{"id":142258,"date":"2024-06-03T15:41:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T22:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=142258"},"modified":"2024-06-03T15:41:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T22:41:48","slug":"musk-adani-other-masked-hitmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/06\/03\/musk-adani-other-masked-hitmen\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk, Adani & Other Masked\u00a0Hitmen"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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e-Con e-News 25 May \u2013 01 June 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it,\u2019 twitted Tesla\u2019s Elon Musk<\/strong>, after the US government organized a coup against Bolivia\u2019s Aymara leader Evo Morales in 2020<\/strong>. Musk was standing earnestly in line to grab Bolivia\u2019s lithium<\/strong>. Musk, who tries to be as \u2018honest\u2019 as his billions will allow, sadly went on to delete his tweet, holstering his pistol after clarifying that perhaps there was no immediate rush: \u2018We get our lithium from Australia.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The only reason ee<\/em><\/strong> begins with this Hollywood tabloid-style trash, is because the capitalist mass media congenitally suffers from instant amnesia & effusive blather from one moment to the next. And we\u2019ve been diverted to the apparent splash of attention splattered on Sri Lanka by Elon Musk, as eerily elicited by our PR-hungry President & his more circumspect climate-wary nephew. To protect the purported high-tech billionaire celebrity individual Musk who has to perform as a frontman for organized capitalism\u2019s more anonymous \u2018asset managers\u2019, the media demanded that the JVP\u2019s Sunil Handunhetti retract his measurement of Musk as an \u2018economic hitman\u2019<\/strong>. Handunhetti was congruently compliant & even kind. Musk is a just another mask in an ocean of muskets & masked men.               <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018In India\u2019s immediate geographic neighbourhood,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RAW<\/strong> has often been willing to venture<\/p>\n\n\n\n

into murky spaces to recruit killers\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Washington Post<\/em> (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Washington Post<\/em> is perhaps not just referring to India\u2019s role in provoking wars in Sri Lanka alone. The Post <\/em>has a testy tale to tell about alleged Hindutva hitmen in the former Apache badlands. They take rather naked solace in claiming that their recent telltale on India\u2019s derring-do \u2018on US soil\u2019 was provided \u2018by former senior Indian security officials who had knowledge of the operation.\u2019 We are also supposed to lay aside the other types of US surveillance that provide such insights. We\u2019re also sure US media are not against recruiting killers in more or less \u2018murky spaces\u2019. They are after all showing us how post-colonialism is conducted in the grotesque daylight of West Asia (with less limelight on Africa\u2019s Great Lakes, or the Caribbean\u2019s Haiti etc) and the fogged pipelines of the Norselands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The Washington Post<\/em> is simply imputing, or wishes to be seen as imputing, that the US is all-seeing and all-aware: that India is treading crudely on the rather-wizened diplomatic carbuncles of the USA. They claim the US is trying to look the other way due to the US\u2019 need for their broader strategic recruitment of India against China. This makes the US government overlook India\u2019s purported silencing (including murder) of critics on not just US, Canadian and European soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Imperialism nurtures diasporas and the critics within their bosoms & bellies, and then dispose of them at will after getting their own way diplomatically or otherwise. They are usually doing it Exxon\u2019s way \u2013 Exxon has time-tested old expertise in such matters. ee<\/em><\/strong> often recalls Exxon CEO Tillerson\u2019s demands on allowing corporate bribery before being made Trump\u2019s Foreign Secretary. This ee<\/em><\/strong> reproduces the USA\u2019s current imputations if only because they shed dim light on a period when there was heightened \u2018terrorist\u2019 activity involving the same directors & actors in Sri Lanka as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This week\u2019s flashing of ISIS-linked arrests in India, midst elections<\/strong> there, the crude nature of the alleged plot, point to the level of disregard exhibited by those who would rule us, at this moment when their interference in the country is at a peak. These narratives may also serve both sides who may appear to be opposed, filling their identitarian vote banks (as well as their labor markets): \u2018Modi gets the Hindu vote; Trudeau farms the Sikh vote, etc.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018We have been facing up to an extremely perilous economic crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

