Features
High Jinks at BIA; votes via wage increase; condemnable imports
It may all be sorted out by the time you read Cass’ Cry, but this sort of unbelievable act on the part of our government should be highlighted even after the news goes stale. The fracas at the airport and later revelation was that: “In September 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the appointment of an authorised agent for online visa submissions. Sri Lanka switched to a platform operated by the foreign firms IVS–CBS and VFS Global in mid-April from the electronic travel authorisation system operated by the Department of Immigration and Emigration.”
Now here comes the question WHY? Why the switch from the local authorised department to a foreign ‘organisation’, in other words privatisation? The visa granting operation was running smoothly with Sri Lankan emigration/immigration officials anning desks. It is said they processed clients rapidly with no delays. The video that recorded the passenger’s diatribe showed long queues and congestion. A person said the foreign company had advanced technology. The sensible solution would have been for our visa processing department to acquire the technology and train its officers to use it.
The worst is that the visa fee from incoming persons was increased from $50 to 75 with an additional charge. It was said this extra amount was going to the foreign company that was slyly brought in. Not only was Sri Lanka losing on this visa granting business but the increase surely will reduce our earnings consequent to tourists not coming and others stymied by the increased fee.
Cass smelt that stinking rat that moves among Ministers and gnaws in government departments: that rat which is illegal earnings, bribes, commissions et al. Was someone or some bodies making money on this deal which transferred a money making venture of and for the government to a foreign firm to make more money and carry it away.
Cass heard what Minister of Tourism – Harin Fernando – and Minister of Shipping, Aviation, Ports – Nimal S de Silva had to say. They passed the buck “This matter is not under my ministry”; “I am unaware of it”; “Does not come under my purview”; though that precise term was not used – not in their limited vocabs. But they were in the Cabinet that said OK to this move.
Cass cannot bear to think that a money-making venture destined for our country was coolly palmed off to a foreign outfit and no one would have been the wiser if not for that civic-minded, national-feeling young traveller. In these times of such economic difficulty where people are actually starving and children riddled with malnutrition, anyone who makes money through corruption, more especially government Ministers and MPs and officials, should be mercilessly made to pay for their crimes.
The above was written soon after the traveller at the BIA ranted against the delay in issuing visas by the new foreign company/companies in charge; i.e. May 3.
A banker’s nephew gave Cass a positive picture of the change of visa issuing officers. She was perplexed. A Parliament debate ensued; activists spoke; a highly condemning video was sent to Cass. Then came Tuesday 7 May The Island with the editor writing the lead article on Visa muddle, reinforced in much stronger terms by Dr Upul Wijayawardhana in his article headlined Idiocy of new visa arrangements. I sincerely respect The Island editor’s opinions and expressed views. I found Dr UW suspected hanky-panky or to say it in Cass’ crass way – letting the country go to pot to get money into private pockets. This was her first reaction to the TV news of the shouting traveller.
We now know he is Attorney-at-law Sandaru Kumarasinghe, whose Russian girlfriend was initially refused a visa. He is, Cass believes, an expat who comes home to SL on holiday. The Ministry of Public Security was quick to pounce on him, threatening to take him to court. He made a statement to the Katunayake police.
In this whole mess, which may be proved sordid and illicit money making with great damage to the country and its tourism sector which was earning most needed foreign exchange, Cass’ attention is now focused on Mr Sandaru Kumarasinghe. Is it a punishable crime to express doubt and disapproval loudly in a public place like the Katunayake Airport? He only spoke to all and sundry with not even a hint of violence. Don’t parliamentarians act violently in the chamber that should see respectable behaviour and decorum? This incident highlights the usual political reaction: kill the messenger and hide the greater sins. This person brought up front the diabolical change of visa processing by foreign outfits with damage ensuing to bankrupt Sri Lanka; bankrupted by politicians.
Votes before anything else, country included
Elections are still in the future; not one date specified but all attention of every politician is on winning votes. Lots of goodies are promised, even given already. To Cass the worst is President Ranil Wickremasinghe going to a May Day rally of tea plantation workers and announcing their salary will be increased to Rs.1,700 per day. By whose leave did he make this promise? Did he consult the managers of the country’s tea industry before he made this promise? Did he consider at all expense against profits?
Cass remembers the consternation created among estate superintendents, managers, agency houses et al when workers daily wage was raised to Rs 1,000. Tea was thriving then, markets were good and foreign exchange was earned for the country by the plantations. But the fear was that with increase of payments to labour, earning profits may not be possible. Then came the elected SLPP Prez, G. Rajapaksa, who with his ban on chemical agriculture products dealt a grievous blow to the tea industry along with a near death swipe to rice farmers, vegetable growers and others in agriculture.
When that disaster was met, overcoming it attempted and money earned, there gallops gallant Ranil (actually helicopters) Gotabaya’s successor Prez of the same SLPP Party, to please the estate workers. Their salaries raised a hefty 70% with not a thought to how the plantation sector will run. The Planters’ Association threatened legal action; certainly not in retaliation but to save the industry as a foreign exchange earner for the good of the country after it was bankrupted by governments and politicians.
And the mighty RW’s reactionary order? All hands, meaning lawyers and the judiciary, to save the workers and give them their Rs.1,700, never mind the country getting further mired in poverty and debt.
One cannot comprehend how matters work in this island which was reputed to be Paradise. The snake named Vice is far too active. The apple of votes is too tempting to politicians so they even lose their senses. I and Me before Country!
Imports that stink (of corruption)
Cassandra fell back in horror when her domestic brought home from a Keels outlet Bombay or big onions the size of small coconuts and devilish red in colour. Phoned two friends and was assured that was the kind available all over, imported from India. In addition to their humongous size, they tasted nothing like the real Sri Lankan big onion; rather did its addition to a cutlet mixture give it a watery, glutinous texture.
Cass remembers very clearly about three or four weeks ago seeing open lorries filled with bags of big onions, clearly seen and said to be from Jaffna which had a bumper crop. Where did all those onions go so this country had to import this commodity? She also recalls seeing vegetables and items such as onions being collected by machine-operated large spades as they were rotten, in collecting centres like Dambulla.
For goodness sake why import? Why spend precious foreign exchange (FE) on things such as onions. People can manage for a while without these items. Didn’t we do this to a largish extent when Sirimavo B’s government banned imports in a bid to save FE and our outside reserves rose?
Cass’s functioning brain tells her that artificial shortages are created; imports brought over from India – whatever their quality – and we are forced to buy suspect eggs, nonedible rice and now big enormous onions. Why? There lies the pivotal point. To enrich unscrupulous parasitic traders, dubious and duplicitous importers and unpatriotic hyenas in high posts in the government bureaucracy who are encouraged and facilitated by rapacious, totally unpatriotic MPs and Cabinet Ministers. A most heinous crime at this juncture when the bankrupt country is trying to rise up, at least ensure further loans through pleasing IMF supervisors after debt restructuring.
A usual criminal kills one or more individuals and harms a family. Those in the import racket of bringing below grade stuff from India harm the majority of the people and the country itself. And all for money earned easy and fast. Such inhuman ghouls should be skinned and their carcasses strung along the inner road leading to Parliament. This should-be-given punishment is spelt out by Cass notwithstanding the fact she spreads metta each night and early morning. The crimes mentioned, though economic and not blood-letting nor maiming humans, are heinous. Thus punishments must be horrific too.