| December 31, 2008 | Wednesday | Muharram 02,1430 |
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How PIA is missing out (again)
I think a country’s institutions are tested more thoroughly when a civil war is raging on its soil than at any other time. In Sri Lanka, despite a quarter century of bitter conflict, it is remarkable how many organizations continue to function normally. I was given a recent demonstration of this the other day when the police chief of the remote district we have built a house came over. Recently posted here, he does not know many people socially, and has taken to dropping in from time to time. The other day, he mentioned how he had been dragged from bed a couple of nights ago by a call from the Bribery Commission.
This is a high-powered body created to investigate allegations of corruption, and its member told my friend that he had received a complaint from a tuk-tuk (auto-rickshaw) driver in his district. It seemed the man had been stopped at one of Sri Lanka’s numerous security check posts. Here, his vehicle’s papers had been taken from him, and he was told to bring 2,000 rupees (around 1,600 Pakistani rupees) if he wanted them back. So far, so Third World. But here, the story takes on an odd twist. My police friend was directed to investigate, and sent an officer to the driver’s house in the middle of the night with 2,000 rupees in marked bills. The man handed over the money to the cops at the check post where they were caught with the cash, and suspended pending an investigation.
Several things in this story are a departure from the pattern we are familiar with. Firstly, a poor tuk-tuk driver was able to get through to a senior government functionary over the phone; secondly, the police chief, a senior officer, took immediate action; and finally, a clear message was sent out to the police force. This is not to suggest that corruption does not exist in the country. Newspapers often carry allegations of wrong-doing, but I have often seen vehicles being stopped by the traffic police for the smallest infringement, and the drivers reprimanded or fined.
When my wife bought our bit of land on the coast some seven years ago, the land was transferred and all legal requirements met without any land record official asking us for a single rupee. I cannot imagine a foreigner buying property in Pakistan without an army of shake-down artists standing at his door with their hands outstretched. Thus far, we have not had to pay anything but the official fees for our water and electricity connections, or the various permissions needed to build on the coast.
A fortnight ago, my wife and I were in Colombo to renew our visas. Accompanied by our lawyer, we went along to the downtown office of the Immigration Department. I was expecting the typical South Asian government office with its dirt, apathy and lack of organization. Not a bit of it. I entered a large, air-conditioned hall with plenty of chairs for people who had to wait. Orderly lines were served politely, and as far as I could see, efficiently. OK, I did the typically desi thing: our lawyer had a friend in the department who fast-tracked our request, but friends who have gone through the normal routine say they have never had to wait for more than an hour.
Here, I discovered the benefit of Pakistan being a member of SAARC, the long-moribund South Asian club: my wife had to pay 5,500 rupees as the extension fees with her British passport, while I only had to shell out 85 rupees. Normally, travelling on a green Pakistani passport brings nothing but misery and aggravation, but not in Sri Lanka, where we don’t need a visa to enter on a month-long visit. So it is all the more surprising that PIA has ceased to operate its Karachi-Colombo flight. Apart from the SAARC connection, Pakistan has excellent relations with Sri Lanka, and there is a sizeable volume of traffic between the two countries. Currently, the Sri Lanka Airlines flight stops in Mumbai, adding a couple of hours to the journey. Surely, with a new management in place, sounder commercial sense ought to prevail, and the direct PIA flights restored.
Presently, the roads in our district are being repaired and upgraded, and I am very impressed by the quality of the work. Long accustomed to the slow, slipshod road works in Pakistan executed by sloppy contractors and supervised by corrupt and inefficient government engineers, I am constantly amazed by the attention to detail here. The workers all wear orange overalls with the construction company’s name, and modern machinery supplements the manual labour. The drains on the sides of the road are being carefully aligned and rebuilt, while the road is re-surfaced. Although the roads cannot be widened much due to the houses on both sides for much of the distance between any two towns, the traffic is well regulated and runs smoothly, if slowly due to the 60 KPH speed-limit.
I have always been impressed to note that food is carried in refrigerated vans, so one doesn’t see carcasses of fly-covered animals being transported to the market. Even vegetables and fruit are carried in covered trucks. I am sure there are Pakistani laws for food to be carried hygienically on the statute books in some dusty office, but to the best of my knowledge, nobody follows these rules. However, this is true for so many other laws in Pakistan.
It is this respect for the rule of law that sets Sri Lanka apart from Pakistan: despite the erosion of human rights that has gone hand in hand with the civil war, the civil bureaucracy still works by the book, and has held firm. The other day, a newspaper reported that the association of foreign service officers had complained about a political appointment to one of the senior diplomatic posts. The officers met the President to register their protest. This would have been an unusual step for our diplomats to take.
But for all this, I am depressed by the low quality of the newspapers, and my Sri Lankan friends tell me that the Sinhalese and the Tamil dailies are just as bad as the English ones. This is odd, given the high literacy rates, but locals say this is due to the lack of investment, and also because the good journalists have left the country due to the severe restrictions placed on the press. Whatever the reason, it does not take over ten minutes to read a daily. It will be interesting to see whether newspapers will improve once the war is over.