that ignited in 2022, that was translated into a political crisis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and then into a social crisis, and which has now been<\/p>\n\n\n\n

full-blown into a cultural crisis\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CPSL sought this week to ally with a new political alliance<\/strong> to contest upcoming elections. The trader media is already spluttering spit on the new alliance \u2013 Sarvajana Balaya <\/em>(SB)<\/strong> \u2013<\/em> calling it \u2018Islamophobic\u2019, \u2018Ultranationalist\u2019 & \u2018Old Leftist\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The CP faces more day-to-day challenges. \u2018Last year, the CPSL at its 80th<\/sup> Anniversary celebration<\/strong> presented its alternative economic strategy, Idirimagen Idiriyata<\/em> (Forward from the Way Forward<\/em>), as a response to a burgeoning economic crisis<\/strong>\u2026 It is not just a question of looking for wrongdoers<\/em><\/strong> but a look at where we have all gone wrong<\/strong>,\u2019 recalls the CPSL. \u2018We called on other parties to discuss the program. The UNP and the SJB wishes to continue on the path taken since 1977. The JVP chose not to respond to our call for consultation. Based on an economic framework to counter the anti-industrial path which caused this crisis, which successive governments since 1977 have tread, we have since been in discussion with other parties and have signed on to this new Sarvajana Balaya<\/em> Alliance.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The CPSL\u2019s latest political alliance, Sarvajana Balaya<\/em>, includes Dilith Jayaweera\u2019s Maubima Janatha Party (MJP), MP Wimal Weerawansa\u2019s National Freedom Front (NFF), MP Udaya Gammanpila\u2019s Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (JHU), MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara\u2019s Democratic Left Front, Gevindu Kumaratunga\u2019s Yuthukama National Organisation, and a collective of \u2018independent\u2019 MPs led by MP Channa Jayasumana. (see Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>, Other Demands)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018In a series of speeches made at the State Council,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

especially during 1933-34, Wimalasurendra<\/strong> identified<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the broad alliance that worked against the Hydroelectric Scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He used different names at times to identify this alliance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Big Business\u2019, \u2018Oil & Coal Combine\u2019, \u2018Almighty Oil Interests\u2019,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Big Business & Alien Combines\u2019, \u2018Imperialistic Element\u2019,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Big Business Element\u2019, \u2018Big Business Party\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 BD Witharana, Negotiating Power & Constructing<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Nation: Engineering in Sri Lanka<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The so-called crisis of recent times seemed to be sparked by fuel shortages & power cuts<\/strong>. A century-old drama continues. The Institution of Engineers (IESL)<\/strong> held a press conference at their Wimalasurendra Auditorium on Vidya Mavatha to warn that the planned electricity reform law will legalize the \u2018procurement of renewable energy as well as transmission lines without competitive tenders\u2019. India\u2019s \u2018Adani is expected to build a transmission line apparently without competitive tender\u2019. \u2018It is also building the largest renewable plant in the island so far without competitive tender\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). Yet is this the main issue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Recall how over a century ago, \u2018engineer\u2019 DJ Wimalasurenda called out \u2018big Oil\u2019 even as his Laxapana vision of self-sufficiency in energy was sabotaged<\/strong> by fellow ministers who were then knighted for their services to Shell & British Petroleum (BP), just as now our leaders are locked into tenured fealty to Exxon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In the spirit of Wimalasurendra, the IESL could clearly state what must be done <\/strong>to achieve energy security and show us the path, including who & what will help us along \u2013 and who & what will hijack us?<\/strong> About multinational corporations (MNCs) & banks behind the electrical generation & distribution industries and their fulltime lobbyists & PR companies, with their bank hideouts, side benefits and happy endings\u2026 The IESL should tell us who they are? In the spirit of Wimalasurendra\u2026 Who is Adani<\/strong> a frontispiece for? Exxon? P&O? A whiff of musk and yet another masked man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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___________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Musk, Adani & Other Masked Hitmen<\/a><\/blockquote>