Editorial

The ruling party that fanned a trade union strike culture when in opposition is now getting hoist on its own petard while in power and place.

The Government is facing a string of strikes and general agitation among different sectors. The latest comes from a group calling themselves tourism taxi service personnel, many self-employed, protesting against the latest move to grant foreigners driving licences (DLs) on arrival. These service providers have threatened to bring the entire tourist industry to a standstill unless the decision is revoked, starting from the international airport, where a largely unregulated ‘mafia’ has been in operation for years. How much muscle they have to succeed is left to be seen, but given their frustration, things can turn ugly for visitors to this country.

International DLs are a common feature in modern-day travel, but usually they are given only for a certain limited period. Even so, it is not on-arrival DLs. What has happened in Sri Lanka is that those who avail themselves of this facility are not doing so for convenience but for economic reasons—the ‘bucket and spade’ tourists, commonly referred to locally as the ‘kottu-roti’ tourists, whose daily spending—calculated on a forensic audit—comes to be a net loss for the country when counting the amount of subsidised facilities afforded to the citizens made available to them from transport to food.

The Government’s bid to play the numbers game in tourist arrivals, with visa-free facilities, casinos, now these DLs, and even plans to lease out islets to foreigners, is disconcerting. While it cannot be held to ransom by trade union threats, it is surely mindful of the economic impact on those small entrepreneurs who make a living from this industry. The social fallout on local communities is already heating up, especially in the southern and eastern coastal towns. The Government would do well to keep a finger on the pulse of this growing resentment so that the multimillion-dollar tourism industry doesn’t blow up in the country’s face.

Gaza: Will Lanka be on the wrong side of history?

The force of public outrage, seen also in Sri Lanka, is finally pushing several hitherto unwilling governments around the world to take long overdue stands in protest against the outrageous situation in Gaza, including the genocide and recent Israeli plan to occupy Gaza City.

The Australian Government joined the momentum to announce that at next month’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), it will recognise the state of Palestine.

The Sri Lankan President is due to address UNGA next month—what is he going to say given the Government’s clearly ambivalent stand when it comes to Israel? Past Sri Lankan governments have long recognised the ‘state of Palestine’ and have been at the forefront of supporting a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Some have argued that what Israel did in Sri Lanka was help the Government fight terrorism, which is exactly what they are doing in Gaza, but this comparison carries thus far and no farther. The legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people living under foreign occupation for self-determination and statehood and to have their rights recognised under international law bears no parallel to the separatist terrorist violence in Sri Lanka.

Our comfort zone with Israel has developed to the point that Sri Lankans are going for employment in care homes and apple orchards in Israel, with even greater job quotas offered to Sri Lankans, while the Government has just included Israeli citizens, many suspected to be soldiers on ‘rest and recreation’ furlough, for visa-free stays in this country. This is amidst growing tension in and around the coastal towns of Mirissa and Arugam Bay, where their increased presence appears to be long-term, with the mushrooming of hitherto non-existent places of worship—the Chabads.

The Government has been relatively silent on the situation in Gaza, limiting itself to some lukewarm statements condemning both the Iranian proxy Hamas for the killing and abduction of Israeli civilians and keeping them hostage since their daring raid into Israel on October 7, 2023—and the disproportionate Israeli reaction.

The sheer magnitude of the human and property devastation taking place in real time is a disgrace to all humanity, collectively.

Yet, the Government appears uninterested and unmoved.

If the statistics mean anything, more than 61,000 Palestinians are dead, scores are grievously injured, 100 children have died since the Israeli-imposed food blockade, 300 UN staffers and 237 journalists have been killed inside Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military, and 2.1 million civilians are starving to death as food aid is being weaponised as an unacceptable negotiating technique.

The world cannot pretend nothing is happening. Western nations seem to have only now woken up to the atrocities, threatening but not yet meaningfully implementing sanctions on trade, the ban of exporting weapons, etc.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to defend his actions at a recent press conference, but his credibility is at sub-zero, as independent agencies have declared him a war criminal committing genocide. France has already pledged to support a two-state solution, but if Gaza is lost to the Palestinians—as is the declared Israeli end-game (with US backing)—a two-state solution is all but lost. That clearly is what the Israeli Government knows, and what will make an independent Palestine state side-by-side with Israel an anticlimax.

On the other hand, Iran, which plays the handler of the Hamas group, must be jubilant that world opinion is shifting against Israel—but at what cost? The forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza will only provide Israel (and the US) a Riviera in the vacuum without Palestinians.

It is beyond horrifying to believe that a people who were victims of genocide in living memory, and justifiably called it a Holocaust, could be the perpetrators of exactly the same state-sponsored killings of men, women and children. The Israelis have now conceded the moral high ground and the insignia as victims by acquiring for themselves the badge as perpetrators of genocide, even though not all Jews are in agreement with their government.

Current economic factors and acknowledgement of past military support in decisive moments contribute to the Sri Lankan Government’s current dilemma; it is not that it loves Palestine any less, but it appears to love Israel more. However, with public sentiment igniting even among the most reluctant Western governments, there comes a time when Sri Lanka must be careful that it is not on the wrong side of history.