28 March, 2024

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The Monarch & The Hegemon: Tales Of Suicidal Folly

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out…” ~ Bertrand Russell (Sceptical Essays)

Emma Lazarus’ poem, The Colossus, became news recently when a poetry website carried it in response to Donald Trump’s immigration policy, and Mr. Trump responded with a characteristic twitter-barrage. Lazarus’ poem, written to raise funds for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, celebrates the birth of a nation which offers a haven to the outcasts of other, older lands. After the pedestal was built, a tablet inscribed with several lines of the poem was placed within it.

If a statue symbolising the Lankan political class is erected outside our parliament, a different version of Emma Lazarus’ immortal words should adorn its pedestal; something along the lines of, “Send me your liars, thieves and fools, the vain, the pompous and the shameless…”

Ravi Karunanayake is not the only bent-man in politics. But is something particularly sordid in his Penthouse-saga. His attempts to prove the impossible, and justify the unjustifiable are unalloyed grotesquery, as is the loaded-mention of the Buddha and Christ in his resignation speech. But no less preposterous is the cavorting of JO parliamentarians in the ill-fitting garments of anti-corruption crusaders. This faux-transformation of the Rajapaksas from arch-corrupters into mealy-mouthed advocates of honesty and probity in public life was enabled by the criminal follies of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration.

Ravi Karunanayake

Power corrupts, that is an old adage. But power does something worse. It idiotises, to coin a word, turning even intelligent men and women into fools with a penchant for self-harm and a lethal inability to see even their own noses, let alone what is beyond those olfactory organs. Forget shame; had Ravi Karunanayake an iota of sense left, he would have retired as soon as the story of his penthouse was exposed. If the government, which came into power promising to end all corruption, possessed even a particle of intelligent self-interest, it would have ensured Mr. Karunanayake’s immediate resignation.

Impunity still exists but it no longer reigns, as it did under Rajapaksa rule. In a testimony which insulted the intelligence of the public with its mendacity, Mr. Karunanayake said one undisputable truth: it is only under this government a powerful minister like him could be summoned before a commission and grilled for hours. The appointment of the commission, its manifest independence and the zeal displayed by the AG’s Department indicate that some components of the Lankan state are functioning as they should.

The day before Mr. Karunanayake tendered his forced-resignation, a group of citizens engaged in a protest against corruption in high places, at the Independence Square. Had the Rajapaksas been in power, those citizens would not have come out and protested. Not would they have been allowed to do so, especially at the Independence Square.

This emperor is not as naked as the previous one, even though the difference between the two is quantitative rather than qualitative. Those who are loath to see the triumphant return of the Rajapaksa juggernaut should redouble their efforts to strengthen and widen this difference. That means ensuring accountability for all wrongs – past and present – and guaranteeing justice for all citizens, from North to South.

Emulating The Rajapaksas In Hambantota

This is a dithering government, a procrastinating government, even when it comes to a matter of its own survival. If it displays any zeal, acts with any speed, it is in doing what should not be done, such as the signing of the Hambantota Port deal.

According to Rajapaksa acolytes, building a port in Hambantota was initially proposed by Mahinda Rajapaksa’s father. Perhaps. It certainly figured in Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Regaining Sri Lanka. The idea was abandoned when a feasibility study concluded the project unfeasible. It was resurfaced a couple of years later by the new PM, Mahinda Rajapaksa, but didn’t fly because the then Minister of Ports Mangala Samaraweera rejected it.

Facts are opinions in the Rajapaksa universe. There, expert warnings are ‘negative reactions,’ things to be rejected rather than heeded. As president Mr. Rajapaksa resurrected the Hambantota Port project (just as he did the disastrous Uma Oya scheme). “Sri Lanka made an open request for funding. China was the first to respond. During the President’s tour to China, the Hambantota Harbour was one of the three main loan proposals requested by Sri Lanka.”[i]

Mahinda Rajapaksa

The Chinese agreed. If they regarded this proposal as manna from heaven, they would have been right. Beijing is aspiring to replace the US as the next global power. China’s leaders would know that dominating the seas is a necessary precondition of superpower status. Chinese naval analyst, Zhang Ming, has argued that India can use Andaman and Nicobar islands as a metal chain to block China’s access to the Straits of Malacca.[ii] Beijing couldn’t but have seen the chance of gaining a foothold in Hambantota as a Shangri La-sent opportunity to create a critical dent in India’s ‘iron curtain.’

