{"id":115442,"date":"2021-06-22T17:30:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T00:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=115442"},"modified":"2021-06-22T17:31:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T00:31:45","slug":"port-city-on-the-beira-looking-a-gift-horse-through-its-derriere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/06\/22\/port-city-on-the-beira-looking-a-gift-horse-through-its-derriere\/","title":{"rendered":"Port City on the Beira: looking a gift horse through its derriere"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jolly Somasundram Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I thought I saw a\nturquoise sea, billowing smooth and bright.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrong! It was an\nemerging Republic, a 700 acre wee sovereignty,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passport and flag\nready, she awaits an anthem, to enter the UN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defying scurrilous\non-line disinformation, out of nothing came something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been done or has\nit? The Port City Bill has received overwhelming approval of Parliament, all\namendments suggested by the Supreme Court were incorporated, so that a\nreferendum or 2\/3rds majority requirement were foreclosed. On the Speaker\nsigning it, following due process, the Bill became law: it is within the\nconstitution. But social media, for which truth is not a troubling issue, are\ncarrying out a carping, personalised campaign of innuendo and insinuation\nagainst it. It would be useful to revisit the foundational bases for this law,\nto judge whether there is something genuine in their concerns or social media is\nmerely flying someone else\u2019s flag for advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natural harbours are\ncreated by nature, artificial ones by man. Both enclose the sea. Sri Lanka\nprovided a wrinkle: a sea was drained, at a cost of US$ 15 Billion, creating a\nland mass on which six million square meters of built space will be erected,\nfor commercial users. This collectivity is the Port City. The entire operation-\nof reclamation, building, and providing equity and debt finance- was undertaken\nby the Chinese: there were no Chinese loans given to Sri Lanka for this\npurpose, thereby leading her to debt enchainment and traps. Sri Lanka will\nreceive half of the reclaimed land as a gift to her people. The balance, on\nwhich Chinese driven development will take place, was leased back to the\nChinese for 99 years, an instance of one\u2019s own product being back- leased. It\nwill be managed by a corporate body headed by a very senior, experienced and\nhighly respected Sri Lankan. This deal was riskless for Sri Lanka, for it was\nan asset created with no debt or funding from the Budget. Those who risk going\nfar, would only know how far they could go! The reward of this deal came in\naces. What was the catch? Punch drunk with debt blows and Sri Lanka on the\nfiscal ropes, Sri Lanka was not an enticing investment market. The public could\nnot believe this deal. It was so good, it must<\/em> be bad! Conspiracy\ntheories sprouted. Social media referred to secret deals (if there were, how\nwould they be known?). It had a whale of a time, broadcasting fake news- Galle\nFace Green will become a brown, they said, but a quarter mile of verdant green\nhad already been added. The clich\u00e9, there is no free lunch,<\/em> was widely\nbandied. Classical Latin vendors darkly quoted Aeneas, beware those who come\nbearing gifts.\u201d (Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fable of the Arab\nand the Camel was invoked, the Camel, given accommodation in his tent by the\ntrusting Arab, used its vantage fulcrum point, to craftily mount a successful\nreverse takeover bid and later, dispossess the owner. This 700-acre transistor\nRepublic- smaller than any municipal ward in Colombo \u2013 would be the first stop\nin making the country a Chinese colony, to be renamed Sino Lanka, they alleged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is confusion\nbetween rights of equity providers and of sovereignty governors. Lever\nBrothers, a British multinational, owns significant land parcels in Grandpass.\nThey have managerial rights over company activities but these do not morph to\nexercising governance powers over Grandpass. Debt-equity swaps are a standard\nmanagement tactic, to transfer risk from a debtor to owner, as Hambantota\nshowed, but they are not equity-sovereignty swaps, like the Louisiana purchase\nof the US from France, a century and a half ago. In the Port City project there\nis no debt, all the equity is held by Sri Lanka. The Port City asset leased to\nChina for 99 years is unlike Guantanamo, where the US forced Cuba to renounce\nsovereign rights over this parcel of Cuban territory to itself and in\nperpetuity too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History repeats but, it\nis now claimed, with Chinese accents. 70 years ago, newly independent Sri Lanka\n(then Ceylon) was in dire straits as there was a severe shortage of rice. The\nKorean war was on and the price of rubber rose precipitously. Sri Lanka being a\nrubber exporting country was unable to take advantage of this bonanza because\nthe US frowned on rubber trade with China. China countered with a win -win\noffer. She sold rice to Sri Lanka at a lower price than the market and\npurchased rubber at a higher price than what the market offered. The nay-sayers\nwere aghast, there is a catch in this. It is the first step in the takeover of\nour newly independent country by China,\u201d they growled. The government, though a\nWest oriented one, stood firm. The US retaliated by cutting off assistance\nunder the Battle Act. Today, sanctions would be the retaliatory measure. These\nalarmists need only scan a map. A Chinese air fleet would take eight hours\nflying time to reach Sri Lanka with a refuelling stop in-between, a navy will\ntake three days. Napoleon was defeated by General Winter in his abortive\ninvasion of Moscow. General Distance with stretched supply lines, would prove\nan invader\u2019s nemesis with respect to Sri Lanka. A successful invasion of Sri\nLanka is a fantasy of unthinkers, futile as The Charge of the Light Brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rice-Rubber\nagreement has lasted 70 years with no adverse repercussions. It was renewed\nperiodically by every government, irrespective of ideology. The same anti-China\narguments offered then, were now dusted and re-presented. But the international\nsituation has changed. A Thucycydian trap has inserted itself. What happens\nwhen an upstart power challenges a long established one? The US superiority is\nin hard power- land, sea (750 bases