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| Wednesday, 23 October 2002 |
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Expatriates, the economy and the cost of dual citizenship Sri Lanka's tourist industry has long considered only non-Sri Lankans as "tourists" who bring revenue to the country. Much is expended in the way of advertising to attract this group of tourists. With large numbers of Sri Lankans leaving the shores for western and other nations seeking education and employment opportunities, many return to the country as "tourists" bringing foreign exchange. However, not much thought has been given to the fact that expatriates are also a vital part of the tourist industry with multiplying generations of migrants who visit the land regularly with or without promotions. There are no accurate statistics to ascertain the exact number of expatriates who have become naturalized citizens of other nations. They visit Sri Lanka, invest in property both movable and immovable and on average are likely to spend more foreign hard currency than the packaged penny pinching tourist. Being that the natives not only spend on themselves while on holiday, they indulge on family members; contribute to charities and other expenditure that would not be in the budget of the traditional foreign tourist, their value must be recognized. The large population of middle income Sri Lankans who have left the country purely for economic reasons are the most likely to repatriate their earnings during and at the end of their employment. Those workers with lower levels of education are the foreign exchange earners who have not taken funds out of the country coffers for higher education or in the form of commissions or other remuneration that can be spirited out of the country. On the contrary, there are others who were educated at state expense, wield political and economic power who seek future security by moving assets offshore from Sri Lanka. Stemming from this, the country needs to bring attention to retiring expatriates who are seeking to return with assets. Many of those in this category are classed as "foreigners" for the purpose of taxation and other penalties imposed on Sri Lankan expatriates because they may have acquired naturalized citizenships. However, not much attention is paid to their value. On the other hand they may be viewed with suspicion. The country should be more welcoming to this group. These are the people who can offer a higher standard of living to their less affluent relatives, generate employment for all levels of skilled workers including domestic workers. They may even be able to pay higher salaries to poor workers. The country must encourage retirees with foreign citizenship to return to the country just as much as they attract foreigners to bring assets to retire with tax shelters in Sri Lanka. Natives have supported the country throughout their working career with remittances, donations to all kinds of services and charities in Sri Lanka while being overseas. Finally, when they choose to return, they are dealt the ultimate blow of being asked to pay for dual citizenship. The stipulation of approximately US$2000 from those who want to return to the country is outrageous and is a deterrent for expatriates. An expatriate will prefer to spend $2000 in Sri Lanka than have to give it to the government to "buy" dual citizenship. Foreign Exchange is no different whether earned from the tourist, exports or from disproportionate mandatory fees levied as punishment for seeking to return home. Dual citizenship should be extended to all those who wish to return with assets and generate employment in Sri Lanka. If a returning expatriate generates one job, that counts as one less in the unemployment statistics. In addition to this insult, the documents required by the Sri Lanka Government in granting dual citizenship could be termed ridiculous without hesitation. Proof of birth for the applicant is understandable but asking for birth certificates going back three generations is absolutely ridiculous being that Sri Lanka is not the most efficient for maintaining records on behalf of its citizens. Who ever designed this system is way behind time and reason. This is another deterrent that is discouraging those who want to return. As the Prime Minister strives hard to bring peace to the country, a beneficial by product of this effort will be that a large proportion of expatriates will want to return to Sri Lanka. Young people with education overseas should be encouraged to return and give new ideas and expertise to the country. Children of expatriates are expected to pay for a visa if they wish to stay over 30 days in Sri Lanka even for volunteer service. In the past, ministers have preached to the young from platforms in Washington DC on national day, encouraging young people to return home. However, when asked if they had a structure or plan in place to make this happen, there was nothing they could offer to those who wished to follow through with such offers. Even the immediate issue of a visa had not been given any thought. The government must pay more attention to the potential that is locked in making it more welcoming for expatriates to return home. In order to do this, expensive advertising for tourism can be diverted to an easier and less costly promotion of dual citizenship to expatriate Sri Lankans. All