So the port was built and was a commercial failure. The debt piled up, not least because the Chinese increased the initially reasonable interest rates to unreasonable levels (from 1.3% to 6.3% in 2013; the Rajapaksas acceded to the unilateral increase.) The new government made an effort in its first year to shift the country back to a non-aligned path, but abandoned that sensible course in the second year. Cleary the Chinese learnt that managing this lot was no different than managing the previous lot. All powers have deep pockets. The Chinese don’t have to bother with accountability or transparency either, even a shard of it. Suddenly, Beijing had no better friends than the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. And a plan was born, to lease Hambantota to the Chinese for 99 years. Since the port on its own was not economically viable, the Chinese would be given an exclusive industrial zone of 15.000 acres.

The government which displays a lamentable absence of competence and backbone when it comes to a number of critical issues, from prosecuting the Rajapaksas to enacting democratic and progressive legislation, acted with lightening speed to close the Hambantota deal. The Rajapaksa opposition’s opposition to the deal too was just a show. On the day the parliamentary debate on the deal was to be held, JO members invaded the chamber and turned it into an unfunny Comedy Central. The debate was cancelled. Two days later, the government signed the deal, handing over Hambantota to China for 99 years. The arch defenders of Lankan independence and sovereignty, the lay and ordained ultra-patriots, were conspicuously silent and inactive.

The government says that the provisions of the deal can be changed anytime. The claim would have been comic had it not been tragic. We have become a key cog in China’s plan to become the next sea power. There is a cold war in the Indian Ocean, which can only get worse in the coming years. Thanks to the Hambantota deal, little Sri Lanka will be a key theatre in that political-confrontation.

The external problems are not the only disasters awaiting Sri Lanka thanks to the Port deal, thanks to the 15,000 acre Chinese industrial zone.

China has a particularly noxious record in using its monetary power to promote environmental degradation in other countries. The best case in point is the fate of Yasuni Biosphere Reverse in the Ecuadorean Amazon. “Some of the $17.4 billion provided by China to Ecuador since 2010 has gone to oil-for-loan deals, meaning they must be paid through the sale of oil or fuel – and nearly all of Ecuador’s reserves are in the Amazon rain forest.”[iii] The deal will therefore directly result in the destruction of the already threatened and depleted Amazon, including the supremely bio-diverse Yasuni.

China’s blasé or high handed attitude to environment factors, labour and human rights and the concerns of local communities serve to create socio-political flash points. Two recent examples are the planned interoceanic-canal in Nicaragua and copper mining in Peru. A Chinese company won a 50 year concession – extendable for another 50 years – to build the canal; the project was stalled thanks in part to protests by affected farmers and residents.[iv] In Peru, the copper mining has gone ahead, even though anti-mining protests claimed three Peruvian lives. [v] Unlike in Nicaragua, in Peru, the Chinese company is a state-owned one, a key difference which has a relevance to us as well.

Learning From Forgotten History 

China was once, briefly, world’s preeminent sea power. That was in the first quarter of the 15th Century. The third emperor of the Ming dynasty (the Yongle – Perpetual Happiness – Emperor) wanted China to lead the world and entrusted the task of dominating the Indian Ocean to his confidant, Zheng He, the eunuch-admiral.

Admiral Zheng He oversaw the building of a state-of-the-art fleet. It undertook seven separate journeys (known as Treasure Voyages). “China became the first country to station a naval squadron in the Indian Ocean.”[vi] But China’s stint as the greatest ocean power was short lived. A new emperor ended the maritime policy and turned the country inwards.

Admiral Zheng He’s treasure voyages brought him to Lanka, at least twice. The first time, he got a less than cordial reception from the de facto ruler of the Kotte kingdom, Veera Alakeshwara. The admiral retreated and returned, attacked the Kotte kingdom, took Alakeshwara prisoner. This was how a laudatory article in the official Chinese paper, Peoples’ Daily put it. “In Ceylon (Sri Lanka), his men took an insubordinate ruler and replaced him with the legitimate malleable one.”[vii] The limited historical records available call it the Ming-Kotte War. The date is said to be 1410 or 1411. According to journalist Frank Viviano, “This episode marked the only significant overseas land battle fought by a Chinese imperial army.”[viii]

Zheng He’s present day successors did way better. They turned a bunch of insubordinate rulers into paragons of malleability without firing a shot.

