Three cheers for JVP!

Saturday 11th December, 2021

JVP leader and MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday tabled in Parliament a copy of the questionable New Fortress agreement, which the government had kept under wraps for weeks. The shady deal has triggered widespread protests, a legal battle and dissension in the SLPP and the Cabinet. According to the document disclosed by the JVP, the agreement is between the government and a company called NFE Sri Lanka Power Holding LLC.

Minister of Power, Gamini Lokuge, promised to present the so-called New Fortress agreement to Parliament, but did not make good on that pledge. In fact, nobody expected him to do so, for his political bosses did not want the agreement disclosed. MP Dissanayake told the House yesterday Minister Lokuge had not been sighted in Parliament ever since. When the government effected a minor Cabinet reshuffle in August and brought the Ministry of Power under Lokuge, everybody knew what it was up to. It needed a malleable minister to do its bidding. Thankfully, its secret plan went pear-shaped, and information about the clandestine deal was leaked to the public.

The government ought to realise that there is no way anyone can conceal information in this day and age, as could be seen from the Pandora Papers disclosures, and the leaks of US diplomatic cables. It is hoped that the government will provide answers to the questions being raised about the shady deal at issue instead of launching a probe to find out who leaked a copy of the agreement to the JVP.

The government has misled not only the public but also the Cabinet, according to MP Dissanayake. It obtained Cabinet approval for cutting a deal with the US-based New Fortress, but signed the agreement with a different company, the JVP leader has said, demanding an explanation. One can only hope that the government will stop behaving like a frightened ostrich and explain what has happened if it has nothing to hide.

The JVP deserves praise for having revealed the secret agreement pertaining to the crooked deal, which will spell disaster for the country, if implemented.

Meanwhile, those who are in power at present made a song and dance, as Opposition MPs in 2002, when the then UNF government signed a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE, unbeknownst to Parliament. They inveighed against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for having kept the legislature in the dark about the ‘peace deal’ that was struck at the behest of the US and its allies. The ‘ceasefire’ proved disastrous for the country, and the SLFP-led Opposition exploited it to make a comeback. Today, the same ‘patriots’ who condemned the US-backed truce and demanded that Parliament be kept informed of such deals, are drawing heavy flak for having entered into a clandestine agreement with a US firm; Wickremesinghe, of all people, is lambasting them for hiding their deals from Parliament!

There must be laws to make governments seek the concurrence of the national legislature for agreements that affect the interests of the state and future generations. The practice of some government leaders striking deals with foreign governments or companies according to their whims and fancies must end. All deals struck in a hurry are corrupt, as we have seen over the decades.

Let the Opposition be urged to push for new laws to make it mandatory for agreements pertaining to strategic state assets, etc., to be presented to Parliament and vetted by experts including the Attorney General before they are finalised. Letting out howls of protest from time to time against clandestine agreements will not do. Robust legal safeguards must be put in place to protect the interests of the public by reining in corrupt, greedy politicians who do not scruple to line their pockets at the expense of the public, and state assets.