H’tota and Mattala: China declines Lanka's request
Converting loans into equity: Beijing wants talks with investors on commercial terms
China has declined Sri Lanka's request to convert into equity Beijing- funded projects including the Mattala Airport and the Hambantota Port.
China’s Ambassador Yi Xianliang told Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that it was not possible according to China's laws. He said it should be done through discussions with investors on commercial terms.
The latest request was made by Premier Wickremesinghe to Ambassador Yi at a recent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Manag ement (CCEM). He was in attendance.
However, the Chinese envoy had said that his Government was willing to extend its “fullest cooperation on this matter and support to overcome the current financial issues of Sri Lanka.” Already, China has recommended a list of its leading companies for tie- ups with the Mattala Airport, Hambantota Port and other key ventures in Hambantota.
The move comes as the Government prepared to set up a Hambantota Development Corporation to coordinate the development of this southern district. On the recommendations of Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrema, a committee is to be named to draft the necessary laws for the establishment of this Corporation.
The committee is also to be tasked to prepare a Cabinet memorandum for this purpose.
Another major Chinese aided project, the Colombo Port City development is expected to get under way by October. The Government has set August 15 as the tentative date for the signing of a tripartite agreement. Details of the new measures appear in the Political Commentary on Pages 12 and 13.
Premier Wickremesinghe had explained to Ambassador Yi that there was an urgent need to start the budgetary process for the coming year. Since a major portion of the Government’s recurrent expenditure is the Chinese loan component, he had said it was necessary to finalise the debt amount which could be converted to equity without delay.
With regard to many other projects which the Government has identified to be transferred into equity, the Government has decided to call for proposals worldwide. It will also call for proposals from Chinese companies and conduct direct talks. The selections will be made in consultation with Colombo and Beijing.
The immediate conflict of interest arising therein could have been identified by a child. Indeed, handing down a legal opinion on this issue at the time, two esteemed retired Sri Lankan Supreme Court Justices warned against the bias inherent therein and pointed out that the involvement of state law officers in such a manner violated professional legal ethics.
Probably if this Commission had been allowed to function properly and conclude its investigations, the outcry for an international war crimes inquiry may have had less resonance. But bloated by the arrogance of those who colluded with the Rajapaksa deep security state, the process was doomed literally from the start. Its interim reports were contemptuously tossed aside and were made public only last year.
But the point here was that the Commissioners were quite unable to free themselves from the iron grip of the establishment. This has been the constant negative pattern of those sitting on Sri Lanka’s accountability bodies. And the most telling lesson that this teaches us is that while systems and institutions may be experimented with either way, the absence of individuals possessed of sufficient moral fibre will inevitably cripple the proper working of whatever institutions that are in place, flawed or otherwise.
Wide powers of the OMP
What we have seen under this Government does not inspire much confidence either. An instructive example thereof is the Victim and Witness Protection Authority which has been singularly incapable of making any positive impact with its very functioning attended by confusion worse confounded.
The government’s ratifica-
On a more serious note, this is a manifestly difficult line that must be finely balanced. Given that the Bill stipulates that the findings of the OMP will not lead to criminal or civil liability, the fear is that this will end up as a glorified Commission of Inquiry. And its usefulness for Rajapaksa rhetoric leading to a particularly vicious circle of racism and counter-racism must not be underestimated.
Thus, it makes eminent sense for the Government to take this Bill fully before the Sri Lankan people. The matter of enforced disappearances is, after all, not a subject that the South is a stranger to. This discussion must not be limited to Colombo’s elite circles or the ‘twitter’ generation as it were.
In the alternative, the resultant ominous backlash may well destroy whatever good intentions propelling the bringing forward of this draft law in the first instance.