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| Sunday, 4 January 2004 |
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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.
Dowry and Shariah Law The value of woman is inestimable and her service to family and the society in which she lives is indispensable. Her value was little understood in the past by men who were at the helm of affairs in the family or in the society. This was particularly so in the case of men who derived immense pleasure in oppressing them. Thanks to enlightenment on the part of men, this attitude has been undergoing a change. Her importance is recognized as a crucial element for the welfare and progress of the humanity. Nevertheless, there are still several ways she is being discriminated against. One of these is when she attains her marriageable age. She is put up for sale in the marriage market. Ironically in this transaction she is not paid her value but a lump sum is demanded from her parents as dowry. Although such a practice was the case in the un-Islamic societies and anathema to the teaching of Islam, it is now widely prevalent in Islamic societies too. Apart from it being a great sin in the sight of Islam it is an affront to dignity of a woman. This social disease spread far and wide among Muslims and has reached alarming proportions. According to the Islamic (Shariah) law, the bridegroom must pay the Mahar (the dower) to his bride. He should be able to pay the sum demanded from him by prospective wife. This is a pre-requisite for the fulfilment of the marriage contract.Demanding a dowry has become fashionable and is now (falsely) considered as a social status. The higher the amount of the dowry the greater (or rather the lower) the status of the man who demands and obtains it. Truly speaking it is no social status but rather a social stigma.Parents particularly those belonging to the lower rungs in society find it an unbearable burden when it comes to giving away in marriage their daughters. Although it is compulsory (wajib) in certain instances to look for equality of status between the partners in marriage, it should not be in terms of wealth and other social considerations. "Not to get married to those demanding a dowry from you" as suggested by someone is no solution to the problem as marriage at the appropriate age is necessity in the life of a young girl. Hence let us resolve to find some practical solution to this social malady and tragedy. Shiyana Nizar, Colombo 10 Unofficial traffic accident mediators Very often, there are incidents reported in the printed media where the rich segments of the community are coerced to part with a few hundred rupees to a wayside rowdies pretending to have been knocked down by their car while reversing at some busy places. The modus operandi works thus: As pre-arranged two men from somewhere quickly swoop on the car owner driver and accuse him of his negligence while reversing. The next pointer is that the fallen man is frothing (probably soap water) and screaming in pain and needs medical attention. The two pretending to be good samaritans suggest to the owner driver to hand over to the poor old man some money for medical treatment. The mediators' aggressive tone drowns all explanations of the owner. Unaware of the ploy and to avoid arguments and on the advice of the owner's wife in the car, a couple of hundreds are doled out to the fallen man who is impatiently anticipating the notes with semi-closed eyes. This scenario for easy money is put into effect on several selected car owners. Swindlers who participate in this sordid game share the booty at the end of the day. This drama takes place especially during pre-festive days when most people are busy on their shopping spree. Another common matter worth reminding is how car parts are subtly removed from parked vehicles at busy parking points in the City of Colombo. The identical parts removed from the vehicles are found at the Panchikawatta pavement bazaar for an affordable price. H. L. D. E. Perera, Mattakkuliya. Language rights of minorities Is everybody unaware of the fact that the Tamils inhabit the entire globe and meekly and obediently learn the language of the majority population of each and every country they live in ? In every country it is the language of the majority race that is used. Do Tamils demand language rights in Thailand, Middle East, Germany, France, etc.? They most certainly do not, as they know it would be the prelude to being booted out of the territory. Even in India they learn Hindi without a murmur, because Hindi is the official language of India. The hallmark of a Buddhist is self-respect and dignity. When you see how our "leaders" go crawling to worship at the feet of other religionists to obtain talismans to remain in power, you can guess how far they have degenerated from the lofty religion of the forefathers of this nation. The Tamils have judged the backboneless bunch they have to deal with and act accordingly. No other race, no other country would tolerate what is happening here. If the Tamils cannot learn Sinhala, they should be asked to go and live in a country where they have no objection to learning the language of the majority race of that country - apparently anywhere in the wide world, except in Sri Lanka ! D.S. Wijekoon, Colombo 7 Calling all commuters It's time that we commuters, who have to use the public transport of any type, join together and form a union. We have been regularly inconvenienced by the public transport unions in stoppage of public transport as when they please for reasons that benefit them and not the poor commuters, and