Thursday 18th April, 2024

Tourist arrivals are on the increase, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Prestigious international travel guides are very generously promoting Sri Lanka as a must-visit tourist destination. Lonely Planet says ‘endless beaches, timeless ruins, welcoming people, oodles of elephants, rolling surf, cheap prices, fun trains, famous tea and flavourful food make Sri Lanka irresistible’. The New York Times has ranked Negombo as one of the ‘52 Places to Go in 2024’. There have been numerous rave reviews, in international travel publications, about tourist attractions in Sri Lanka. But all it takes to spoil a pot of milk is said to be a smidgeon of cow dung.

A couple of videos doing the rounds on the Internet have exposed some eatery owners’ unspeakably exploitative practices such as overcharging foreign tourists and verbally abusing them. One of them is seen threatening a foreign tourist, who refuses to pay as much as Rs. 1,900 for a kottu roti, in Colombo. He was arrested on Tuesday and released on bail yesterday. The police deserve praise for prompt action.

Eatery owners are not alone in exploiting foreign tourists and hurling abuse at them; some taxi operators also exact exorbitant amounts as fare from unsuspecting foreigners, who are without anyone to turn to. Numerically insignificant as such uncivilised, greedy elements who turn aggressive and abusive at the drop of a hat may be, their sordid operations tarnish the image of the country. This is something that the state institutions tasked with promoting tourism, and all those who are engaged in the hospitality industry ought to take cognizance of.

It must be made mandatory for prices to be prominently displayed in all business places to prevent customers, including foreign tourists, from falling prey to unscrupulous businesspersons. Taxis must not be allowed to operate unless they are equipped with tamper-proof fare meters, and information about their drivers is displayed, as in countries like Singapore. The need for all taxies including trishaws to be strictly regulated to protect the rights of commuters cannot be overemphasised. Ride-hailing companies may be the best option for foreign tourists, who seek hassle-free travel.

Sri Lankans themselves suffer savage exploitation at the hands of rapacious businesses. There are various organisations representing the interests of the business community. They are making multiple demands ranging from debt moratoriums to the suspension of parate executions. They, no doubt, deserve relief and a leg-up to regain stability in these hard times, but they must be mindful of their responsibilities.

It is incumbent upon them to ensure that their members refrain from unethical practices that bring the entire business community into disrepute. They are responsible for the so-called ‘greedflation’, which has caused the prices of commodities and services to remain extremely high despite a significant decrease in the inflation rate.

Business leaders never miss an opportunity to pontificate to politicians about the virtues of transparency, integrity, etc., but shouldn’t they put their house in order before being critical of others. The rupee has been rallying against the US dollar, during the past several weeks, and the cost of production has decreased significantly, but the prices of essential commodities are increasing. Eatery owners and bakers are among those who are making a killing at the expense of the public.

The Consumer Affairs Authority is in a deep slumber, as is its wont, and it must be shaken awake and made to carry out its duties and functions diligently. It needs a radical shake-up, for some of its officials are believed to be compromised. Its much-publicised raids have stopped and traders are exploiting the public with impunity. The victims of fleecing have no alternative but to suffer in silence, and foreign travellers’ predicament is even worse for obvious reasons.

The government spends colossal amounts of state funds on tourism promotion events overseas. While such gimmicks may be necessary to attract tourists, many issues remain unaddressed at home. There is a pressing need to take stringent action against the rapacious rogues preying on foreign tourists and Sri Lankans alike.

Wednesday 17th April, 2024

The SJB and the JVP-led NPP have been challenging each other to a debate on the economy, for the past several weeks. They are like two boisterous tipplers engaged in a shebeen brawl. The NPP is said to be trying to drag President Ranil Wickremesinghe also into the debate, which is not likely to take place before the next presidential election.

President Wickremesinghe has already unveiled his economic recovery plan for all practical purposes. In fact, he is implementing it and has shown some tangible results. He has made quite a few unpopular decisions to straighten up the economy; the political fallout thereof has become grist for the mill where the Opposition is concerned.

The SJB and the NPP have been shedding copious tears for the public and promising to deliver them from their suffering. It looks as if they were competing with each other to make the highest number of promises in the shortest possible time. Both of them have pledged to bring the cost of living down, and grant relief to the public. But they will not reveal how they are going to do so without derailing the ongoing efforts to rebuild the economy. They are blowing hot and cold on the IMF bailout programme, which hurts the public but is a prerequisite for economic recovery. They would have us believe that they will renegotiate the IMF programme, if they are voted into office, but there is no guarantee that they will succeed in their endeavour. They have stopped short of revealing what they intend to do in case the IMF refuses to renegotiate bailout terms.

There is no gainsaying that the SLPP-UNP government has become a metaphor for corruption and ineptitude, and it will have to rid itself of the corrupt elements in its ranks and mend its ways if it is to be able to revitalise the economy. But that does not mean its rivals are paragons of virtue and mavens capable of turning the economy around overnight.

