Nov 22nd 2011, 7:44 by The Economist | COLOMBO

THE Australians are not the only ones to feel chuffed by the Gold Coast winning its bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Most Sri Lankans, whose country competed for the event with none of the infrastructure in place, are beyond relieved.

So roundly have the media criticised Sri Lanka’s failed attempt to secure the event that many are left wondering who the devil wanted these games in the first place; but more on that later. Even habitual backers of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration, like nationalist The Island newspaper, took a swipe at the government’s misadventure. Send the Australians a big thank-you card, its editor advised, for having saved Sri Lanka from disaster.

Public sentiment wasn’t far different. An online opinion poll published in the Sunday Times newspaper saw 81.4% of respondents say they were happy Sri Lanka did not win the bid, with only 18.6% feeling the opposite way.

On November 11th, members of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) meeting in St Kitts voted in favour of Australia playing host to the 2018 edition, in the Gold Coast. But Sri Lanka’s defeat did not come cheap. Indeed, so much money was lavished on its proposal alone that opposition parties feared an economic collapse might have been imminent, were the bid to have succeeded.

First, the government paid $2.6m up front to “pmplegacy”, a London-based international management consultancy, to administer the bid. Millions were also spent on incidentals like foreign trips, hosting visiting CGF delegations, chopper rides to and from the proposed venue—faraway Hambantota, on Sri Lanka’s southern coast—and carousing the night away in St Kitts. The government claimed the money came primarily from the private sector, but then mystifyingly declined to name the contributors.

In any case, a mammoth delegation left for the Caribbean a full week ahead of the CGF vote. Aboard the chartered plane were sports personalities, a reigning beauty queen and a former-beauty-queen-cum-actress-turned-politician. And mingling with the politicians, officials and journalists were assorted and sundry businessmen, chefs and a cultural troupe. There enjoyed sing-alongs on board. At St. Kitts, they checked into four-star hotels.

The Sunday Times reports that among the 400 who were present, from 70 sports federations of Commonwealth countries, a full 160 were from Sri Lanka. Only a mere 20 came from Australia. Sri Lanka’s pièce de resistance was a cultural show and dinner at which a specially constructed bar with a thatched roof offered “an unending flow of local arrack and toddy”. The Gold Coast Bulletin reported two days before the decision was made that Sri Lanka was “partying like it has won the right to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games”.

Despite eventful last-minute lobbying—and a close and worthy contest—Hambantota received just 27 votes while games-ready Gold Coast was endorsed by 43 CGF members. Where Commonwealth politics are concerned, it was hardly fair. It will be the fifth time Australia is honoured with the games. But back in Sri Lanka, pragmatists were heaving a sigh of relief.

The bid to play host to the games in deeply rural Hambantota was based on nothing more than an elaborate dream. The proposal was conjured by Namal Rajapaksa, the president’s sporty eldest son, who is being groomed for leadership. Sri Lankans know well now that what the Namal wants, Namal gets.

The CGF described the bid as “largely virtual”. Which was a polite way of saying that, in its current incarnation, Hambantota is not a terribly happening place. There is little on offer but for a rarely-used cricket stadium, a new port that receives more pedestrian sightseers than it does ships, an oil-tank farm and a rapidly rising international airport with one of the largest runways in the world.

At least two of these—and soon no doubt the airport, once it is completed—are named after President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose constituency happens to be Hambantota (so is Namal’s). And at least three of Hambantota’s notable projects are financed through expensive Chinese loans.

In September 2011, the CGF determined that to stage the games in the Gold Coast would present a low risk to their success while to hold them in Hambantota would pose “a medium to high risk”. But Sri Lanka fought back with the promise of heavy—very heavy—investment. Just about everything was to be built from scratch by 2016, including resorts, an athletics stadium, 18-hole golf course and media centre.

