Vultures galore!

Friday 31st December, 2021

Sri Lanka is never short of self-proclaimed patriots who wrap themselves in the flag. They would have us believe that they are even ready to die for the country! One may recall that many of them took to the streets in 2017, when the yahapalana government leased the Hambantota Port to China for 99 years. In a bid to scuttle the port deal, they even braved teargas, baton charges and stones hurled by ‘good governance’ goons. They vowed to protect valuable state assets and asked for a popular mandate to do so. Ironically, a little over four years on, the self-same patriots are divesting profitable state ventures and going hell for leather to ink disastrous agreements.

Desperate for foreign assistance to shore up the country’s crumbling economy, the government has undertaken to form a joint venture with India to run the Trincomalee oil tank farm. This deal was, in fact, struck in the early noughties by the then UNP-led UNF government. The current patriotic government has revived it under duress and gone a step further for all practical purposes. Besides, it has already struck a secret deal to transfer a 40 percent stake of the Yugadanavi power plant to the US-based New Fortress Company, which will also be allowed to supply LNG to power stations. What has become of Sri Lanka’s strategic assets reminds us of the fate of some of the tsunami victims here.

Some tragic scenes we witnessed in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami are etched in our collective memory, one of them being two men relieving a dying woman of her jewellery instead of trying to save her life. One wonders whether there is any difference between that hapless woman’s predicament and the cruel treatment Sri Lanka, which is sinking in an economic mire, is receiving from her ‘friends’, who are stripping her of her assets while she is flailing and crying out for help. With friends like these who needs enemies?

Sri Lanka’s economy has been left for dead, and vultures have begun circling. Not all of them are foreign, though; there are many local ones among them, and they have been preying on the country’s ailing economy all these years. Those who did odd jobs overseas, snatched chains and stole cattle, or worked as lowly state employees before taking to active politics and helping themselves to public funds have amassed colossal amounts of wealth sufficient for generations. Their gain has been the country’s loss. As for the scions of the political families, save a handful, there are no legitimate sources of income, but they and their children are living the life of Riley obviously with their parents’ ill-gotten wealth. They are found on both sides of the political divide. No wonder the economy is collapsing, and the educated, intelligent, talented children of the ordinary Sri Lankans, who pay through the nose to maintain an ever-expanding colony of political leeches, have become so frustrated as to leave the country in droves.

Perhaps, if the corrupt politicians and their cronies we are burdened with return a fraction of what they have stolen and stashed away in offshore accounts, Sri Lanka’s foreign currency woes will disappear in next to no time. Most of all, they must stop demanding backhanders from foreign investors by way of commissions. Corruption is one of the main reasons why foreigners are wary of parking their hard-earned money in this country, which is facing a crippling forex crunch. Getting rid of these corrupt elements, or at least keeping them in check, is half the battle in reviving the economy.