Prat-Fallen Ranil rescued by China
Posted on April 9th, 2016

By : A.A.M.Nizam – MATARA

During the run-up to the Presidential Election in 2015 and in the post election period at the instigation of the Western war mongers and the hegemonic India the United National Party ruffians including Western puppet Ranil Wickremasinghe blatantly and profusely ridiculed and demonized the Chinese funded projects in Sri Lanka and said that the projects are being built with substandard and outdated material, below international standards, technically inferior,  over prized, environmentally disastrous, and they are being built by offering attractive commissions to certain politicians.  They also said that Sri Lanka will soon become a Chinese colony and the Chinese will surpass the Sri Lankan population in certain areas.

They also claimed that a chain of western countries, India and the world’s prominent investors are waiting in a queue to come to Sri Lanka to assist in rebuilding the country soon after the election and after their imminent victory.  .

Immediately after the election they suspended all the Chinese funded projects including the prestigious and iconic 1.4 Billion US$ Port City Project claiming that building of this project will not only be environmentally disastrous for Sri Lanka but to the whole Indian Ocean region as well. This was undoubtedly a meticulous Indian initiated move to contain China in the region.

After the election the western governments as usual showered only their verbal hosannas on the new government saying that democracy has been restored in the country and the region and they will assist the new government to consolidate democracy and promote what they called reconciliation and human rights indirectly implying that Sri Lank all these years was an inhuman barbaric country.

Immediately after establishing the new government Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasighe presented many economic proposals and held several Economic Forums inviting the notorious George Soros and several other characters of his caliber to address these economic Forums and make investment proposals.  Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, President Vladimir Putin and China have banned the Hungarian born Soros from visiting their countries and condemned him as responsible for economic downfall of many countries including Britain.  Another boasting made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and his office was that for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka the Prime Minister had been invited to attend the Davos economic summit in Switzerland.  He addressed the economists and investors in a special meeting in Davos but there was no one there to give ear to his investment offers.

Economic analysts point out that Sri Lanka’s all economic ills emerged with the illegal bond issue made by the Governor of the Central Bank Singaporean Arjun Mahendran to his Son-in-Law’s company, the steep fall of the rupee value against the dollar, haphazard issue of sovereign bonds and the steep collapse of the stock market due to massive withdrawals of funds by foreign investors, and taking short term loans at high interest rates from the hegemonic India and taking further Indian loans to repay the previous loans..

Meanwhile the Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, who has made numerous uneconomical moves, said that an investor from Belgium would be investing one billion USD in Sri Lanka at 2% interest to shore up our sagging foreign currency reserves. This investment too never materialized forcing Sri Lanka to seek for a relief package from the IMF.

Some other economic analysts point out that the Balance of Payment difficulties the country is facing are due to several factors and the large trade deficit of about 8 billion US dollars is a core reason. They say that it has been caused by the large fiscal deficits that increased imports, the fall in exports owing to global conditions, and a flight in capital owing to domestic and international reasons and the slowdown of workers’ remittances owing to the falling of international oil prices. They also state that Sri Lanka is finding it extremely difficult to raise fresh funds from the world market after international ratings firms Fitch and Standard & Poor’s reduced the country’s credit rating in February and March.

It was under these circumstances, and with no other alternative in sight, the prat-fallen Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe was forced to lead a high level ministerial delegation to China begging forgiveness for his past mistakes and utterances against China and bowing down at the heels of Chinese leaders in order to get Sri Lanka rescued economically.

Despite what was said and done by the UNP ruffians including Ranil Wickremasinghe about them Chinese leaders were magnanimous in forgiving them and making generous offers which would have even surprised Ranil Wickremasinghe. This is the second time that China has come forward to rescue a UNP government, the first being during the 1953 rice crisis, despite their stern anti-Chinese outlook.  If it happened to be a western government they would have snubbed Ranil Wickremasinghe and urged him to dissolve his government and seek a fresh mandate.

The generous facilities granted by China include

  • A grant of 500 Million Yuan which is equivalent to Rs. 11180 Million and amounted to Rs. 559 for each and every Sri Lankan.
  • Seven agreements including ETCA-type deal on investment  
  • Fresh agreement for Chinese companies to present proposals on investment including new highways rail and integrated infrastructure projects.
  • LNG power plant, oil refinery, dockyard, 20 new roads, Mattala, tourism development among projects    
  • Joint task force to be established to oversee engagement, and
  • An MoU with China Development Bank

Chinese President Xi Jinping who met Ranil Wickremasimnghe on Friday has said China is willing to work with Sri Lanka to consolidate traditional friendship, expand reciprocal cooperation, and push forward strategic partnership of cooperation to a new high. He has said the two countries should take the Belt and Road Initiative as an opportunity to deepen cooperation in terms of trade, infrastructure, industrial parks, manufacturing, production capacity, technology, and ocean and China will positively consider helping Sri Lanka build health projects and is ready for more cooperation in areas such as tourism, education and culture.

