Sathiya Moorthy 31 August 2018
It is massive compared to all the moneys that the Chinese are believed to have given former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign. But it is much more legit and even more open than any of the deals that the Chinese have struck with Sri Lanka, be it under the Rajapaksas or under the incumbent rulers, since the former’s exit through 2015 Elections.
By granting US$ 295 million for projects that President Maithripala Sirisena could identify for them to fund in Sri Lanka, Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has done the unthinkable. Like medieval emperors bent on propping up ‘friendly rulers’ in other Nations, that too in this 21st century world order, he has started off on a strategy, which could be as divisive inside Nations as it could be a stunning shock for China’s global competitors elsewhere.
There is a difference. In the case of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the ongoing allegations are that Chinese firms involved in the controversial Hambantota Port Project funded his failed poll campaign in 2015. It was for a private purpose, if proved, and its benefits would have accrued personally only to the incumbent, which it did not.
Against this, the ‘grant’ for Sirisena is official, but the usage has been left for the person of Sirisena to decide, or, so it would seem. Hence, the political and electoral gains, if any, that might flow from the larger-than-life Chinese largesse would accrue to Sirisena, especially if he were to contest the Presidential Polls, due by early January 2020.
It can still be argued that if Sirisena were to return to power at the time, then all the pre-supposed allegations against Mahinda ahead and after the 2015 Elections could well become applicable to the former, too, and with greater force. Consider the moneys that the Chinese firms had allegedly spent on the Rajapaksa campaign, and now for purposes that Sirisena was left to choose.
Not that he had little choice, but to look at big-time projects that would benefit his people and the Nation, yet President Sirisena has been gracious enough to readily propose housing projects across the Nation and in all electorates (Parliamentary constituencies), using the Chinese ‘gift.’ If it would help him strengthen his sagging, or non-existent Nation-level acceptance-level, if not outright electoral popularity, so be it.
Chinese camel
In a way, there may be nothing wrong or unusual for the Chinese to do what they are now doing. Maybe, if only the Rajapaksas were as smart as their supporters think them to be, maybe Mahinda Rajapaksa should have got the Hambantota Project as a ‘grant’ or ‘gift’ for services expected to be rendered to the Chinese benefactor, without grinding Sri Lanka to a debt-trap, as his critics nearer home and afar are all charging him with. But then Mahinda was not as smart as Sirisena now, and his successors have justifiably blamed him for ushering in the ‘Chinese camel’ into the Sri Lankan tent, the way he had done.
It may be too early for the Chinese to construct homes in every electorate and hand them over to the intended beneficiaries, between now and the Presidential Polls. Yet, they could well commence work in every electorate, or even a few of them, carefully chosen across the country, for the ‘Sirisena campaign message’ to spread, ahead of the elections.
Therein is the immediate hitch. Going beyond Hambantota and all those highway projects and the rest funded by China, soon you will have Chinese labourers dotting the Sri Lankan map as no other foreign national has ever done. If now many districts where highway projects are being undertaken by Chinese have their workers, from now on, every electorate/district will have them, at times in the interior where alone land for housing may be made available.
Public or personal?
It is true that from J.R. Jayewardene to Mahinda Rajapaksa, Executive Presidents had greater powers than the rest of them all, in the Cabinet and outside. Even then, they still had to follow the Constitutional scheme and the business rules of the Government, for accepting foreign funds and clearing projects, including those that had come gratis. After the 19th Amendment, one thought much of it had changed, as much in content as in form and spirit.
Now, after President Sirisena’s declaration, it would seem as if the Executive President remains the Executive President in all matters other than the period for him to arbitrarily dissolve Parliament, from four years to six months before the next election. Unless of course the Sirisena camp or the Presidential Secretariat declares early on that he would be going to Cabinet for approval of the acceptance of Xi’s grant, and his own decision to first accept it and then allocate it for a massive housing project.
In the absence of proper procedures, which should have commenced even as the Chinese Envoy conveyed Xi’s offer to Sirisena at a meeting with the latter, what should have been a grant to the Sri Lankan people, could end up being interpreted as a personal gift to President Sirisena. In turn, it would appear that Sirisena has been large-hearted enough to convert a personal gift to him as a grant for public good.
Whither UNP now?
True, Sirisena as the incumbent and Mahinda as his predecessor President have got their own gifts from the Chinese, though in differentiated forms, one a grant and another a ‘debt-trap.’ Where does it leave Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UNP, if not the man himself, personally?
After all, the current thinking in the country and elsewhere too has been that after the Rajapaksas’ personal charisma attending on the LG Poll victory of their SLPP-JO, the UNP was still the largest Party in the country, and Wickremesinghe was also the second-most popular leader in the country, after Mahinda Rajapaksa?
Does the grant offered to or through Sirisena mean that Xi knows something about Sri Lankan politics, elections and popular mood that Sri Lankans do not know? If nothing else, at least after the Rajapaksa debacle in 2015 Elections, the Chinese were supposed to have learnt their lessons, not to bet their money only on a single horse.
Thus, backing Sirisena, too, now is understandable, from a Chinese political perspective. But they are wise enough to know that they cannot afford to leave the UNP ‘uncovered,’ unless something is already in the pipeline. ‘What is it, and when is it’ is the question that should be plaguing UNP leaders and cadres alike, as much as it should be bothering their compatriots and competitors alike in the Government and against it, not to leave out counterparts in China-friendly Nations across the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) route, and adversaries, across the world.