All imperial powers are inimical to other nations. That is an unalterable fact. But the danger is greater when there are no spaces for dissension within the heart of the empire. The presence of countervailing forces did much to mitigate some of the worst excesses of American imperialism, the opposition to the war in Indochina being a case in point. British imperialists too had to contend with their own anti-imperialists. Even in autocratic Spain, a small segment of the Catholic Church opposed imperial abuses in the New World.

No such countervailing forces are present in China. What debate there is would happen behind closed doors. China’s victims will have to wage their battles, without any help from within Chinese polity and society. That would make the battles harder to sustain and more difficult to win, as we will soon discover.

[i] http://portcom.slpa.lk/news_events_220.asp

[ii] http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/chinas-string-of-pearls-vs-indias-iron-curtain/

[iii] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/opinion/china-climate-pollution-global-warming.html

[iv] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/24/nicaragua-protests-interoceanic-canal-rivas

[v]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34389803

[vi] When China Ruled the Seas – Louise Levathes

[vii] http://en.people.cn/90001/98705/100621/7342090.html

[viii] China’s Great Armada

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Latest comments

  • 9
    3

    Your learned and incisive articles deserve much greater publicity than they receive today. It is welcome to see them at least on Colombo Telegraph. You are writing to a nation of lotos eaters who do not want to see the rocks immediately ahead and would rather eat, drink and be merry on borrowed money (and time) until the ship goes down. Your reference to Vira Alakeswara, ruler of Kotte, in the 15th Century, when obviously there was neither an ethnic problem nor anti-Indian perceptions, suggests that the Chinese saw us then very much as they see us today.

    • 1
      0

      what is Lotos? a chocolate type?

  • 10
    6

    As usual starts with ravi ends with rajapakse…without even mentioning of the king of thieves ranil hamu…colombian boot licking at its best..lol

    • 4
      2

      Silly billy

      “As usual starts with ravi ends with rajapakse”

      It is how all discussions are being carried out, Federalism debate finally ends up in who came first, arrival of Kallathonie Aryan Vijaya, majority Sinhala/Buddhists, new invention Sinhale, ………………………. Don’t you think its always better to widen the goal post or play the man than playing the ball?

      Silly billy,
      how could we not mention the clan when we revisit history? The clan chief and his siblings had earned the right to kill innocent people and rob the entire country simply because they have taught a lesson the Demedas won’t forget for another 2500 years. The constitution should have been amended to include an impunity clause to accommodate and honour the clan.

      • 0
        1

        Dumb native veddo SINHALE is not a new invention. It is in our day to day language. Only recently, politicians tried to use it as a political word. It is the Tamilnation which is the new word. I heard, India has language differences every 30 miles or so

      • 1
        2

        What a load of rubbish that TG has written mate. TG is desperately trying to cover the sorry ass of Yahapalanaya by bringing up alleged financial miscreants (aka fairy tales created by our very own queen) of Rajapakshas to validate each of her/his pathetic arguments..TG, tell me, if the current government is so pure and able why the heck not a single member of the MR family has been proven guilty? Is Samantha Power now out of a job writing for TG, because the rant about China totally goes on a tangent. Anyways, the commercially non viable port is now bought by the Chinese (with the Rock and all)..those Chinese must be the ones with the konde!

      • 0
        0

        LOL new invention Sinhale, regardless of how Kandyan kings identified the Kandyan kingdom in the documents and regardless of the ancient chinese to Burmese to Europeans called Sri Lanka as Sinhale in their docs, Sinhale is an invention………….but the Eelam which has NO civilisation product, no archeological, literature evidence in either SL or any part of the world ( even Tamil Nadu) is a fact :D….tamil eelam logic!

  • 4
    1

    You need global port operators to run terminals and that is a simple fact. GOSL simply doesn’t have the clout to attract shipping lines and this was proven over the last 5 years.

    CiCT terminal in Colombo run with 2,000 staff and handle almost 2 million TEUs.
    SLPA has 8,000 staff and handle just over 2 million TEUs.
    This is the difference between a global operator and govt run terminal!!

    Hambantota should have been a PPP from day 1 and than god it happened atleast aft 5 years.
    There are many areas where govt should get out and operate as PPPs.