Opposition parties fumed at the time. Hambantota was clearly chosen for this ambitious and ultimately futile project solely because it was the Rajapaksa family’s home base. As journalist Ranga Jayasuriya wrote in a column, “There is no better place than the backward, deep south to test the waters for a dynastic succession”.

A Marxist party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, warned that Sri Lanka’s economy would crash as Greece’s did after the 2004 Olympics. Tamil parties asked why so much money was going towards turning Hambantota into a “futuristic city” when there was not enough to resurrect the war-shattered north.

But the criticism hasn’t hurt the government. Indeed, it has pledged to continue with transforming Hambantota into a sports hub, despite the defeat.

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Human ChildNov 22nd 2011 8:25 GMT

Thanks, good article.

I can’t wait to see how the usual Rajapaksa clan-stooges will spin this as an aggression by the West in the comments. "It’s all because of those darned NGOs – they’re the ones who unfairly lobbied against our glorious nation’s otherwise faultless bid in those luxury hotels in the Caribbean."

Still, I can’t believe 38.5% of the votes went to Sri Lanka

Philip OCarrollNov 22nd 2011 10:07 GMT

Big spectacles and games are nothing but an excuse for massive plundering of the public purse, no matter where they occur. This is especially true of the really pointless ones, like the world Expo, Commonwealth games, World University games etc. Nobody watches those at all. The only thing newsworthy about last year’s Commonwealth games was the unhygienic state of the facilities.

DonQuixote 60Nov 22nd 2011 10:23 GMT

To all those who thought that a Searingly hot, brutally inhospitable tract of scrub jungle, 40 Kilometers from the only habitable area in the province, the coast line, could play host to the commonwealth games and rival the Gold Coast of Queensland…. I say wake up!

Wake up even now and either quit the hugely responsible jobs some of you hold, jobs that are steering our Country into an abyss, or blow the whistle and backtrack on this crazy trip you are taking the future of our children on.

Anyone who has visited the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast of Queensland and has even a modicum of common sense has to realize that the entire exercise was one of futility. All those who came up with grandiose schemes to spend money culminating in a star class holiday in the Caribbean, should be held accountable. Held accountable not only by the people of this Country but by their employers and by their peers, not to mention the future generations of this Country whose future is being squandered.

An Abysmal human rights record, an economy propped up by housemaids working in the middle east, no law and order, a judiciary that has degenerated with alarming consistency, did they expect all these things to be disregarded ? Was the Rajapaksa MAGIC going to overshadow common sense and LOGIC?

For goodness sake! I know the backgrounds some of you Perpetrators of this farce come from. I know that your parents’ didn’t teach you to disregard common sense for quick riches and a short cut to the top. What on earth has happened to you guys who have hopped on this band wagon that is now careening out of control?

Do you seriously not have sufficient strength of character to stick to the beliefs and principles you were brought up on? A few veiled threats and you throw it all away, including the future of your very own mother land!

I don’t believe it. I sincerely hope I am mistaken. It is not too late, it never is to realize a mistake, admit it and correct you ways.

Cake-WalkerNov 22nd 2011 10:44 GMT

Another example of a scion of a ruling ‘family’ going astray due to megalomania. Whither public opinion or the checks and balances of a democracy?

What’s it with South Asia? Almost every country has a pseudo-dynastic rule. This is not how democracies were supposed to pan out. The Gandhis in India as well as other numerous families at the states level, the Bhuttos/Zardaris in Pakistan, the Rajapaksas in Sri Lanka, the Rehmans/ Zias in Bangladesh have all ‘ruled the roost,’ at least intermittently if not consecutively, for more than half a century now.

One of the key reasons that George Washington is so well regarded is that though he could very well have become another de facto ‘emperor’ of the newly independent US, he did not. He, on the other hand, chose to limit the President’s term, increase checks and balances and have a legitimate democratic rule. All this at a time when democracy had long been wiped out from the face of the earth.

And here we have a bunch of folks who consider it their God-given right to just do what they set out to. Sri Lanka is indeed lucky to have lost the bid. As much as their politicians tried, the mega-corruption’s center of gravity remains un-budged from a couple of thousand miles up north.

