By Gandara John

What a circus! What a spectacle! The government has adroitly manoeuvered the forthcoming election on 10 Feb 18 to be fought, once again, on the theme of ‘Corruption’.

Corruption, as Sri Lanka’s great bank robbery revealed, is wildly rampant at all levels of our polity.

After evidence had been led at the ‘Bond-Scam’ hearings, Wickramasinghe has been, with reason, portrayed by the media as a common or garden swindler who, despite the revelations, continues to remain in office impeding further investigation and the cause of justice.

Sirisena, a self-styled Maoist, was by public admission a member of a family which had only 5 chairs to show as assets; today, the family is one of the richest in the country owning hotels, hospitals and warehouses.

Evidently, anyone having a monopoly of ownership of warehouses, as the Sirisena family has, is in a position to ‘fix’ the price of rice in this country.

Clearly associated with the heist were Wickramasinghe, Karunanayake, Samarawickrema, Hashim, Mahendran, Aloysius and a number of bit players like Senasinghe and the ‘foot-note’ battas who make up the numbers in the gang.

With the election drawing closer, Sirisena joined the circus, cracking his whip or rather ‘swinging his sword wildly’ more in the fashion of a ‘gam batta’ than a ‘dasa maha yodaya’.

With Sirisena’s pretentious display of anger and Wickramasinghe’s puerile behavior in parliament as a cheer leader at a Big Match, it is evident that the duo is attempting to divert the attention of the voters at the forthcoming election from the diabolic plans made by the government, which could result in the destruction of Sri Lanka, perhaps forever

With the ‘Bond scam’ spectacle, the Government cleverly concealed its imminent plans to ‘sell-off’ Sri Lanka piecemeal to the powerful countries operating in the Indian Ocean.

When the subject of discussion and address at election rallies should have been whether Sri Lanka, in its present configuration, could survive to the end of this Century as a Nation State (especially when plans are afoot to auction-off the country piecemeal to foreign powers), the opposition fell into the government trap by lending themselves to campaigning on a platform of ‘Corruption’.

Has the government been honest and told the people that it has already prepared this disastrous Bill and that it will be presented to parliament in February or March this year?

Has the government divulged the contents of the Bill which confers the powers of the Executive President, re leasing of land, to a Chinese (‘Government-controlled’) company?

Has the government revealed to the public the contents of the Bi-lateral Agreements, hurriedly signed between the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, when their respective Heads of State made sudden official visits to the island, all within the space of one week?

Do the public of the country not have a right to know the detailed contents of those Agreements?

All these critical issues were drowned in the cacophony of the Bond-Scam; Sirisena and Wickramasinghe remain mute on the matter of the government literally auctioning off Sri Lanka piecemeal to foreign powers.

Ranawaka made a vague comment; he alluded to a Bill being presented to Parliament that would cover the Megapolis zones. He dared anyone, to go before Court if they were to consider the Bill unconstitutional.

The news on the grapevine is that the bi-lateral agreements hurriedly signed recently with the three visiting Heads of States are connected to the ‘Sri Lanka-for–Sale’ Bill. Was it a case of putting the cart before the horse or was the government working backwards to make sure the controversial Bill is a fait accompli?

The opposition must act more responsibly; they must demand that the draft Bill be made public as it affects the future of our Motherland.

It is very unlikely that the Government will divulge the details of the Bill, before the Election, as that would be a sure recipe for an ignominious defeat for the government at the polls.

Although the long-delayed election is not a National Election, it has taken on the aura of a National Election considering the dubious and treacherous track record of the government; a vote against the government, analysts say, is a warning shot over the bow of the government, to change immediately its policy direction.

The foreign governments that interfered in the 2015 Election are unhappy with the course of events and are back in business, pumping in huge sums of money to influence the election results; even media outlets that did not take a sycophantic line are now receiving money in the form of advertisements.

The ‘Sri Lanka-for-sale’ Bill is the ‘Colombo International Financial City’ Bill.

The Bill was drafted by Baker Mackenzie, the largest US law firm which works hand in glove with the US State Department and the CIA in their project for globalizing the world and achieving their ‘One-World-Government’ objective.

Baker Mackenzie, a company which Christine Lagarde once headed, works in lock step with the IMF and the World Bank.

John Flood, writing in the Boston College Law Review describes Baker Mackenzie as a ‘Born Global’ company which helps the process of globalization (US Colonisation) at an accelerated rate.

The Government of Sri Lanka hired the services of this undercover CIA legal company for a period of three months, paying it a 1.2 Million US Dollars to meddle with the Constitution and the land laws in the country.

Sri Lanka’s Constitution is discerningly silent on the matter of land rights and land ownership. Consequently, all land in the country belongs to the people and this land is held in custody, by the Government, for the people.

The powers of vesting, gifting, transferring, leasing et cetera of land are conferred on the President of Sri Lanka.

Baker Mackenzie, in drafting the ‘Sri Lanka- for- Sale’ Bill, has in blatant violation of the Constitution, conferred the powers of the President of Sri Lanka in this regard to the Chinese Company which will be managing the Colombo Port City; presently the extent is 269 hectares with the distinct likelihood of the Chinese Company’s jurisdiction extending far beyond.

