Why should SJP’s recent shift in fake news attacks / propaganda to attack large corporates in SL should worry us? I explain my thoughts below after observed fake news that originated from the SJP camp that targeted SL’s largest apparel exporter, State Banks and listed telco - SLT
SJP is the latest avatar of UNP that built his political legacy around free markets, property rights, and pro corporate / capital market policies since independence, often paying a huge political price for its unwavering commitment to them - in 1956, 1970, and even in 2005
These principals we staunchly demonstrated all the way till 2014, when the party suddenly developed a penchant for populist policies in their desperation to oust the Rajapaksa administration. Perhaps, it was also frustration towards the corporate sector’s support for pro inv
Policies of Rajapaksa administration seen during the massive post war infrastructure investment wave. The combination of populism and the misguided zeal to teach a lesson to corporates ended up in the disastrous retrospective super gain tax of 2015 targeting the largest corporate
Suspension of the Port City project, which at the time was the largest committed FDI source and also a massive spending spree on state employee salaries as a vote buying exercise- and predictably, investments crashed , stock marked tanked , bud deficit in 2015 rose &rupee crashed