No secret deals, please
The Chinese dance sequence at what could be called the ‘soft opening’ of the ‘Sri Lanka-China Logistics and Industrial Zone’ in Hambantota was entertaining, but not as much as the local drama that was being enacted on the streets outside the VIP enclosure. Chinese theatre and opera are usually involved with happiness, but it was the violent theatrics by the local mob that grabbed the attention -worldwide.
Some felt the famous Chinese mask dance might have been more appropriate for the occasion. The Chinese ‘annexing’ of the Hambantota harbour and ‘colonising’ 15,000 acres surrounding it have their roots in the very Opposition that was the puppeteer behind the demonstration. If not for the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa bulldosing his way with an economic development plan for Hambantota -- and getting sucked into unsolicited high interest projects offered by China, greased with palm oil, the Government of National Unity would not have been saddled with a debt crisis vis-a-vis an unprofitable port, and face its consequences. Having slammed the project in Opposition, they now have to defend it in Government.
The very UNP MPs who were critical of the nearby Mattala airport and were physically assaulted when they went there on an ‘inspection tour’ are now defending the assault on demonstrators outside the Hambantota port last week.
That is why this was not just a Chinese folk dance that was being performed in Sri Lanka’s politics, but a Sri Lankan ‘Kolama’, which is a traditional dance depicting high officials in a social satire. That is why politicians, MPs and Ministers cannot be given the sole privilege to enter into secretive agreements and barter away Sri Lanka’s real estate (read; sovereignty) to foreign Governments masquerading through companies.
If the Rajapaksas signed the loans that could not be repaid, they are the ones who are answerable for this debacle. Now, the present Government is preparing to sign a Concession Agreement where not only the people, but even the President was kept in the dark. This Agreement is to give a foreign company a 99-year lease on the property. It is so patently obvious that the Chinese have a global strategy and Hambantota fits in like a glove with that. They are spending billions of dollars to rule the waves expanding their ports network to secure sea lanes and establish themselves as a maritime power, and did we give Hambantotota for a pittance? How much this can be to the longterm detriment of stability not only in Sri Lanka, but the Indian Ocean are factors we do not even know were taken into consideration amidst the fog of corruption of the previous Government – and this Government.
The people, whose vote these leaders clamour for at every election, are the last to know what deals are going on behind closed doors. No one knows what the exit clauses are, if any.
That is why a senior Cabinet minister who has a pulse on the people (though with his own skeletons in the cupboard), recognising the growing frustrations at the shenanigans of the political elite – on both sides, referred this week on a state television chat show to the ‘Kalakanni’ (despicable) politics that is prevalent today in this island-nation, part of which many fear, has been sold for a mess of pottage. No. 08, Hunupitiya Cross Road, Colombo 02. P.O. Box 1136, Colombo editor@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2331276 news@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479332, 2328889, 2331276 features@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479312, 2328889,2331276 pictures@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479323, 2479315 sports@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479311 bt@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479319 funtimes@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479337, 2331276 2479540, 2479579, 2479725 2479629, 2477628, 2459725