The Chinese Company in terms of the treacherous Bill can sub-lease any portion of the 269 hectares to any person, company or country it pleases for a period of virtually 200 years (10 Generations).

But worse is to follow. If development projects similar to the Colombo Port City are initiated for instance in Jaffna or Anuradhapura or Kandy or even Bintenne for that matter, the ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ bill has given latitude for this Chinese Company to extend its jurisdiction to these ‘annexed’ territory on the same conditions as the ‘Port City’.

The Bill also includes default clauses which empower the Chinese Company to seize, any land of its choice within Sri Lanka, to make good any default.

This Bill sounds the death knell for Sri Lanka.

What, with these enclaves, there would be Americans, Indians, Japanese, Australians, Chinese and whatever swarming all over the country for the next 200 years with no toe space for Sri Lankans to stand on.

In these ‘alien’ enclaves Sri Lankan laws and Courts will cease to exist; the laws would be British and the Courts would be foreign, both outside the purview of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.

And our professionals will have to contend with so-called high end professionals from abroad who are being encouraged into the Port city in numbers.

Our professionals will perforce have to register themselves anew, this time with the professional bodies regulating the Port city and ‘annexed’ cities, if they desire to practise their profession in the ‘enclaves’

And to boot what would we have, if atop all this, a new Constitution is adopted and the Centre (The Government) devolves its power to the provinces!

Baker Mackenzie was paid $1.2 Million by the people of this country from monies received as loans from China.

To avoid detection the government, unlike the proverbial ostrich, formulated a devious scheme; the government set up a local Company which would receive monies from foreign agencies, like US AID, Chinese Banks, Norwegian NGOs and a host of others.

When discreet payments have to be made, it is this Company that is made use of.

The Baker Mackenzie payment was made through this company; this company needs to be urgently investigated for money laundering, subversion and illegal election funding.

It is sad that a former, not-too-efficient, and out-of-job Attorney General lent himself to partake in this skullduggery.

The news on the street is that he made contact with a ‘friend’ working in Wickramasinghe’s office, to secure for himself, a ‘Directorship’ in the company and a fat cat salary.

Sadly, this former AG acts today as a conduit and a money launderer. For a few dollars more it is pathetic to see the former AG having no qualms in participating in the destruction of his Motherland.

When the Baker Mackenzie draft Bill had to be reviewed, the former AG hired another aging ‘gunman-for-hire’ from Australia; this worthy is no stranger to Sri Lanka having previously been hired by the Central Bank -using US AID funds – to draft Sri Lanka’s proposed new Constitution.

The ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ Bill, violating the Constitution, has tinkered with the Land laws of the country, repealing certain provisions in the ‘Crown Land Ordinance No 12 of 1840, the Land Settlement Ordinance No 20 of 1931 and Act No 8 of 1947 which deal with the President’s powers over Land.

The ‘Sri Lanka-for- Sale’ Bill has empowered China no end, vis-à-vis Sri Lanka. The Bill enables China to ‘trade-off’ portions of Sri Lankan territory to any country – friend or foe – for any concessions China could exact from such countries.

For example, India is drilling for oil, off Vietnam, in the South China Sea. The Chinese are very unhappy about it and tensions have flared. If China, under the ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ Bill is able to offer Trincomalee Harbour to the Indians for 200 years, it would be very likely that the Indians would stop their drilling in the South China Sea. Similarly, Japan and the US have serious problems with China in the Chinese Seas.

Although China has major problems with India, US and Japan in the China Sea, they appear to work in amity, in Sri Lanka.

India, Japan and the US are members of the Malabar Military alliance. Moragoda’s Pathfinder NGO, with close links to India and the US has worked hard to bring Sri Lanka into this military alliance; interestingly China has acknowledged this NGO as one of its top ten partners.

How does China’s policies, one of Sri Lanka’s closest allies during the terrorist conflict, harmonise with the changing scenario?

Having a firm control of Sri Lanka, lying in the Ocean centre, linking Europe, Africa and Asia, fits neatly into the Chinese plan of ‘One-Belt-One-Road’ (OBOR), which the US Neoliberals describe in slightly different terminology as ‘One-World-Government’.

In 2013, there was a paradigm shift in China’s policies when Xi addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, proclaimed to the world, that China accepted globalisation (World Colonisation) and was willing to give leadership to that process in the context of Trump’s purported reluctance to retain leadership.

Said Xi,  We must remain committed to developing global free trade and promote trade and investment liberalisation”.

‘One-Belt-One-Road’ and ‘One-World-Government’ are two sides of the same coin.

The circumstances suggest that China will sublease Sri Lanka to other foreign powers for a period of 200 years while ensuring their security at home in South and East China sea.

The result would be that Sri Lanka would be in smithereens.

Is this what Sri Lankans want in the name of ‘laptop’ development?

The people must show their opposition. The people are sovereign. Bear in mind that One man is a majority.

If Sirisena or Wickramasinghe claims that what has been said about the ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ Bill is false, this writer politely requests either of them to bring the document into public domain immediately, for the public to judge.