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| Sunday, 13 July 2003 |
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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.
Concessions to migrant workers An unprecedented number of Sri Lankans are employed abroad and the majority of them are working in the West Asia. Due to the inability to cope with the increasingly alarming rate of unemployment with the population growth the number of people seeking foreign employment will be much higher in the years to come. Hence the government should encourage the foreign job seekers providing much attractive benefits. To my knowledge as a foreign worker for some time, that out of the people employed in the West Asia few of them are fortunate to work in comfortable surroundings with good perks, but most of the others are working with much unhealthy, hazardous surroundings with minimum facilities. Before going abroad the majority of these people have paid exorbitant amounts to the so called government registered agents who have given a colourful picture of the future of these people. There is another compulsory payment to the Foreign Bureau before you start your journey. This payment is for a period of two years only. Subsequently, all the people working abroad whatever their job status doing an invaluable service by sending their hard earned foreign currency to the country. But it is very disappointing to point out a large amount of money in not reaching the country by proper channels. There are very few who keep faith with the NRFC accounts system and most of the workers used to send their hard earned money through black marketeers, who pays a good conversion rate. Government and private financial institutions armed with their propaganda campaigns about NRFC accounts are in a competing to attract foreign workers. But these institutions pay low interest rates of 1-2% for their NRFC account holders and about the various financial assistance promised in the colourful brochures turned into a dream in front of your own eyes once you encounter the bank officials. In my view as we are the people directly involved in sending much needed foreign currency to the country we have a right to request from the government for a tax concession to import a vehicle according to our requirements. I would like to make the following suggestions on behalf of the migrant workers and I hope that it will not only attract more foreign workers to NRFC accounts, but it will be a boost to the ailing Sri Lankan economy as well as the living standards of the foreign workers themselves. My suggestions are: Reasonable interest rate for NRFC accounts (Present rate 1-2%) Flexibility in the interest rates and regulations to the NRFC Acc. Holders who seeks financial Assistance. Tax concession to import a vehicle according to the requirements. M. E. M. K. MUNASINGHE, Immediate control of mushroom organisations Several organisations belonging to all ethnic groups are in existence, indulging themselves in various social service activities to the betterment and upliftment of the poor and needy in all spheres of life. These organisations were organised and established by the good-hearted people to serve the have nots. The State too has a separate Ministry under the name of Ministry of Social Services to help and assist the needy in whatever possible way. Some old outstanding and well recognised organisations like the All Ceylon Moors' Association, Moors' Islamic Cultural Home (Inc), Young Men Buddhist Association, Young Men Christian Association, All Ceylon Hindu Association, Sri Lanka Malay Association, Memon Association, Young Men Muslim Association, All Ceylon Muslim League, Ceylon Muslim Missionary Society, etc, etc, to name a few, are doing yeoman services to the people of their respective communities. It is very much appreciated by the public. Some bogus Associations and Organisations are in existence under different names, alleged to have been doing services and taking the public for a ride. This is very serious, which is worst than the daylight robbery. Such bogus and mushroom organisations are in several parts of our island, making a fast buck under the guise of service at the cost of the public fund. The general public is unaware of its genuinety. Due to this recent flood, some of the bogus organisations had made a fast buck by duping the general public of their hard earned money. To create the confidence of the people, they demand donations in kind and not in cash and having obtained the goods (donations) those are disposed to the shop owners at the market at a reasonable price. It is pity to note, some of the deserving people, who were affected due to the flood have not received anything at all. May I make use of your valuable column of your esteemed journal Sunday Observer to suggest to the Minister of Social Service, to take immediate steps to implement the following, thus enabling to prevent the hard earned money of the poor and the middle class people being duped by these confidence tricksters. They are as follows:- 1. Request all Organisations, Associations and Institutions existing in the island to register themselves with the Department of Social Service. Having gone through their applications individually and if they are found to be in order, the Department may authorise same under the following conditions. 