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| Sunday, 17 November 2002 |
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Letters |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Please forward your letters to [email protected] in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
Bentota, the gateway to the south is endowed with nature's gift of picturesque beauty. Bentota is a coastal village where there is a thriving tourist industry. There are a number of star class hotels along the Bentota beach. During on and off seasons large numbers of tourists come here. But tourists and locals alike have to undergo severe inconvenience due to inadequate supply of water to the Bentota area. This is a great hindrance to booming tourist industry, which a money spinner to a cash starved country like ours. Numerous pleas to the relevant authorities have failed to yield any results. The Water board has adopted very strange system of supplying water on day basis. People of Bentota have to burn their midnight oil to collect some water to satisfy their basic necessities. During the day the supply of water comes to a stand still. It is the contention of the relevant authorities at the water board that they are not in position to supply water on a regular basis due to inadequate capacity in their water purification facility. People of Bentota and tourist hotels have to pay heavy price for this indifferent attitude of the water board. An uninterrupted and regular supply of water has become distant dream to the people of Bentota. It is the fervent wish that relevant authorities take prompt action to relieve us of this longstanding predicament. J. K. D. P. B. Tilakarathna, There are certain TV advertisements which cause mental agony. Do we, the viewing public have to have repetitions of such contraptions as exercise bikes, or 'out-of-this-world' machines in order to keep fit? It is not easy to fool people with well-known film and music stars to be models. There are just a few nagging questions that keep me astonished since I have had no reliable answer. Why do these housewives get so dolled up in new, clean clothes all covered up in jewellery in a spotless kitchen just to sell some detergent? See even those aged people jumping up and down like spring chickens in order to sell a lottery ticket. Isn't there some respectability towards the aged and even children? Can you imagine the face of greed and gluttony written all over those kid. Why cant parents realise they are selling their children's future for a mess of pottage? There is also a new trend over the radio stations in that you have some sort of 'goday' language used on one side, whilst one other station has our local 'yokels' speaking in such a stinted style, especially one particular lady who smacks of a first-class 'elocution' malaprop. Well, things are getting worse each day with no form of control or censoring and the media is heading for a big fall. I believe, our president was not far off the mark when she referred to the media as "asses". Now even asses, though stubborn sometimes, can be subdued when given the right whack across the rump - and I wish to make a special appeal to the powers-that-be to listen to the voice of the masses. We are sick to death of all this lying, false promises and even drudgery in advertisements that bombard us day and night. There are limits to tolerance in any sphere. All the plans of marketing and advertising is today in the hands of intolerable brainwashers who delight in rubbing it in. Also this appeal is targeted earnestly to all those establishments who wish to make their mark in the market. Don't kill the interest of viewers with such boring repetitions. It's like this - even if it's a small fish don't try to use a big frying pan in order to get more. Brian Samz, Reducing pension liability in public service Finance Minister K.N. Choksy in his recent Budget speech, while admitting that Sri Lanka has the largest public service in the world on a per capita basis has rejected one of the main recommendations in the Tissa Devendra Salaries Commission report. The recommendations is that the present cadre of the public service should be reduced by 30% over a period of five years and the balance to be placed on increased salaries. According to newspaper reports, this scheme had been proposed as voluntary with those opting for it receiving lump sum payments in lieu of pensions. But according to the Finance Minister, the Commission has not addressed itself on the question of the "resulting unemployment by such a drastic lay-off." He has therefore expressed doubt about the practicability of this recommendation and has instead proposed reducing what he called "redundant posts." Since the Salaries Commission's recommendation is a voluntary scheme and the scheme itself recommending suitable compensation, there would have been no need for the Commission to have addressed on this aspect. If the public service is so large as the Finance Minister himself has admitted, as a retired senior public servant I think he should have resorted to both the methods. Even now it is not too late to consider the Salaries Commission recommendation as it is voluntary and also has the added advantage of eventually reducing what he called a "unfunded pension liability of Rs. 550 billion." V.K. Wijeratna, The point blank column of the Sunday Observer of 27th October under the above headline revealed of a school preventing mothers of students from entering school premises wearing a dress other than a sari. This practice is being followed in Sujatha Balika Vidyalaya