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| Sunday, 4 July 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.
Much has been written in the newspapers about the poster menace and action taken to combat it during election time. For the on-coming elections most boundary walls, buses and trains are pasted with posters of all hues, with images of contestants in various comical postures and unbelievable comments. Added to these are techni-coloured tuition advertisements, death and social function notices. When these posters and notices are removed, the paste remains. To remove the paste, one has to apply sandpaper and colour-wash the wall at great expense to the property owner. To him, this is an unwelcome, recurrent expenditure. Recently newspapers reported that the Police has to spend Rs. 9 million to remove election posters. The Police is saddled enough with crime, traffic control and other duties towards the public. They should not be taxed further with this menial duty. To engage the police in the removal is a massive waste of funds, time and energy. Meanwhile, the criminals have a field day, capitalizing on Police laxity to rob banks, financial institutions in broad daylight. It is the fault of the successive governments for not taking sufficient action against these law breakers. Among these law breakers are reputed lawyers, who should practice what they preach. In their case, the Bar Association should warn its members not to break the law by pasting posters, having cutouts and banners during election time. If they persist they should be struck off the roll. The government should amend the election law, empowering the Commissioner of Elections with wide powers. One such power will be to remove the nomination of the candidate, when sufficient proof is available of breaking the election law. The best way to provide him with proof of law breaking is for members of the public and for rival candidates to send him datelined photographs of posters appearing in public places. Once such proof is available, it will automatically disqualify him. The Commissioner has only to inform the law breaker that he is no longer a candidate. This is the cheapest way to combat this menace. As a result the number of contestants will drop, leaving only law abiding, genuine persons to contest and be elected by voters. Unless such drastic action is taken, the poster menace will remain to pollute the environment, be a nuisance to property owners, add menial duties to Police personnel, enable Bank robbers and Burglers to rob and for the Commissioner of Elections to surrender in disgust to the law breakers. Let sanity prevail among the law makers. P. Lucian Fernando, Lime coral mining in the Southern belt Although permits are issued by the local authorities for lime stone mining, the extent of the land covered by such permits are not clear without a ground plan attached to any such permit. Further no refilling of the land is executed by the permit holder after the mining is over and no authority is bothered whether such condition of the permit is duly executed. Associated problems for the adjoining land owners where such mining is done are: (a) It is not stated how close to the adjoining land boundary or a common road edge such permit holder could do the mining excavation. (b) How soon should the area excavated be refilled is not known. (c) What steps are compulsory for the permit holder to prevent environmental pollution: such as pollution of drinking water, creation of breeding ground for mosquitoes, refused dirt accumulation. Illicit lime stone mining is most prevalent in low lying lands between Ambalangoda, Kahawa and Hikkaduwa a little interior to the coast line main road escaping the notice of higher authorities. Disputes arising out of encroached excavation close to adjoining lands and edges of roads are normally brought to the notice of Police for settlement by only a few courageous persons despite fear of political pressure. Only the Police is helpful in taking action against such wrongful excavations. Thanks to the IGP and his officers. Y. Amarasena de Silva, I have in recent times read many letters to the editor and views expressed by politicians and others that showed considerable ignorance of the meaning and significance of this term. As to its meaning it is commonly thought that it implies the sale of public sector assets. This is not necessarily the case. What is common to all privatization is the transfer of the management of a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) from the public sector to the private sector. Ownership of assets may be transferred wholly, partially, or not at all. Privatisation can be done in many ways such as de-regulation, leasing, and contracting out, which do not necessitate the transfer of ownership. All the benefits that flow from privatisation, are attributable to the transfer of management from the public to the private sector. It has been clearly established by past experience in may countries that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector in managing commercial undertakings. There are many reasons for this. None of them are based on a difference in the intellectual capacity or capability of the individual managers in the two sectors. They are all based on property rights. The private sector is owned by individuals whose wealth is affected by the profits made by the enterprise. Profits mean greater wealth while losses can spell ruin. This results in a powerful incentive to make profits and close monitoring by the owners of the performance of the managers. The careers of the managers in the private sector depend on their performance. Large, recurrent losses would result in bankruptcy, and disaster for both the owners and the managers. None of this applies in the public sector. The SOE is owned directly by the state, and no individual working