Reaping The Whirlwind?

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“And who’s to say where The harvest shall stop?” — Robert Frost (Gathering Leaves)

(June 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) For weeks, Rajapaksa propagandists touted the proposed senate as a measure of reconciliation towards the Tamils, a mechanism to empower the minorities at the centre. In reality the Senate is to be a cross between a grazing ground for long-in-the-tooth politicians and a check on provincial devolution.

According to media reports, provincial governors will become ex-officio members of the Senate, with one of them as its chairman. Since governors are presidential appointees, this will give the President a stranglehold over the Senate. Five members from each provincial council and several senior parliamentarians too are expected to be part of the Senate. This unelected Senate will have the power to veto decisions by elected provincial councils. The underlying purpose is obvious; if ever the minority dominated provincial councils in the North and the East take a step unacceptable to Sinhala supremacists in power, the Senate will veto it into oblivion. The Senate thus will not give anything to the minorities; its actual purpose is to sabotage provincial devolution and undermine the 13th Amendment.

A Sinhala supremacist victory cannot lead to a Sri Lankan peace but to a Pax Sinhala. According to the Prime Minister, the government will bring five new acts to protect Buddhism including an anti-conversion bill. The army is said to be giving Sinhala names to intersections in the North and imposing Wesak celebrations on non-Buddhist residents of the North and the East. The Ruling Family’s support base is near exclusively Sinhala and primarily Buddhist.

This reality blends seamlessly with the Mahawamsa mindset in vogue at the highest echelons of power. The perception of Lanka as the holy land of (Sinhala) Buddhism, the notion of a relentless contestation with alien invaders/visitors for Sinhala Lebensraum (living space) and the concept of the sinless war (waged for the protection of Buddhism, against enemies who are ‘unbelievers and men of evil life’) are the three pillars of the Mahawamsa mindset. Transliterated into modern conditions, this means a Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist Sri Lanka in which the minorities are not co-owners but guests, at best tolerated. Within such a project there is no role for devolution and no room for genuine reconciliation.

But pretence at both is necessary, given Sri Lanka’s relative powerlessness on the world stage. The Rajapaksa brothers may look enviously at Israel’s brutal raid on an international flotilla bringing symbolic aid to the blockaded Gaza; they may long to act with an equally gross disregard for international law and international opinion. But lacking the near unconditional support of the Global Hegemon (which enables Israel to act with total impunity), the Rajapaksas must resort to a combination of bluster and sleights of hand, to buy time and clear space. Therefore, the President is likely to offer nebulous promises and economic palliatives to Delhi, during his upcoming trip, if his Indian hosts badger him about a political solution. But in reality there will be no devolution, and once the proposed constitutional amendments are in place, Sri Lanka will be firmly set on the path towards a Sinhala Supremacist, Rajapaksa dominated future.

Floods, Expressways and Off-shore Drilling

Development is too serious a matter to be left to politicians, bureaucrats and business moguls, especially where it can impact massively and intimately on the lives of ordinary people. When political and financial power-wielders, turned short-sighted through avarice and ignorance, make erroneous decisions, often the costs have to be borne by voiceless men, women and children. This imbalance is unjust, anti-democratic and profoundly dangerous. If decision makers are immune from the consequences of their decisions, if those consequences are borne almost exclusively by people outside the decision-making process, the possibility of errors of omission and commission increases exponentially. Why exercise caution and care, when impunity reigns supreme?

The May deluge amply demonstrated the dangers endemic in the current ‘Build Baby, Build’ approach to development. It also highlighted the necessity for ordinary people to take an interest in extraordinary ‘development projects’. The rapid decline of water retention areas in the Colombo District due to land-filling and construction is an obvious, perceivable reality. And the main culprits are not the poor, who build meagre shelters on canal banks, but the political and economic power-wielders with their mega projects.

An excellent case in point is the connection between the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway and the recent flooding in the Gampaha District; the Navy had to blow a blast hole in the earthwork of the Expressway to enable floodwaters to recede. According to residents, areas which had never known flooding succumbed to the deluge this time, because, ‘water has collected on the land to the right of the incomplete expressway project’. As a resident stated, “The authorities should have thought about these things when they started this project…. This is a glaring instance of the authorities ignoring the people and their advice and going ahead with a project” (The Sunday Times – 23.5.2010).

During the last fortnight, the authorities were frantically carrying out cosmetic surgery on Colombo, in time for the IIFA. A similar exercise was undertaken just pervious to the Colombo SAARC Summit. We, Sri Lankans, know from bitter experience that these road-works will not outlast the next bout of rain; then the old holes will reappear and many roads will become veritable streams. On the Southern Highway, 40% of the newly constructed bridges suffer from serious structural flaws and will have to be rebuilt, according to official sources. This disastrous state of affairs came to light when a bridge in Poddala collapsed, killing a schoolboy.

