Editorial
Udayanga, Covid and Tourism
Nobody in his right senses would object to reopening the country to tourism if, and that is a very big if, the necessary precautions are in place to prevent such a measure triggering a new Covid wave here. This is imperative in the context of the ongoing global pandemic and is something that does not need underlining. Given the fact that our economy is greatly dependent on tourism earnings, and the livelihoods of hundred of hundreds of thousands of Lankans depend on this industry, even the smallest tentative step taken in that direction must be welcomed. This is what the concerned authorities attempted to do by bringing in some tourist groups from Ukraine into the country towards the end of last year with the first flights landing at the Mattala International Airport at Christmas time.
Whether this attempt has blown up in the faces of those who tried to swing it is something that is yet to be finally determined. There have been three positive Covid infected persons in the first tour group that arrived here. Some of these holidaymakers have already left the country, cutting short their vacations in the wake of the many necessary restrictions that had to be imposed to ensure that nothing untoward happens as a result of their arrival. There has been a public spat between Ms. Kimarli Fernando, the chairperson of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, and Mr. Udayanga Weeratunga, Sri Lanka’s former ambassador to Russia and Ukraine, over the bringing of these tourists here. Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has backed Fernando. It is public knowledge that Weeratunga is a close kinsman (first cousin) of the ruling Rajapaksa clan. The media has leaped on the fact that his official address has been published as Temple Trees, Colombo.
Therein lies the rub. It was nearly a century ago that a British judge, Lord Hewart, pronounced that “It is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly, be seen to be done.” That famous quotation flowing from a minor court action involving a motorcycle accident and a fine of a mere 10 British pounds (even though money had a different value at the time) has since been accepted as basic norm of justice systems and become a common aphorism. What has been universally accepted in the judicial sphere must also necessarily apply elsewhere; and the fact that a close kinsman of the ruling family, a businessman with a well known past who had previously enjoyed Rajapaksa patronage, was chosen to pilot the ‘pilot project’ is a matter of no little consequence.
However that be, it can be credibly argued that Weeratunga was very well placed, or may even be said best placed, to kick start a project of reopening Sri Lanka’s beleaguered tourism industry to a Covid-wracked world. He had all the contacts and political muscle (not only here but also in Ukraine where he was once accredited) needed to get the project going. He has for good or bad, successfully or not, got it started. These obviously were factors that were weighed carefully before the first tourist flights from Ukraine were allowed into the country under his wing. Apart from the detection of the three Covid infected tourists, there have been video clips of the visitors with face masks covering just their chins widely telecast. Safari jeep drivers in Tissamaharama hired to drive the visitors to the Yala National Park have kicked up a public row over being quarantined following that assignment. Opposition politicians have waded into the fray alleging crony capitalism in the manner in which the business arising from the few flights that have already arrived has been allocated. The concerned authorities have been compelled to admit that there have been “shortcomings” in the experiment that was attempted.
But it is clear that what has been started will not be abandoned in the face of mounting pressure. It was reported on Friday that a fifth Ukranian flight had landed at Mattala the day before. The tourism minister, acknowledging the negatives already encountered, is on record saying that despite some hiccups the project was on track. There is no denying Ranatunga’s claim that what is being attempted is of pivotal importance to the country and it is to be hoped that all possible cooperation to make it succeed will be offered regardless of personal considerations. Weeratunga who was for long a fugitive from the law, and who attracted an Interpol Red Alert, did neither himself nor his patrons any credit by boasting that no indictment was served on him and that “I was smarter than them” (the law enforcers) appears to be going strong. Approximately 800 tourists from Ukraine have already arrived here and total of ten flights from there are due before the Bandaranaike International Airport is reopened on January 21. While the expected figure of nearly 2,600 tourists from that country is not likely to be achieved before the reopening of the BIA – previously postponed – with some of the previous bookings canceled, the majority will be coming, a report said.
UNWTO, the tourism agency of the United Nations has set up a Global Tourism Crisis Committee and developed a sector-wide response to the unprecedented challenges now facing numerous countries greatly dependent on tourism on both economic and employment considerations. The first set of recommendations in this regard has already been presented. We have no doubt that the concerned authorities here are keenly studying how the rest of the world is tackling the challenge. Each country will have problems that are unique to itself and will have to innovate measures to combat them. We too must do the same. So let us give a chance to what is being attempted without rushing to too hasty conclusions.
