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As the Government is determined to revive the COVID-19-hit tourism industry despite fresh Omicron variant challenges, there seem to be more challenges along the recovery period.

This time — it is due to the mismanagement of the economy resulting in soaring inflation and forex shortage for imports.

Issuing a revised Global Travel Advisory for Sri Lanka under the subsection of “Economic situation” on Friday, the Canadian government advised its citizens who were planning to visit the island nation to be aware of the grassroots level situation.

The travel advisory said: “The economic situation is deteriorating in Sri Lanka. The economic crisis is leading to shortages of basic necessities including medicines, fuel and food. The economic instability may affect the delivery of public services, including healthcare. Limited access to resources could also contribute to a deterioration in the security environment.”

It also urged potential Canadian visitors to take some precautionary steps to tackle the situation which many Sri Lankans have been experiencing for some months. The recommended steps are as follows:

n    Keep supplies of food, water
and fuel on hand in case of
lengthy disruptions.

• Long line-ups may be experienced at grocery stores, gas stations, and pharmacies.
• Monitor local media for information related to food and fuel shortages.

One of the Canadians stranded at a railway station in Colombo due to the strike this week told journalists that though he had booked a ticket and called over at the station, he was told that trains were not operating.

Tourism industry experts pointed out that given the current economic situation the country was going through, it would be extremely difficult to attract foreign tourists at a time when those countries themselves were experiencing significant inflation due to global supply delays. How much the Canadian travel advisory is going to stop Canadian tourists coming to Sri Lanka, however, is a moot point. Most of them are Canadians of recent Sri Lankan origin who have family and apartments in this country. They are not likely to be so easily stopped by a travel advisory.

Passport to crisis
Sri Lanka, Lebanon and Sudan share the same position of 102nd out of 111 in a global passport ranking compiled by Henley & Partners based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – the largest, most accurate travel information database.

The index noted that holders of a Sri Lankan passport are allowed visa-free entry to 41 countries. Of these 22 countries provide visa on arrival services to Sri Lankan passport holders.

Lebanon is also undergoing a severe economic crisis with forex shortage and the total collapse of its economic sector made it even worse in recent months.

Once Asia’s rice bowl now a begging bowl

Last week’s visit by China Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Colombo was to coincide with the launch of the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the historic Rubber-Rice Pact and the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Sri Lanka and China, according to the Chinese embassy in Colombo.

But as most of the top government Ministers and ambassadors have been given tasks of securing Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) for the country to face economic challenges, Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena took the opportunity to ask for a ‘bowl of rice’ from China.

Addressing the media this week, Minister Gunawardena spoke in detail of the historic 70th anniversary of the Sino-Lanka rubber-rice pact and finally requested China to donate rice to commemorate the event.

His request came in the wake of reports suggesting an impending rice shortage in the coming months due to a sharp drop in local paddy cultivation owing to the fertiliser ban and inadequacy of forex to import rice.

What a sad state of affairs when the country which had reached self-sufficiency in rice and was knows as the rice bowl of Asia is going around begging to feed its people.

Hindi Day at Indian High Commission: The ceremony was followed by first Hindi lecture to Sri Lankan police

NE police lack Tamil proficiency, but India begins Hindi lessons

In most of the police stations in the Northern and Eastern provinces, it is still an uphill task to get police statements recorded in Tamil — a national language together with Sinhala.

Most police officers are not bilingual and there is a dearth of Tamil
speaking personnel.

In neighbouring India, the government is pushing its own controversial ‘Hindi’ language agenda but it was met with resistance in non-Hindi speaking states which allege the move challenges the each state’s autonomy and goes against the state’s languages policy.

In Colombo, the Indian High Commission on Monday launched a ‘Hindi Proficiency Course’ for Sri Lanka Police personnel to mark the World Hindi Day. The programme was attended by 70 senior Police officers and officials of the Sri Lanka Police service. The inaugural programme was followed by the first Hindi lessons for Sri Lanka Police personnel.

Public Security Ministry Secretary, Retired Major General Jagath Alwis said the special Hindi course would help in strengthening the cultural relations between the two countries and in the promotion of tourism, according to a statement issued by the High Commission.

It is still unclear whether the one time battle-hardened top military officer meant ‘police officials becoming tourist guides’ in future when they become competent in Hindi. In Italy, some cities brought in Chinese policemen to help Chinese tourists. At least this step might be better than having Indian cops — or Chinese cops on beat duty in Sri Lanka.

Moragoda promotes Modi’s controversial Aadhar card for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is used to adopting programmes put in place by other nations before coming up with its own schemes — sometimes despite heavy opposition and criticism of such projects.

