{"id":138092,"date":"2023-11-05T17:23:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T00:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=138092"},"modified":"2023-11-05T17:23:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T00:23:29","slug":"privatization-from-one-thiefs-offshore-account-to-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/11\/05\/privatization-from-one-thiefs-offshore-account-to-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Privatization: From One Thief\u2019s Offshore Account to\u00a0Another"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 29 October \u2013 04 November 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t produce, there are no vibrant entrepreneurs.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no risk-taking. What happens in privatization<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

is that SoEs go from one set of corrupt hands to another.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Chandrasena Maliyadda (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now listen to the gnashing of teeth & caterwauling by US World-Bank-front-window mannequin Transparency International (TISL) Executive Director Nadi Perera, just returned from an opaque closed-door<\/strong> IMF-civil society do-do in Morocco:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018No matter how much aid<\/strong> we receive, it will be squandered or misappropriated<\/p>\n\n\n\n

if we do not tackle corruption head-on. It\u2019s akin to pouring water into a leaky vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there\u2019s much talk about revitalizing the economy, there\u2019s an alarming lack<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of focus on governance reforms<\/strong> & corruption prevention<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The masses, who took to the streets in large numbers last year<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

demanded a \u2018system change\u2019 [to the IMF? \u2013 ee<\/em><\/strong>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

because they recognized that the country\u2019s crisis was not solely economic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but rooted in weak governance & deep-seated corruption.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Perera thus informed a forum in Colombo last week, focusing on \u2018The Civil Society Governance Diagnostic Report on Sri Lanka\u2019 just as the USAID, World Bank & IMF heavyweights descended on Colombo & Indian industrialists arrived to debone the chicken (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>, & ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, Civil society).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     But wait. <\/strong>Where exactly had all that \u2018aid\u2019 been supposed to go? Was it meant to invest in industry? Was it meant to make the country economically stronger? No! The aid, both principal & high commissions to higher comissioners, remains a bribe to prevent<\/em><\/strong> industrialization, to pay for a system of patronage. (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>, UNP Gravy Train)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We import half a trillion rupees of machinery <\/strong>every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rs1.5trillion of fuel, vehicles & garment inputs every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is Rs2trillion on such imports alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the procurements<\/strong> were made in public sector institutions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for machinery, EU standards were made a requirement<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we have workers who could produce the same machinery,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

they cannot sell their products to public sector institutions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

because of these so-called green EU standards.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee<\/em><\/strong> 05 Dec 2020, A War Economy is Inevitable)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So where can<\/em> such \u2018aid\u2019 funds then go when not into modern industry? Well? Where can it go when it cannot be productively invested: Into gambling<\/strong> & speculation<\/strong> & other rentier activity which amounts to legal theft anyway, making money off money, or money off land minus any intervening \u2018improvement\u2019 in the money (ie, investment in industry) or the land (ie, building modern plant & making equipment on it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     <\/strong>ee <\/em><\/strong>recently pointed to the US Biden Administration\u2019s \u2018metastasizing diversity, equity & inclusion bureaucracy<\/strong>\u2018 which provides \u2018well-paid perches for members of the educated working class<\/strong> itself. The watchwords of this project are \u2018fairness\u2019 & \u2018justice\u2019: terms which do not describe a social ideal at all, but a state of affairs among individuals\u2019. (see ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, 7 Theses on US Politics)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     So guess who gives a damn? Good old civil society<\/strong>, which an ee<\/em><\/strong> reader noted recently: \u2018the most pliant political, legal, religious, artistic, philosophical cliques<\/strong> that dollars can buy, who can forcefully reforge the colonial economic base to consolidate it\u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     And true to recipe: Nadi Perera was speaking at \u2018The Civil Society Initiative on Anti-Corruption Reform for Economic Recovery\u2019, led by TISL and a core group including Verit\u00e9 Research, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, People\u2019s Action for Free & Fair Elections (PAFFREL), and the National Peace Council (NPC). Professor Arjuna Parakrama, the researcher behind the Civil Society Governance Diagnostic Report, emphasizes these recommendations are important \u2018not only from an economic perspective<\/strong> but also in ensuring justice<\/strong> & fairplay<\/strong> for the masses\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     But again, wait! Justice! Fairplay!<\/em> What is the economic perspective<\/strong>? Everybody wishes to know to whom (Colombo\u2019s Anglomaniacs?) & what (Colombo landlords) exactly all these NGO funds have gone, and what improvements they can point to?: The problem is these NGOs are the very embodiment of most modern corruption<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 \u2018Just when more than ever we need a Karl Marx to reveal the inner workings of the capitalist system, or a Friedrich Engels to expose its ugly realities \u2018on the ground\u2019, what we are getting is an army of \u2018post-Marxists\u2019 one of whose principal functions is apparently to conceptualize away the problem of capitalism\u2026 The replacement of socialism by an indeterminate concept of democracy<\/strong>, or the dilution of diverse and different social relations into catch-all categories like \u2018identity\u2019<\/strong> or \u2018difference<\/strong>\u2019, or loose conceptions of \u2018civil society<\/strong>\u2019, represent a surrender to capitalism and its ideological mystifications.\u2019 \u2013 see ee Politics<\/em><\/strong>, The Uses & Abuses of \u2018Civil Society\u2019 (2016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Transparency This! <\/strong>\u2013 While whining about \u2018corruption\u2019, an \u2018obscure international law\u2019 known as \u2018investor-state dispute settlements<\/strong>\u2019 (ISDS)<\/strong> is being \u2018weaponized\u2019 by the fossil fuel & mining corporations, to sue governments<\/strong> for harming their interests. Recently, after Italy banned offshore oil drilling, an English oil company said it had been planning to drill and sued the government, winning about $200million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     So, we\u2019re curious about the repeated news on this Singapore Convention on Mediation Bill<\/strong>, which is claimed as \u2018a leap forward in international commercial dispute resolution<\/strong>\u2019. The Enforcement of International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation Bill was published in the gazette of 16 Oct 2023, which will be presented in Parliament soon and \u2018hopefully receive the support of all political parties to enact a statute that will be of benefit to Sri Lanka\u2019. But how?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018They were not mere peddlers of handouts written by others<\/p>\n\n\n\n

