The Island Editorial

A rudderless bark

25 April 2017

The country has been moving from crisis to crisis like a rudderless bark with government leaders being all at sea. People have had to contend with a double whammy. Close on the heels of the Meethotamulla garbage disaster, which snuffed out 32 lives and caused rubbish to pile up in Colombo, came a Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) strike. There were long queues at fuel refilling stations all over the country. The warring oil unions warned that if their trade union action continued there would be no fuel to generate electricity. Thankfully, sanity prevailed at last and the trade unions agreed to call off the strike following a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last night.

The question is why the government took so long to meet the trade unionists and sort out the issue through negotiations. Maybe, it mistakenly thought it would be able to tame the unions with the help of the judiciary, police and the armed forces. Its brinkmanship only caused hardships to the public. Although the CPC strike has been called off several other key issues remain unsolved, the garbage disposal being one of them.

As for this sorry state of affairs, one may say, with apologies to Yeats, that things are falling apart as the centre cannot hold and mere anarchy is being ‘loosed’ upon the country.

CPC workers resorted to trade union action in protest against an alleged government move to hand over the Trincomalee oil tank farm to India. Their fear is not unfounded. The yahapalana leaders, out of their sheer desperation to get rid of the Rajapaksa government and savour power, enlisted the support of several foreign powers including India and sold their souls to New Delhi in the process. Now, it is payback time. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime has to make good on their pledges or run the risk of getting a RAW deal from India, which feels insecure vis-à-vis increasing Chinese presence here.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is apparently engaged in full-time economic hitchhiking internationally. President Maithripala Sirisena is bellowing rhetoric and devising ways and means of preventing the Rajapaksas from making a comeback. The PM, in his wisdom, seems to think Sri Lanka can never achieve economic development as an independent state without paying tribute to India. It was under a UNP-led government that Indian Oil Company (IOC) secured a foothold in the Trincomalee oil tank farm. The UNF administration was also planning to let the IOC acquire more refilling stations at the expense of the CPC’s distribution network, but thankfully it was dislodged in 2004. Thirteen years on, India is apparently trying to achieve its goal.

The PM yesterday assured the CPC trade unions that he would not enter into any agreement with India on the Trinco oil tank farm during his visit to New Delhi. However, he is expected to have talks on, among other things, the controversial Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), which is heavily loaded in favour of India. Sri Lankan professionals including doctors are opposed to the proposed pact, which they say, will only help solve India’s unemployment problem.

The Rajapaksa government blundered by smooching with the dragon and antagonising India. The present regime has sought to appease both India and China by offering them national assets on a platter. What needs to be done is to craft the country’s foreign policy in such a way that no foreign power will have any reason to worry about Trinco or Hambantota or any other area being used against it.

Letting China control the Hambantota Port and India the Trinco oil tank farm will only make this country a battleground of big powers with other strong nations, too, demanding their share of the ports and other strategically important locations here.

It is hoped that the government will honour its pledge to the CPC unions without provoking them into trade union action.

Sri Lankan workers have got something to preen themselves on in time for this year’s May Day. Let the CPC trade unions be congratulated on their successful struggle.