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Cabraal to publish ‘Arthika Ghathakayan Meda’

09 Nov 2022

 
  • Hopes to answers ‘all questions’ pertaining to him and economic crisis
  • Book’s cover depicts SL stuck in four hangmen’s nooses
  By Imsha Iqbal  Former Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, whose resignation was followed by the then-Cabinet quitting en masse in the face of a severe economic crisis, is to publish a book titled Arthika Ghathakayan Meda (which translates to “Among Economy-Killers”).  He made this statement in a video clip posted yesterday (8) on his official Facebook handle, captioned “answers to all questions”. The 1:16-minute long clip opens up with multiple published national newspaper articles on the travel ban imposed on Cabraal due to the legal issues he faced during his tenure as the CBSL Chief. The video states that it not a secret that the country has been “bankrupted”, and that it is the talk of the town on the “economy-killers” questioning his silence when fingers have been pointed at him, with Cabraal’s silhouette in the foreground nodding his head in approval.     Cabraal is then shown at his writing desk, saying that he has answers to the questions over how Sri Lanka became bankrupt, who was responsible, and what the impacts are, in his book, and that the reader can decide for themselves what happened, as it is “historical”, referring to the worst economic crisis in Sri Lanka’s post-Independence history.  Meanwhile, the cover of the book depicts pear-shaped Sri Lanka stuck in four hangmen’s nooses, with the blurb reading, “along with unrevealed facts of economic murder”.     Cabraal was appointed as the 16th Governor of the CBSL by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from 15 September 2021 to 4 April 2022, which was also his second tenure in the post. Prior to his appointment as Governor, he resigned from his ministerial portfolio and as an MP.  When resigning from the position, Cabraal stated on his official Twitter handle: “In the context of all Cabinet Ministers resigning, I have today submitted my resignation as Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.”  The account was later deleted. Commenting on the post, some netizens questioned why Cabraal did not provide this information to the court instead, while some others commented that it is necessary to respond to false allegations made against him.   On a recent occasion, when asked by reporters upon exiting a court complex after being granted bail, how he could sleep peacefully, Cabraal implied that no wrongdoing had been committed to his knowledge, saying: “I can sleep very well. I have not done anything against the people. I am the one who acted and saved the country from bankruptcy. People can say anything.”  After taking office as the CBSL Chief, Cabraal presented a six-month roadmap to economic recovery where he was to present its progress, but no such press conference took place during his tenure, while ratings agencies Fitch, S&P, and Moody’s gave the country a “negative outlook” with the launch of this roadmap. Subsequently, the ratings downgrade continued, with Fitch downgrading Sri Lanka’s sovereign ratings to “CC” from “CCC” and S&P downgrading Sri Lanka to “CCC” from “CCC+”.


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