Shockingly long overdue, Mr. President

President Ranil Wickremesinghe 

I expected this intervention much earlier. Destination Sri Lanka has been bruised and battered and those scars will remain for some time. 

I am sure all of us, likeminded well wishers of a country before we exercise our freedom and right to support defend or offend, a party or a Presidential candidate, can say in one voice, that it is clearly about time, that we eliminate visa issues and queues for passports. 

I have no intention to be humorous as some do saying the cooking gas, petrol and diesel queues are now visa and passport queues because for those affected it is certainly not funny whether the queue is for gas or visas. 

No President or Minister, whether representing political parties that adorn their stages, manifestos power point presentations and platform speeches with colours of red, blue, dark or light green, saffron, burgundy or a mixture of one or more of them, can preside over this cannibalisation of revenue and reputation any more. The President must intervene and intervene until this is taken to a rightful conclusion. 

This is not only to help achieve IMF targets of revenue enhancement in general and dollar inflows in particular, through a source of revenue which has not got to be created anew, and without any artificial intelligence or the now much hyped digitalisation or out of the box creativity and innovation, but a bread and butter kind of readily available source which has existed for so long. 

Some of us who have been in various capacities, within the inbound tourism, hotel and leisure industry, can feel the pains, more so because we are at the beginning of the high season, and seasons are contracted long ago for charters with the always abundant potential of FITs. 

We also have a stock of hotel rooms generated through new capital investments as well as through enduring significant refurbishment costs, at high interest rates barely a year and half ago. These and many more issues will self resolve if this visa and passport matter is addressed and addressed now. 

Written manifestos and platform speeches become academic in the midst of all this. Every single political party, every single Presidential candidate, talks ad nausea about facilitating business, and enabling the private sector. As a saying goes, “Talk is cheap, money buys land”. I am at a loss to understand why we Sri Lanka, “So Sri Lanka”, the “Small Miracle” and “Land like no other”, enticing people to, “Come back for more” is instead trifling with a traditional goose that has laid golden eggs for decades. This circus must stop and stop now.