  • 6
    3

    MR’s actions / inactions in his second term of Office have placed SL in a perilous situation as it borrowed heavily from China at almost commercial rates of interest to carry out its so called development projects (I say ”so called” as most of them were not viable projects but were carried out to satisfy the ego of one man and to fatten his pocket and those of his cohorts). The media / opponents were gagged by various means so no one could speak out and criticise such actions/decisions. Even his own Ministers could not speak out. He was a mini Dictator. Thankfully the Electorate realized what was going on and booted him out of Office. The current Administration inherited such an economy . Anything to do with China is anathema as they are a nation not to be trusted. They are not a Democracy and the values we Sri Lankans embrace are totally different to theirs. For starters there is no freedom of speech/expression in that country and there is no room for dissent. They are not here for the love of our country but to exploit our country for their own benefit. The SL Government is in a catch 22 situation as MR has subjugated this Country to the dictates of China by his actions of the past, just to satisfy his own ego. If that is not enough, he continues to be a thorn in the side of this Government scuttling all its efforts to resuscitate the ailing Economy. As long as this man is alive and in active Politics, this Nation will not prosper.He is cancer in our society. Just ponder on what happened to Dictators in other countries. Does the same fate await him?

  • 5
    0

    Mr. Karunanayake said one undisputable truth: it is only under this government a powerful minister like him could be summoned before a commission and grilled for hours.

    Let me put an argument in the way Tisaranee Gunasekara makes. “Old Royal are much better than Yahapalanaya- The New Royals because when the ministers do wrong things they even applied capital punishment to Kathirgamar, Suriyachchari, Premachandra and the like… And when ministers resigned like Mangala for illegal activities, they never allowed them to come back like now Yahapalanaya is bringing back Tilak.” This is the way Tisaranee Gunasekara is calculating her quantities to qualify the Old Royals. Tisaranee Gunasekara recommends Pot one time and other time she recommends kettle Modayas to vote. But in all time she always has lot of fiery talks to tell the Modayas. She doesn’t differ the Old and New Royals’ in political sincerity with her writing sincerity.

    That is the usual Tisaranee Gunasekara. Is she ready to talk why the UNP could not do anything against Deal Dasa? Is her argument that he had not done anything or it is only in the quantity not on the quality? Then will she explain why that time Tilak resigned?

    • 1
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      Mr. Karunanayake said one undisputable truth
      I missed many news in the recent past. I do not know what the Great Minister said when the he was sacked. ( Where is Suamne to tell the Galleon Ravi story?)

      But, Let me ask a question; Did Deal Dasa ever said “the greatness of this government is F word CIDs can investigate even powerful ministers like me for hours”?

      Premachandra too had begged a lot just before Old Royals ordered to kill him.

  • 5
    2

    Tisaranee Gunasekara is very fond of telling Admiral Zheng story because Sinhalese feel the foolish Tamil King fought the mighty Chinese and took the lesson. Another LTTE, fought the 32 nations!
    But in contrast to her current thinking of Azalheswaran, Tissaranee Gunasekara recommended UNP in 2015 because she was thinking that they are going to uproot Admiral Xi Jinping from Colombo Pong Cing. Noe she is settling one step down, Hangbangtota. Probably Malik did not share anything Admiral Xi Jinping gave to him, with Tissaranee. That is why she has a sour mouth with UNP now too. If Tissaranee is honest, she will start with Nuraicholai Computer hacking drama and will tell that is why the Patriotic War Heroes surrendered to Admiral Xi Jinping and UNP cannot take up on Admiral Xi Jinping.

    The truth Ravi ended up resigning for accepting a penthouse from a Tamil. That is only reason UNP backbenchers want him to go. Accepting a penthouse from a Pariah Demelo is seen as sleeping with a tick infested dog by Sinhalese. Tisaranee Gunasekara has to come forward and accept the truth.

    Ambassador Robert Blake made a monumental historical mistake in defeating LTTE and handing over Hagbantota to Admiral Xi Jinping through Old King. In the coming days, not in North Korea, it in Lankawe the Nations of the world are going to carry Qurbani after Qurbani to clean Ambassador Blake’s sin.

    • 0
      1

      LOL LTTE fought with 32 countries…is this the way you make yourself happy after the terrorists met a bloody end at Mullavaikkal?

      LTTE is such a lucky terrorist org. No org which did so much terrorism ever received so sympathy from the world like LTTE did.

      1. LTTE got support from India initially. A massive support. Even after Rajiv was killed RAW was blowing both hot and cold air when it comes to LTTE.
      2. LTTE’s god father, Norway..How Norway has supported LTTE is unimaginable and not known to many SLns.
      3. France, UK, Switzerland, all sympathised with LTTE.
      4. And yes USA was even ready to send a ship to evacuate the LTTE.

