When it comes to political promises, Sri Lankans are born suckers.
From S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s ‘Sinhala Only’ Utopia to his wife
Sirimavo’s ‘Rice from the Moon’ to J.R. Jayewardene’s ‘Dharmishta
Society’ to Chandrika Kumaratunga’s ‘Eradication of Dooshanaya and
Beeshanaya’ to maestro Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ‘Miracle of Asia,’ Sri
Lankans from all walks of life – rich and the poor, educated and the
uneducated - have all fallen for what has almost always been, crap.
To expect this situation to change in the short to mid term would be
akin to expecting the sun to rise from the West in the same period.
Which is why Maestro Mahinda is at it again. Hardly had the volume of
the call for the Rs. 2500 salary increment promise to be granted
dropped a notch or two, he sent his mouthpiece Minister John
Seneviratne to ‘announce’ that the President never made any such
promise. And this in a day and age when every word that is said by the
President is recorded and reported in some form or the other.
And it gets better. On Saturday, January 8, President Mahinda
Rajapaksa addressing a meeting at Temple Trees is reported to have
said, “this government does not have any faith in privatisation and it
would not sell state property.”
The audience no doubt in typical Sri Lankan fashion lapped it up and
probably gave a thundering round of applause to the Presidential
pronouncement. It is highly unlikely that the President was unaware
that his Treasury Secretary, P.B. Jayasundera was at that very moment
making arrangements to list some high profile government owned
establishments in the Colombo Stock Exchange. If that is not
privatisation then heaven help our Finance Minister.
How does one get away, and even get a round of applause, after
resorting to such blatant, in your-face deception? Only two
requirements – the speaker obviously needs to be an absolute maestro
at his game and of course the audience, a bunch of suckers.
Privatisation is now taking an ugly, hitherto unseen face. It has been
the practice that when foreign investors seek state land, be it in
Colombo or anywhere else in the island for that matter, such land is
given to the investor on a maximum 99 year lease. State land has never
been sold outright to foreign investors.
This policy for some reason is no longer practiced. It was announced
recently that Shangri-la had been ‘sold’ 12 acres of land at Army
Headquarters opposite Galle Face. Days later, last Thursday it was
announced that Cabinet had approved the sale of another huge block of
land, again at Galle Face to China National Aero Technology Import and
Export Corporation to build a multifunctional complex comprising of a
five star hotel and a shopping mall.
It is an open secret that the days when powerful countries fought wars
to conquer other less powerful countries are long gone. Now the same
goals are achieved through the use of economic firepower. The Chinese
have already got a firm foothold in Hambantota through the port it is
now building there. From this vantage point they can easily monitor
the shipping traffic in the Indian Ocean – the veritable jewel in the
Chinese’ ‘String of Pearls.’ What the Chinese lacked was a firm
foothold in the commercial capital and now it seems the Government of
Sri Lanka has given it too, on a platter.
State land does not belong to the Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa to
dispose as they please. State lands belong to the people of Sri Lanka
and it is held in trust on their behalf, by the government of the day.
How does selling, for example, say the Timber Corporation differ from
selling a part of Galle Face to the Chinese? How does this government
define the word ‘privatisation’? When one of the most prime assets of
the country such as a part of Galle Face or Army Headquarters is sold
to a foreign government is that not privatisation of a key state
asset?
One can just imagine the wailing cardboard ‘patriots’ such as the JHU
and its Champika Ranawaka, Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudeva and such others
would have resorted to had Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP decided to
sell Army Headquarters to a foreign company to build a five star
hotel. They would be screaming from the rooftops of a ‘threat to
national security,’ ‘sovereignty has been surrendered for a few
million dollars,’ ‘traitors of the nation’ etc. Today, their silence
is deafening. So it was when the Casino Bill was introduced.
It will be intriguing should some selective activists like Vasudeva
Nanayakkara, like he did in the case of the Insurance Corporation,
initiate public interest litigation at least for the purpose of
defining whether the two Galle Face deals are indeed instances of
privatisation. Part two can then begin where part one ends.
It is also interesting that former President Chandrika Kumaratunga in
an interview last week had said that 40% of every government deal was
shrouded in corruption. When asked as to how she came about this
figure she had replied it was through experience she had gathered as
head of state for two consecutive terms. What it means in terms of the
colossal projects undertaken by this regime, which incidentally
consists of the very same ministers that served under her watch, we
leave it to the imagination of readers.
It will be recalled that until last year the Galle Face area in its
entirety was closed to the public of Sri Lanka for ‘security reasons.’
Should there be a security issue in the future will the seven star
Shangri-la and the other Chinese five star hotel be told to pack up
and leave due to security reasons? After all that was what the
citizens of this country were told until a few months ago when they
were denied access to even park a motorcycle in this area.
It won’t be long when some Indian company also demands a piece of
Galle Face if one is to go by recent events. When that happens Sri
Lankans who come from such far away places as Mahiyanganaya and even
the city folk who have enjoyed this open space for centuries, will
have no option but to jump right into the Indian Ocean while the high
and mighty can wine and dine in Shangri-la style at Galle Face. To
hell with national security etc. etc.
The bottom-line is this. A key part of Sri Lanka’s capital city has
been sold outright to China – for USD 250 million – by a government
that claims to be against privatisation. And the people of Sri Lanka?
Well, they are cheering! What then, is the word that describes such a
people?
Born Suckers................................
I know one cannot do much about the situation in sri lanka, but for
the love of our motherland please try to circulate this article to every Sri Lankan.
What Abraham Lincoln said was "ask not what the country has done for
you but what you have done for your country"
Guess what we have done for the country.... Yeh, voted idiots into
power and let them plunder our country & we will continue to do so.
They say that a sucker is born every minute in the world, but in the case of Sri Lanka it seems the rate is one every second.
God Bless Sri Lankans.
