Land of Promises!

The countdown to the mother of all elections, here in our land of promise, turned out to be a carnival of promises with the main contenders for the executive presidency showing their colours like never before.

And the promises came thick and fast with social media delivering the ‘good news’ at hourly intervals – the last time the people followed the dissemination of information with such antipathy was during the pandemic when anxiety ruled the roost.

But this time around, there was more than a modicum of amusement as the copycats swung into action to counter the sweeteners that littered their opponents’ manifestos.

So the Xmas season was upon us four months in advance with more than one Santa ostensibly whetting our appetites with bags full of goodies…

In this instance, the pandemic was man-made, some of it even generated by AI, according to reports.

The flip side to the handouts and dead giveaways is that should (for the first time in living memory) these promises be kept by the presidential winner and his administration, the crucial IMF instigated programme may be in jeopardy.

Sri Lanka not only needs the disbursements promised under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to flow according to plan but is reliant upon the credibility that the International Monetary Fund’s sanction bestows, to source more substantial loans at concessionary rates.

Let’s not forget that we will have to start repaying the debts that are on hold in 2028 as the moratoriums run their course and out of time. It is at that time that Sri Lankans could feel more than a pinch – and don’t we know what that means!

Indeed, the glass looks like it is half empty as we brace ourselves for another presidential term into the unknown; we can only hope that it’ll be half full by the time we’re invited to vote again… at the general elections.

Bottoms up, until then!

– Editor-in-Chief