  • 3
    1

    The entire world knows the deals UNP made on Chinese contracts. Many no longer like to see even the Photo of Malik in the news media because it looks like a yuan statue. Tissaranee Gunasekara saying that there is clause in the contract allows it to be changed. What the gilmart is that anyway. Is she telling that UNP does not want to use that clause now and do any good, but is going to change the contract using that clause only after it loses the election? The clause is there only to allow Chinese to berth the submarine, which is now opposed by India and America, if UNHRC recommend the war crime investigation to UN Security Council, and then get the China to use veto. That clause has nothing to do anything with Local Modayas. Don’t anyone knows what the “Foreign and Commonwealth lawyers and Judges” is meant in the UNHRC Resolution 30/1. Tissaranee Gunasekara, the other angle spin doctor of Yahapalanaya is pulling the wool on the Modayas’ eyes.

  • 2
    0

    You are perfectly spot-on when you say that, admiral He’s present “replacement” did marvelously better: they turned a bunch of emasculated, self-interested, corrupted and useless men into doing what China wanted! When the rockets begin to fly, we will recall this and merely scratch our foolish heads and say, “Oh, for a leader of the class of the late JFK who turned the Soviet navy around from making Cuba a Soviet satellite!!

    Cry, my Lanka.

  • 1
    1

    Chinks steal US intellectual property and clone them. Even their so called 5th Generation fighter is based on stolen plans from USA and Israel. Only thing the Chinks have going is their numbers in the miliary. In any all out war with USA both China and N.Korea will be ground to the dust with superior weapons and tactics and strategies. N.Korean airforce will be erased in 5 hours or less. Their ships will be sunk in less than 24 hours. Commie Pinkos; do not dare challenge the US hegemony. Russia also has the same obsolete weapons systems. Commie Pinkos you cannot win a war with the US; so you go around giving loans to spread your third rate military. Hambantota is the classic example.

  • 2
    0

    Tisaranee Gunasekara: You cannot be dumb. but, you are extremely dishonest. What is this called intellectual dishonesty or academic dishonesty. Every one accuses Mahinda Rajapakse. But, everybody knows that Ranil wickramsinghe came to power saying he would investigate all these and recover what was lost. Mangala and Penthouse Ravi also screamed saying billions lost and the recovery would compehnsate for the budget deficit. But, Galleon Ravi is caught on money laundring charges. He should be connected to the bond scam becuse he got money from Perpetual Treasuries. ————————–then see What Ranil is doing. All along he is hiding and avoiding saying that there are no thieves in UNP. Right now, he has started a 40 years of in politcs and see how SLBC and BMICH are involved in lieing and promoting Ranil. Why you did not write what a thief Ranil is. that is your dishonesty. It is Ranil who has a pathetic record. It is said, because of the bond scam, investors withdrew money from investment. I think Ranil was expecting this fall out of Ravi.that Somehow Ranil has started correcting hsi iamge wiith this 40 year politcs scam. That is just wasting money. does he gove money to BMICH. I don’t think so.

    nesty.

  • 3
    1

    Is TG admitting that Ranil is a failure. Ranil is promoting his own image with govt money and time because he is in trouble since the day he came because of this Central bank day light robbery. Ranil is the prime minister and Ranil is the minister responsible for Central bank even though some departments of the central bank answers to Galleon Ravi. Why Ranil di dnot give the Central bank to Penthouse Ravi, did he know from the beginning that I KNOW NOTHING RAVUI was a thief. Other UNP MPs are also always blaming Rajapakse and not even aOpposition. but, they don’t blame their own who have been caught as thives, most for getting duty free car permits and selling them. continuinf blames Rajapakse and incapability of UNP doing anything including the economy shows, UNP has failed. and they can not make headway TG is selling UNP here and blaming Rajapakses even when Ranil, Mangala, PEnthouse Ravi and all the UNP were there to expose Rajapakses.

