DingDong
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2014
- Messages
- 3,233
- Likes
- 8,550
This is one of the inherent weaknesses of the Chinese, they don't know how the elected governments function.The crux of this issue is no longer "land acquistion", or "sovereignty" IF it's true that most of land is STATE OWNED already.
POLITICS is always tricky. :biggrin2: Those who are strongly against the port deal are the same people i.e. Rajapaksa-headed opposition that was labelled as Chinese buddies. Now with swap of roles, opposing for opposing's sake (sugar-coated in some lofty parlance)??
My wild guess is current Lankan govmt is more likely to toughen up than budge from the deal. It turns out nothing to do with land, but rather a testing moment for their resolution and credibility. Like Chinese usually put, kowtow to intimidation = LOSE FACE = weak leadership.
Sri Lanka hails China's intention to invest in southern economic zone
Elected Governments don't "toughen" their stand, they negotiate, educate and try to calm the tempers down. Intent of the government doesn't matter if it looses the public support.
Any toughening of the government position, any reckless behavior on it's part can turn a small demonstration into a large protest, and the government always looses, people always win.
Loss of Face is a less scary proposition compared to Loosing an Election.