The latest, in the making is to adopt a project similar to India’s Adhar card scheme introduced by Indian Premier Narendra Modi and it is considered as the world’s largest biometric ID system.

The scheme met with severe criticism relating to legal consequences of sharing data with law enforcement agencies, the security of the data and obviously privacy issues.

“We’re planning to use the Aadhar card as a template for Sri Lanka’s National Identity card. Our president is enthusiastic about it. He’s also the minister in-charge of science and technology. Those discussions are ongoing,” Sri Lankan High commissioner Milinda Moragoda said in an interview with the Hindustan Times this week.

Playing down the Chinese presence on the island and the recent visit by the Chinese Foreign Minister who declared that no “third party” should interfere in China-Sri Lanka relations, Mr. Moragoda said: “For us, the relationship with India is the relationship with India. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa always has a very pithy way of putting things and when he was asked about this, he always said China is a very close friend, but India is our brother and sister.”

“The west terminal [at the Colombo port] and the tank farm are two very important transactions. As I see it, the two sides should move seamlessly into the strategic area,” he said, adding he perceived the Trincomalee deal as “integrating Sri Lanka with India in the petroleum, oil and gas sector”.

Cabraal plays politics as Central Bank Governor

One of the criticisms Central Bank Governor and one time State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal has faced since assuming duties is that he continues to act as if he is still a government minister and an MP rather than the CB Governor.

At media conferences, he has steadfastly defended the Government’s financial policy and publicly attacked those who have been critical of it. He is being a politician rather than the Governor of the Central Bank. On the other hand, he claims he has cabinet rank and therefore might well be able to talk through two hats.

Mr Cabraal also remains highly active on Twitter, and while there is nothing wrong with that, some of his tweets continue to sound as if they come from a member of the Government.

Consider the following tweet he sent out last Monday (10) after the Government assured that it would meet the repayment of a USD 500 million worth of International Soverign Bonds (ISB) this month. Some leading economists have questioned the Government’s strategy of using the remaining foreign reserves to pay off the ISB at a time when the people are going though a severe struggle to make ends meet. They have said the Government should use the reserves for the welfare of the people and warned that spending what little foreign reserves the country has left to pay off loans will have catestrophic consequences for the people.

“The individuals who screamed that #SriLanka WOULDN’T be able to #pay the Jan22 #ISB maturity are now screaming that we SHOULDN’T pay it, when WE ARE READY TO MAKE PAYMENT. At the same time, Sri Lanka’s #imports INCREASED in ‘21 to $21.6 bn, from $16.1 in ‘20 & $19.9 in ‘19. #GoSL,” Mr Cabraal claimed in his tweet, where he emphasised some words
in capital letters.

Some twitter users mocked the CB Governor over his tweet. They included National People’s Power (NPP) MP Dr Harini Amarasuriya. “More often than not ANC forgets that he is no longer an MP and in fact the Governor of the Central Bank,” she tweeted in response. Meanwhile, others noticed that Mr Cabraal had moved to hide a tweet from a user who asked him to “Hire a 16 year old to manage your Twitter first.”

Railway union derails long weekend holiday plans

Looking at the daily happenings in governance, one may wonder whether there is a government in place or it is losing its grip on the state bureaucracy and trade unions.

Hours before the Thai Pongal festival holiday and a long weekend ahead, many pre-planned their holidays in the outstations while city dwellers scheduled trips to their hometowns. In addition to them are the backpacker foreign tourists and YouTube vloggers who had already made travel plans by reserving tickets.

Then came the ‘shock’ of an announcement by the Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters’ Union declaring an arbitrary 24-hour token strike starting from Thursday midnight. Some 200 train journeys were cancelled because of the strike.

The worst part of the strike is that not all union members ofwere informed of the strike. A Northern Province Railway employee who was scheduled to visit his family in Colombo came to know this when he received a call from one of his
colleagues. That is the state of affairs within the trade union. There was no prior announcement to the public either.

As a result, train services plunged into chaos with a large number of passengers and foreign tourists stranded at railway stations for hours.

Angry passengers resorted to violence by pelting stones at the Colombo bound ’Meenagaya’ intercity express train from Batticaloa at Kekirawa, damaging windows and windscreens.

It did not end there. Hours later, after they called off the strike, the union again launched a second wildcat strike with immediate effect against the decision taken by the Railways General Manager to interdict the vice chairman of the union.

As usual, hours later the union announced it was back at work following discussions with the Government. Special police teams are deployed in railway stations now. An agitated local passenger was heard asking a fellow passenger:” is it possible to engage in a surprise strike even after railway service was declared an essential service?