| by Tisaranee Gunasekara
“….it’s a show, it’s a show”
Mookie and Sam (You Tube)
The
Chinese deal to provide Sri Lanka with a communication satellite and a
space-academy was one of the fastest BOI projects to get off the ground,
according to the proud-boast of the state-media.
Unsurprisingly;
there is an intimate connection between the Ruling Family and the
space-project. “The idea of having a satellite was the brainchild of
President Rajapaksa who spelt it out when he was in China recently” (The
Sunday Observer – 19.8.2012). That is an extremely believable claim
about the incomparable-brain which produced such winners as Mihin Air
and the Magampura-Ruhuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Port (MRMR Port).
Plus, becoming the world’s
youngest astronaut and Sri Lanka’s first man-in-space are the desiderata
of the youngest Presidential offspring.
There will be a gigantic hiatus
between the still underdeveloped Lankan economy and the space project.
The space project will thus not have any backward or forward linkages
with the economy; instead it will be an island of anomaly unconnected to
the Lankan reality, a gargantuan white elephant at the service of the
Ruling Family and their coterie. Sri Lanka spends just 1.9% of her GDP
on education (far behind tiny Maldives and poor Bangladesh) and just
0.05% of her GDP on research. Had the rulers wanted to take the country
to the space age (instead of enabling their progeny to cavort in space
at the country’s expense), they would have increased educational and
research spending generously. But the rulers claim that Sri Lanka is too
poor to spend more on education and research. That choice is a symbol
of Rajapaksa economics, of its blatant disregard for economic logic, of
the primacy it accords to Rajapaksa whims and fancies over the interests
of national development or popular wellbeing.
Mihin Lanka which lost the
country US$18.6 million in 2011 is a classic example of how Rajapaksa
economics work. This venture which has no relevance to the national
economy or popular welfare is being kept alive, year after loss-making
year, simply because it is a presidential brain-child, bears his name
and probably provides lucrative employment opportunities to many a
Rajapaksa kith and kin.
Family needs, whims and fancies dictate national policies.
The MRMR Port was opened in a
hurry, in time for the second presidential inauguration of Mahinda
Rajapaksa. Unfortunately no importer or exporter wanted to use this port
located in the middle of nowhere. The Rajapaksas, having decided to
build a huge port in Hambantota (despite the rock) for familial reasons,
took their economic irrationality a step further by ordering all
vehicle importers to use it instead of the Colombo Port.
This was gross and short-sighted
state intervention in market economics; and not for a worthy purpose
such as poverty alleviation, combating inequality or promoting popular
welfare, but for the greater glory of the Ruling Family.
Not only is Sri Lanka addicted
to ‘prestige projects’; Lankan leaders impose irrational economic
policies on the private sector in order to keep those wasteful prestige
projects going.
Everything is subsumed into familial needs, interests and desires.
Family-First Economics and the Hub-Myth
The Rajapaksas want Sri Lanka to
become an infrastructural-hub; accordingly by 2015, there will be “five
international harbours, two international airports, two expressways,
seven-star hotels via Shangri-La (and) the most powerful communication
satellite in the region…” (The Sunday Observer – 19.8.2012).
Can a country which cannot build a properly functioning coal power-plant become an infrastructural-hub?
According to the Minister of
Power and Energy, the Norochcholai plant experienced 12 breakdowns since
February 2011. CEB Chairman states that the plant is constantly
breaking down because “there are quality issues in the plant” (Colombo
Page – 14.8.2012). If this plant is emblematic of the quality and
efficacy of the Rajapaksa physical infrastructure projects, Lanka and
Lankans are in trouble. Imagine expressways, airports and dams
malfunctioning like the power plant, not to mention that nuclear power
plant the regime is bound to want to possess sooner or later. A country
which is incapable of maintaining the integrity of its stock-market
cannot become a financial-hub. For the second time in nine months, a
Chairman of the Securities and Exchanges Commission had been compelled
to resign, allegedly by the appointing authorities. Reports claim that
the stock-market is becoming a cornucopia for a handful of
well-connected players who engage in ‘pump and dump’ activities. A
stock-market controlled by robber-barons is hardly hub-material.
Last week the regime announced a
new land policy enabling the leasing of state land for hotel projects
for 99 years. Turning Sri Lanka into a haven of rest and recreation for
the national and global wealthy is a favourite Rajapaksa
development-dream. This R&R mania is at variance with the reputation
for lawlessness Sri Lanka seems to be gaining, as exemplified by the
recent UK travel warning which cautioned British nationals about an
upsurge in anti-Western rhetoric and sexual molestation. The regime
reacted with anger, but the reported molestation of a French tourist
less than a week later indicates that the ongoing crime wave is not
sparing tourists anymore than it spares children. Luxury hotels and
domestic airports will not turn Sri Lanka into a tourism-hub if the
country becomes a haven of lawlessness. A country which holds untimely
and disruptive elections even as drought and inept water management
devastate harvests cannot become an agricultural-hub. A country which
refused to send coaches to assist her Olympic entrees while providing 30
officials with an Olympian jaunt to London at national expense cannot
become a sports-hub. A country which cancels compulsory English and IT
courses for its new university entrants but compels them to undergo
‘leadership training’ in military camps cannot be serious about becoming
an educational-hub.
In the meantime, national
savings are declining and the resource gap is widening compelling Sri
Lanka and Sri Lankans to borrow ever more just to maintain basic
investment and consumption levels.
Youth employment is a high 20%.
Income inequality is rising. 20% of children under-5 years are
underweight. Though the Lankan economy continues to grow, the benefits
of that growth are bypassing more and more ordinary Lankans. That is as
it should be. The Rajapaksa developmental strategy, which combines worst
capitalist practices with the most archaic feudalist thinking, is not
aimed at promoting productive and self-sustaining growth or popular
welfare. The main purpose of Rajapaksa development is the development of
the Rajapaksas. Just as the war against the LTTE was used to gather all
threads of politico-military power into Rajapaksa hands, the
developmental war is being used to institute a massive economic
power-grab.
For instance, the new Divineguma
Bill is reportedly an attempt to render the provincial councils
powerless and vest those powers in an institution under the control of
Presidential Sibling, Basil Rajapaksa. For all its grand rhetoric, a
familial state cannot deliver development because its main concern is
perpetuating the power and the prosperity of the narrow group of
stakeholders – the family and the clan. There can be times when familial
interest dovetails with national interest but such times are rare and
when the two contradict familial interest will always win, even at
enormous cost to the country and the people. A Banana Republic,
Rajapaksa style may well be Lanka’s ultimate destination.
- Sri Lanka Gaurdian