we need is some creative thinking here. Anjalika Silva, USA --- International Children's Day was celebrated on 1st of October. Just a week before that day, we got the tragic news of a girl who has been raped and killed in a remote village in Hunnasgiriya. This has happened to the tiny 8 year old girl while she was returning home after school. She would have been thinking about her poor little lunch plate at the time she was caught. We saw her school bag and the water bottle near the body. It is very difficult to understand how a human can commit a crime of this nature. The little girl's mother has gone abroad keeping her under the custody of the father and grand mother. Mother would have gone abroad to provide a better life to this little girl. But she had to sacrifice her life. Mother does not have a daughter now. These incidents occur due to the negligence of parents. Our parents think that girls will not be subjected to rape until they attain the puberty. But girls must be well looked after from their birth. In rural areas, they should not be allowed to wander alone in isolated areas. In urban areas, they should not be allowed to travel alone with drivers. Media has to play a big role to educate the masses and make an awareness specially among mothers. If we do not act now, we will hear a similar story again. We heard recently about kidnapping and killing of two girls in UK. British media gave wide publicity to the incident. We saw people offering flowers near their grave yards. In the case of poor little girl from Hunnasgiriya, we did not see such publicity. Even her funeral,what happened to the accused were not shown in any TV channel. Is it because her life is not important to our country? As a father of a little girl of same age, it is very difficult for me to hide my emotions when I think about the sufferings she would have undergone. LALITH WICKRAMARATNE, via email ----- Eradicating global poverty after Johannesberg Summit? After Johannesberg summit, one can no longer have any hope of eradicating poverty in much of the developing world in the foreseeable future. The reasons for widespread pessimism are many. Two of the most important ones are: a) synicism that the richest and the most poverful country in the world demonstrated by the conspecuous absence of its leader at the summit and b) the refusal by the leaders of the developed world to discuss the issue of overconsumption in the West which is at the heart of the global environmental crisis and the absurdly unequal global order. The latter became too evident in a recent BBC news report to the effect that the average weight of adult men and women in the UK increased by about 10% over the past 20 years. This is no doubt a general trend in the developed world reflecting the increasing concentration of wealth in the latter as well as in the hands of the elites in the developing world. It might be useful to monitor the changes in the body weight of the general population in developing countries as well. S. T. HETTIGE ---- It was encouraging to note that the Kaudulla Sanctuary has been declared the 15th National Park of Sri Lanka. In the true tradition of conservation biology the wiser course would have been to do some basic research to find out what are the ecological boundaries of the area is especially of the elephants. This way Kaudulla National Park would have been the first National Park in Sri Lanka that was established taking into consideration the ecological boundaries of its inhabitants, and was not based on administrative decisions. Such as approach would have also helped to circumvent future wildlife-human conflict issues. RAVI COREA, via e-mail ----- I have been making a series of visits to the Department of Wildlife conservation in connection with registering two domestic elephants that I have purchased recently. This should be a mere formality, somewhat like obtaining a revenue licence for your car or even a licence for your dog. I suppose none of the above mentioned things are a "mere formality" in this country and as such the D.W.C. will rest their case! Once one fills the numerous forms,obtains photographs of a size which modern machines cannot print and pays the requisite funds (the calculation of which leads to much conjecture based on VAT, GST etc) before 3.30 pm (I went on the first occasion at 3.28 and was told by a smug cashier that the counter was closed) one is given a truly magnificent example of Government bureaucracy. A letter is needed from the Grama Niladhari of the area in which the owner is living which has to be endorsed by the Divisional Secretariat of that area saying that the elephants are physically with the individual concerned. In my case the elephants are in Mawanella and the local G.N. of the area I live in (Rajagiriya) will have no idea if I have the elephants or not ! Furthermore there is no mention that this letter is required in any of the many forms that one is required to fill. When I asked what the reason was for needing this letter when the original receipt of purchase was available I was told that the DWC had to be sure that the elephant was actually with me. This registering of elephants is a rather clumsy attempt by the authorities concerned to stop people from capturing the elephants that raid their crops and domesticating them. There is a great reluctance among elephant owners to register their elephants