Saturday 8th June, 2024
It was with shock and dismay that we received the news about death threats to COPF (Committee on Public Finance) Chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva over the ongoing parliamentary probe into the on-arrival visa scam. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in Parliament, that he was facing death threats and intimidation, and it was incumbent upon Parliament to ensure his safety. He stopped short of naming names, but revealed that some ruling party MPs were among those who had ganged up against him. The Speaker only said there had been no complaint, and he would look into the matter.
The SLPP-UNP government has been doing everything in its power to have all parliamentary committees under its thumb. The COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises), which once helped restore public faith in the legislature by exposing state sector corruption, has now become a mere appendage of the incumbent regime, thanks to the appointment of SLPP MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena as its Chairman. The SLPP-UNP combine also tried to oust COPF Chairman Dr. de Silva, but in vain. However, it knows more than one way to shoe a horse.
The COPF, under Dr. de Silva’s chairmanship, has been a thorn in the side of the government, which is struggling to cover up numerous corrupt deals. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Parliament that he found it extremely difficult to function as the COPF head due to severe resource constraints his committee was facing; he himself had to pay the salaries of some of his staff members besides burning the midnight oil.
The sheer workload he had to cope with as the COPF chief had taken its toll on his health, he said, informing the Speaker that he was at the end of his tether, and at times thought of resigning from the COPF. This is exactly what the government wants him to do; resource squeezes and threats are aimed at making him quit.
On 26 May, Dr. de Silva revealed, in an ‘X’ post, that the COPF had uncovered some vital information about the visa scam and it would reveal everything after its final meeting on the issue; the COPF was committed to exposing the truth behind the controversial tender, he added. In an editorial comment on 27 May, we warned him.
While thanking him for his bold stand, we pointed out that by making such a statement, he had thrown caution to the wind, and become a marked target, with the government making an all-out effort to delay the COPF investigation lest the truth should come out much to the detriment of its interests in this election year. Unfortunately, what was feared has come about; Dr. de Silva is complaining of death threats and government moves to strangulate the COPF financially to derail its investigations.
Dr. de Silva’s predicament exemplifies the fate that befalls the few good men and women in Parliament. It is hoped that all those who seek an end to the state sector corruption will rally behind Dr. de Silva, and bring pressure to bear on the government to ensure his safety. Let Dr. de Silva be urged to reveal the names of those who have issued threats, veiled or otherwise, to him and are trying to scuttle the COPF probes.
Friday 7th June, 2024
The SLPP-UNP government is going hell for leather to make bad laws as if there were no tomorrow. It is abusing its parliamentary majority, which has been retained with the help of some crossovers, for that purpose. The Opposition, the media and trade unions are up in arms, and understandably so. The incumbent regime is a dead man walking; it is so desperate that it is capable of anything. Hence the need for it to be restrained.
The Electricity (Amendment) Bill (EAB) plunged Parliament into turmoil yesterday, but the government secured its passage. The Supreme Court (SC) determined the entire EAB inconsistent with the Constitution and recommended changes thereto. After unveiling the Bill, sometime ago, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera hailed it as an excellent piece of legislation aimed at straightening up the power sector to serve the public interest better.
The SC determination left him with egg on his face. He reminded us of the proverbial curate who, while eating a stale egg, assured his host, a Bishop, that parts of it were excellent. Wijesekera’s egg, as it were, made Parliament stink yesterday, but he sought to please his masters by praising it as a silver bullet.
EAB should have been discarded and a new one drafted in consultation with all stakeholders. But the government is apparently driven by an ulterior motive; its aim is not to serve Sri Lanka’s interests but to look after those of some moneybags.
It is not uncommon for Bills to contain some flaws, which are rectified either before or during the committee stage. But there is something terribly wrong with draft Bills that are full of sections inconsistent with the Constitution. The drafters of EAB have demonstrated their sheer ignorance of the supreme law, and that they are not equal to the task of drafting Bills. If they had read the Constitution at least perfunctorily, they would not have drafted such a bad law.
