Thoughts from London

Beware of Britons bearing gifts
Beware of Britons bearing gifts It was the inimitable Sir John Kotelawala, one time Prime Minister and raconteur par excellence, who said that Sri Lankans will take anything free- even a headache.

This habit has not only gathered momentum since the days of Sir John but has also taken new forms so that the average citizen cannot get legitimate business done without handing out a "santhosam", a nice euphemism for a bribe or a 'cut'.

Why not, some might legitimately ask, when ministers and politicians up the party ladder, not to mention high ranking officials have earned such sobriquets as "Mister 10 percent" and the "Twenty percent Man".

Of course when our leaders, oozing with moral rectitude, have their percentage deposited in some off shore bank they maintain a deafening silence and a demeanour appropriate to one about to be elevated to some moral stratosphere beyond the reach of us ordinary mortals- so pure are they.

But when some thing is offered free, often from a foreign country that in historical times plundered our lands and our resources, such bearers of gifts are greeted with clamorous shouts of joy and delight.

In eras gone by such friendly foreigners would be carried in palanquins shoulder high and treated with the honour and decorum reserved for royalty. What times, what customs! Where were the trumpets, the waving flags, the gok kola decorations and the sound of conch shells that should have heralded a unique gift that no other country in the world has had the privilege of seeing, touching or even spitting at.

Here was Sri Lanka chosen from an agglomeration of nations that seemed to be multiplying faster than jack-rabbits, to be the sole beneficiary of a new British system for the issuance of visas to that country.

What a proud day for every Sri Lankan wherever he may be. Like a Divine hand that fell on a person in need of salvation, the collective mind of the British Government browsed the world and chose this little island on which to bestow its biometric largesse of finger prints and all.

What is it that has made our people so lethargic or hesitant to respond to such a gracious offer from the epicentre of what was the world's largest empire?

In the old days they would have pulled out the bottles of arrack, shouted to the cooks residing in some dark dungeon to prepare the "taste" and broken into song with a deafening rendition of "Moratu kollo baila natanna". And if somewhere in the attic of forgotten things there was a tattered old Union Jack it would have been resurrected and tied to the kos gaha and praise lavished on King and Country until the devilled beef or fish arrived to further enliven the proceedings.

Cha, chaa, today all those niceties have been replaced by the more mundane tasks of killing each other as political mayhem takes over from the canons of civilised social conduct.

The head of Special Projects of the British Home Office Richard Pearce-Higginsbottom, oops sorry, Higginson who came all the way to install the system that will fingerprint any Sri Lankan who goes anywhere near the British High Commission seeking an entry visa, was quoted in this newspaper as saying: "There were other countries but Sri Lanka was chosen".

What an honour, what glory, what utter rubbish. It was because we readily accepted it, in the true spirit of taking even a headache free. The British Government's announcement of this so-called pilot project came after the visit to London of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando, Constitutional Affairs Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris and Economic Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda.

During that visit all or some of the delegation met Home Secretary David Blunkett who has been subjected to severe criticism at home for his reactionary and anti-asylum views.

There is little doubt that this new visa scheme- or should it be visa scam-was discussed with the Sri Lankan ministers and their blessings obtained.

Along with criminals Sri Lankans wanting to enter the UK are the only persons subject to fingerprinting. At least the criminals go through it after having committed an offence.
Sri Lanka visa seekers are a class lower than those convicts that Mother England shipped off to Australia because they were too offensive to the stiff upper lip of the British to remain.

But 200 years or so later the Labour government of Blair, Brown and Blunkett do not have enough brains collectively to formulate a system that largely prevents bogus asylum seekers.

So others must go through the ignominious process of being treated as potential criminals even before they have left Sri Lanka's shores. And this treatment is being meted out with the acquiescence of our leaders. Such is the price the country has to pay because of our increasing servility to the so-called "international community".

High Commission spokesperson Margaret Tongue was quoted as saying that one reason for Colombo's selection was that the mission there was a busy one.

Perhaps her tongue was in the other cheek when she said that. The High Commission has been busy because unscrupulous officials were making money farming out visas to Vietnamese and Indians while waiting Sri Lankans roasted the roadside.

It has been known for years that high commission officials were selling visas or demanding other favours for visas. Many were granted to would-be asylum seekers.
So let the British clean their fingers before trying to point at our spots over bogus asylum seekers. Without facing the truth over disappearing blank British passports and other shenanigans at the Home Office, Blunkett's blunderers are looking for scapegoats on whom to hang their dismal failures.

Last Wednesday's 2 ½ hours long BBC "Panorama" programme closely examined the asylum issue. Among the criticisms was that even with the fingerprinting of asylum seekers, the Home Office was still unable to detect persons who registered again under a different name when such detection was expected to be quick and failsafe.
Blunkett was quoted as saying that Britain will have "to climb a mountain" to come up with an efficient system.

Perhaps the British High Commission should make a collective journey to Pidurutalagala instead of bullying Sri Lanka with words of mass discouragement.

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