R DASANov 22nd 2011 13:30 GMT

I fully endorsed this article and what a relief for SRI LANKA and its economy. These silly young party animals should take this party bills. – R DASA

onecommonworldNov 22nd 2011 14:39 GMT

Commonwealth got 71 representatives and since 1938, they have either held or finalized the 21 game venues till 2018. Out of those 21, 3 games allowed to hold in India, Malaysia and Jamaica. Rest of 18 venues shared between UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This uncommon venue picking in commonwealth is somewhat questionable?

RaviNov 22nd 2011 15:32 GMT

The decision by the Commonwealth Games Federation not to award the Commonwealth Games to Sri-Lanka was the RIGHT decision.

There are two main reasons for the failure of Sri-Lanka’s bid.

1. The Rajapaksa regime is one of the most INCOMPETENT regimes in the world.

2. The regime is also one of the WORST violators of Human Rights in the world.

The regime built a port in Hambantota (named Mahinda Rajapaksa Port) at a cost of $1.4bn – borrowed from China. The regime claimed that large ships would be able to use the port. But the Port of London Authority has recently said that large ships may not be able to use the port.

The regime started an airline called Mihin Lanka (guess the origin of the name!) in April 2007. It was despite the country’s full service airline, SriLankan Airlines making losses throughout most of its life on airline operations. Mihin Lanka is also a loss-maker! Critics have held up the state budget carrier as a high profile example of tax banditry, arbitrary rule and lack of evidence based policy-making.

After co-hosting the cricket world cup, 100 contracted players have not been paid their salaries for months. The capital expenditure on the recent World Cup left the country’s richest sports body facing a sizeable debt.

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told the BBC that Sri Lanka still owes more than $18.1m (£11.2m) to the Chinese construction firm that built the brand new stadium in – (Yes!) Hambantota.

What the Rajapaksa regime is trying desperately to do is to project the country as a major player on the international stage. It is suffering from MEGALOMANIA!

The fact is that Sri-Lanka is a POOR BANANA REPUBLIC.

RaviNov 22nd 2011 15:49 GMT

“The government paid $2.6m up front to “pmplegacy”, a London-based international management consultancy, to administer the bid. Millions were also spent on incidentals like foreign trips, hosting visiting CGF delegations, chopper rides to and from the proposed venue—faraway Hambantota, on Sri Lanka’s southern coast—and carousing the night away in St Kitts. The government claimed the money came primarily from the private sector, but then mystifyingly declined to name the contributors.”

But Sri-Lanka receives AID money from the West and others and depends on income from maids. The second largest source of foreign exchange ($2.5 billion) comes from remittances from one million maids, who are mostly Singhalese and Muslims. They work in the Middle East under disgusting conditions including physical abuse, rape and murder.

The Rajapaksa regime appears to have no problem in funding expensive parties and useless projects!

MahamaharajaNov 22nd 2011 16:24 GMT

It is indeed good that Sri Lanka did not get the Games — the corruption would no doubt bring down the whole country. With respect to the location, I don’t understand what the issue is. Hamabantota has been neglected from the colonial period all the way to the present day. Sorely lacking in investment and infrastructure, no one will begrudge attempts to improve conditions there for the poor masses — the problem is not the location or the goal, but the implementation would have been tainted by corruption, and it is for this reason that it is good the bid was lost.

On the other hand, it is also true that most of the Games to date have been held in the three most developed countries of the Commonwealth, with most of the medals also going to these nations. Perhaps Sri Lanka and the rest of the poor nations should get the message and leave the organization?

As far as naming of new infrastructure projects after leaders – that’s the tradition in most of Asia. The Bandaranayake International Airport is similarly named after a former leader, so what?

The Tamil parties can moan all they want. The point is that Jaffna was the second richest city and district on the island, after Colombo, until 1983 when the Tamil elite unleashed their terrorist menace upon the Sinhalese. Now the whole province is in ruins, but really, they brought it on themselves.

