03 September 2022

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

 

SRI LANAKAN AIRLINES & HAMBANTOTA PORT

 

Most of the time I write as per my inner urge. I have wondered from time to time, whether the essence of my work reaches the needy. Then someone responds to confirm that there has been value. The form varies but when I have a need, it happens, in one form or the other.

One such confirmation was the article ‘Wisdom of ‘Nishkam Karma’: Much in demand for an authentic revival’ by Ajantha Dharmasiri at https://www.ft.lk/columns/Wisdom-of-Nishkam-Karma-Much-in-demand-for-an-authentic-revival/4-739207  

Another came from a Sri Lankan Diaspora Leader (SLDL), this morning in the following form:

SLDL :‘Families of Sri Lanka's missing seek truth, justice

The families have been let down by almost all Tamil politicians; it appears that only Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is crying himself hoarse over their plight. Justice Wigneswaran after a spell of hibernation , seems to have come out strongly against the government and its racist budget - which is nothing new ( the finance ministers never considered the North/East to be deserving of any largesse . ]

I took that as a need and responded as follows:

Gaja: When we know our own truth, we identify with the truth of others. Then we feel justice as per the ‘whole.

 

SLDL :The families have been let down by almost all Tamil politicians;

 

Gaja: Did the families believe in these politicians? If yes, why did they not protest against the LTTE when they killed Tamil politicians?

SLDL :it appears that only Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is crying himself hoarse over their plight.]

Gaja: Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is stepping into LTTE shoes. To that extent, he also inherits LTTE’s negative karma in Politics. Armed resistance to ‘attack’ becomes the Opposition of unarmed politics.

SLDL :Justice Wigneswaran after a spell of hibernation , seems to have come out strongly against the government and its racist budget

 

Gaja: You mean through the Defence allocation in the budget? After PTA was invoked against Sinhalese, this allocation can no longer be claimed to be racially motivated. Mr CVW would be better off addressing the caste issue.

As for Development allocation, Mr CVW missed the boat when monies were returned unspent during his leadership as CM. His ego would not let him ask the likes of me. In contrast, when Thunaivi village development was threatened to be withdrawn, our family donated land and the government provided the funds for a building.

As per the above structure, I read the report ‘Take action against those responsible before privatising loss-making state entities: AKD’ at https://www.dailymirror.lk/latest_news/Take-action-against-those-responsible-before-privatising-loss-making-state-entities-AKD/342-244207

As per this report:

‘Claiming that the state institutions are running at huge loss due to decisions taken by politicians, National People's Power (NPP) MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said today that those who were responsible for plunging the state institutions into loss making entities, should be dealt with before privatising them.

He told Parliament that state institutions such as SriLankan Airlines and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) were found to have been loss making bodies due to actions of the politicians’

I do not know about CPC, but I am an owner of Air Lanka – the parent of Sri Lankan Airlines. To the extent I am respected by  Sri Lankan Airlines directly and / or through the values I contributed to, they will work for my heirs whether they are with the National carrier or working in a parallel structure. I myself took a stand against the organisers of the 25^th year anniversary celebrations of Air Lanka, for not paying tribute to our seniors from Singapore International Airlines.  To my mind, this is a strong reason for Sri Lankan Airlines, going back to Air Ceylon structure.

The report confirms this as follows:

["SriLankan incurred huge losses due to Airbus deal and fraudulent actions of its officials. Onetime Chairman of the SriLankan, a close relative of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa brought down a SriLankan flight to Singapore without waiting for a scheduled flight. SriLankan is recording heavy loss due to such arbitrary actions. CPC is incurring huge losses due to actions such as the Hedging deal," he said.]

The report continues as follows:

[The MP said President Ranil Wickremesinghe said in his budget speech that state institutions are overcrowded and added that those institutions are unnecessarily filled by politicians through political appointments.]

This is part of autocracy which relies on loyalty as a subjective power. But the solution is not to privatise it . Ranil’s past in terms of Hambantota Port is confirmed as follows:

[In 2016, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority had to repay ₨ 9 billion in construction fees for the Hambantota port which, by the end of the year, accumulated a loss of ₨ 46.7 billion. After the National United Front won the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visited China to solve the issue. Then, the ports authority rescinded the agreement with the Chinese operators of the port and replaced it with a concession agreement signed in 2017.

Under the 2017 agreement, Sri Lanka Ports Authority created Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG), which then became a joint venture after China Merchant Ports bought an 85 per cent stake in HIPG as part of the Chinese company's US$1.12 billion investment into the port. The agreement will expire 99 years after its effective date and allows HIPG to develop and operate the Hambantota port exclusively. The agreement also stipulated the creation of a 15,000-acre special economic zone.]

This is the kind of ‘privatisation’ reality under Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe’s leadership.

If Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe followed in the footsteps of his senior Mr J R Jayawardene, under whose leadership Air Lanka was born, he would enter into a ‘management agreement’ with a reputed Airline such as Singapore International Airlines, instead of ‘selling’. Such a move would lead to training Sri Lankan managers to perform at global standards. This in turn would develop skills export from Sri Lanka.

This is why we must never fail to attribute to elders.