2. Prior to the approval of the said organisation by the Department, the Department must ensure that there are at least the minimum of 100 (hundred) members on the roll. 3. The organisation should function at an official address and not at any residential address. 4. To scrutinise the Constitution of the Organisation and see that the signatories of all documents including cheques coincide with the constitution. 5. A minimum of Rs. 500,000 (Five hundred thousand) should be at the bank under the name of the organisation, at the time of approval by the Department. If the amount is less than Rs. 500,000 , the application should be rejected. 6. The Social Service Department should receive a quarterly report from each and every organisation, for them to be aware of what is going on in each organisation. Surely, if such a control is placed by the Department, pseudo organisations will have no place in society and eventually such bogus organisations will automatically vanish into thin air: Any right thinking man will agree, when the funds in any organisation are not adequately and copiously available, how are they going to serve the people? It is the appropriate time, for the Minister of Social Service to give a little thought about this matter and make use of the Department of Social Service to curb on such organisations and bring the culprits to book, for the public to be aware of such pseudo leaders and culprits. I am quite positive, this action will undoubtedly serve the general public to a greater extent by saving their hard earned money. I sincerely trust the Minister will ponder into this matter very deeply and not hesitate to take immediate and appropriate action for implementation of such a body immediately to curb and control such nefarious activities. Hussain Ismail A. Barry, The Malays in Sri Lanka are a minor ethnic group. They migrated from Malaysia and Indonesia during the European regime. The majority of them are living in areas like Slave Island, Wattala, Hunupitiya, Hambantota and also in minor groups or families living in other parts of the Island. The Malays are followers of Islam Religion thus identified as "Muslims" but not as "Malays." When other races are identified as Sinhalese, Tamils, Christians, Burghers why not the "Muslims" identify as Moors and Malays. This unanswered question guides the Malay community to a lost destination. The term "Muslim" is used to all the Islam Religion followers in the world. The Malays have their own language, culture, traditional activities, which are quite different from "Moors" and other communities. Their migration history and the fundamental requirements too are not the same as "Moors." This complication signifies that the Malay community should call for an open dialogue to uncover the racial problems in the extent of various subjects and possible solutions before it is too late. There are Malay organisations known as Sri Lanka Malay Association (SLMA), Sri Lanka United Malay Organisation (SLUMO) and conference of Sri Lankan Malays (COSLAM). But regret to note that the majority of the Malays are not aware of these organisations perhaps due to their trivial approach towards the real requirements of the Malays. Under these circumstances at least the Malay's umbrella organisation known as "Sri Lanka Malay confederation (SLAMAC) should invite their affiliated member organisations for a common convention and put in practice if we want to protect our future generation. MUZAMMIL SEDAR, The picture on page one of the Sunday observer of June 29 attracted my attention. It depicted a small and innocent boy in pensive mood reflecting about his future. He was deprived of schooling because the school he attended is now in shambles due to the recent floods that affected not only the life and livelihood but also displaced thousands of students as over 300 schools were destroyed in the district of Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Kalutara and Ratnapura. Lankagama Junior School will soon rise again like the phoenix from its ashes through the benevolence and generosity of the ANCL that has ungrudgingly donated Rs. 10 million to convert the school to a modern model school. This shining example should be followed by the other philanthropists who inhabit this country and many institutions located in all parts of Sri Lanka to build the devastated schools which run into hundreds. There are multi-national companies, industrial giants, renowned business enterprises, formidable mercantile firms, high flying garment factories, local and foreign commercial banks which rake in the shekels. Why not siphon off some part of the thumping profits to build the other schools that have suffered the same fate as that of Lankagama Junior School. M. Azhar Dawood, War or peace in Sri Lanka - a response With reference to chapter 1 of Mr. T. D. S. A. Dissanayake's book 'War or Peace in Sri Lanka' (Volume 4) that appeared in the (Sunday Observer , June 1) I was sad to note that the author once again repeats this long discredited historical distortion that it was this alleged "pro Tamil, anti Sinhala Buddhist' recruitment policy to the civil service followed by the British that was this cause or our nations tragic ethnic conflict. According to