all over the world, some nuclear armed),\nundersea, air, cyber, nuclear and space. China\u2019s counter was soft power, build\ninfrastructure all over the world, a dire need if the third world were to\nbenefit from development. The Port City furore is all about geo-politics, of a\nchange of power relations, whether a numero uno would let itself get downgraded\ntamely without resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US used its superior\npublic relations repertoire to denigrate China by instilling fear of the\nChinese Dragon swallowing innocent Sri Lanka, the Arab and the Camel fable\nre-furbished. Social media provided the billboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anything is permitted\nfor debaters. For them,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be or not to be, is\nnot a question,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a continuing answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time has come to\ntalk of many things,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether pigs have wings?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These debaters are\neternal talkers of the \u2018could\u2019<\/em> (the possible),\nbut not of the \u2018can\u2019<\/em> (doable) or making\nthe doable an \u2018is\u2019<\/em> (done). Only a\ncentury ago did human beings grow wings to fly. Perhaps, eventually, pigs too\nmay get air borne! Just seven years ago an entrepreneurial chance was offered\nto Sri Lanka, to get built a Port City. The central issue was how, a \u2018Could\u2019<\/em>, be made to become a \u2018Can\u2019<\/em> and later,\nan \u2018Is\u2019<\/em>. The challenge was\ntaken. Rewards go only to the venturesome, whether in life or in love. The\nlosers, chagrined, then take recourse to social media, with gossip, unsupported\naccusations of corruption, abuse- the fox and grapes- and fake news. Social\nmedia played the Game of Losers: they lost. Their opposites- past masters-\nplayed the Game of Winners: they won and handsomely too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When new projects are\nproposed, professional contrarians and fundamental rights lawyers are attracted\nto them, like blue bottles to rotting protein or gossipy social media, to gain\ncarrion comfort. Columbus had a trying time getting acceptance to go West, to\nan unknown land mass. This was the time when Flat Earth was the prevailing\ncosmology. The question was posed, what will happen at the end of the outward\njourney? When the Gal Oya scheme was proposed all the Left political parties\nopposed it, saying the reservoir will silt in twenty five years. If the current\nsocial media were in existence then, they would have talked of deforestation,\nenvironmental degradation, rights of those living in the this doomed habitat-\nthe Vedddahs. If these protests were heeded, one could imagine what Amparai\nwould be like today. With the wave of new independent countries post- 1950, the\nUN wanted to set up regional Economic Commissions. One was proposed for Asia\nand the Far East (ECAFE). The headquarter location was offered to Colombo. Sri\nLanka turned it down. Bangkok grabbed the chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No\u201d is the ugliest word\nin the vocabulary of development. It gives power to those who do not take\nresponsibility for their decisions like the ECAFE one. It is against\nentrepreneurship, it conspires against innovation. The cost of projects\nundertaken could be measured but not the cost of projects not<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>undertaken, caused by\nthe fall of the kaduwa, <\/em>no.<\/strong> No is reactionary,\nit congeals existing social and economic structures to an unchanging permanence\nwhich induces a violent revolution to dissolve. No Bungawewa<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying yes\u201d to a\npostage stamp Port City has developmental benefits, a sea change of the land\nwhere the sea had been drained. The investment is very high. To be able to pay\nthe interest on loans taken by the Chinese, instalment payments and have a\nmodicum of return on capital, the Port City cannot depend on cultivating\nturmeric, green chillies, setting up garment factories or exporting domestics.\nIt has to go very high tech with high value addition serving overseas markets.\nA matured Port City is not for this century but the next. As much as the\ndetermining economic activity of this century is Information Technology, the\nnext would be Artificial Intelligence (AI)- in which robotics will have a major\npart to play- cryogenics, global financial innovation where economic activity\nis a 24 hour business cycle following the sun in its progress from East to West\nand East again. In none of these activities has Sri Lanka significant\nexperience. The Sri Lankan work force entering the job market are journeymen,\nmaking their daily journeys to homes of politicians in search of permanent,\npensionable government unsackable jobs. The Port City will be a training ground\nfor high paying jobs in high tech, jobs having international demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is downside too.\nThe lubricant coursing through Port City\u2019s different functions and parts is\ncold cash. The Port City will have a different culture where cash is king.\nThere will be cultural costs where value is determined by cash not morals. Port\nCity could become a cesspit like Havana under Batista. The governing board has\nto keep a laser eye peeled to prevent it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change is necessary for\nstability. Sri Lanka, instead of getting involved in Thucycydian dialectics,\nshould clearly survey the current scenario through unprejudiced eyes. Spurning\nChina is monumental folly. China is becoming a superpower. The Port City\nproject is giving Sri Lanka an opportunity to prepare herself for next\ncentury\u2019s strategic commitments. Decisions taken now will determine whether she\nwill be an exporter of domestics, which brings her, her highest foreign\nexchange earnings or a Singapore, who, when she was ejected from the Malaysian\nFederation had to import drinking water. Today, she is the third highest\nexporter in the world of oil products, though she does not have a drop of oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will Sri Lanka be a\nNepal or a Singapore?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jolly Somasundram Courtesy The Island I thought I saw a turquoise sea, billowing smooth and bright. Wrong! It was an emerging Republic, a 700 acre wee sovereignty, Passport and flag ready, she awaits an anthem, to enter the UN. Defying scurrilous on-line disinformation, out of nothing came something.\u201d It has been done or has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}