Rajapaksa threatens to cancel deals with China on Hambantota port

[INDIAPOSITIVE]

The woes of the non-performing Hambantota port, built by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa with a Chinese loan of US$ 1.4 billion, have not come to an end with a Chinese company, China Merchant Port Holdings (CMPort) agreeing to take 80 percent stake in it and pull it out of the financial woods.

Rajapaksa, and his new organisation the Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna (SLPP), have threatened to abrogate the agreement with China when they come to power.

To Rajapaksa, the SLPP and the “Joint Opposition Group”, the Sino-Lankan deal is a sellout to China, totally deleterious to the national interest. And in this, they have the support of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) also.

This month, nearly 500 workers at the port struck work against its privatisation through a sale to a Chinese company. They detained a Japanese and a South African vessel for several days in an act which was tantamount to piracy. The Sri Lankan navy had to use force to evict the strikers and release the ships. As consequence, insurance companies designated Hambantota port as a high risk port, damaging the country’s image in the eyes of foreign shipping lines and foreign investors.

Rajapaksa’s objections to the deal with China are many. By giving 80 percent stake in the port to the state-owned Chinese company, and making the deal valid for 99 years, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime has virtually handed over a huge national economic and strategic asset to a foreign company and a foreign country, he charged.

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) will lose its control over the port. The Sri Lankan navy, which is in charge of security in all Sri Lankan ports, will lose this role to the Joint Venture company in Hambantota port. Although the navy will be a member of the committee to ensure security, it will not be in-charge of security in the way in which it is now. Sri Lanka will not be able to get any dividend from the port for 15 years which is the time it might take to become commercially viable. Sri Lanka will also not be able tax the Sino-Sri Lankan Joint Venture company for 15 years.

Rajapaksa charged that government has plans to sell other ports at Kankesanthurai and Trincomalee to foreign powers and said that very soon there will be no need for a Sri Lanka Ports Authority. The former President also promised to take back all sacked workers if he comes to power.

Threatening a mass agitation against the deal over Hambantota and the proposed deal with India over a new terminal in Colombo port, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the Hambantota Port could have been developed to earn massive revenue by offering services to ships and not restricting its role to transshipment.

“The world's main maritime routes run past the Hambantota Port and shipping passing through could have brought us huge earnings from bunkering, supplying food and water to ships and providing repair services. However, without taking that into consideration, the Rajapaksa government developed the Hambantota harbor for transshipment purposes only. According to the new agreement supply of fuel to foreign ships and gas storage are to be handed over to a Chinese company,” he said.

However, the Minister of Shipping and Ports ,Arjuna Ranatunga ,said that the “deal” with China is only a Framework Agreement “ or something like an MoU”. It is not the “Final Agreement” which is still being negotiated, he clarified. He further said that many changes could be made between now and January 8, 2017 when the Final Agreement is to be signed. He even stated that if the SLPA is not given the power to ensure security in the port, he will not sign the agreement.

But Ranatunga justified the deal with China by saying that it is the only way to develop Sri Lanka’s ports. So far, the profit-making Colombo port has been pumping funds into other ports to keep them afloat. But Colombo port’s finances have suffered in the process, affecting its development, he pointed out.


Impact on Sino-Lanka Relations ::

Political observers say that the controversies over Hambantota port will, in due course, sour relations between China and Sri Lanka. China was very upset when the Sirisena-Wickrmesinghe government stopped projects funded by China alleging corruption and high interest rates on loans. After several months of lay off, work resumed in many projects.But before normally could be fully restored, Hambantota port got embroiled in controversies in which China is being portrayed as a greedy and domineering power cynically making use of Sri Lanka’s financial and other vulnerabilities.

Previously, Rajapaksa was a friend of China’s. But today, he is not. It is possible that he may want the agreements signed by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government to be re-examined when he is voted back to power.




http://www.defencenews.in/article/R...el-deals-with-China-on-Hambantota-port-189640



http://newsin.asia/rajapaksa-threatens-overturn-deal-china-hambantota-port/

 

[Godman]

Previously, Rajapaksa was a friend of China’s. But today, he is not. It is possible that he may want the agreements signed by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government to be re-examined when he is voted back to power.

