Unions bellow, Adani guffaws

Saturday 16th January, 2021

The government has chosen to grasp the nettle after weeks of dilly-dallying and prevarication; it has admitted that there will be a joint venture between the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and India’s Adani Group to run the East Container Terminal (ECT). According to the MoC (Memorandum of Corporation) Sri Lanka signed with India and Japan, in May 2019, on the ECT, the SLPA was to retain the ownership of the terminal and own 51% of the operating company with India and others holding the remaining shares. There is hardly any difference between this arrangement and what the present government has undertaken to do.

The yahapalana government failed to proceed with the controversial ECT deal as it was politically weak and could not square up to resistance from the powerful port unions. The situation changed last year following the election of a ‘strong’ government, which is using its two-thirds majority to bulldoze its way through.

Ironically, many of those who campaigned hard to bring the present government to power, claiming that a strong political leadership was a prerequisite for protecting the national interest and developing the country, are now protesting against the ECT deal! Some of the Buddhist monks who backed the SLPP to the hilt are condemning it for striking deals with foreigners at the expense of national assets. Their saviours have taken them for a ride—let them be asked to wake up and smell the coffee.

The JVP has launched a countrywide protest campaign, vowing to do everything in its power to torpedo the ECT deal. It should, in fact, ask for forgiveness from the people for what has befallen the ECT because it propped up the government which signed the MoC with India and Japan on this vital port facility. It may be recalled that in 2018 the JVP was instrumental in giving the yahapalana government a new lease of life on the pretext of safeguarding democracy when the latter was sacked by the then President Maithripala Sirisena. Having helped that beleaguered regime launch a successful counterattack, secure a majority in the House and remain in power, the JVP was backing it fully when the ECT deal was struck in 2019.

Only President Sirisena opposed the ECT deal during the yahapalana days; he even clashed with the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at Cabinet meetings, pointing out that it was detrimental to the country’s interests to have foreign powers as partners to manage national assets. He also warned that the port trade unions would fight tooth and nail to scuttle the deal. Following the ill-advised handover of the Hambantota Port to China on a 99-year lease, Sirisena must have realised that the SLPA should operate the ECT without any foreign partners.

The present government claims that it cannot do away with the ECT agreement which the previous government entered into with India and Japan. If so, how come the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which was inked during the yahapalana administration, has been put on hold? The current administration cancelled the light rail transit agreement Sri Lanka had signed with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), claiming that the project was seriously flawed. But it has chosen not to act similarly anent the ECT deal. Why?

There seem to be several reasons. It may be that the government, which is considered overly pro-Chinese, is wary of scrapping the ECT agreement lest it should antagonise India. The SLPP grandees are under Indian pressure; the official announcement of the Indian investment in the ECT came close on the heels of Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s recent Sri Lanka visit. He is believed to have urged Colombo to finish the deal post-haste. The government also seems keen to curry favour with the Modi administration by having one of the latter’s cronies, Adani Group, as a partner to run the new terminal. Another reason may be that Adani Group has come under fire for unethical practices, and the Sri Lankan politicians love to do business with such companies for obvious reasons—the country’s loss becomes their gain.