Govt. and JO yo-yoing on the Colombo Port City seesaw
Lanka torn between two suitors and looking like a fool
of the contents of the ports agreement? That the head of the cabinet in which he was a member had not presented the agreement to the parliament for discussion and debate? That even now, though he is hailing from the rooftops the benefits of China’s port city project and demanding its immediate implementation, he does not have a clue as to what it entails and what it means for the future of this country? Ministers like this are indeed only meant for walking up and down hills at Pada Yatras, with karaththa kavi sung to them to ease the load on their back and the strain on their calf muscle.
For his edification and for the edification of others in the joint opposition, let’s spell out the crux of the matter. It wasn’t the revelation about the Indian pressure that was a serious matter. It was common knowledge. What was far more serious, apart from the environmental damage that would be caused, was that under the original agreement signed by the Rajapaksa government in September 2014 a land of 20 hectares was to be granted on a freehold basis, thus conferring upon the Chinese ownership in perpetuity over a part of Lankan soil. In other words it was to be a sell out to the Chinese. The ultimate Chinese take away.
What was not only serious but shocking was when Cabinet Spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne revealed that it had taken the Indian Government to wise up Lanka what was at stake should the Port City Project go ahead: nothing less than the gross violation of Lanka’s virgin sovereignty to be ravished by a trophy-hunting Chinaman purely because he wanted to add another pearl to his necklace.
He said: “There was opposition to the project from several quarters leading to the UNP vowing to suspend it on assuming office. However, it was the Indian government that forewarned Sri Lanka of the negatives in the event Sri Lanka went ahead. India said once completed, the project will not come under the jurisdiction of Sri Lanka with a big question mark on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. India pointed out that the project management could refuse landing rights to Sri Lanka’s aircraft on the properties under its purview and prohibit the use of its air space.”
Why did Lanka need another nation to spell out the implications it would pose for Lanka’s sovereignty? Couldn’t the Government have figured it out for itself even as the concerned people of this country had already noticed it and alerted both the previous government and the present government to it?
If that was indeed the case, perhaps the time has come when this island nation must look beyond the Palk Strait and, with clasped hands raised in worship, thank her lucky stars that though shifts in tectonic plates may have severed her from the Indian mainland and set her free to float on the Indian sea, the sluggishness of continental drift has kept her in close proximity to still come within big brother India’s sweeping ken -- close enough for India to keep a sharp but doting eye on the naïve Lankan lass.
And to be ever alert and ready to snatch little Red Riding Hood from the jaws of danger whenever she wanders off to the forest untended and bumps into the wily Chinese wolf in grandmas’ drags lurking in the undergrowth.
If the Lankan Government wanted an excuse as to why it suspended the project, it could merely have said that taking into cognizance India’s serious concerns about her security, promote regional peace and stability and in order to foster greater goodwill between the two nations, the Government had agreed to suspend the project until the time is more opportune. It didn’t have to brand Lanka as a nation of simple Simons, twits, unable t comprehend the nitty-gritty of legal rights and make head or tail of their true import.
But then again excuses have to be made when one is torn between two suitors, even if it means ending up looking like a fool.