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| Sunday, 16 October 2005 |
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Will offshore petroleum help Sri Lanka? Solemn Thoughts by Wendell Solomons Media sources claim that drilling for offshore petroleum will start during October 2005... Breathtaking as it may seem, Sri Lanka did hear some 'ifs' and 'buts'. At end September, President Chandrika Kumaratunga announced the availability of petroleum deposits in a large crescent along Sri Lanka's seaboard. The crescent stretches from the island's west to south-east (from Puttalam to Hambantota.) Yet, the President also voiced a query. She reminded her audience of the situation where a handful of families gained most benefit from national oil resources. Nigeria is a sad example that comes to mind. Yes - large challenge awaits the development of the Sri Lanka's assets in the Indian Ocean. The waters are a supertanker arena carrying oil from Bahraini, Kuwaiti, Iranian, Iraqi, UAE and other sources. About a pumping of Central Asian petroleum to the Indian Ocean, when the Taleban became inflexible about a pipeline across Afghanistan, the WTC attacks rallied the US into hunting down former CIA-cadre Osama Bin Laden and subsequently the Taleban itself. The US despoiled Afghanistan with the participating of NATO powers like Norway that subscribed an 'international effort' as cover. Dr Condaleeza Rice isn't a top US official in these events through mere chance. She served oil company EXXON for many years. That name and Standard Oil, Shell, Caltex and Chevron are but a few aliases that executives of the Western petroleum cartel have used on their visiting cards since the 1920's when they combed officialdom in oil-rich countries for vulnerable locals who would commit country petroleum resources to the cartel. In contemporary history, John Foster Dulles, a lawyer of the oil cartel (biographical notes are available on the WWW,) effaced the neutrality and internal status of Sri Lanka when he found a local politician to speak out to denounce Moscow at an international conference in 1952. His brother Alan Dulles, a fellow oil interest functionary, was selected to head the CIA - speak of the fox placed in charge of the chicken house. The same post was later entrusted to George H. W. Bush, where oil runs in the family line too. Such forces overshadow Sri Lanka's professionals. Will the families of these professionals become another ultra-rich crust in service of the oil cartel? Since 1977, the cheering on of professionals in Sri Lanka to the slogan 'Free to Choose' has created an opportunism that brushes ethics aside. Today professionals form a subculture that dons coat and tie to be seen at cocktail parties of the US and other missions in Colombo. This entrenched subculture goes from one political administration to the next, forming a gatekeeper force that jealously guards top jobs though the subculture may be instrumental in misdirecting the country's talent. Finally, for explanation of the decline of talent, the professional subculture shifts blame to the ruling politicians of the day - outside whose very rooms they sit. Take 1994. No sooner had President Kumaratunga assumed office than she noticed the hold of the charmed circle on day-to-day affairs in the country. She therefore sought to recruit from outside by forming a Core Group of Resource Persons. However, the entrenched subculture sitting outside her office got its hands on the selection process and nipped the President's effort in the bud. In the next year (mid-1995) professionals in the armed services were able to divert the country into an attack on Jaffna, though dissenters such as retired Air Vice Marshall Harry Goonetileke went on radio and TV to say that to hold onto Jaffna meant a second exorbitant cost if an army entered through bloodshed. In 2005, as demonstrations in Jaffna tell us, obvious logic was on his side although it 'evaded' career officials in the forces. After those 6 years collapsed in warfare where civilian professionals were clapped on for a 'Fight to the finish', the President returned to address her mind to the deficiency in cadre afresh. Professionals overseas The 'Sunday Observer' announced on Feb. 15th, 2004 that the President wanted to set up a Think Tank group to participate in evolving national policies. The number of recruits she had in mind was small but entrenched professionals throttled her attempt to move out of the charmed circle. How does one solve the puzzle? A large number of professionals are available in the Sri Lankan diaspora overseas. Last month I met in Colombo, Lakshman Jayaweera. He has developed a company in Australia that produces upwards of 10% of the world's selenium and telerium. Recognised by the Australian government as an innovator but not seeking newspaper publicity, Jayaweera and his wife had arrived in Sri Lanka after convening assistance in Australia for the adoption of 250 children orphaned by the tsunami. I had the good fortune of meeting several other expats in Colombo last month. My list of meetings included those with Dayantha Liyanage, who has served as elected mayor of a city, 40 miles from London. Among the simple gifts Liyanage brought to Sri Lanka included a Shramadana in which British Rotarians painted the interior and exterior walls of a school in Ahungalle. Most of the professionals I chanced to meet were mature and had reached the traditional age for retirement. I started to apply to their experience with the question "Do you think Sri Lanka's expatriates are under-ultilised?" Most replied with a resounding "Yes!" However, one person who runs a business in Canada told me, "People are difficult to organise." Quite so - but we have now at our disposal the use of the Internet that conveys printed notes a thousand miles in a few seconds. A discussion group using the convenience of email can be created say, by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Professionals can use it to discuss developmental logistics. In conclusion, here is the address of a free, informal one to test so as to get the spirit: |
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