Sri Lanka: Waiting for Godot in the Theatre of the Absurd
Even if Geneva leads to UN sanctions, we will hardly feel it
In the abject manner natives of the British Empire’s far flung islands used to wait for the mothership to arrive bearing the essentials for their survival 200 hundred years ago, the sighting of a fuel ship off Colombo’s coast last Sunday, raised so much excitement that it made the headlines on the national TV’s evening news.
With only a few days of stocks remaining, the arrival of the 40,000 oil shipment - this, too, only good for a week, as the Energy Minister said - was glad tidings indeed.
But, alas, it turned out Lanka didn’t have the USD 35 million needed to pay for it.
On Monday, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila told Reuters, his ministry was in talks with the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank to release the funds. He said: “Even with this fuel, we will only have diesel for six days. We are heading for a serious fuel shortage because we do not have adequate foreign exchange to pay for fuel imports.”
Eventually the money was found and paid on Tuesday night for the oil shipment, the Energy Minister Gammanpila said on Wednesday.
Phew! Saved by the bell to scrape the coffers another day. And the day will not be far off. By the minister’s own reckoning, the 40,000 tons cargo of black gold will not last a week.
The last minute payment was effected after orders went out from the cabinet room on Tuesday evewhere the cabinet was meeting in an emergency session summoned by the President. In attendance at the 4 hour meeting which began at 5pm, were also the Treasury Secretary and the Central Bank Chief.
Like a bankrupt spendthrift reading out the measly possessions left after running through his inheritance, Gammanpila cut a sorry figure on Thursday when he delivered his state of the nation address in Parliament. The woeful list revealed, the country had - apart from the more expensive 95 Octane Petrol which is estimated to
In the absence of any viable alternative, seeking refuge in an IMF bailout -however complete an anathema it maybe for this government -- may be the only way to prevent the nation from going bust.
last for 40 days - stocks of the main fuel used, namely, 92 Octane Petrol for only 10 days and both Lanka Auto Diesel and Super Diesel only for the next 8 days.
The people were left to stare at the stark nightmare that fuel, the lifeblood of the economy and social life, will run out by March 6. That by next Sunday, all economic and public activity will enter shutdown mode.
But the Energy Minister did not spell out his pathetic inventory without offering hope, the one commodity of which no shortages exist but only a surfeit that fills the oilless Sapugaskanda tanks to the brim. Gammanpila assured that more stocks of fuel were expected in the coming days.
And that’s not all. On the light front, we are in for more power cuts with the Public Utilities Chief Janaka Ratnayake warning this week that if sufficient fuel stocks for March and April are not secured, a three to five hour daily power cut can be expected.
The Association of Private Pharmacy Owners warned this week, that a greater crisis, worse than the present shortages of essentials, is in the offing with a massive drug shortage expected once the existing stocks of medicines are exhausted within three months.
The Government’s quest for dollars is the quest adopted by beggars in their search for their daily bread. Apart from flagrant beggary on global scale, which has earned it nothing but international disdain, it drifts aimless from one meal to the next in hope. Having no master plan, no credible blueprint for the nation’s resurrection, it’s reduced to showing its putrefying wounds to the neighbours to ask for more. How long can this state of affairs go on? How long must the people suffer this strain, endure excruciating pain, before their backs break upon the torturous rack?
In the absence of any viable alternative, seeking refuge in an IMF bailout -- however complete an anathema it maybe for this government -- may be the only way to prevent the nation from going bust.
This week Dr. Harsha de Silva declared that ‘independent economists and the opposition have repeatedly stated that home-grown solutions will not fix this and we need to seek international support immediately’. On Monday, SJB’s Eran Wickramaratne warned that, ‘if the UNHRC adopts another res
olution against Lanka next month in Geneva, the economy will suffer further blows.’
So what then? What if the resolution leads member states to do its worse and impose trade sanctions, even oil embargoes, against Lanka? In that respect, none can blame the Government for training the masses on how to meet any disaster and how best to survive in an embargo hit economy, by conducting street drills in advance, with mass scarcities of the bare necessities already set in place.
This then is the projected course for the future. Unless reason returns from long exile and places the nation on track again, it will stagger on past steam inexorably toward the beckoning sunset.
In the meantime, Lankans will be like the two old men in Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Waiting for Godot,’ who meet each day at a park bench under a leafless tree to await the arrival of the mysterious Godot who sends word each day he will arrive but never does, promising, through a messenger, to arrive the following day. The two men pass the days away, discussing various issues, expressing their fears, their problems and their thoughts, believing that Godot will provide the answers when he arrives.
For the Lankans, now in the twilight hours, by the time Godot finally shows up with the answers, if he ever turns up at all, it will be far too late to be saved from their accursed fate.