all this is done at the inconvenience of the poor commuters. The purpose of the union should be, to find ways and means of stopping this menace. We know that these transport systems depend on us commuters to run their transport systems from the fares they charge each of us. If all commuters join together and stop using their services at least for a few days at a time, then they will think of giving us a better service and also think twice before they decide on strikes and cause inconvenience to the public. We must have a firm leader who can undertake to form, and run a union of this nature, and I am sure that all commuters can put an end to the many hardships that they have to undergo when using the present transport systems. We commuters can get all our demands if we decide to form this union and take meaningful steps to improve the service and also get all other grievances that we have suffered all these years attended to. We therefore, appeal to some worthy person who can undertake to form this union and have a many branches in every district, to find ways and means of giving all commuters a better system of transport in this country. We have given everyone their chance to improve the transport systems they run, but they have not done so. It's time to show them who the boss is. K.G. Almeida, Polgasowita. Minor offenders go scot free ! Our newspapers have carried articles with regard to the victims who were found guilty of minor offences and fined. Those who could not pay the fines were sentenced to jail. It also informed that any one wishes to pay the fine on behalf of the offender could do so and the prisoner will be released. The latest news is that there are businessmen and business organizations that come forward to pay such unpaid fines and get these prisoners released. The purpose of fining a person is due to a offences committed and therefore a penalty or a fine is imposed. If some one comes forward to rescue the offender and pay his or her fine and get them released from the prison free then the idea of the punishing the guilty by fining is lost. Further the culprits will take this for granted and commit more and more offences knowing that some one will come to their rescue and pay the fines due to sympathy or consider as a meritorious act. It would be more prudent if the subscribers deposit this money into a fund which could be established by the prison authorities and start a workshops such as sewing, carpentry, handycraft, etc and get the prisoners to participate and earn their own wages and pay their own fines. This will make the prisoners to know the gravity of the offences committed while they will help the prison department too to benefit by way of sales of the produce made by the prisoners. M.T.A.P. Fernando, Rawatawatte Freedom of dress Ref the letter by Dr. Mareena Refai in this column of Dec. 07, 2003 with the Heading "Dress claustrophobia". I wish to know, are these really her words or is it the vocabulary, dictated by of so called Ulemas ? Muslim women are degraded, dominated and trampled by males from the very inception, during the centuries past. Has she ever worn this black top to bottom covering dress in months of February to April in Sri Lanka, or in the matter of fact, in any tropical humid country, and walked under the hot Sun? If these women are given a choice, which could never happen, (as long as people like you are out there, have become the mouth pieces of the much worshipped Ulemas) would they opt to much lighter dress, without going half naked ? Who has authorized you to speak on behalf of all Muslim women ? Koranic verses are manipulated by men to suit their own whims and fancies. I remember reading in these columns how Muslim law is manipulated in Muslim countries - contributed by a Muslim lady - some time back. According to her, though adultery is punishable by death, this is overcome by temporally marriages. Performed under the blessings of ulemas lebbes, to last for several minutes to longer periods so that adultery could be committed "under the law". This is the reason why kill at sight orders were given on writers - Salman Rushdie and another Muslim lady (I believe) from Bangladesh, for revealing the inside of these manipulations. The law about narcotics is not directly mentioned in the Koran (The type was not discovered at that time) thus making room for manipulation of another law of the sacred Koran. Who are the largest the people involved in Drug Trafficking and smuggling in Sri Lanka ? Though the Muslim women are not allowed in public without a parent or a guardian, this regulation is not applicable in case of Muslim women who act as couriers of drugs and other acts of smuggling. This is very obvious if one visits the Magistrates Courts of Negombo and observe how many unmarried Muslim girls produced before the Magistrate. Almost 100% of all Muslim countries in the world are governed by dictators who do not allow any opposition to their rule. They control the imams, ulemas, clerics and other religious leaders by using different schemes of hooks or crooks. Via these preachers they advocate the masses, attending the places of worship - several times a day over the years. Congregations are brain washed to believe that their Rulers are sole Redeemer to defend them from other Muslim countries, Satans resembling the Western countries and rest of the World. They spread hatred every where, establishing terror campaigns, carnage and destruction amongst themselves and rest of the world. Calling for Jihad (Holy War) on slightest excuse. This is true in our country too. That is the simplest explanation as to why Muslims take