or what we in the profession called \u2018sunshine stories\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(not about what has been done but what is going to be done<\/p>\n\n\n\n

often on the never never) and hurrah boys of their ministers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ever-hungry for publicity, then as much as now.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Manik de Silva (see ee Media<\/em><\/strong>, MS de Silva)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island<\/em> editor\u2019s silvan saga about journalists of the so-called good-old-days locates corruption in \u2018ministers.\u2019 But surely as a recipient of the largesse of Unilever<\/strong>\u2019s fair&lovely advertizing budget, he must be cognizant that both ministers & permanent bureaucrats are the agents of multinational banks & their corporations & the nation-states that watch their backsides. Why no mention of larger forces?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Recently, a smallholding cultivator<\/strong> told us they were finding it hard to purchase fertilizer<\/strong>, as prices have increased considerably. It turns out that certain Ministry of Agriculture officials<\/strong> affiliated to a certain \u2018struggling\u2019 political party had deliberately delayed placing orders for urea, mainly to mess up the government plans. And guess who paid them under that table for this service? The minister is said to have simply transferred them, with no disciplinary action, due to fear of the union, which has also been captured by this well-known multinational corporation (MNC) & its political instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee <\/em><\/strong>therefore begins a series on India\u2019s colonial labor law and how little it changed after independence. Interestingly, it also looks at the 19th<\/sup> century \u2018nightwork\u2019 laws for children & women! Further, we begin to further examine the role of huge MNCs like Unilever, who hide behind the \u2018private sector\u2019 fronts who push for destroying labor laws (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong> & ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 US NGO Advocata Institute<\/strong>, a whacko-economic churner-outer of surveys & reports of dubious scientific & statistical sampling has been re-anointed by its fraternal US-embassy business tickertape worm EconomyNext <\/em>as\u2018the Colombo-based free market thinktank\u2019. Fancy that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The name change suggests: 1) They are a tank<\/em><\/strong>, which is true (but more like a cesspool<\/strong> of thoroughly vacuous economic theories!). 2) They think<\/em><\/strong>. No. They parrot<\/strong>. 3) That they are Colombo-based<\/strong>. Colombo must be the new Chicago<\/strong>! 4) And even after massive US Dollarization<\/strong>, claim to be \u2018free<\/em>!\u2019 Free<\/em> as Free Trade. Free<\/em> as the Free Market can be, Free<\/em> as the Free World (now meat-grinding Gaza). Free<\/em> at last! No Doubt! Jaya-way-wah!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 ee<\/em><\/strong> continues to serialize Idirimagen Idiriyata<\/em>, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka<\/strong> \u2018s \u2018Alternative Program\u2019. The important \u2018progressive\u2019 features of modern machine manufacturing identified by Marx include: division of labour; socialisation of labour; mechanisation; increasing returns to scale; learning-by-doing<\/strong>; and overall, superior potential for cumulative productivity increases<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Learning by doing interests\u00a0ee<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0very much, for it represents the accumulated practical knowledge of workers. This\u00a0ee<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0looks at the CPSL\u2019s plan for technical and vocational education and training (TVET), the negative perceptions of TVET by society. Setting\u00a0long-term plans for vocational education<\/strong>\u00a0will be hard in this situation, yet there is no escape from this investment\u2026. (see\u00a0ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Privatization: From One Thief\u2019s Offshore Account to Another<\/a><\/blockquote>