The Yahapalana government (2015-2019) failed mainly because its ministers could not run their ministries properly, much less live up to the people’s expectations. Many of them are currently in the SJB, whose seniors also have a history of defending the corrupt; they unflinchingly backed the Treasury bond racketeers to the hilt. They are also responsible for the reckless borrowing during the Yahapalana government, in which they were Cabinet ministers. That regime issued International Sovereign Bonds to the tune of more than USD 10 billion, according to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Thus, the SJB worthies, too, have made a huge contribution to the country’s debt burden.

The JVP claims to be able to govern the country and manage the economy better than any other party. But it is caught up in a duality of socialism and capitalism. It has not abandoned its original Revolutionary Policy Declaration based on Marxist ideals. It will have to sort out its economic policy contradictions and explain why it failed to retain control over the Tissamaharama Pradeshiya Sabha (PS), which it won more than two decades ago by promising to turn it into a model local government authority. If it had run that PS to the satisfaction of the public, it would have been able to remain unbeaten therein. So, the biggest challenge before the JVP will be to convince the public that it is equal to the much bigger task of governing the country and resolving the economic crisis. Talking the talk is one thing, but walking the walk is quite another.

Political parties are notorious for infusing the public with false hopes ahead of elections. The SLFP once went to the extent of promising ‘rice from the moon’ to win elections. So, the season of promises has dawned with only a few months to go before the next presidential election.

One can only hope that the people, who are usually easy prey for crafty politicians, will act wisely and make rational decisions when they vote next time. But this is a country where tens of thousand of people, including the so-called educated ones, flocked to a faraway village, a few years ago, and jostled and shoved to secure bottles of Dhammika peniya, a kind of herbal syrup, produced by a carpenter-turned shaman, and touted as a cure for Covid-19. There’s the rub.

Tuesday 16th April, 2024

Ruling party politicians in Sri Lanka are unarguably more equal than others, like the Pigs in Orwell’s Animal Farm, but their counterparts in the developed world are not so lucky. Not that all politicians in the so-called five-star democracies are much better than the ones we are burdened with; the developed nations, too, have tainted politicians to contend with, but never can such characters rise above the law.

Norway’s Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol had to resign the other day. What prompted her to step down had nothing to do with malpractices in the health sector under her purview. She had to resign owing to an allegation that she had plagiarised some academic works in her Master’s thesis, submitted in 2021. No sooner had Nord University launched a probe into the allegation against her than she tendered her resignation. She did so at the behest of Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Going by the stern action the Norwegian government has taken against Kjerkol over a plagiarism allegation, it is not difficult to imagine what would have befallen her if she had been accused of being involved in a procurement racket at the expense of the lives of patients and the public purse. This is in sharp contrast to the manner in which the government of Sri Lanka has chosen to act in respect of the prosecution of its former Health Minister.

Keheliya Rambukwella remains a Cabinet minister in spite of facing prosecution and being held on remand for a procurement racket carried out on his watch as the Minister of Health. The allegation against Kjerkol pales into insignificance in comparison to the charges against Rambukwella, the most damning one being the purchase of a consignment of fake immunoglobulin, which has reportedly claimed several lives in government hospitals and caused huge losses to the state coffers. Having failed to prevent the prosecution of Rambukwella, the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government is now doing everything in its power to make his stay in remand prison comfortable. The government unashamedly defended Rambukwella when a motion of no confidence was moved against him last year.

Curiously, the Prison Department experiences a shortage of buses whenever it has to take Rambukwella to court, and uses a van to transport him! Politicians with links to the government in power never languish in crowded cells in remand prisons; they stay in prison hospitals, instead.

Kjerkol is not alone in her predicament. Plagiarism has cost another Norwegian politician her Cabinet post. In January, 2024, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education Sandra Borch had to resign when it was revealed that some sections of her Master’s thesis had been plagiarised. She lost her degree as a result. In this country, politicians’ children are said to be able to sit examinations, unsupervised, in separate rooms, where they receive help from their private tutors to answer questions, pass out and practise law, of all things.

Last year, Prime Minister Støre dismissed Norway’s Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, whose husband was exposed for making questionable financial deals that could have had some influence on her ministerial duties. Several other Norwegian ministers have also had to step down over allegations of various malpractices. Such is Norway’s determination to ensure the probity and integrity of its politicians.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is the head of government, is known for his affinity for Norwegians. He went so far as to involve them in conflict resolution here in the early noughties though they were accused of being partial to the LTTE. Special Norwegian peace envoy, Erik Solheim, made no bones about his partiality to the LTTE, but President Wickremesinghe has appointed him a Presidential Advisor on Climate Change. Shouldn’t Wickremesinghe emulate Norwegian PM Støre and remove Rambukwella from the Cabinet forthwith?

Most of all, how can Sri Lanka’s creditors, whose consent for external debt restructuring is a prerequisite for economic revival here, be expected to repose trust in a government, which allows its members to enrich themselves at the expense of the public and the state coffers, and even function as members of the Cabinet from behind bars?