According to media reports, the project is plagued by “hiring and firing of sub-contractors…. Transparency is non-existent in the entire project… (In some places) the culverts that have been built are not enough for the water to pass through, so the area goes under water….” (The Sunday Times – 8.11.2009). The proposed plan to build a mall on the 150 year old Galle Face Green and to construct a new Galle Face Green by reclaiming the sea is bound to be another costly disaster.

If a country is unable to carryout lasting repairs to existing roads, if it is incapable of putting in place an effective drainage system, can it construct highways which stand the test of time and inclement elements? Or engage in oil drilling unaccompanied by major and minor disasters?

According to media reports, Sri Lanka will begin offshore oil drilling, perhaps next year. Our oil deposits have been divided into 8 blocks, extending from Mannar to Beruwala. Blocks I and II have been given to India while China has taken southernmost Block VIII. Some of the agreements are signed already, away from the public eye. Given that Sri Lanka is a neophyte in oil drilling, have we a regulatory framework in place? What are the safety precautions? Does Sri Lanka have any overseeing authority or has a carte blanche been given to India and China? Who will deal with and pay for any accidents? These are not esoteric questions, but matters of urgent national concern.

Both India and China have a poor record in minimising human and environmental costs of development; consequently it is illogical to expect them to be concerned about the environmental and human costs of their drilling operations in Sri Lanka. In such a context, the Lankan state and people cannot and must not adopt a laissez faire attitude.

The Nigerian Way?

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to continue till August, maybe beyond. The Obama administration has launched a civil and a criminal investigation into this unprecedented disaster.

A US government report, released in late May, pinpointed the cosy relationship between the oil industry and the officials of the Mineral Management Services, the agency within the US Interior Department charged with overseeing offshore drilling. Not only did the overseers fail to oversee; the day the Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded, the Interior Department gave 27 new permits for offshore drilling; of these, 26 (including 2 permits given to the BP which owns the Deepwater Horizon well), were granted regulation exemptions!

The flooding caused by the Katunayake Expressway and the abysmal quality of the Southern Highway are mute witnesses to the authorities’ criminal lack of concern about public safety. This gives rise to severe misgivings about the safety of any future oil exploration project. Imagine the impact on Sri Lanka of an accident just 10% as serious as the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Being small, our capacity to absorb and withstand the impact would be negligible; being poor, our ability to handle the costs would be minimal.

Many believe oil to be the panacea for all our ills. But the experiences of other third world countries outside of the Middle East demonstrate that oil can be a mixed blessing at best. Whether oil benefits a country and its people depends on many factors, especially the attitude and the actions of its government. Where the government is corrupt or inept and lacks commitment to public welfare, oil has caused more harm than good, Nigeria being the most obvious case in point. Not only have most Nigerians not benefited from the country’s massive oil wealth; lack of regulations and overseeing has caused an environmental catastrophe, impacting on everyday lives and basic health.

In Nigeria oil spills are commonplace. “It is impossible to know how much oil is spilled in the Niger Delta each year because the companies and the government keep that secret. However two major investigations over the past four years suggest that as much is spilled at sea, in the swamps and on the land, every year, as has been lost in Gulf of Mexico so far.” (The Observer – 30.5.2010) According to writer Ben Ikan, “This kind of spill happens all the time in the (Niger) Delta. The oil company just ignores it. The lawmakers do not care and the people must live with pollution daily. The situation now is worse than it was 30 years ago” (ibid). A veil of non-information and disinformation obscures the reality while those who seek to tear it can pay the ultimate prize, as the judicial murder of writer-activist Ken Saro-Wiwa demonstrated.

Pericles in his famous ‘Funeral Oration’ celebrated the Athenian practice of publicly debating the affairs of the city and decried as ‘good for nothings’ citizens who fail to participate in the city’s life. Public debates about the affairs of a country are possible only if the state honours the citizens’ right to information.

According to media reports, the President has taken over the Petroleum Resources Development Agency. Off-shore drilling too has become a ‘Family-subject’. And the Rajapaksas seem to be developing an increasingly militarist approach to economic tasks, (‘a humanitarian offensive’ in the development sphere!) characterised by secrecy and intolerance.

In such a context, public protests can be labelled ‘economic terrorism’ and responded to in non-democratic ways, rendering impossible peaceful public opposition to harmful ‘development projects’ such as the Eppawala protest. The opposition is too busy navel-gazing to interest itself in national affairs (it should be initiating a public discussion about oil drilling via parliament and media). Meanwhile, out of the public eye and beyond the control of parliament, the regime is dispensing with the country’s oil resources. Sri Lanka should use her oil, but with far more care and openness than evident in previous development projects.

Unfortunately a government in severe financial crisis is likely to lease the oil wells ASAP, making a fast buck its overriding consideration. From ‘Build Baby, Build,’ to ‘Drill Baby, Drill’ is but a natural progression.

Correction: Channel 4 is not a part of the BBC. I regret this erroneous mention in my previous article.