On ‘wowing’ the AAAAAI-EM-EF

It is reported that when the US economy was hit by the financial crisis, 54 banks in that country had closed down. Contrast this with Sri Lanka. This is a country whose economy was said to be in a constant state of imminent collapse ever since Mahinda Rajapaksa became President. It was called a ‘failed state’ by a lot of people and especially those heavily invested in the LTTE project and were major shareholders of the multi-national enterprise to destabilize the country. Sri Lanka is not a rich, industrialised nation. It was also harangued for decades by a ruthless terrorist organisation.

‘Imminent collapse’ is a prediction and sadly says more of the predictors than the Government. It has amounted to nothing more than fear mongering, clearly the last resort of the desperate.

I was wondering what these predictors would have done if they were in power when the financial crisis hit the global economy. The answer came in a strange manner. It arrived in the form of a statement made by the Leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe at a media conference a few days ago.

According to Wickremesinghe, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, in a recent letter to Human Rights Watch (HRW) Executive Director Brad Adams, has said that Sri Lanka’s economy had collapsed and that the country was facing an economic crisis. I am not sure if this is the official position of the IMF. I wonder, however, what kind of political agenda this Dominique person has and of course worry about the kind of friendship he has with Adams to warrant such reporting. I do know that HRW has a sad track record of taking any old story from any old source, treating it as fact, making all kinds of dire predictions and calling for all manner of punitive measures to be imposed. I do know also that the IMF, despite strong lobbying by anti-Government elements (including people with a long history of whitewashing the LTTE of crimes against humanity) and elements in the international community partial to the LTTE, approved a massive loan to Sri Lanka.

I find it hard to believe that the economists at the IMF would be so stupid as to recommend such a facility (the amount actually being greater than that requested) to a nation which a few weeks later would collapse. I mean, if they couldn’t predict that much, they are plainly incompetent, one would think.

What is more interesting is what Wickremesinghe reveals about himself in his comment. He said, “If the IMF had stated that our economy had collapsed then we can’t think twice about it.”

‘IF the IMF says’ - that’s the key qualifier here. IF the AAAAAI-EM-EF says, Wickremesinghe will not think twice about it. IF the AAAAAI-EM-EF says ‘go jump in the well’, would Wickremesinghe oblige? I have no doubt that he will. If it had been his prerogative, I have no doubt that when the global financial crisis hit the US, Wickremesinghe would have jumped for joy and sold the Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank and whatever else state-owned enterprises left.

I am not a fan of the IMF. Nor do I salute the current paradigm of development. I am not an approver of how this Government or its predecessors handled the economy. The point is, Wickremesinghe doesn’t have a criticizing leg to stand on. Ranil Wickremesinghe, when became Prime Minister in 2001, begged for massive loans from the AAAAAI-EM-EF. The AAAAAI-EM-EF obliged but imposed rigid conditions which included the privatization of state ventures, freezing recruitment to the public sector and a general scaling down of the state sector in the economy. Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation was sold and if Wickremesinghe was not ousted, the state banks would have gone the same way. The ‘conditions’ were never made public, but they became apparent quite quickly.

Forget the AAAAAI-EM-EF. It’s all about Wickremesinghe’s mind-set. He feels he doesn’t have to think twice if the AAAAAI-EM-EF says something. This is a statement of a man who is ever ready to be servile. This is not the kind of man who deserves to lead a party, let alone a country. It reminded me of an observation by someone when Wickremesinghe and his various supporters masquerading as independent analysts and rights activists were heavily lobbying the international community against the Government’s moves to rid the country of terrorism: ‘Ranil wants to hit Mahinda, but his punches are hitting only the people of this country’.

Politicians in this country care very little about the nation or the people; they subscribe to the by-any-means-necessary brand of politics. There’s a word for this: ‘Cheap’. There’s a conclusion too: ‘unworthy to lead’. Yes, not even worthy of leading the United National Party. No wonder it is floundering without even being able to offer a candidate for the presidential election. Maybe Wickremesinghe is waiting for the AAAAAI-EM-EF to give direction, recommend a name and design a campaign for the UNP. I wouldn’t be surprised though.

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