The 'tough leadership' style of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew has done their countries a lot of good, said Sri Lankan Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake today.

According to a Bernama report, he added that Sri Lanka - which has been involved in a protracted battle with separatist movement Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - needed such leaders.

"We need leaders like Mahathir and Lee Kuan Yew who govern in a fairly tough manner but which is benevolently good for the country," he told a group of visiting Malaysian journalists at his residence in Colombo.

The minister also spoke of how the entire country had been mismanaged through wrong political directions.

Complete mismanagement

He said the LTTE, led by Velupillai Prabakaran ( photo ), had justified its existence by making charges that the minority Tamils were being oppressed and suppressed.

"But my feeling is that the entire country has been oppressed and suppressed. As much as the Tamils say they have been oppressed, the Sinhalese and the Muslims are also oppressed. The majority Sinhalese make up 76 percent, Tamils 17 percent and Muslims seven percent of the country's 19 million population.

"It is a completely mismanaged country that has resulted in such problems coming out," he said.

However, he added that the government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesighe - which came to power in December 2001 - has begun to change things.

Only two months after being voted in, Wickremesighe - who he described as a visionary leader - managed to secure the LTTE's agreement to sign a ceasefire to the 20-year civil war.

Trade ties

Diverting his focus to economy, the minister said from a negative growth when the present government took over, Sri Lanka's economy had turned around to a positive 4.8 percent with creating a conducive investment climate given top priority.

With the dawning of peace, it achieved the highest ever single year foreign investment of US$280 million (RM1.064 billion) last year, up a whopping 160 per cent from a year earlier.

The basic policy is opening up markets through free trade agreements (FTA), the most successful one so far is with India while FTA's with the United States, European Union, Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Karunanayake, who will be visiting Malaysia at the end of the month, said he would discuss the possibility of Sri Lanka having a similar FTA with Malaysia in discussions with International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz.

Citing an example of the benefits of such FTA between the two countries, he said Malaysia's car maker Proton could access the huge neighbouring Indian auto market if it sets up a plant in Sri Lanka.

"Some Japanese car makers are already eyeing Sri Lanka with a view to getting into the Indian market," he said.