Mr. Dissanayake's analysis, it was this so called 'divide and rule' policy of the British Empire and not the racist rabble rousing of our own home grown "Aryan - Bhumiputra' demagogues that led to our post 1956 tragedy. The hard historical fact is that during this colonial era, educational qualifications (through entrance exams) and not race that was this deciding factor in recruitment to this public service. That was why we had an honest, efficient public service during the British era (in stark contrast to the sad state of affairs prevailing since 1956!) I would appeal to Mr. Dissanayake to stop trying to justify the anti-minority racist policies of this post 1956 era. S. L. Solomon, Dream of a house or a nightmare? Having a house of our own is today's context is a dream of many. Over the years State Mortgage Bank and the National Savings Bank have granted thousands of loan facilities and assisted so many to realize their dreams. Of course loans for housing have been obtained after going through a long laid down procedure with the submission of a number of vital documents. The processing of a housing loan is a hazardous task and time consuming exercise for the banks. The repayment of the loans extends to a period of 15 to 20 years depending on each applicant's age and repayment capacity. The monthly instalment for even a loan of Rs. 250,000 comes to tidy sum and is called an equated Instalment, which is a fixed amount. I wish to take responsibility in regard to disadvantages caused to thousands of borrowers as I have experienced this exercise personally as a ex responsible bank officer. Dr. Lionel Algama, the renowned musician has complained to me several times with regard to this obvious discrepancy in respect of a loan of Rs 200,000/- he had obtained in 1993 from the National Savings Bank, Mt. Lavinia branch. The loan has been stretched to a maximum period of 12 years as he was 57 years of age at the time of applying for his housing loan. His monthly equated instalment had been fixed at RS 3,534 . He has already paid a sum of Rs 280,000 in respect of instalments. As he had failed to pay his monthly regularly he had been served notice to auction the property he is presently living in. The bank has instructed him to pay a further the sum of approximately Rs 410,000 with a concession to completely pay off the outstanding amount together with interest. In the context of these statistics for a loan of Rs. 200,000 obtained Dr. Algama has to pay an exorbitant sum of Rs 700,000 to repay the loan in full before the completion of the stipulated period of the loan. Dr. Algama has written to many relevant authorities v.i.z., Director General of Tower Hall Theatre Foundation, Chairman of NSB, Prime Minister, Minister Lokubandara, The President and several others requesting redress. Unfortunately he has not been able to find any solution at least to obtain a waiver on interest or any other concession for his current agonizing matter which remains unresolved. During the first five years or so on a long term facility an unbelievable sum of interest only is recovered from the Equated Instalment. As such if an inquiry is made with regard to the amount of capital recovered the answer given is shocking to any borrower. If one fails to deposit money for the instalment of even one-month, as a banks' priority only interest is recovered from the amount deposited. I am confident about what has been stated above. Those who are effected by this exercise will no doubt agree with me. Why not the Banks' Supervision Department of Central Bank of Ceylon intervene into this present method. It is suggested that a careful study and scrutiny of the present operation of recovery method adopted is made to ascertain the exact position. This should be regarded as a top priority as there are so many who are compelled to pay tidy monthly equated instalments from their meagre salaries for years despite having other priorities to meet. I am sure a good percentage of housing loans granted are in the non performing sections of these banks owing to non payment of instalments promptly. Taking another precise example, a borrower who has obtained a long term housing loan of Rs 250,000 and who has remitted RS 4,000 monthly from his salary is surprised to find on inquiry after three years that only a sum of approximately Rs 3,000 only has been reduced from the capital. The entire balance amount has been recovered as the interest component. Is this theory of fixing the instalment as EQUATED beneficial to the Borrower? However if interest is calculated for one calender year at the prevalent rate of interest every month a good part of the capital could be recovered from each borrower every month if the same amount is deposited. This method is more realistic and advantageous to the borrower. Sunil Thenabadu, Prevention is better than cure I am forwarding this letter to you to point out certain lapses regarding road constructions leading to injury and fatal accidents and also valuable suggestions to prevent them. Most main roads which give an impression of a highway although they are not so actually, induce 90% of the motorists to drive at very high speeds ignoring the speed limit warnings clearly exhibited. For e.g. The road leading to the Katunayake Airport and the new road stretch from