Sale of Hambantota port was just the beginning – Rajapaksa
Posted on August 1st, 2017
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa claims that the manner in which the government privatised the Hambantota port has shocked the nation and that parliament was not allowed to even debate the agreement to privatise one of Sri Lanka’s most important strategic assets.
No one knows who did the valuation of this asset. No one appears to have seen any technical/financial evaluation report,” he said, issuing a statement on Tuesday (1).
He also claimed that the government has also not explained to the public on what criteria they selected the company that won the bid when there was clear evidence that the other bid was much more favourable.
This headlong quest to sell state assets is a direct result of the economic crisis that the government has plunged this country into,” he charged.
The former President said that in just two and a half years, the government has taken foreign currency loans amounting to over USD 13.7 billion and that all this money has been spent on consumption.
USD 13.7 billion is the equivalent of ten Norochcholai power plants or ten Hambantota Ports, or more than twenty Southern Highways. But the government has nothing to show for all this money that has been borrowed and spent.”
Rajapaksa said that after imposing taxes even on terminally ill patients, the government was still not able to raise enough money to repay the USD 13.7 billion they borrowed and they have now resorted to increasing non-tax revenue through the sale of state owned assets.
He alleged that the Budget proposals of the government make it clear that they intend privatising all state owned assets ranging from non-strategic business establishments like the Colombo Hilton to strategic assets like the Norochcholai power plant.
The sale of the Hambantota port was just the beginning.” He says that the Prime Minister has already announced that the Mattala airport would be next. Other assets like the Colombo -Katunayake Highway, Southern Highway, Water Board and Electricity Board are also due to be privatized, he claims.
Rajapaksa says that in their desperation to justify the sale of government owned assets, the government has been deliberately running down the enterprises they want to sell, as for instance by stopping bunkering operations in the Hambantota port.
My government built or created new things. The present government is making a living by selling what my government built,” he said.
He said that as public indignation mounts at the manner in which the Hambantota port was privatised, ministers are now going around saying that the Rajapaksa government too had planned to sell the entire Hambantota port to the Chinese.
This is a diabolical lie. Everyone knows that my government had an explicit anti-privatisation policy.”
He said that not only did my government refrain from privatising any State assets, they even reacquired several important assets that had been privatised by previous governments.
If things continue in the present manner, Sri Lanka will not have any national assets left by the time this government ends.”
August 2nd, 2017 at 6:53 am
Sale of Hambantota port was just the beginning – Rajapaksa
Logu Math Iya.. what can We do ??? Indian are in North (TE) & Chinese are in South ( SHL) !
Chignkala Theevu Kaput !!!
August 2nd, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Kumar,
You Tamils can officially revoke the Vadukoddai Resoln (Eeelam through Violence) of 1976, even at this late stage of matters.
It is a shame on the Tamil Community who received so much from Sri Lanka that they have treated Lanka so badly, isn’t it ?
What would the Karmic repercussons be ?
August 2nd, 2017 at 5:02 pm
Dear Fran,
SA Kumar is STILL stirring the Tamil Communal pot.
Very soon, he will be one more Tamil Nationalist Separatist RUING THE DAY when they REFUSED the Olive Branch that President Mahinda Rajapaksa offered after the UTTER DEFEAT of the LTTE.
What will come in the NEAR FUTURE will be a MUCH LESS ACCOMODATION Sinhalation Buddhist government that will REFUSE TO PANDER to COMMUNAL MINORITIES and their FOREIGN BACKERS!
In their UNLIMITED GREED, the MINORITIES have OVER REACHED their GRASP, and will come CRASHING DOWN and be FORCED TO ADJUST to living as ordinary EQUAL citizens and NOT AN IOTA MORE of SPECIAL RIGHTS unavailable to other citizens. In that NEW Sri Lanka none of this multi-cultural stuff will be allowed to jump start and revive communal divisions in our Motherland.
I had WARNED SA Kumar REPEATEDLY about what the REACTION to Tami and other MINORITY DEMANDS will be, but he continues to sing the SAME COMMUNAL SONG!
He and others of his ILK, will LIVE to LEARN another HARD LESSON when the PATRIOTIC TSUNAMI HITS ….. VERY SOON!
August 3rd, 2017 at 2:47 am
Fran Diaz
Vadukoddai Resoln – will die it self once implement 6A & 13A together We both knows very well .
Ananda-USA
Tamil Communal pot- correct I can not become Bhuddist Sinhala or Muslim Tamil or Christin Burger , not happened last 2,500 years in Mother Lanka according to Geat Mahavamsam.
SAME COMMUNAL SONG!- Thamil Engnkal muchchu , Thamil Engnkal pechchu ( Tamil is our soil , Tamil is our language).
HARD LESSON when the PATRIOTIC TSUNAMI HITS ….. VERY SOON!- correct again but before second Mullivaikal (Nanthi kadal Thiuvasam) at least another 33 years of Demila baila Eeelam war V( Oyatha alaikal 5,6 ,7 , Thavala pachchal 5,,6,7, Jeya sukuru muriradippu 2,3,4 etc….)
Why this kolaveri machagn ????
August 3rd, 2017 at 3:23 am
when they REFUSED the Olive Branch that President Mahinda Rajapaksa offered after the UTTER DEFEAT of the LTTE.- Our Logu Math Iya promised 11 Plus after war so what happened to that oliva branch?
11 plus equal 11 +0.000001
I know MY Chignkala sakotharams are bit weak in maths but this is not complicated formula !