Time to take action

Monday, 5 March 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

SRI LANKA’S post war tourism boom has become the focus of much attention and is a vessel to showcase growing economic and social trends. Interesting reports over the weekend have shown the less successful side of the industry by tracing links between criminal activities and tourism.

While the Government would be keen to dispel the negative side of tourism with its rose-tinted vision, there is increasing need to address the fallout before it has a deeper effect on society and by extension, the industry.

Cases of wildlife and biodiversity thefts are increasing with the recent incident of a group of tourists being arrested for allegedly keeping amphibians and studying species for theft. International media have reported the arrested as being innocent, but local authorities insist that they were travelling to biodiversity hot spots in Sri Lanka with the specific intent of obtaining samples to smuggle out of the country.

The six suspects were fined small amounts of around Rs. 50,000 before being allowed to return to their homes. The incident can be presented as more evidence of the need to monitor arrivals closer and strengthen the legal framework so that offenders are given a strong enough deterrent. Stronger fines and perhaps even jail sentences might be in order.

In a separate report, the Anti-Vice Unit is stepping up raids on brothels in Colombo and seeking public help in apprehending foreign prostitutes. It is clear that there is a strong connection between rising arrests of foreigners for prostitution and tourism. This poses a strong challenge to the Government as it has to balance industry interests with social ones and the tradeoff cannot be bought off by money. ‘Flesh tourism’ is a massively lucrative form of tourism around the world, but it would be a tragedy for the country to become another Thailand.

Many have heard and discussed the death of a Sri Lankan national in a Colpetty hotel last week. Her husband has been arrested, but as the saga unfolds, the increasing crime rate in Sri Lanka can have an indirect impact on tourism.

Last year, according to Police statistics, at least 662 murders, 1,700 rape cases and more than 5, 900 robberies were reported. Although crimes in general saw a drop in 2011 compared to 2010, what was disturbing was that the incidents of brutal crimes have increased. In 2010, 760 murders, 1,800 cases of rape and 6,600 cases of robbery were reported. In January alone this year, at least 55 murders, 142 cases of rape and 558 cases of robberies have been reported. Only a miniscule number of these offenders are successfully brought before justice, tried and sent to prison.

Everyone is aware of the massive delays in courts and problems in the rehabilitation system of the country, which means that most prisoners return to the system as second time or third time offenders. This cycle has not been broken for decades and continues to undermine the development efforts of Sri Lanka.

The overall deterioration of law and order is detrimental to the entire nation and the obvious does not need to be elaborated here. Returning to the side effects of tourism, it has also been pointed out by the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) that child abuse cases are also increasing year on year, partially due to tourism. Surely it is time to take action.