Editorial

Hardly a fortnight after the Tamil Nadu state government made a much-publicised donation of humanitarian assistance to the suffering people of Sri Lanka, including kerosene for the fishermen of the Northern Jaffna peninsula, the familiar armadas of bottom trawlers have come charging from the state’s coastline illegally into Sri Lanka’s territorial waters to take away the catch for its multimillion US dollar fisheries industry. What the right hand giveth the suffering Sri Lankans, the left hand taketh away.

With the end of the two-month fishing ban imposed by the state government to facilitate fish breeding in these waters, Sri Lankan fishermen in the North are crying out to their elected representatives and the authorities in Colombo to stop this blatant poaching and ensure their livelihood is protected amidst the worst economic crisis they have faced.

Sri Lanka’s continuing economic crisis and its total reliance on Indian largesse for an economic lifeline have resulted in a virtual capitulation to India’s long-term strategic interests in turning its southern neighbourhood into its fiefdom.

Last week’s bombshell remark by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) chief to a parliamentary oversight committee that he received instructions from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to award a wind power project in the North to a financier of the Indian Prime Minister on the latter’s request without calling for tenders, opened a can of worms.

The President denied such a request was made to the CEB chief, who has since resigned and the Indian financier, already having clinched a tender in the Colombo Port earlier this year, said how hurt he was that such terrible things were said about him. The entire issue has caused yet another stink in the award of projects under this Government where the terms and conditions, prices, vast acreage to be given to the Indian entity etc., are unknown.

In a corruption-driven economy such as what exists in Sri Lanka, it is hard to decipher who is telling the truth, but what is a fact is the adventurism displayed by the Indian Government in the geopolitical commercial exploitation of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis with overall strategic goals in mind.

As stated before, the arm-twisting began on the eve of former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s visit to New Delhi last December seeking alms. He was told in no uncertain terms that Colombo needed to ink projects that were promised and in the pipeline for years as a prerequisite. These included the oil tank farms near the Trincomalee port and energy projects in the East and the North-East. They shooed away any presence of the Chinese wanting to do business in the area, no doubt with ulterior motives by themselves.

Now comes the next stage; to entrench the ‘big boys’ of Indian business – the Adanis, Tatas and Ambanis into the local commercial landscape. These proposed investments cannot be outside a fair and competitive procurement process, exactly what India and the US criticized Chinese investments in Sri Lanka for lack of transparency. They also seem to concentrate around ports and coastal areas patently with extra-commercial agendas of the Indian Government. In fact, the Indian media has questioned what a high-ranking RSS/BJP functionary close to the political hierarchy in Delhi was doing in Colombo last week and if he was lobbying for the Indian corporate big boys with the blessings of its Ministry of External Affairs.

Reports swirling around the political grapevine said the high-profile visitor met the President and Prime Minister in Colombo and even the businessman who replaced Basil Rajapaksa as an MP, and is earmarked to be the next Minister of Foreign Investment. Significantly, this new entrant to the political scene is expected to be put in charge of initiating Techno Parks in Jaffna and Mannar.

Is this all sheer coincidence, or part of the grand scheme of things being hatched across the Palk Strait with the political leaders in Colombo getting sucked in, willingly or otherwise, into the vortex of India’s geopolitical agenda for this neck of the woods?

Rift widening within Govt.

Against this backdrop, dark clouds are hovering over the unique cohabitation arrangement between the President and Prime Minister. While the two came together in a marriage of convenience, and have an otherwise healthy personal rapport, that there are widening differences emerging is becoming clearer by the day.

The replacement MP for the ruling SLPP’s chief organiser and former Finance Minister is a case in point. The PM had told MPs that he had spoken to the President about the rumours of who would fill the vacancy. Two names had been put forward, or so he was told, but assured that they would not be given any portfolio. This, the PM conveyed to MPs. It is to be seen if that promise will be kept. In the meantime, the President gazetted a host of departments to be brought under him and issued a circular freezing any appointments to state institutions without his concurrence.

On the other hand, the PM is withholding recommending an extension for the incumbent Governor of the Central Bank who is due to retire at the end of the month. The President has assured the Governor of an extension, but the recommendation must come from the PM as Finance Minister. Such gamesmanship brings back unhappy memories of what happened during the Yahapalana Government, and once again, ironically, revolves around the appointment of a CB Governor. Are we to see a replay of the drama enacted then?

The President having weathered the storm of public protests demanding his removal from office by sacrificing his brother as PM, is trying to consolidate his position for the balance of his term. Those still running the SLPP, or what is left of it believe that storm has passed and pulling the strings from behind the scenes while pulling the rug from under the incumbent PM’s feet. Mutual distrust is brewing demonstrating further that cohabitation does not work in an Executive Presidency while the public service remains confused as to who really is the Head of Government.

The fate of the much talked about, long-anticipated 21st Amendment to the Constitution appears all but sealed – and doomed. The ruling SLPP is demanding compromises to where the centre of power should be.

Thus, a proper 21A leading to the ultimate abolition of the Executive Presidency getting passage through Parliament, unless thoroughly watered down, seems even more remote than the next shipment of petrol or gas.