there has any sense of ownership. He is affected only indirectly and remotely by the financial performance of the enterprise. His rewards are not based on the financial results of the SOE because State salaries and increments are fixed on established scales. His increments, bonuses and promotions are not based on his performance. Losses in SOE's do not result inevitably in loss of employment. SOE's can go on indefinitely making losses, or less evidently making smaller profits than they should. This is the point that is forgotten by those who say that SOE's that are making profits should not be privatised. Under private management their profits may be doubled or tripled. Apart from all this, it is well known that SOE's are not run as purely commercial entities. Politicians interfere with them for their own ends. This interference extends to recruitment of staff and even management decisions.It is because of this that the politicians who are connected with the SOE (and even those who are not) are hostile to privatization. They stand to lose power and influence. The other forces that are united against privatization are the trade unions and the senior managers of the SOE. Their motivations are transparent. The workers fear that the easy life that they have grown accustomed to under a lax management may come to an end. The fact that in the private sector they might earn more does not outweigh the immediate advantage of a secure existence under relaxed working conditions. The senior managers oppose privatization (usually covertly because it may be government policy) because, like the politicians, they fear that they will lose power and influence. It is up to us citizens to blow away the smoke screens, discard ideology, and insist that government must leave business to the private sector. Government would, if it is doing its job, have its hands full trying to see that other activities better suited to its capabilities, and resources, such as providing health services, education, public utilities, and infrastructure, are efficiently provided. Charitha P.de Silva, Illegible prescription chits by doctors The legibility of the doctors prescription chit is extremely important because a patient may live or die depending on the correct or incorrect collection of medicine at the pharmacy. It is a well-known fact that most doctors write their prescriptions illegibly. Aren't they aware of the consequences of misreading the prescriptions by pharmacists (or rather by assistants or trainees). In many instances qualified pharmacists are rare particularly in rural areas. Therefore very often, patients are turned back from the pharmacy to the clinic to revisit the doctor for clarification of the chit. What a terrible curse is this to a patient who is already tired of waiting in a queue for medical consultation and then at the pharmacy to buy the medicine. When medicine is bought at pharmacies the name of the tablet, pill or capsule is usually written on the cover or the packet in which it is put. But when medicine is given at the private clinics/medical centres the nurses or the assistants of the doctor never bother to write the name of the medicine. Why don't they do so? Ordinary people are not worried about the name of medicine but one day they may realize the importance of the names when or if they find themselves facing a mishap such as allergic condition or drug poisoning during the period of medical treatment. When they are referred to a specialist or admitted to a hospital for re-scrutiny it is essential to show what he was using. Otherwise proper diagnosis would be difficult for any doctor. The importance of legible writing of prescriptions and the writing of the name of medicine on the cover has to be conveyed to all doctors as a reminder of a major ethical point in medical profession by the Ministry of Health. M. B. Navarathne, Our parliamentary miscreants, whose favourite pastime appears to be Bhikkhu-bashing, should, no doubt, be reminded of a relevant Buddha-word in the Dhammapada stanzas 137 to 140: "He who uses violence against those who are unarmed, and offends those who are inoffensive, will soon come upon one of these ten states: He will incur sharp pain, disaster, and bodily injury, or serious illness, or derangement of mind. Or he will meet with trouble from the government, or grave charges, loss of relatives, or loss of wealth. Or his house will be destroyed by a ravaging fire, and upon dissolution of the body that ignorant person will be reborn in hell." Judging by the continuing turmoil, both inside and out of parliament, does it not look like "derangement of mind" has already occurred? Prema Ranawaka-Das, Religious truth and Buddhist era The Mahavansa written 1,500 years ago declared that the consecration of Emperor Asoka in India took place 218 years after the Buddha's demise or in the year 326 B.C. during which Alexander the Great entered India. His contemporary in India at the time was Chandra Gupta, the grandfather of Emperor Asoka who was not even born at the time as his consecration took place in 266 B.C. when King Kutasiva was ruling in Sri Lanka whose great grandmother was Bhaddakachchana, a contemporary and niece of the Buddha. The period between great grandparents and great grandchildren as four generations then or now is closely around a century and never around two centuries. It is fully explained in the "Nava Mahavansaya" (Sinhala) published in 1990 correcting all the falsifications in the 1500-year-old Mahavansa for complete correct Buddhist history factually and chronologically. But neglecting this most important first requirement for correct Buddhist history appears to have been considered a silly waster of time by the professors both laity and the clergy including the first editor of the Buddhist Encyclopedia. V. Chandraratna, |
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