I think now they will understand at the very least that the notoriously easy-going Sinhalese Buddhists aren’t so easily going to give up even one iota of their ancient homeland to foreign barbarian terrorists whose claims to the land are fantastical and without demographic, historical or archeological evidence to support it. They bet against the house and lost. That’s life.

Anyway, there’s always Tamil Nadu for Tamil supremacists who don’t want to live as equals in Sri Lanka (you know, without British-era privileges). The ferry service is up and running, take the ride: it’s just 20 miles.

guest-iwnmiisin reply to MahamaharajaNov 22nd 2011 16:53 GMT

I hope you know the meaning of the equal rights… check the dictionary – not the one published in SL by the Govt, the one published by Oxford — Tamils did not have equal rights since 1947… Do you remember what happened to Banda-Selva pact and many others, which were supposed to have given the equal rights. WAKE UP AND LOOK AT THE WORLD THROUGH CLEAR GLASSES AND NOT SINHALA ONLY GLASSES…

Mahamaharajain reply to guest-iwnmiisNov 22nd 2011 18:24 GMT

Rubbish. Pray tell, what rights are actually denied the Tamils? Can they not form political parties (which call for the murder of Sinhalese Buddhists and the destruction of the country)? Can they not vote? Can they not run businesses (Tamils dominate the business sector through an racial network)? Aren’t Tamil children educated in Tamil language classes? Can they not own land anywhere in the contry, including dominating the plushest suburbs such as Colombo 7?

The Sinhalese are the ones denied their rights — they can’t buy land in the north, but Tamils can buy land even in the Sinhalese heartland of Kandy. The only group ethnically cleansed was the tens of thousands of Sinhalese families evicted by the LTTE from their ancestral homes in Jaffna in the 1990s (unreported by the Economist). The only people being colonised are the Sinhalese — Tamils now make up the majority of the population of Colombo (this happened through the war years, but why did it happen if they were facing "genocide"?). Stop this nonsense, you can’t hide the truth with your lies.

Tamils continued to dominate the professions, civil service, judiciary and government until 1956. They did this not through merit or superior intelligence, but through leaking examination papers to Tamil schools and choosing Tamil candidates over Sinhalese whenever possible. The Tamil elite discriminated against both the Sinhalese Budddhist majority through the continuation of British-era Tamil-dominated apartheid government, and against the so-called "low caste" Tamils who form the majority of the Tamil population. The removal of these privileges and restoration of true democracy on the island in the 1950s is what led to all the Tamil agitations — the pinnacle of which was the reprehensible Tamil terrorist movement, brazenly declared in the 1976 Vaddukkoddai Resolution which called on the Tamil youth to kill Sinhalese Buddhists wherever they were found.

Furthermore, the various "pacts" were forced down Sri Lanka’s throat by the Indian hegemon as a means of pacifying India’s nascent Tamil nationalist movement. They were undemocratic, but they were adhered to.

Sadly, you Tamils have fallen right for all the Indian trickery and butchered innocent Sinhalese when the real battle should have been to free your actual homeland, Tamil Nadu, from the clutches of the clowns in New Delhi — but given the Tamil elite’s propensity for violence and murder, I hasten to add that by "battle" I mean political battle, and not the terrorism which the Tamil racists created — which is now almost synonymous with the Tamil people — and spread to Alqaeda and Hamas.

wkpin reply to MahamaharajaNov 22nd 2011 21:38 GMT

I do not necessarily agree with Mahamaraja, nor I deny everything he has stated here. Tamils do have some problems. Especially, when it comes to administration purposes( Administration of justice, divisional secretariat etc). Tamils do not get translators everywhere. I have witnessed some sinhalese people mistreating tamils( in the government offices), for not speaking the sinhala language. I would definitely say that poor tamil people have a more difficult time than their sinhalese counterparts in identical situations.

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