and the reason attributed to this is that all elephant owners are law breakers who are collectively waiting for a chance to capture an elephant illegally and use it for their evil purposes. I wish to point out that the main reason for this scheme of registering elephants being such a dismal failure is the ridiculous bureaucracy that surrounds it. Every person who tries to comply with this regulation is treated like a crook and given the run around by the DWC and wishes that they never started this process at all. Furthermore as pointed out regularly in the press, there is a shortage of domesticated elephants in this country leading to a dying out of the ancient art of looking after elephants in captivity. There is a half trained herd of around 60 elephants in Pinnawela . This herd is a time bomb waiting to go off as they cannot be released to the wild (they are too familiar with humans) and they are not trained properly. One of these days two bulls will start fighting in front of a bus load of tourists and the casualty count will make the headlines ! If elephants who are over 15 years old from Pinnawela are auctioned in the time honoured manner the whole problem of all these rules and regulations which cannot be enforced will be redundant. R.A. Ratwatte, Rajagiriya. ----- Every citizen of Sri Lanka will be happy about the announcement made by LTTE in Thailand, that it is prepared to give up the demand for Eelam. What previous governments could not do by war, the present Government has done by its peace initiative. This no doubt is a victory for peace against war. ADAN, Mount Lavinia ---- Parents who are employed have very little time to devote for the children. Teachers at school confine their teaching only for classroom work without any commitment to guide the children to be decent citizens. Some teachers and principals resort to child abuse. Confrontation among the people's representatives has become the order of the day. There is chaos in the supreme body of legislature. Students who visited the Parliament in the past, observed the pandemonium of our worthy representatives. Immature children follow suit and attack fellow students on the slightest provocation. This should be an eye opener for the political hierarchy to keep their House in order and set an example not only to children but to all citizens. It is pathetic to observe complete degeneration of society by the day. It is time that the leaders of our country make an honest attempt to bring about reforms to lead our nation towards a noble society, before we reach a state or anarchy and insanity. SARATH DAHANAYAKE, Colombo 8 ----- The story of a mother elephant being killed to rob its baby certainly kindles fires of rage and anger in this Buddhist country of ours, the ministry under which the wildlife department functions should by all available means and sources put a stop to these brutal acts by enacting severe punishments to those concerned. The wildlife department must at all cost be streamlined to tackle these heartbreaking savagery. They should be provided with adequate vehicles and more powers to apprehend these culprits before the elephant population is completely wiped out from this country. Ours being a major Buddhist country, I believe that the chief Buddhist prelates too should voice their displeasures on these massacres as it is this very noble creature that carries all the Sacred Relics most majestically islandwide as history proclaims. J. V. FERGUSON, Pannipitiya. ----- Frequent power-cuts at Mattegoda The residents of Mattegoda are put into great inconvenience due to frequent power-cuts or power failures, for whatever reason they may be. The wonder is that such happenings are not experienced by the Colombo city dwellers who have an uninterrupted power supply even during peak hours. Why discriminate people living in sub-urban areas who pay their bills at the same tariff according to the number of units consumed? The Ceylon Electricity Board is most concerned in collecting payment on bills for power consumed, and red notices are sent threatening disconnection of power supply, if they are not paid within a specified date. Why does the CEB not provide a better service in return for the money it receives, specially taking into account of the recent increase in tariff rates? Needless to say that the CEB is interested only on its revenue side, regardless of prompt service to the consumer in providing an uninterrupted power supply. Due to frequent power-cuts or power failures, children cannot attend to their studies in the dark, their clothes cannot be ironed in time to get to schools, food in the refrigerators get spoilt, housewives are put into much inconvenience specially after night falls, water pumps come to a standstill and many other things occur to the embarrassment of the householders. Before whom are they to place their grievances? In fairness to the consumer, whoever is responsible for frequent power-cuts must take appropriate action to remedy the situation without giving hobbling excuses. "If there is a will, there is a way" seems to be the appropriate idiom. Whatever it is, something must be done to provide a regular supply of power to Mattegoda which will be highly appreciated. IF the Board is powerless, let the Hon. Minister, at least, look into it. Aryadasa Ratnasinghe, Mattegoda
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