Ceylon Today Editorial

Darker side of Southern Projects

08 January 2017

The delay in entering into the agreement with the firm China Merchant on the amended Hambantota Port 99-year lease has run into snags which the Chinese investor wants ironed out immediately. Reports say it wants the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority to also be a signatory to the agreement as an attesting witness to the project about which the ports authorities have not been too happy.

The agreement, set to have been inked today as one of the government's significant projects in its macroeconomic plans to trigger higher GDP, create vitally needed jobs and enhance more vitally needed revenue, has been dragged down by the self-styled Joint Opposition that has suddenly launched a dog-in-the-manger opposition to it with hallucinations about the loss of 15,000 acres of agricultural land in Hambantota, which, in any case, they did not exploit and develop during their two terms in office, either for agriculture or any other economically profitable venture.

Let's face a few facts about this issue before we go on. The original Hambantota Port project handed to the Chinese by the Rajapaksa Government in 2010, with an attendant absurdly high debt burden was, as far as the Chinese were concerned, exclusively in pursuit of Beijing's Maritime Silk Route ambitions now branded as the One Road, One Belt Project ostensibly to help the economies of the couple of dozen countries roped into that project with massive infrastructure assistance, the Port and Mattala Airport projects functioning essentially as twin extension of the Silk Route architecture masquerading under the guise of projects aimed at enhancing the country's infrastructure. That was the essentially military/economic framework to which Rajapaksa subscribed his government's fullest support when he entered into the original Hambantota Port and Mattala Airport projects.

By using the Joint Opposition to stage protest demonstrations against the imagined 15,000-acre issue, MR has in fact only made it abundantly clear that what they wanted was the admission by the government that the 15,000 acres would be made of individual and non-contiguous parcels of land spread far and wide in the Southern Province...and that is a far cry from the contiguity essential for the southern project as a close-knit affair that dovetails into China's Silk Route motives. The amended terms of agreement helped soothe the trade and defence/security fears of India and other concerned countries about the original plan inked by the Rajapaksa regime.

One needs to stay focused on the fact that such agreements are with Chinese State owned or controlled firms which are euphemisms for being effectively Chinese State agencies set up for the extension of the government's 'One Belt, One Road' initiative.

The rehashed agreement has done away with any terms or implied provisions under which China can use the harbour and the planned economic development zone for any form of military objective. With the Ports Authority in charge of all security operations within the Port project area, China has suddenly baulked at this prospect and insists on the SLPA also being a signatory to the agreement, obviously wanting to know the exact extent of the security monopoly vested in the SLPA by the government which is most likely not included in the draft agreement in its current form. This is one of the main reasons perhaps for the postponing of the signing of the agreement which will be thrashed out anew and hence caused the postponement of the signing set for yesterday. Obviously the SLPA will implement those security arrangements by using the Sri Lankan Navy, Army,

Air Force and Police. That will not be, much, to China's liking because of obvious reasons. Therein lies an indication as to why India did not raise hell about the new agreement because from India's national security/defence perspectives the new agreement strikes out any potential militarist danger to India. In addition to this, the JO protests pushed government into admitting that the 15,000 acres will be not a contiguous area that can be monopolized by Chinese interests and in fact more easily come under Lankan security as easily manageable smaller units spread out in Hambantota, Matara, Galle and even Tissamaharama. Not only will this allay security fears in Delhi and the US but will help spread out new employment opportunities in the entire South instead of just in the environs of Hambantota only.

All of these new features could even make China pull out of the project. President Sirisena himself, who perhaps will have the final say in the matter because of his obligations under new understandings and agreements with India and the US, is very unlikely to allow the government to yield to facets in the agreement which will not be consistent with Sri Lanka's new obligations under the emerging larger role she is playing in wider-Asia-Pacific defence/security commitments.