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| Sunday, 26 December 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.
Re-introducing the death penalty has been a crying need in Sri Lanka. The death penalty is accepted to be a deterrent. Views and ideas of human rights organisations based abroad, indicate unawareness of gangster killings, rapes followed by repulsive murders, contract extermination and drug trafficking that accompany homicides. Awful crimes have grown rampant in a one time relatively calm country. Considering ever spiralling crimes and overwhelming incidences of dastardly murders the gallows are in imperative need. They should be used and not be in misuse. Ninety nine percent of the people yearn for peace and harmony and condemn violence and premeditated heinous crime. They expect government to protect their children themselves and their hard-earned property from various menacing murderers and homicidal maniacs. The Prime Minister, and the government will receive the gratitude of almost all particularly, of the poor and honest for this timely and firm action to stem horrible crime. It is indeed time the death penalty be re-introduced. There should not be any delay. Now is the worst of times. Speculation is at its climax that there will be a cover up of those involved with the murder of Judge Sarath Ambepitiya. In this backdrop, no one had the confidence that an impartial inquiry should be held into the grenade attack at the musical show featuring Indian artistes. The Indian Government should offer assistance of the Indian Police to investigate this incident. The President has been bold enough to charge a UNP MP from Kotte for this attack. Obviously, she has sufficient proof of this. This incident has received wide publicity internationally and our law enforcement system will lose credibility internationally unless the culprits are exposed soon. Therefore, in fairness to everyone concerned, Sri Lankan government
should seek assistance from the Indian government to investigate this
attack. The information available to the President will be obviously
helpful to bring the criminals to justice. We should prove to the rest of
the world that we are not religious fanatics. According to Professor G. L. Peiris, he is the final authority to decide whether convicted S. B. Dissanayake continues to be a Member of Parliament or not. With regard to 'contempt of court' SBD has already admitted and was
found guilty and sentenced for two years by the Supreme Court yet. G. L.
Peiris's challenge is that UNP speaker is the final authority on this
matter. Regulating our fashion industry Provocative sexual exposure is the new cult introduced by designers who have no insight, thought, or belief of the values of a rich culture. With the advent of the open economy our cultural values are fast disappearing. In fact, we an importing so called designers in addition to goods from the west. These designers seems to lack or have no bondage to this ancient country with a rich history. There must be a psychological reason for these so called social elites to expose their bodies. It may be desperation to gain recognition from men folks. Secondly, scant respect to oneself and thirdly, low IQ unable to judge or realise that provocative sexual exposure is not "fashion". Yves Saint Laurent, a leading French haute couture who designed clothes
for women to make them radiant with beauty and elegance said "present
day" designs' have banished elegance and beauty. There is ample
opportunity for self employments, one need not sell ones body to survive. The First Day Cover issued with a stamp issued on August 16, 2004 to commemorate the Tibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Buddharakkhitha Maha Nayaka Thera states the year of birth and death as 1853-2004. The Stamp Bulletin No. 572 issued states that the Mahanayake Thera was the Head of the Malwatte Chapter from 1753 to 1774. This is a glaring discrepancy. A commemorative stamp is issued to inform the public of the commemorative event and if only 500,000 stamps are printed how could the public become aware of the event. There are nearly 5000 post offices in the country and therefore, not more than 100 stamps could be issued to each post office. Records also show that in the 1950s as many as 15 million commemorative stamps of each issue were printed and sold through the post offices in Sri Lanka. All postage stamps printed and issued in Sri Lanka are distributed overseas by the Crown Agents in England and the International Corporation of America in the USA. There is no need for local dealers to be given commissions to sell Sri Lankan stamps overseas. Certain changes at the Philatelic Bureau is necessary before things
become worse. According to the Health Department about two thousand people bitten by dogs enter hospitals daily. During the last eight months eighty two patients bitten by stray dogs had died. As per statistics there are about two lakhs of stray dogs in the Western Province alone. The ever increasing number of stray dogs in the Panadura area have caused many problems to school children and motorists. This incident which occurred will relate the dire consequences of
rabies. A boy gave his mother a trouser to be mended, which was torn at
the hem by a dog. After mending it with thread and needle the mother bit
the end of the thread with her teeth. The boy's trouser was bitten by a
stray dog and the rabies virus that remained got in contact with the
mother's mouth and had an attack of rabies. The pathetic part was that no
one suspected rabies until it was too late. The two festivals, Eid-ul-fitr and Eid-ul-Alha are the only two important festivals we celebrate as Muslims. The morning prayers are a need and a custom of our religion. These days are not marked as mercantile holidays. Meelad-un-nabi is marked as a mercantile holiday where there is no need for attending the mosque. Yes, we celebrate it as it is the birthday of our Prophet Mohamed, but it is a custom, not a must in Islam. What I feel is that the other two festivals are more important than this. Please consider this matter in preparing the 2005 calendar. In the eve of General Elections of 1947 my late mother told us that UNP is the party of the respectable, cultured and the religious minded. However, I realised the conspiracies in his own party to forsake Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara for the sin of spearheading the free education scheme. His party leader never stepped into the electorate throughout the campaign. Hoards of elite supporting the denominational school system started
roaming rather invading from the nomination day, this rural electorate to
whip up unfounded fears against the free education scheme. After 50 years
of existence what do we find? The hoodlums, underworld criminals, rapists,
bribe-takers, commission agents, tax evaders, contemptors of the law, are
rightly or wrongly finding solace in the party perhaps with the tacit
approval of its current leader! "A large damage was done to Buddhists in the country and this should be rectified"- Athureliye Rathana Thera - The Island - December 13, 2004. a damage had not only been done to the Buddhists but to all Sri Lankans. And this would have not been so if he had directed other Buddhist priests with their opposition to the concert only for Buddhists who wanted to attend it. What business do they have to try to close down a preplanned production or force members of other religious beliefs to mourn the death of someone who means absolutely nothing to them? Is this a country where its citizens have a freedom of choice or are all its citizens to be dictated to by a few fundamentalist radical elements who pervert a beautiful philosophy for purely personal power games? This is quite in opposition to the Buddha's teachings. It is about time that the Sangha brought these radical fundamentalist
priests to a halt in order to stop giving Sri Lanka, Buddhists and
Buddhism in general a bad name. People with disabilities must be heard by those who seek political office. Our message with regard to blindness and disability is the same, and is clear and explicit. We are obliged to take politics seriously because our issues are, for the most part, being marginalised by both major political parties. It is time for us to ask for specifics and to challenge those who have not kept their promises. Firstly, what is your position with regard to a pension scheme for blind people-specially for those over 50 years of age, unemployed, and not entitled to a government pension? Secondly, what is your position with regard to unemployment? Our unemployment rate is over 90 per cent. Without a monthly income we cannot feed and clothe ourselves and look for shelter to lead decent lives. We sincerely hope that you will answer these two simple questions. Earlier, all trade chambers campaigned for low interest rates for the benefit of their members. It is shocking to note that the National Chamber of Commerce is supportive of increase in interest rates, which no businessman in this country would welcome. NCCSL should soon issue a statement up to what rate they want the government to increase interest. Will they care to explain to the business community why they did not
protest when the previous regime reduced the interest rates? It is very
unfortunate if recognised chambers are to become spokesmen for political
parties.
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