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by Ranil Abeysekera

I am one of many Sri Lankans who is working outside Sri Lanka and visit Sri Lanka at least once in two years. This year's vacation turned out to be nothing other than sharing hardships and relief efforts due to the devastating tsunami. I consider myself and most of our family very lucky to have escaped without any loss of lives. Unfortunately it has not been the case for many of us where 0.3% of our population was just wiped out within 2 hours. Along with our family and friends in Houston, Texas, we like to offer our condolences to all the affected families and businesses while we continue to support the efforts in rebuilding the Sri Lankan coastal cities.

During the last few days I have heard many officials talking about formulating a plan to rebuild the affected areas. This is very constructive and would be the stepping stone for the rebuilding efforts. The responsible authorities have to formulate a plan to rebuild the coastal cities appropriately to bring economical success to these effected areas. Certain areas are primarily relying on tourism while certain other areas have fishing industries, religious institutions, factories etc...

My proposal starts with identifying businesses or community interests of all regions that need to be rebuilt. I am giving more focus to tourism since this brings Sri Lanka a lot of revenue and a vast majority of the people living in these areas benefits from tourism. However similar plans can be formulated for fishing industries, religious environments and other industrial areas. We should provide ample areas for the poor to enjoy their beach at a very low cost. We should not give anything free, we should give relief.

Tourism interest:

Once we have identified the areas that we should develop for tourism, the governmental body can come up with accepted tourist related businesses with recommended structural plans and business plan requirements. Different areas can be identified for different plans. These plans should be associated with a $ amount ranging from $1 million - $100 million or more. Areas with common plans should be isolated to create a common atmosphere. The tourist industry should be thought of one of our most precious business opportunities in our country. We should also learn from other places like Florida, Japan, Hawaii etc... and plan to build cruise industries, sport fishing and water parks to absorb tourist throughout the year rather than just during Dec-Jan time frame. We also need to create controlled areas for gambling, night clubs etc... to absorb tourists. However these needs to be well policed and should not be allowed to infiltrate the culture of the normal day-to-day life of the common Sri Lankan.

The landowners of these affected areas and the adjoining areas should be presented with these plans chosen for these areas. It should be very attractive to our land owners and the land ownership should remain under our people as well.

The plans should dictate the lease agreements and forbid complete ownership of these properties by foreigners. However, we should not forget that foreign investments will bring fortune for these people and the country. Let's find the correct balance.

If the land owners decide to build their own industry related to the recommended plans, they need the capability do so. Maybe industries like Ceylinco can undertake the building and partner with the land owners for profit sharing. Another idea would be time sharing.

If the land owner is prepared to build an approved Guest House, he or she can tender time slots for probable investors. In this case the Government has to mediate and guarantee the rights of the tenants and proper maintenance of the facility. I think this would suit most of the small scale investors who are looking to build and reserve their houses in these areas.

The time share management can be tendered to private companies. The human rights, Tourist Board and the housing and development bodies can police the time share management of these companies. These plans need to meet the proper rights of the time share tenants as well as those of the property owners.

Cruise industry:

I have seen so many Indian and Sri Lankan tourists going back and forth between India and Sri Lanka. This creates an ideal environment for small scale cruise industry. Cruise ships of upto 100 passengers would thrive in this situation. The Government needs to provide a proper place for this industry to pick up and flourish. Trips between Sri Lanka to Maldives and India would make Sri Lanka the prime location for vacation.

Transportation:

All shops alongside of the roads should be restricted only for transportation and related industries. Government should isolate certain areas just for shopping related activities within accessible distance to the main highway. No shopping malls close to the main road should be allowed. All allowed shops should not face the main road and should not have walking access from the main road. No shops or advertisements should be permitted alongside these roads free of charge. The roads need to be made beautiful and associated with our culture. If we create this atmosphere on all our coastal roads, the tourist industry will flourish all year round. Roads need to be peaceful and pleasant to drive.

It should not provide opportunity for shops or housing. Shopping malls should be created with ample access via buses, trains and private vehicles. It needs to be concentrated and managed properly.

The current shop owners should be the very first owners of these shops. They need to be provided with an attractive package. Independent groups including human rights organizations should evaluate these plans but all should have the same goal - to rebuild these families and businesses in the region. Why not build a high speed train from Colombo to Galle?

Accountability:

For successful continuation of any project we need to establish accountability. Every employee including political appointees need to set goals. Once they are met, they need to be rewarded handsomely. If the goals are not met, we need to sound the alarms and demote/replace these appointees. I was very disappointed to see the job done by the authorities responsible for monitoring the earthquakes in Sri Lanka. I personally think that they did not do their job. We may not have had the proper equipment to detect tsunamis but I believe that there was a lack of responsibility and negligence in handling this matter. We should not blame the Government for this but I expect the government to take action and have inquiries related to this event. Once I heard that the tsunami hit the east coast of Sri Lanka, with the limited knowledge of this, I was able to predict that it is going to hit the South and the sea swelled in the west without any doubt. If this was done we could have saved many lives that were lost on the South and the West.

Governing the rebuilding efforts:

During the last few days I have witnessed several foreign organizations trying to help Sri Lankans rebuild their businesses and houses. This is very generous of these organizations and individuals who are doing this but this may not fall in place of the development activities of the region.

So we must control the development to achieve regional development rather than just building houses or other institutions for these people to get back on their feet. The Government needs to come up with plans as soon as possible to make the best use of the aid that we are getting into the country.

With all this said, some of you who read this may think that I am too focused on the rich but that is not the case. I have seen many people that are rich today who were not yesterday. What's important here is not to make the rich richer, we need to protect the rights of the people living in these areas and show them the way to success. If proper reconstruction plans can be debated with common interest to the affected families and for the sake of our country, we should be able to rebuild these families and bring about prosperity to our country as well.

I hope and pray that the responsible authorities could find the wisdom to overcome this tragedy to rebuild Sri Lankan coastal areas with common interest from all political parties and organizations. I will remember the horrifying images and stories of our countrymen for many years and I will pray and wish that all these families can overcome this tragedy and find peace and comfort as soon as possible.

Do not let this opportunity slip away. Our fellow countrymen who died would be proud to see a better Sri Lanka emerging through the rough waters.

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