Rajapaksa is never a friend of ANYONE he is a person that changes color in a blink of an eye. He is a traitor that even attempted to smuggle "war crime evidence" to Geneva and almost succeeded if the authroties didn't catch him in the Airport
According to him the international community must intervene in Internal matters to uphold democracy and human rights. But when he came to power he changed his clothes to Patriotism" selling it in every corner like patriotism is something that can be sold for votes

Now he goes creating trouble ,sabotaging the economy and creating trouble. He is ignoring how his puppet "strikers" took several ships belonging to major shipping lines hostage and repeating saying the navy stopped a "strike"
At least one shipping line has terminated its operation sto the port and sent a bill of $400,000 as damages. Rajapaksa's plans to carry out economic mayhem was thwarted because he didn't think the govt will be swift, the moment the shipping lines complained to the PM he went to the President and sent the Navy Special forces to release the ships. Because the losses were reduced before they went out of control Rajapaksas went into a rage shouting against the Navy

Rajapaksa says its wrong to rescue hijacked ships saying the attacking the navy and claiming that only the Commander-in-Chief could order the military to interevene and he has never ordered the military to break up protests and he is so power hungry he shamelessly asks for more after Abusing his powers.
Today morning they played Rajapaksa's interview in Radio and a commentor pointed out his utter hypocrisy and noted how he unintentionally took responsibility for day light shooting of protestors asking for water.
If Only the commander-in-chief could odrer the military then Rajapaksa must be investigated for these as well

 

[samv]

The construction of the 'tallest Christmas tree in the world' at Galle face is a sheer waste of money, and those responsible for this work should be asked to use the funds to construct houses for poor people or provide scholarships to poor children, said the president of the Bishops' Conference Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith.

Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena get bitch slapped hard in public.

Yahapalanaya is now going to go into attack mode by labelling the archbishop a 'Mahinda supporter.' They'll terrorise him with threatening phone calls and smears in their newspapers. This is the way the toyyas work.

Billions of rupees on luxury cars and hundreds of millions of rupees to build a Christmas tree and they see nothing wrong. What kind of idiots would want 200 million rupees to be spent on a massive Christmas tree that will last all of a few weeks while thousands of Sri Lankans are struggling to have three square meals a day? Toyyas.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Sri Lanka has some of the best development prospects in all of South Asia. It doesn't matter if China gets the port, or someone else gets the port, they should focus on development first. Don't fall into the Indian Rafale-esqe business of constantly picking different choices and then cancelling them, that hurts development.

Give the port to someone else if it will improve the chances of economic stability and development in Sri Lanka. That's what matters the most.

 

[Godman]

Sri Lanka has some of the best development prospects in all of South Asia. It doesn't matter if China gets the port, or someone else gets the port, they should focus on development first. Don't fall into the Indian Rafale-esqe business of constantly picking different choices and then cancelling them, that hurts development.

Give the port to someone else if it will improve the chances of economic stability and development in Sri Lanka. That's what matters the most.

The MoU has already been signed. The deal is to reduce Sri Lankan debt as the entire debt burden for the loss making H'tota port will be taken over and billions of dollars will be invested by China to make it viable(Something the SL government cannot afford) many projects stopped by the Rajapaksa govt like a refinary are planned to commence and China has also offered new projects like the LNG terminal however Rajapaksa loaylists are trying sabotage them, there were Anti-China protests in Hambantota by "Villagers" who had similar looking black banners

Many Sri Lankans have noted how Rajapaksas now fund Anti-China protests
http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/H-tota-residents-block-Colombo-Kataragama-Road--120624.html

 

[samv]

The MoU has already been signed. The deal is to reduce Sri Lankan debt as the entire debt burden for the loss making H'tota port will be taken over and billions of dollars will be invested by China to make it viable(Something the SL government cannot afford) many projects stopped by the Rajapaksa govt like a refinary are planned to commence and China has also offered new projects like the LNG terminal however Rajapaksa loaylists are trying sabotage them, there were Anti-China protests in Hambantota by "Villagers" who had similar looking black banners

Many Sri Lankans have noted how Rajapaksas now fund Anti-China protests
http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/H-tota-residents-block-Colombo-Kataragama-Road--120624.html

Desperate for money the yahapalanaya regime is now selling out Sri Lanka. After screaming and shouting at China they are giving China a better deal than they could have ever imagined.

Pathetic. Those two idiots Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena are clueless. They are like pigs wallowing in their own excrement.