Ignorant and incompetent, they do not deserve to be paid with public funds and must be sent back to law school. They must be summoned before Parliament and questioned on their serious lapses, which have caused public faith in the national legislature to diminish.
Curiously, the MPs who demand that judges, doctors, Central Bankers, and other public officials be summoned before Parliament have taken badly drafted Bills for granted. The power sector trade unions yesterday alleged that EAB was of Indian origin and geared towards furthering the interests of Adani Group at the expense of Sri Lanka.
Most critics of EAB are agreeable in principle to the need for power sector reforms; the Ceylon Electricity Board should be given a radical shake-up, and transformed into a modern organisation capable of providing a better service at a lower cost. They only asked the government to tread cautiously, consulting all stakeholders and taking action to ensure that the country’s interests prevailed over everything else. But the government was in a mighty hurry to steamroller the Bill through Parliament, making the Opposition ask whether it was doing so at the behest of some external forces involved in controversial power generation deals here.
What is passed by the current Parliament can be either amended or abolished by a future parliament in a constitutionally prescribed manner. But that does not mean that a government is free to pass bad laws, making the country enter into long-term agreements with powerful nations and their investors. It looks as if the SLPP-UNP regime did not care two hoots about the consequences of its actions.
Thursday 6th June, 2024
The outcome of India’s parliamentary election (2024) has led to a ‘perspective ambiguity’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost no time in declaring victory for the BJP-led NDA alliance, which secured 293 seats in the 543-member Parliament, but he must be a worried man. The BJP is short of 32 seats to form a government under its own steam; it has lost 63 seats or about 20% of its parliamentary strength. It had 303 seats in the previous Parliament, and that number has dropped to 240.
Modi has become the second Indian Prime Minister to win a third term. The first PM to do so was Jawaharlal Nehru. But Nehru won an outright majority in Parliament in 1962; Modi has had to depend on smaller parties in his alliance to retain his hold on power. Modi must be reeling from a sharp drop in his victory margin in his own constituency, Varanasi; it has decreased to 152,000 from 480,000 in 2019 whereas Modi’s bete noire, Rahul Gandhi, won Raebareli by a staggering 390,000 votes.
Modi, who reigned supreme with 303 seats in the previous Parliament, is now dependent on parties such as Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP to form a government. He has had to lead an alliance of strange bedfellows. Both Kumar and Naidu were bitter critics of Modi. Kumar helped form the oppositional alliance, the INDIA bloc, before switching his allegiance to PM Modi. Naidu also closed ranks with the BJP in the run-up to the election. These politicians have been described as extremely ambitious and highly unpredictable, and whether Modi will be able to manage them and consolidate his grip on the NDA alliance remains to be seen. They will demand plum ministerial posts in return for their support. The TDP is said to be eyeing Transport and Health portfolios! That is the name of the game in coalition politics, where it is not uncommon for the tail to wag the dog, so to speak. These two political leaders are however not the only problem Modi will have to contend with. The next five years will feel like an eternity for PM Modi.
Nothing would have been more shocking for the BJP than its defeat in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad constituency, where the Ram Mandir has been built. Modi may have thought he would be able to win the Lok Sabha election hands down after the consecration of that temple, which became a centrepiece of the BJP’s election campaign. The BJP lost that seat to the Samajwadi Party! Modi must be disappointed that the Ram Mandir hype failed to trigger a massive wave of support for his party. This particular defeat signifies a massive setback for the BJP’s ethno-religious agenda.
Modi’s divisive election campaign failed to yield the desired result. The BJP’s failure to secure an outright majority could be attributed to a host of factors, some of them being the suppression of the Opposition, the arrogance of power, chronic unemployment, and the rising cost of living. The BJP also did not care to reimage itself in a positive light to attract the youth.
Modi will hereafter see the Congress-led INDIA bloc with 223 seats, in his rearview mirror. The Congress (99 seats) and its allies have eaten into the BJP support base considerably, but they have a long way to go before being able to capture power.
The bumpy ride ahead for the BJP-led coalition government to be formed may improve the INDIA bloc’s chances of bettering their electoral performance and turning the tables on the BJP and its allies in time to come. Modi will have a lot to worry about in his third term.
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