As a person in the hospitality trade we had nothing but praise for the manner in which the new Minister was setting about his work. He has done absolutely well by appointing as Chairman of the Tourist Board someone who is from the trade and held the office of Chairman previously. Renton de Alwis is not only qualified but has proven ability to market the product – Sri Lanka. The Minister next did well by us all by appointing to the Board not political hacks but representatives of the different branches of the trade, all of whom have proved their worth to the companies they manage. Next and perhaps and most important of all he has decided to seek amendments to an absurd law that was put in place to create a Tourism Empire by creating superfluous new overlapping agencies. The law itself was not only bad conceptually but was full of loopholes as was pointed out by a committee of experts that studied the legislation, ironically, not before, but after it was passed in Parliament.

Whilst all this has given the industry much hope which was woefully lacking in recent years, the Minister has done something quite inexplicable. I am a Buddhist but don’t get me wrong – there is no place for the Sangha in any advisory capacity with regard to tourism promotion unless of course one is thinking of the possibility that we may convert ourselves into a sin city like Bangkok; that possibility is certainly non-existent. In these circumstances I wish to ask the Minister as to what the need was for him to have an Advisory Council comprising of the Sangha; without offence to the Sangha we can liken this to putting good olive oil into a pot of milk. Olive oil is valuable and has its uses but does not go with milk.

Dhammika Weerasinghe, Kadawata