Our Customs service, lions and eagles

Sri Lankan cargo volumes remain tiny by comparison, while our Customs are only distinguished by its corruption and inefficiencies

“Eagles don’t fly with Pigeons” “Lions don’t eat grass” “Che Guevara said to rebel”

– From slogans painted on three-wheelers doing business in Colombo

Many Sri Lankan three-wheelers sport words of appreciation, slogans or mottos on the rear body of the vehicle, oftentimes in English. Many a statement on the driver’s parents; a son paying homage to the wise guidance of a devout mother or the breadwinner father. Sometimes they are statements of a political nature; ‘Che Guevara said to rebel’ – an unexpected ambition on the part of the taxi driver, nothing less than to re-arrange the external world as well as the essential transformation of self. The third category is a declaration of superlative qualities, strength and skill, it is not difficult to guess what species the three-wheel driver identifies with; the majestic lion or the high flying eagle. 

Appearances notwithstanding, going by the graffiti on their three-wheelers, they deem themselves actors in a huge drama, larger than life!

An outsider may look at them doubtfully, reluctant to even grant an entry Visa to the hopeful Sri Lankans lining up in their thousands before their embassies. Are the qualifications he claims genuine? Can he perform to expectations? And most importantly, at the end of his employment will he return to his own country?

Big talk and small deeds

On a global scale, Sri Lanka’s performance is decidedly mediocre. Without the foreign element; foreign aid, remittances and the tourist dollars, the country would be in a desperate condition. Since independence, the country theme seems to be one of big talk and small deeds.

A few days back I watched a YouTube interview on the controversial release of a large number of unexamined containers from the Colombo harbour. Apparently, due to various reasons, these had accumulated at the harbour causing concern about the economic cost of holding them as well as the inconvenience, including financial losses to the importers. Whether it be the issuing of a passport or the grant of a building approval, providing flood relief or repairing a road, our State institutions have repeatedly proved their inability to work to a schedule. Various reasons are given for the lapse, but these have been given for 70 years now.

Something had to be done about the stalled containers, a decision was made to release them without the time consuming examination.

The tone of the interview was frenetic, an over-wrought interviewer with a blustering guest expressing opinions on the operations of the Customs with abandon. In other cultures, when a guest is invited for his expertise, he is generally open to other propositions, offering his views as only a possible interpretation. In this particular interview the tone was different, the opinions had the finality of a dropped egg. The interviewee has had some years in the Customs and obviously fancied himself an ultimate authority on all its workings, using many words and acronyms peculiar to the area; consignee, consignor, declarant, and then for good measure constantly referring to internal procedures and practices of the Customs. 

Corruption and inefficiencies

He even refers to himself in the third person, presenting the perfect man! It does not change anything, Sri Lankan cargo volumes remain tiny by comparison, while our Customs are only distinguished by its corruption and inefficiencies.

Customs duty is an ancient practice, a tax dating back to early Egypt and even the Orient. The word is said to have a Greek origin. Obviously tax and related practices have undergone many changes in the succeeding centuries. Today, in our totally integrated and extremely fast moving world, Customs services are extremely sophisticated, playing a pivotal role in the dynamism of the economy of a country. No sensible country will search a huge haystack for a needle, which is not even there!

Observing this particular interview, it occurred to me that one can look at this from a very different perspective.

There is absolutely nothing that we have contributed to the advancement of the global Customs services, from the huge X-ray machines, methods of tax computations to the white uniforms with the epaulets, are all of foreign origin, machines as well as the methods. Our Customs Ordinance is from early 19th Century, one of the early introductions of the British.

We have been trained though, like for the circus; a free education from the beginning, and then at the cost of foreign taxpayers our Customs officers undergo much training overseas. 

Many ‘experts’

There are many seminars and conferences for them all over the world. A lot of equipment comes through foreign aid. Yet, the circus is a poor imitation, second-rate, corruption and inefficiency being predominant. There is a discordance between the personality of the circus actors and the requirements of the role; the stature, the integrity and the attitude are noticeably inadequate.

Perhaps in the manner of the interviewee there is a suggestion of the answer. A man of a particular culture introduced to some technicalities of a subject developed in another, without an idea of other related areas, unappreciative of the philosophies underlying the technicalities, and of only average intelligence, is presented as an “expert”.

Like the mythology of those fatuous three-wheel drivers, an interviewee eager only to express his own greatness and glory.

In reality we remain, a country of big talk, many ‘experts’, yet only of small deeds!