Moratuwa to Panadura, and even the main trunk roads such as Colombo-Kandy, Colombo-Matara, Colombo-Puttalam etc. In constructing such roads maximum precautionary methods should be taken to avoid casualties. All main roads should be protected by erecting a substantially high narrow centre island in the middle with a fence right throughout, the entire stretch thereby avoiding pedestrians crossing the road in a haphazard manner. No pedestrian crossings should be introduced on the surface of the main roads instead they should be constructed either as overhead steel bridges or as underground passages. This will also ease the traffic congestion at certain times of the day. Pedestrian crossings could be introduced on the surface of the main roads gradually as they extend to remote areas where there is less congregation of people or dwellings. At the end of every cross road or a lane joining the main road from both sides the two line marks in white and the "stop" sign boards should be present. A separate lane which somewhat resembles a pavement should be erected towards the very end on both sides for the use of cyclists. These should be at a higher elevation approximately one foot high and with a ridge to prevent cyclists accidentally turning to the main road. Turning or crossing points for vehicles from one side of the road to the other can be provided on the centre island at appropriate places. All these implications will require the existing main roads to be widened by a few more feet to create sufficient space for the cycle lane referred to above. The present width of the main roads will remain as same as only a narrow strip will be required for the centre island. We have an ideal opportunity at hand to embark on. The massive foreign aid package expected to flow into the country in the near future is a fitting example. When comparing with the colossal sum that has already been approved the entire cost of this project will be not much of a burden on our economy. There are also other advantages of this project. The enormous stress and burden on the police, accident wards, and also the traffic courts could be eased to a great extent. Hence we should focus our minds on this issue seriously and expedite in finding a constructive solution without delay. Over to you authorities for immediate action. Daya Semasinghe, Sri Lanka must be having a world record for accidental deaths due to speeding. The recent accident on the road to Pannala where four young lives were lost is an unforgettable tragedy. The letters I see in the papers and the school friends of those youths who sacrificed their lives at the altar of the God of Speed, reveal that the young boys who travelled in the vehicle had a bright future; they were patriotic citizens who loved their schools, family and friends. Apart from these boys, the inmates of the car that they knocked and the unfortunate pedestrian on the road deserve our sympathies. Think of all the thousands killed by bus drivers. Who is to be blamed for this disaster and many other similar calamities that happen all the time? Society has to take a major share of the responsibility. Society justifies speeding on the basis that it is youthful to speed (like a maniac). They are encouraged by statements like "boys will be boys". It is sissy and feminine to drive carefully. It is macho and masculine to speed. Driving slow is thought to be a sign of old age and only done by grandfathers and grandmothers. If you are young, it is almost compulsory that you should speed to prove you are young. Unfortunately these attitudes are justified by society especially by youths as youthful frolics. Speeding is also a result of an uncaring attitude to the passengers and the other road users. Selfishness is an understatement to describe their behaviour. We need to rethink the society's role in encouraging speeding. We encourage speeding by not challenging the stereotypes. Speed driving is a sport but when it is extended beyond the sports field, then it becomes a killer. The speed maniacs always claim they are careful drivers, but the record of accidents due to speeding proves otherwise. It is a consolation and a cover up to justify the deaths in the name of karma or act of God. If that is so we could justify any crimes such as murder committed by individuals, victims of Hiroshima and 1983 riots, the Central Bank disaster on the basis of Karma or Act of God. We do not need a State, police or the law if we take this attitude. Speeding is a crime against humanity which cannot be justified under any circumstance. The State could step in by increasing the fines. Drivers, who exceed the speed limit, must be fined by the police. These fines could be in relation to the speed. I think minimum fine should be Rs. 1000 going up to a maximum amount of perhaps Rs. 10,000 depending on the speed. However fines alone would not be a solution. We need an attitudinal change in the society. I do hope the families, survivors of this tragedy and friends of these young ones who lost their lives take a leading role in society to prevent similar tragedies. The reception would be great if the youths start an anti speed movement. This service would be meritorious act in the name of those lost young lives. S. Gomez, |
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