 

[Godman]

Referring to the Navy Commander's alleged assault on a journalist who was there to cover the event, Mr. Rajapaksa said the Navy Commander was a skilful officer during the wartime and added that it was the first time that the armed forces had been ordered to intervene to control a protest in recent history according to his knowledge.

Addressing the media at a workshop held in Colombo, the former president also said, “There is no democracy in the country even though the government speaks highly of democracy. The Sri Lanka Navy was used for the first time to sabotage this protest of workers at the Hambantota Harbour. Such incidents are usually handled by the Police.” He said he wondered who had instructed the Sri Lanka Navy to intervene to halt the protest. He said the duties connected to the armed forces could not be altered without the knowledge of the President. - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/W...its-image-MR-120782.html#sthash.wHO1pZhy.dpuf

I wonder since when Police was trained supposed release hijacked ships LOL
And so he has no memory of him ordering soldiers to fire live rounds at protestors asking for water and murdering them in day light. But of course he gets a new personality every time he changes from opposition to government and vice versa.
He has no memories of running around saying that Sri Lankan forces are doing war crimes and demanding to allow organizations like Amensty International to come look at them when he becomes the "Great patriotic King" and now he has no memory of what he did a few years ago!

@Gibbs Rajapaksa has been changing skins for so long and now he has lost where or who he even is in a matter of time his cult of personality will come crashing down or they will join in MR's Anti-SL actions

 

[samv]

He has no memories of running around saying that Sri Lankan forces are doing war crimes and demanding to allow organizations like Amensty International to come look at them when he becomes the "Great patriotic King" and now he has no memory of what he did a few years ago!s

The only people saying 'Sri Lankan forces are doing war crimes' are the yahapalanaya crew, including Mangala Samaraweera who is the foreign minister appointed by Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The yahapalanaya regime even co-sponsored an anti-Sri Lankan resolution at the United Nations promising to set up an a court with international judges to try Sri Lankan soldiers.

The United National Party was murdering Sri Lankan youth in their thousands. The current prime minister himself ran a torture camp in Batalanda. Mahinda had the guts to speak out against this massacre of Sri Lankan youth. Stop lying through your teeth. Bastards like you who lick Ranil's boots are the worst of the lot.


This is Sri Lanka's Minister of Finance RAVI KARUNANAYAKE, a corrupt a$$hole:

How pathetic! Look at the regime now.

 

[HeinzG]

The MoU has already been signed. The deal is to reduce Sri Lankan debt as the entire debt burden for the loss making H'tota port will be taken over and billions of dollars will be invested by China to make it viable(Something the SL government cannot afford) many projects stopped by the Rajapaksa govt like a refinary are planned to commence and China has also offered new projects like the LNG terminal however Rajapaksa loaylists are trying sabotage them, there were Anti-China protests in Hambantota by "Villagers" who had similar looking black banners

Many Sri Lankans have noted how Rajapaksas now fund Anti-China protests
http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/H-tota-residents-block-Colombo-Kataragama-Road--120624.html

If the deal is to reduce Sri Lankan debt, why the hell Yahapalanaya took so many loans just for the past 2 years alone. If that was to reduce the debt of Sri Lanka; then there is no reason to sell the port. This whole melodrama is played as a political gimmick to undermine the importance of Rajapaksha's creation.

The previous plan was to make a free trade zone around Hambatota to attract FDI especially from Chinese companies without compromising national interests. Why can't Yahapalanaya do the same?

For the Yahapanalnits that every protest originated against the government is Rajapaksha backed and by Rajapaksha loyalists. If that so, then Rajapaksha must be very powerful more than the current ruling part. The most democratic thing now is to call for fresh election after dissolving the current government to seek new mandate from people.

 

[Srinivas]

Sri Lanka has some of the best development prospects in all of South Asia. It doesn't matter if China gets the port, or someone else gets the port, they should focus on development first. Don't fall into the Indian Rafale-esqe business of constantly picking different choices and then cancelling them, that hurts development.

Give the port to someone else if it will improve the chances of economic stability and development in Sri Lanka. That's what matters the most.

Why bring India into this?

No one to troll or what?

 

[HeinzG]

Referring to the Navy Commander's alleged assault on a journalist who was there to cover the event, Mr. Rajapaksa said the Navy Commander was a skilful officer during the wartime and added that it was the first time that the armed forces had been ordered to intervene to control a protest in recent history according to his knowledge.

