There was an article today in the FT about Litro Gas, which is an indirectly government owned corporation that is a subsidiary of Sri Lanka Insurance, buying 25 acres of land in Kerawalapitiya to build an Oxygen plant to meet the nation’s needs, as a result of the Covid pandemic and potential use of Oxygen to save lives. Of course this sound fantastic to the ordinary ignorant, slave of a reader, who does not realize that when an Oxygen plants comes on stream, the pandemic would have gone away, and the need for Oxygen won’t be necessary, as local producers already can supply domestic needs for the foreseeable future.
Whenever a state owned undertaking gets involved in a commercial venture one’s antennae needs to be pricked, as there is something fishy, which will benefit a gravy train of political stooges and crony capitalists who put these ideas into their otherwise empty heads, as the latter have already determined how they can make super profits. The headline itself is fake news, as the existing producers have the need covered with their oxygen production capabilities already, so what gives? Where is the catch?
There was earlier talk about Litro and
Laugfs going into partnership for the sale of LPG as they are the ONLY two LPG
suppliers in the land, and they could pool their resources to buy in bulk and
have both their needs transported in one vessel and thereby save on costs. That
maybe, but the saving MUST be passed onto the consumer, as they are a monopoly.
If they amalgamate, it is the State’s job to regulate monopoly pricing as part
of their governance mandate. Clearly, there is NO governance in Sri Lanka. Then
again it was a ruse to fool the public and screw them by way of making super
profits for those who have the contract to supply as monopoly purchasers. In such
a situation, when there is NO transparency, the fraud and personal embezzlement
can be done overseas, as commissions are paid directly to overseas bank
accounts, in awarding contracts at unfavorable prices. This is something that
has been done consistently with Chinese Corporations, who don’t have any qualms
in paying bribes to get what they want, in comparison with US companies who are
expressly forbidden to do so. Therein lies the love affair with China as the
Cronies and their political underlings have no scruples and China is the
obvious choice for any hanky panky that has gone on. This is treason against the people of Sri Lanka by the
establishment. Bear in mind competitive pricing MUST be enforced in a Country
where monopolistic practices, may make sense due to small requirements, but
price benefits transferred to consumers and not agents of the regime, and the
regime to benefit.
An absolutely asinine opposition cannot see this daylight robbery taking place right under their noses.
As if adding spice to this pie was not enough, there is also talk too that Litro will get into bed with or buy out Ceylon Oxygen, a major gas supplier in the Country, where the foreign owner may wish to pull out, not because it is not a profitable business, but because local management have made it look unprofitable due to either theft, or cost sharing which amounts to the same thing aka as bribes to obtain business! This means that the overseas owner becomes disgusted with doing business with thieves and robber barons and would rather cut their losses, and run!
We shall see how all this transpires, but there is simply no doubt that something is afoot to hoodwink the public and trick the opposition to enhance the greedy pockets of a few friends of the regime, who are bent on tightening the noose around the already brain dead public who are not privy to the daylight robbery currently taking place right under their noses. The lack of an opposition with any brain cells is the perfect storm to set up every business as a qausi monopoly to divvy up a whole country among the leadership and their funders.
The irony of all this is that if everything is transparent and the economy is allowed to follow neo liberal policies, the economy as a whole can grow by leaps and bounds, and all will benefit including the cronies, but in this case the cronies are destroying the economy for short term gain, and they too will end up with nothing to gain locally having then invested their ill-gotten wealth in overseas countries, unable to pursue the crimes, as there are no prosecutors left alive in the Island!
The intelligentsia who is aware of this, are completely impotent, as they have no clue how to checkmate this decline into decay, as they are busy just protecting their turf from further erosion. This leaves it to the youth of the Country to organize an alternative government to take over from this mob rule, who have a huge task to persuade the older slaves who can easily be fooled like they have been for 70 years, that the status quo is the better option.
Now that all the English speaking youth
of any merit have fled the fold to seek greener pastures overseas, it is just
left to the vernacular youth to take up the cudgel and persuade their parents
that there is no future for this Country unless they are given the chance of
running it, at least initially in a transparent manner and later, in a
technocrat laden professional manner, once the corrupt public service is
eviscerated. The public service as it is currently constituted, does not allow
a party in power under this old system to do what is right, even if they want
to, as they hold the administration to ransom with their superior thievery. They
would be the first to be eliminated in a youth based administration.
