AKD’s Year I: Recognising the reality revealed

THE key thing about the first year of the AKD presidency is that its true character and core content were revealed through action and inaction; roads taken and not taken; choices made and options rejected. The AKD presidency revealed its reality in its first year. It showed its soul.

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Anura Year I AKD Year I

President AKD spoke at length about economics at the ceremony to kickoff construction of the Kadawatha-Mirigama segment of the Central Expressway project. This passage is key:

"...Even by today, the IMF, World Bank and rating agencies have given extremely important signals about our economy. I saw a report in which the World Bank has given us the recognition that in rebuilding broken-down states, the fastest speed has been registered by Sri Lanka. This is an extremely important factor. Therefore, we are proceeding on our journey with great steadiness and stability..."(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFn9HN9X0ss)

TV news showed JVP chief theoretician Bimal Rathnayake leading the cheers as Anura paused, having enunciated this wisdom.

AKD's self-placement of the Report as a feather in his cap revealed not only his self-image but also his chosen path and actual ideological orientation. Clearly, on economics he stands to the right of the World Bank report and the World Bank itself. An obvious but cheap shot that the World Bank report has been 'lost in translation' would provide AKD with an undeserved excuse. The big news about World Bank Report was not that it patted AKD on the back--which it did, but it was a left-handed pat. The big news was that it surfaced the dreadful downside of an unprecedentedly sharp and speedy fiscal adjustment, i.e., 'shock therapy'.