in Matara too. This is causing a lot of distress to mothers accompanying their daughters. Will the authorities concerned inquire into this matter? K. W. Jayantha, I refer to a news item with the above headline appeared in the front page of the Sunday Observer of 27th October, 2002. According to the news item all women who were attired in western dress, salwar kameez and other styles were denied entry to the premises of Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa. Only those women wearing saree were allowed to enter. Certain women of our country do not know to dress to suit an occasion or even to suit themselves. These ladies should have realised that they were entering the school where their children receive their education, but not to appear at a fancy dress parade. Some women don't realise that when they go in a dress that don't suit them their own children get humiliated by their school friends. Any woman looks nice and decent when dressed in a saree than in any other dress. Probably some women don't realise this. But their main aim is to show off, foolishly. Certain women when they go even to a temple, they don't know to dress in a decent manner. They even allow their young daughters to dress indecently without any care in the world. I think that everyone should appreciate the guts and the good intentions of the principal of Prince of Wales College and the Ministers of Education and Buddha Sasana should make a strong note of this act of the principal, which is a very good example for the authorities of other institutions as well. I think that this rule of the principal of Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa should be extended to temples as well. Well done principal. The right thinking people of the country are with you. Citizen, Moratuwa Editor's note: We welcome comments from our readers. My sick father usually goes to the clinic at the Government Hospital, Kurunegala on Friday 5. But on Wednesday, 30 October, his condition was very bad. So early in the morning, he went to see his doctor and as per his observation, he was admitted in Ward No. 2. About 12.30 p.m. I received a telephone call from my father that he had been admitted due to his serious sickness. As soon as I received the call, I immediately prepared some food and managed to reach the hospital before 1.00 p.m. as the hospital visiting time is between 12.00 to 1.00 p.m. When I reached the main entrance, it was at 12.53 p.m. and there were three security guards with blue uniforms who did not allow anyone to enter the wards. I told one of the guards, that my father had been admitted that afternoon and he was without any breakfast and lunch and I humbly requested them to allow me just only 5 minutes to enable me to handover the lunch packet and I promised them I would leave before 1.00 p.m. But they refused. Finally, I told the guards, that it was still seven minutes left to 1.00 p.m. Then, one of the security guards told me "you had better go and repair your watch and come". At that moment a gentleman appeared and told him. Do you know it is the 12.45 SLBC news bulletin is on the air, so how can you tell this woman, that to repair her watch? Another person has noticed that three four persons had been allowed to see their patients as they were friends of the guards. Another old woman too wanted to hand over some food to her daughter and she begged the security guards to allow her to go in. But the guards told her to come along with the parcel at 4.30 p.m. I also noticed, a man along with his family was talking to the guards, saying that he had travelled all the way from Chilaw. He too begged the guards to allow him only two minutes to hand over some food to his mother. The guard told him even if you are travelling from Jaffna, we are not going to admi you. I earnestly request the Officer-in-charge to investigate into the incidents that happened on Wednesday , 30 October between 12.45 p.m. to 1.00 p.m. personally and take necessary action against those security guards who were on duty at the main entrance. I also reiterate that the security guards must be disciplined. Shirly Sudar, Anglican ecumenism, justice and peace As an Anglican, I like to clarify certain issues of ecumenism and justice in Bishop Duleep de Chickera's pastoral address (October 20). My Lord Bishop diminishes his noble thought on peace and multiculturalism towards the end of this address by simplistically blaming those die-hard Anglicans who went to court and scuttled the scheme of union in the 1970s. It is always good to ask and to know why my Church was found to be violating the rights of its members by the Constitutional Court while paying lip service to justice, peace and tolerance. At the time, the scheme of union saw most Protestant Churches merging into the Church of Lanka, despite their deep theological differences. Those who wished to remain genuinely Anglican would not be allowed to be so. And the whole case hinged on that. The court held that provision must be made for those who wished to remain Anglican. An Anglican could not be forced into another religious denomination even if a majority voted to do so; it would be violating his basic rights. We could not be bulldozed into a new identity, into the united identity defined by the majority. My church had failed to understand the Protestant tradition of personal faith that had defined its ethos when Pilgrim Fathers fled religious bigotry in their home countries to hold onto their faith. Herein lies the contradiction in the Bishop's message where in the Sri Lankan context, we must be allowed to be Sinhalese