In response Ranil Wickremasinghe has said that Sri Lanka will actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, strengthen cooperation with China in port and airport construction, trade, investment, transportation and technology, and increase cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

However it is not yet clear that Sri Lanka was able to clear the US$ 125 Million penalty payment being demanded by the Chinese company handling the port city construction to compensate the losses they have incurred for stalling the project.

The reactionary United National Party should at least learn from this visit that it is not the West and hegemonic India that they worship that genuinely help countries like ours but it is China and the other socialist countries including Russia.

7 Responses to “Prat-Fallen Ranil rescued by China”

  1. dhane Says:

    Very simply RW & his Company would have realized that USA,UK and many other countries are depending loans for their rescues from China. Therefore RW & Company would have not talk & do against China & Russia. Other than China non of any country given anything as free to Sri Lanka. Our politicians should realized that.

  2. Hiranthe Says:

    At last, Run-nil is following the MR’s path..

  3. Dilrook Says:

    It was utterly foolish for the UNP to ridicule China. They had to eat their own words and go back to China with the begging bowl.

    However, while blaming his foolishness we must accept his courage to reach out to China for the benefit of the country. Had he followed an adament policy like JR, the nation would be in deep crisis. India is obviously worried and will try regime change tactics again to replace the UNP with a more pro-Indian regime. This is when things get interesting.

    Of the joint opposition only Wimal and Udaya promised to abrogate ETCA and blamed India for most problems facing the country. Others stopped at blaming the puppet (UNP). Given the craving for power, the others of the JO might try to become darlings of India to replace the UNP. Thankfully there is Chandrika who is the biggest darling of India and if anyone else has any intention to get Indian help to displace the UNP, that is not going to work.

    JO and UNP have come to an understanding to abolish the executive presidency. A most welcomed leadership move by Mahinda. With 46 in the JO and UNP having 105 seats, they have the numbers (150). JVP and TNA will also support it which means even if 21 UNPers and JO opportunists don’t support it, the bill will be passed in parliament.

  4. NAK Says:

    Dilrook, Is it courage or utter helplessness!!
    Even when they were bullishly denegrating China we knew eventually they’ll have no other alternative but to go behind China.
    Only this idiot Ranil didn’t see that, he thought the US,UK and India will look after him. What he failed to see was even those who he depended on were too seeking Chinese help.

  5. Dilrook Says:

    NAK, utter helplessness has many outcomes. Ranil picked the best this time. His deals go further than Mahinda’s deals with China which is very good. Of course he was forced into these by China in order to restrcture part of the loan. Still, they are highly beneficial to Sri Lanka.

    If the plan to turn part of the Port City (or anywhere else) into a financial hub takes off, that alone is sufficient for Sri Lanka to overcome many economic problems. It will ensure UNP rules the country for another term at least. Sri Lanka agreed to award Yuan the same status as the USD. If put into practice, currency conversions may be done via Yuan reducing the need for USD. Since 2015 Yuan is a IMF recognised global currency like USD, Sterling and Euro. India and Pakistan have large trade deficits against China and very large trade. Due to petty reasons they don’t allow trading in Yuan and Rupee between them and still go through USD. It is better for Indian importers and exporters to deal in Yuan than USD which is discouraged by the Indian government. Sri Lanka can earn through the process linking them with Yuan and China.

    However, how genuine the UNP is, remains to be seen. If they take the money and does nothing (or gives 85% to the north as we did before 2015), we will be worse off.

  6. aloy Says:

    I admire RW’s courage in trying to sell our debts to China and come out of the present hopeless financial situation. It seems some companies in US theorized the concept of selling debts (in the form of some complicated partial differential equations) in 80s and were very successful in adopting some business models. Robert F Dall was credited to have started this method and it seems UK followed it when they were in trouble at one time. So, selling our debts by mortgaging assets should be a way forward without using the proceeds for consumption by way of increasing salaries etc.

  7. Dham Says:

    Dilrook,
    “India is obviously worried and will try regime change tactics again to replace the UNP with a more pro-Indian regime. ”

    MR is the best choice for India.
    I am really worried. After seeing some crow, he is obviously elated and now thinks he can comeback. Although talk big I don’t trust WW GPila too. Dinesh is a clean man will not any harm to the nation.

    Without getting agreed to remove 13A and promises to Sinhala people MR is more dangerous than Ranil.

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