An article by Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda titled "Sri Lanka and the international economic crisis - the way forward" published in the Sunday Island of March 8 and run by Lanka Business Online later has provoked a lively debate with Dr. Harsha de Silva, often regarded as an economist critical of government policies, congratulating Moragoda for "rising to the occasion."


"It is heartening to finally see the government (well you are a cabinet minister even though the thoughts are said to be your own) agreeing with us who have been pointing this fact out day in and day out since April 2004,’’ he said. "Better late than never."


De Silva asked the question `What do you do next?’ and said: "Instead of criticizing the UNP I hope you will get down to business. We are waiting."


Moragoda, Minister of Economic Reform in the Ranil Wickremesinghe government, said in his article that the thoughts he had expressed were his own.


Rohan Samarajiva, who has previously headed the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, remarked: "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."


Not Mr Moragoda alone, but we are all about to be hanged in a fortnight. "The crisis is upon us,’’ he summed up saying in Rahm Emanuel’s language that ``it cannot be wasted" and the country must emerge stronger out of it.


"We can squabble about when what should have been said by whom and take the road called Zimbabwe,’’ he said. "The choice is ours."


"I hope we will focus on the crisis, its specific impacts on specific sectors, and the reforms that we can and must undertake to emerge a stronger economy.


"(Moragoda) does not have all the answers, he cannot. But if the intelligent readers of LBO put their minds to it, we can collectively map out concrete actions that can alleviate the coming pain and build for a stronger economy."