Addressing the media at a workshop held in Colombo, the former president also said, “There is no democracy in the country even though the government speaks highly of democracy. The Sri Lanka Navy was used for the first time to sabotage this protest of workers at the Hambantota Harbour. Such incidents are usually handled by the Police.” He said he wondered who had instructed the Sri Lanka Navy to intervene to halt the protest. He said the duties connected to the armed forces could not be altered without the knowledge of the President. - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/W...its-image-MR-120782.html#sthash.wHO1pZhy.dpuf

I wonder since when Police was trained supposed release hijacked ships LOL
And so he has no memory of him ordering soldiers to fire live rounds at protestors asking for water and murdering them in day light. But of course he gets a new personality every time he changes from opposition to government and vice versa.
He has no memories of running around saying that Sri Lankan forces are doing war crimes and demanding to allow organizations like Amensty International to come look at them when he becomes the "Great patriotic King" and now he has no memory of what he did a few years ago!

@Gibbs Rajapaksa has been changing skins for so long and now he has lost where or who he even is in a matter of time his cult of personality will come crashing down or they will join in MR's Anti-SL actions

Navy has never being used to break up protests in the recent past. That is a real fact. Furthermore, your statement of hijacking the ships are utterly wrong. There was peaceful protest and general strike against the government plans to sell the H'tota port. The important thing is that several protesters took to the sea and blocked the passage of ships to and from the harbor in order to make themselves heard. I don't know how that can be added to be called as ship hijacking? Navy should indeed intertwine on such matters swiftly. There is no issue on that.

But the manhandling incident happened on the pier itself. Police could've used to break the protest there. Not the navy, and the conduct of the Navy commander is totally unsatisfactory. He has no authority to break such protests when there is far capable mechanisms are available at hand.

I would also like to remind you of what had happend in Ratupaswala. Those protesters were not making a peaceful protest. They were armed with clubs and batons, blocked a major highway at a busy afternoon threatening to break into a factory complex. Police were unable to contain the unrest hence the army was called in. I don't accept the way army had handled the situation but I need to point out that at Rathupaswala protesters weren't saints either.

 

[Godman]

Why bring India into this?

No one to troll or what?

He only said not to choose one option and change it later as it hurts development and cited India as an example I don't know how much this happen in India.
The right choice must be chosen from the beginning

 

[HeinzG]

Rajapaksa is never a friend of ANYONE he is a person that changes color in a blink of an eye. He is a traitor that even attempted to smuggle "war crime evidence" to Geneva and almost succeeded if the authroties didn't catch him in the Airport
According to him the international community must intervene in Internal matters to uphold democracy and human rights. But when he came to power he changed his clothes to Patriotism" selling it in every corner like patriotism is something that can be sold for votes

I don't know what you talking about? What "War crime evidence" did he try to smuggle to Geneva? Maybe you are referring about the subduing of the 2nd JVP incursion. Well you need to understand that, it was directed against the then government itself. Not on the country as a whole. Their is big different between accusing a government and accusing the country against war crimes. Maybe it's time you should read and learn about it.

If this report is true, then the present ruling party should resign from their post and go for fresh elections because any tom, dick and harry could block foreign investors to the country. I don't think a ruling government can be this impotent.

He only said not to choose one option and change it later as it hurts development and cited India as an example I don't know how much this happen in India.
The right choice must be chosen from the beginning

Yeah really? Then how come the rock bottomed H'tota port suddenly became a international level harbor after a mere government change?

 

[Srinivas]

He only said not to choose one option and change it later as it hurts development and cited India as an example I don't know how much this happen in India.
The right choice must be chosen from the beginning

Chinese bought your Ruling and opposition parties. They are giving funds to both of them and reaping the benifits of this port.

They are the one who created this mess, made sure the port is dis functionary just before the deal so that Srilankan Govt. will sell this port cheaply.

Once the deal is signed, the activity will pick up with the help of Chinese workers, chinese military and Chinese profits.

Regarding that troll post by the think tank (fish tank or what ever), India has sagarmala project in which we are building many ports. I wish Srilanka has followed Indian model of borrowing money from IMF, ADB , Japanese,Chinese and other countries rather than putting all eggs in one basket.

China is not like Japan or US, they have many millions to feed and they need funds to build their country as it is still developing. You need to be careful with your sell out politicians.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Regarding that troll post by the think tank (fish tank or what ever)