and Tamil and Buddhist and Hindu and whatnot. We must have choice of identity. We must celebrate diversity. But in the Church's context we are not granted such choice! We must give up so-called parochial identities such as Anglican, Methodist etc., and merge and be subsumed into a common Sri Lankan Protestant identity upon the wishes of the majority. Those who do not agree, are, as the Bishop does, branded as scuttlers. A similar contradiction is seen in the recently unveiled draft constitution of the Anglican Church and the Constitutional Council that drafted it (of which our two Bishops are co-chairmen). In a Church where about 50 per cent of the membership is Tamil, the Council has only 5 Tamils (of whom I am one) out of its 32 members. Nearly all 32 are from parishes in Colombo/Moratuwa and Kurunegala/Kandy. There goes the Bishop's first lesson in his pastoral message - power sharing - broken by the Church itself. There is no power sharing between the metropolis and the periphery. Indeed, there is no sharing between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Where is democracy when Tamil Anglicans have their constitution written for them by Sinhalese? When rural Anglicans have to accept theological codes permissive of divorce and remarriage, adultery, buggery and abortion cooked up by city-slick Anglicans in the new constitution? Whereas the existing Church constitution permits the Church to break up into smaller national churches (as did the Church of India, Burma, Pakistan and Ceylon), the new draft removes that clause. Where is God's pluralism, the tolerance and celebration of diversity that the Bishop alludes to when we remove the existing right of the Church of Ceylon to break up into smaller churches? Where is the rhetoric on multiculturalism? The majority's dream for the Church of Lanka will not be scuttled by leaving even slightly open the possibility for the Church of Eelam! A recent poster by the Church celebrating the life of the late Bishop Lakdasa de Mel declared, "We are not only Sri Lankan Christians. We are also Christian Sri Lankans". The poster then ominously echoed the Sihala Urumaya in saying "We will not let our motherland down". We must all understand that the rule of law is very much a part of the peace process. With no law, with anarchy, it is the law of the jungle where the hand of racism will be raised with power. The Anglican Church needs to understand this. The Anglican draft constitution referred to, appears to subvert the ruling of the Constitutional Court. It allows clergymen of other denominations to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, clergymen who, by Anglican and Catholic rules, are not considered properly ordained. In effect, it pushes union by the back-door. On this alone the new constitution is likely to be challenged. I hope that the Church will not again be shown to be violating the fundamental rights of its own members and, on top of that, violating an order of the Constitutional Court this time. If that happens, it would be an abject failure of Christian leadership and not the fault of those who turn to secular courts for justice when there is no justice within the Church. Wisdom must prevail. As Jesus Christ taught us, we must look inwardly at our own state of sin and cleanse ourselves before cleansing the sins of the state. Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole, According to newspapers, the book by Gavin Menzies titled "1421: The year China Discovered the World" was schedule for release on 7 November. I have for some time been interested in Chinese Grand Admiral Zheng He whose voyages form the subject of the book and thought I would write to fill in some details which may be of interest to Sri Lankan readers. Zheng He (otherwise known as Cheng Ho, Ching Ho or Ma San-Pao) visited Sri lanka on possibly three occasions between 1405 and 1415. On his first visit he had requested the Tooth Relic for the Chinese Emperor but was refused and barely escaped from an attempt to waylay him. He returned in 1408 and led an invasion as far as Kandy and captured King Vira Wijaya Bahu VI and several of his court and held them hostage in China for five years before returning them. (It is interesting that while King Vira Wijaya Bahu survived five years as a hostage in China he was murdered in his capital on the night of his return by his Sri Lankan Chief Minister!) Following his 1408 visit, Zheng He left a tablet inscribed (already in Nanjing before the fleet set sail) in Chinese, Persian (some say Arabic) and Tamil respectively praising Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism. This was found in 1911 near Cripps Road in Galle. Interestingly, Zheng He, who had been castrated as a 10-year-old boy to serve in the court and was known variously as "the Three-Jewell Eunuch", "the Eunuch of the Three Treasures" and "the three Jewels of Pious Ejaculation" is suggested in the book as having circumnavigated the world in 1412 (i.e. Portuguese Ferdinand before Magellan), reached America before Christopher Columbus and Australia before Captain Cook. (It is said that his first fleet included 317 vessels and 28,000 men and that his flagship "Treasure Ship" was 400 feet long compared to Columbus' "St. Maria' which measured 85 feet.) He died in 1435 as a Muslim. The top of his tomb near Nanjing bears the words "Allah is great". Further information regarding Zheng He's travels maybe found in Richard Hall's "Empires of the Monsoon" and Hulugalle's "Ceylon of the Early Travellers". Dr. Rohan H. |
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