market will collapse due to "fraudulent" transactions in order to cause a downturn in the market;

e) Unashamedly calls one of the biggest economic partners of the country, namely China, as an "economic hit-man" and thereby attempts to reduce the involvement of that country's investors in the economic activities of Sri Lanka;

f) Attempts to demoralize state officials and institutions by holding press conferences daily and shouting insults at state officials and hurling allegations at state organisations, in order to create a sense of panic among state employees;

g) Provides biased and doctored economic analyses and bogus assessments in an attempt to show that the country is in an economic crisis, and does so, every few months.

It must now be said that a concerted effort must be launched to expose these despicable breed of "economic hit-men", so that the public is made aware of persons with the above traits. (Surely then, the public will treat such persons who are the real enemies of the nation, with contempt, in the same way they have punished the former spokesman of "Alimankada/Pamankada" fame.