  • 0
    0

    Tisaranee Gunasekara: “The Monarch & The Hegemon: Tales Of Suicidal Folly”
    It was no folly – certainly not suicidal. It was an extreme form of Russian roulette. The millions of drama viewers said “Enough of this nonsense. Stop this or else we will put a real bullet in the pistol or whatever”

  • 1
    0

    It is the Ranil Wickramsinghe, UNP party LEader with 40 years of political experience, 23 years of party leadership and 29 electins lost, that is quite an experience, GALLEon RAVI with companies registered overseas in order to cheat income – taxes in sinhale, a owner of conglomerate of overseas registered companies. all by one chatered accountant whose, apparently, only job was accountant and MP, minister has Rs 4.5 billion worth, Then malik Samarawickrama, party chairman, people say now he has started to plunder the country by favouring those who paid extra to his old buildings, then Kabir Hassim who is the party Secretary they are responsible for robbing the central ban twice. Once during the 100 day govt,another during the horpalanaya govt, even after the COPE report?. Here comes R pemadas’s honcho and accuse only Rajapakses and UNP are saints in hiding. Why is that ? UNP govt is utter failure. No poit of talking those things. voters should understand only whenthe elections come.

  • 0
    0

    What TG should have written is about the new Audit bill. both the SLFP and UNP ministers are delayng it saying the powers vested AG is too much. Because, that would cath the theives in the parliament. It is people give them the power. then they think they are above the people. Ranil wickramsinghe and Mahinda Rajapakse are notorious about it. Galleon Ravi also told the same thing saying that voters think they are above the cabinet. Now, they want ot cut down the powers of Auditor general depart. That is power abuse.

  • 0
    0

    It’s time for Rw to declare that he will not consider himself to contest next election and double the efforts to fast track new constitution

  • 0
    0

    The far thinking high-IQ Brahmins of the South Bloc will not forget the vision and wisdom of KM Panikkar of yore – who foretold to the last syllable what will happen to the sea lanes in the Indian Ocean in the present times. He then warned India should take such suitable steps to ensure smaller countries in the neighbourhood do not leave room for outside super-powers to subvert the vital naval assets of the region. India insisting on a Consular Office in the hinterland of Hambantota is one indication things can get complicated in the future. The String of Pearls strategy is giving way to the far comprehensive Belt and Road doctrine. When the big guns boom in the region in a few decades hence the role of the Rajapakses will be remembered both by the Sinhalese and the Indians. It will certainly not be fond remembrance. The game is far too big for Ranil or the Sirisena Circus to alter. China thinks big and for long – very, very long. Uncle Sam will be livid – much more than Trump’s Fury and Fire.

    I know this is somewhat parablical. But Tisaranee, the wise, will understand in perspective. Old Nostradamus is not to be treated lightly. Que sera, sera.

    Backlash

    • 0
      0

      Rajapaksa was a way more cunning politician who knew how to tread a line carefully. If MR was in power he will never ever let China have controlling stakes at hambanthota. He knew what to sign and what not to sign unlike the baffoon RW.

  • 2
    0

    Tisarnees views confirm what former minister Arjun Ranatunga said about the sale of Hambantota Port. Great minds think alike ?

    There are many ports in US,UK, Europe owned by foreigners.

    Are they risking foreign domination ?

  • 1
    0

    TG’s calculations are wrong. Capitalist world is going every where asking investment. So, do es the sri lankan govt. So, we need to know how to handle the investment. Investments by western world had been pathetic. It is simply exploitation. Even if china or even India comes, if we allow, they try to get maximum out of it. —————In the case of sri lanka, there is no communication between the govt and the opposition. This is where only two party democracy is important and not the so many three wheeler parties as in Sri lanka. govt and the opposition should communicate and should make the political decision. It is the beaurecrats who should do the calculations and estimations. In Sri lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse buolt the port. At that time, even after that Ranil wickramsinghe was against that and he wanted to stop it. Now, after all, Ranil Leased it for 99 years. Wijedasa Rajapakse now wants to score political points out of that, he saus he will stop. Probably, he is planning to be the UNP Leader. Anyway, who is . IT is the country . why. why politician are playing Seesaw and there is no policy accpetable to both sides. As there are three wheeler parties like JVP and TNA they would also scream saying that is not the rightway. why because, it doe snot have anything for Tamils or it is not the communist ideology. I think TG’s article is simply trying to be anti-chinese. It is upto Sri lankans to get the best out of that. Otherwise, our closest country, India is worst than the west.

  • 1
    0

    My prediction is in TG’s next article, she won’t be criticizng Rajapakse’s that much. but, Ranil-Sirisena duo will be parayas. but, she will promote Wijedasa Rajapakse. Will see what will be cooking. first I have to see whether CT would delate this comment.

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