By Asoka Seneviratne –

Asoka Seneviratne

I am a diehard supporter of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD). I personally hope that he be successful in meeting the gigantic economic, social and political challenges he is faced with. He faces the monumental challenge of fixing Sri Lanka from ground zero.

Those who follow Lankan politics closely understand and appreciate the efforts taken by the President and his team to repay our massive debt burden, increase government revenue,   increase FDI’s, increase tourist arrivals, clean up the corrupt political culture, clean up the country physically, restore the Rule of Law, provide a more efficient government service and most importantly, through all this to improve the standard of living of all Lankans.

To most Sri Lankans, the very visible achievement of the AKD administration so far is the bringing to justice those who robbed our nation on large scale and the attempts to separate the Law Enforcement and Judicial branches from the Political establishment as called for by the constitution. The nonseparation of these two branches from the political establishment was the single most factor that mass scale corruption raised head in our land.

But to retain the huge political capital President AKD enjoys and rightly so, progress must be seen at the local levels soon. Failure to do so will be quickly taken advantage of by the joint opposition thanks to the volatile Sri Lankan electorate.

I was in Lanka twice this year and want to highlight a few issues I witnessed that have quick fixes. Granted infrastructure improvements take time, but millions of people do not understand this or don’t care to understand. They expect quick results.

The main entrance / check-in lounge of Colombo airport. Lights and ventilation louvres are filled with dirt and dust, The check in desks are dirty and in need of repair, the check-in staff are extremely slow and the fact that they continue to talk to each other on irrelevant matters while doing their job further delays the check-in process. Most airports in the world in the developed nations, the check-in staff stand up while doing their job and this helps faster check-ins.

Most frustrating thing is at the passenger arrival immigration area. Why do they not have one single long line with a person to direct travelers  to immigration desk beats me. Instead, they have multiple lines, some long, some short, so arriving passengers are constantly jumping from line to line seeking faster clearance. This does not bode well as first impressions of the country. The place looks chaotic. These are minor issues in the larger scale of things, but all small things add up.

Almost all the above are direct responsibilities of airport management. But the public does not see it that way. They would tend to think “who runs this country?”

Remember details, cleanliness, efficiency  and order matter, and we are a tourist driven nation.

While on Colombo airport, the vehicle arrival area at the departure lounge… Why is it that there is no traffic controller or two there to manage the vehicle flow. The place is chaotic and one or two traffic controllers with a whistle can do great deal of good. It is even better with a blow horn or a public address system to clear vehicle faster. Simple stuff not done.

One can argue that the impact of Colombo airport on average Lankan is minimal. But We are a country dying to attract more tourists and first impressions matter. This starts at the airport.

During my many visits to SL over 40 year, numerous are the times returning tourists make fun of our country in terms of chaotic and disorganized situations. They carry this negative info back home too. Many of these can be resolved by the airport management who should have a keen focus on high standards.

Moving on to another public facility… The roads and traffic control system. Some of the DEAD traffic lights last year and before are still dead. High level Road/Stanley Tillakaratne intersection at Nugegoda traffic lights are still dead. Several years ago, at old road Pannipitiya / Malabe Road intersection was fitted with a set of expensive traffic light. Just a year or so later they died. This could have been about 3  years ago. They are still dead. At Nugegoda, Kohuwala junction, underneath the new overpass, traffic lights are dead. Last years too they were dead, but somebody wrote they were working then but not now.

On Battaramulla – Borella road at Battaramulla, there is the main intersection that turns into the Immigration/passport building is total chaos. Worse there is a massive ministerial building too right there. Millions of poor average Lankans cross here to get passports and ID cards. Installing a set of traffic lights must be a priority or at least have a traffic police officer throughout the day.

I had to go to a police station near Battaramulla. Had to pay some rupees for a report. They were out of Receipt books and had to wait two hours till a receipt book would arrive.

My mother passed away recently at home. A doctor visited to certify her death. After that the local grama sevaka had to be notified. Luckily she was there on that day, but she only comes on a few days of the week. With Grama Sevaka’ signature, you need to go to AGA’s or AG’s office. They had shut the door and gone at 4PM. After finding out the contact of the person who needs to sign, made a call. She told my brother to come to her house within 30 minutes, which was impossible at that rush hour.

Then she needed 4 copies of the paperwork which meant my brother had to travel looking for a copy place and return to her. While all this was going on my mother’s dead body was lying on bed. Imagine a poor person who cannot afford money or a three-wheeler having to go through all this with a rotting dead body lying at home.

Now these are not new issues. Not at all. These are age-old issues inherited by the AKD administration. But it is up to the new government to start working on these and similar issues that have a direct impact on people’s life every day, sooner than later.

Indeed, these are among the tens of thousand of issues face by President AKD and his team of a country that has been allowed to rot by previous administrations. The responsibility of many of these local issues is the responsibility of the local governments and heads of organizations. But the buck stops with the central government.

But are the newly elected members of local bodies in sync with the glorious vision of our President? This is a gigantic issue. How can all the good things done and to be done by the central government trickle down to the everyday Lankans at the local level fast?

The bottom line is that President AKD needs a lot of smart people to implement the much-needed reforms. With thousands of smart, educated, experienced Lankans leaving the shores,

the challenge becomes even worse.

The good news is that at least much of these local/central government public services will improve with digitalization. The faster President AKD implement these, the lesser the joint opposition can poke holes to his administration. Remember a volatile electorate can change quickly.