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| Sunday, 18 December 2005 |
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Opposition Leader plays truant during Budget debate - Dew Gunasekera Speech made by Constitutional Affairs and National Integration Minister Dew Gunasekera at the debate on the Budget, on December 12, 2005.
"Mr. Speaker, at the outset may I as a mark of tradition express our profound satisfaction and deep appreciation to the President and Minister of Finance for introducing a People's Budget. "To be exact and precise, it is scientific, objective, pragmatic, comprehensive, all-embracing, pro-people, pro-poor and pro-disadvantaged. "First I must respond to the comments made by Mr. Bandula Gunawardena who made the first speech on behalf of the Opposition. Once again, I must express deep dissatisfaction over the attitude of the Leader of the Opposition who played truant in this debate as well. It has always been the tradition of this House for the Leader of the Opposition to lead the debate. If you cannot lead your members in this House, how on earth can you lead the people? That is a comment by the way. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Bandula Gunawardena's only worthwhile remark was that this Budget looked rosy but not implementable. Even if implementable, he said, it would result in a colossal deficit causing a cascading effect on the economy, severely affecting the well-being of the people. This was precisely what he uttered in this House with regard to the 2005 Budget as well. "What happened, Mr. Speaker, despite the unprecedented catastrophe of Tsunami, which took place within 16 days of the approval of the Budget? "We recovered from it faster than we expected restoring our economic fundamentals, placing them well under control. "By the end of 2005, GDP was 5.3% Budget Deficit 8.2%, Inflation at 9%. Revenue increased to 16.5% - Rate of Investment at 27%, National Savings at 21.7%, Interest rate restricted to 8.25%. Debt-GDP ratio at 98% (105% in 2004), Balance of payment was a surplus and so on. "My dear friend Mr. Gunawardena what was your prediction then? Your prophecies? Your assessments were subjective and proved wrong and absolutely false. Foreign policy "With regard to your predictions over 2006 Budget: I dare say you will be proved wrong once again and you will not get the chance to lead the next Budget debate. My warning to you is to be objective in your assessment - apply your knowledge of economics taking into account the changing realities. Surely you are aware of the fact that science of economics is a science of variables and we know how to keep the variables under control. "Mr. Speaker, I shall touch upon mainly one important aspect of this Budget within the brief time at my disposal. The President stressed upon the need for a new orientation to our foreign policy. This was in keeping with our vision and also the realities of the changing world. "I told this House during my speech at the last Budget Debate the 21st Century belonged to Asia. The next decade (2005-2015) will witness dramatic changes in the world economic order; which fact the framers of the Budget have taken into account. Berlin Wall "The present world order was brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. It ushered in an era of unbridled, aggressive neo-liberal economic policy under the pretext of globalization. Barely fifteen years have elapsed and you would witness today that this process is taking us to a blind-end or a dead-end. "The end of history" proclaimed by bourgeoisie economists and historians shall remain to be a dream, an unrealizable reality forever. "Sir, it has been forecast that by 2015 the GDP of the US and Western Europe shall be reduced to 37% of the world GDP whereas the GDP of Asia shall rise up to 45% of the world GDP. In fact, the GDP of Asia, Africa, Latin America with Russia would be in the region of 63%. If you delete Japan (belonging to G7 Group) from this category which accounts for 6%, it is still 57% of the world GDP as against 43% of the G7. You would witness this polarization, in spite of globalization. "The scenario of the world in the economic sphere is slowly but surely changing. Our own SAARC region which is the home to 1/5 of the world is fast becoming a decisively important region in Asia. This is what the Leader of Opposition cannot see or is blind to see. 'Neo-Liberalism' This is how the "Mahinda Chaintanaya" fits in well for the changing realities of the world. You can see this only through the prism of "Mahinda Chintanaya" and not at all through Ranil's so called People's Agenda or through "Regaining Sri Lanka." "The Leader of Opposition who is politically and ideologically committed to a policy of neo-liberalism, which is in fact "neo conservatism" is not allowing the membmers of the UNP to see the new realities of the world economy. The so called "nego-liberalism" has been rejected by the Latin American countries where it was first introduced. The entire Latin America is moving Left or Left-oriented in search of pro-people alternatives. "The Asian economy today, would never have come up to the present stage of development had it blindly followed the "neo-liberalism". The lesson, which we should draw is that the current stage of development demands, "planning cum market", "growth and equity", "economic development and human development", "private sector and public sector." "Regaining Sri Lanka" program is essentially a program of "jobless growth" which we graphically witnessed between the years 2002-2003. Latin America demonstrated manifestly how the jobless growth created rootless, voiceless, ruthless persons in the society. We witnessed that trend of development in Sri Lanka during the period after 1977. "The historic November victory was a clear reaction to that trend of development! "Mahinda Chintanaya" was a product of that conceptual thinking in the Sri Lankan context, which responded to the concept of neo-liberalism as an alternative. "This Budget is an instrument to implement that economic strategy which is needed at this crucial stage of our history. A new orientation of the foreign policy and accordingly a new orientation in our international economic relations is therefore imperative. This need has been expressly stressed in the President's manifesto, in the policy statement and in the Budget. |
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