to streets just after Friday prayers on contraventional issues. So, if you still insist that Muslim women have freedom to have their own choice of dresses and act in accordance to their conscience, that could be the greatest mockery of the century. Q. Pemsiri Ranaweera, Negombo. Four figure salary increment Several cabinet ministers created false expectations in the mind of the public servants and pensioners leaving them on a four-figure salary increment. even after the presentation of the budget in the parliament the so called veteran politicians still dance to the tune of four figure increment. It is the general view of the salary earners that an increment should not be granted based on salary or pension scales because a person who draws a salary or pension of Rs. 12,500 and another who draws Rs. 3000 has to pay the same amount of money to purchase 5 kilos of sugar, flour and dhal. Market value of food items, bus fares, electricity bills, water bills, telephone bills, medical bills and postage fees are not categorised according to the pension and salary scales. Salary increments are granted to ease the burden of the sky rocketing cost of living which similar to all public servants and pensioners. Numerous appeals made by the pensioners have not been recognized by the finance minister for the past two decades and now he wishes to appoint a salary review committee to review the recommendations in the Tissa Devendra Salary Commission report, which was published in mid 2002.No doubt, the finance minister will appoint another two committees to review the recommendations at the coming budgets. Please understand that 10% salary increase has not given any relief to the pensioners. Mahinda Nihal Perera, Moratuwa Dearth of spinners, TV commentators Sanjay Manjrekar, the TV commentator asked Ranil Abeynaike whether Sri Lanka is grooming any spinners to take over from Murali. I thought Ranil was lucky as a wicket fell immediately and did not have to answer. I was wrong. After the commercial break Manjrekar described the fall of the wicket and Ranil on his own went back to answer the question. He said something to the effect that Upul Chandana had been tried but the selectors have not continued with him. Therefore Chandana had not got due exposure. No other names. I was totally confused. Never having held a bat in life (other than to play softball cricket) my knowledge on cricket is strictly limited to what I learn from watching TV. What is the age difference between Upul and Murali. For how long will the former play cricket after retirement of Murali. Can a knowledgeable person please give an answer to Sanjay's question. It is too much to expect another spinner of Murali's calibre in Sri Lankan cricket scene within the next 10 years. But will we have atleast another spinner who can be described as a strike bowler. Who will take over from Murali and Vaas? I suppose the Cricket Board has other issues more important than development of players, to attend to. Some of the foreign commentators have been very critical of our captain's field placing during the current test series who accused him of not wanting to win a Test match. I was surprised that the local commentators did not defend our captain. I do not agree that Hashan is scared of winning. We should also groom some commentators who can stand up to foreign commentators specially the white skinned. Armchair cricketer, Colombo 13 Sri Lanka first Recently, the newspapers carried an advertisement inserted by Sri Lanka First, describing itself as a non-political peace initiative by the key business sectors. The advertisement was in fact a message to the President and the Prime Minister which made reference inter alia to "divisive party politics that repeatedly thwarted attempts to find a solution to the crippling ethnic issue". This organisation is kindly requested to clarify the following issues, if they wish the readers to believe what they have stated. Please explain in detail what this 'crippling ethnic issue' is. As for 'thwarting attempts to find a solution', everybody knows who thwarted attempts to find a solution. For their information, it must be stated that solutions have been found on a number of instances in the past, which, this group seems to have completely ignored. In 1966, Tamil Language Special Provisions Bill was approved as the final solution. Thereafter, in 1982, District Council Bill was approved and implemented as the final solution. In 1987, Provincial Council Bill was approved and implemented as a solution, which was in fact hailed as the final solution, with a symbolic of hand over of weapons. So, the organizers of Sri Lanka First, do tell us, are we to keep on granting "final solutions" every now and then ? Do you think we, the ordinary people, are suffering from amnesia ? Can you at least tell us now as to who thwarted attempts to find solutions, in 1994 when peace negotiations were proceeding ? Then after the M.O.U. was signed, who violated it over 3000 times, casting doubts in the minds of ordinary peace loving people ? Who kept away from Tokyo peace talks without adducing any valid reasons thus thwarting attempts to find a solution. Why not comment on the suitability or other wise of the Interim Administration proposals ? Does the M.O.U. provide for an Interim Administration being granted while the peace talks are in progress ? This group should know that it takes two hands to clap. It appears from their letter that they expect us to clap with one hand. Over to you Sri Lanka, first, We await your clarifications.' A genuine peace lover, Matara |
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