Malicious political campaign

The western media have launched a tirade of media blitz against development of port by Sri Lanka in collaboration with Chinese. It is nothing new, as I personally faced very intriguing questions by western media on Gwadar Port where I happened to be Chairman in 2006/07. I strongly dispelled the rumours that Gwadar is developed by Chinese as a naval base.
On the contrary, Chinese never showed any interest, neither participated in the open tender. All western media reports were malicious as the port was awarded to Singapore. "I recall Hambantota in 60s a small fishing village, as navigator we had to be careful to avoid small fishing boats, when rounding southern end of Sri Lanka.
The port lies on the main East and West route and is being developed with Chinese assistance of 1 billion USD and will be completed in 15 years in four phases. The first phase will cost 450 million USD. The work on the bunkering terminal started in 2007 and likely to be completed in 39 months. The terminal may handle upto 500,000 M/tons of oil / products per annum. It is also planned to develop oil refinery, container terminal and power plant.
The fear expressed by belligerent western and Indian media is that China being dependent on import of oil from Middle Eastern countries, thus wants to control the sea route. Sri Lanka is situated in the Indian Ocean close to Mallaca Strait and has a strategic location for the protection of oil route. The fears may be misconceived as was the case with Gwadar, but one wonders if China may use the port for bunkering facility of its naval fleet.
What is so big fuss about it, as Trincomalee was the base used by Britain, so is nearby Diego Garcia. France has a base now in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain offers state-of-the-art support to US naval fleet. I simply fail to understand the double standards, when I read Sunday Times, Indian Express or see BBC T.V. where Indian experts are criticising the building of port.
The Indian media is urging the newly elected Prime Minister to address the Chinese chequers, the influence of Chinese stretching from Pakistan to Myanmar, Bangladesh and now a fuelling station on main East-West route, the media wants a concrete strategy to arrest the influence of Chinese in Indian Ocean, even Air Marshall Major Chief of Indian Air Force feels China as a major threat than Pakistan.
Indians never objected on their own or western build up, but are seriously reacting to the development of Hambantota Port, duly supported by West. What a paradox?
While Sri Lankan leadership is indomitable, sovereign, firm and not lackeys as had been the case, dealing firmly with LTTE, they are going ahead with the project and sixty five percent of the work on two break water alms and (East and West) is completed and excavation and dredging by Sino Hydro, a Chinese firm, is in progress for the channel across the KARGAMLEWAYA.
The port is likely to be completed by 2011, and initially will cater to industrial and service sector and later for container traffic. At present more than 100 vessels bypass Sri Lanka South west coast daily with no value addition to the economy of the country. The port may be operative by January 2011, as Sri Lankan Government is proceeding ahead firmly by awarding a Chinese contractor to build the bunkering facility and tank farm for oil storage.
Indian media is worried that on completion of Hambantota Port, it may trigger international competition to control energy supply routes in the Indian Ocean as China's 80 percent and India's 65 percent oil supplies pass through sea lanes of Indian ocean.
It is also interesting to note that US Joint forces command confirms that commercial shipping/container port at Hambantota being built by Chinese is part of China's "strings of pearl" strategy to gain political influence and project power in Indian Ocean whilst Chinese vehemently deny accusations and have clarified that its investment in the port is for commercial purposes only.
Chinese are also willing to enhance Sri Lanka's ship building capacity by building a dockyard at Hambantota. I may not comment on Indian or western media concerns on this port, but with my personal experience of Gwadar it appears to be a malicious political campaign to blackmail Sri Lanka and Chinese.
The Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa is firm and remains dedicated and has not taken any dictations, but it is feared that West may try to malign him with war crimes on Tamils. It is intriguing that the same western media wants Pakistan to do more and does not project co-lateral damage to civilians and armed forces both, while fighting war on terrorism.
May be at the end they may perhaps malign our forces for war crimes as the case is in Sri Lanka of LTTE and Tamils. Bringing economic development to the neglected southern corner of the Island was cornerstone of Mahenda's election manifesto. The region was starved of investment and infrastructure will be transformed into economic and industrial heart of the country.
Modern infrastructure is essential for a country's long term economic development, but after 60 years of independence Sri Lanka has only one major Port and airport, inadequate power generation, in fact the nation is still without a single multilane highway. Sri Lanka is building southern expressway to support logistics and hinterland connectivity to the port.
It appears that Lankans have learned from our mistake of building Gwadar Port, without hinterland connectivity, thus the port remained idle, except handling logistically subsidised captive public sector cargo. The cost of subsidy per ton is 2200/Rs and total amount is said to be 10 billion rupees plus, as per the media reports.
Shipping analysts believe that Hambantota port is financially a viable project when bench marked to Gwadar, as the port is ideally located on main East-West route and advantageous to ship owners to use for bunkering facilities comparing to Colombo/Indian ports, as there will be no deviation from the main route.
The Hambantota port project, power project and Southern expressway is the largest development project since the Mahawelli project which was supervised by a Pakistani Shoaib Sultan, believed to be now with AKRSP project. I congratulate people and Government of Sri Lanka being our long-tested friends as Chinese, for expeditious completion of the project. Stay firm, shun all propaganda by west and Indian media by staying on the course and let a new day dawn for the poor of south Island as the fishermen's have faced abject poverty.
I am happy to learn that 40,000 people will get employment. Sri Lankans have expertise as Colombo is handling 70% of transshipment cargo, whilst only 30% captive cargo is handled. Hambantota may chip a slice out of volume from Singapore, which is the main transshipment hub, nearby in Malaka Strait. The Indian dream of converting their port to a regional hub on East Coast may be lost, with the development of the new port on the main route. The development is pinching India economically.
(The Writer is Governor World Maritime University, Malmao Sweden and Maritime Adviser Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry)