Letters to the Editor
View(s):The plight of pensioners and Mahinda Chintanaya
We have heard on TV and radio, and read in newspapers that the President had invited all sectors of the public to get their views before he presented his Budget for 2014. This exercise by the President was to encompass the aspirations of the relevant disciplines to present meaningful Budget proposals for 2014.
Eight years ago, the President presenting the Budget stated that in the Mahinda Chintanaya there was provision for pensionto lead an honourable life without fear or favour drawing a handsome pension once the anomalies of the pensioners were rectified. But the Government has failed to fulfil that promise. Their hopes shattered, the pensioners are a disappointed lot under the present regime.
We won the war; celebrations were held; we had kiributh and lit crackers polluting the environment and the President was subsequently installed in power for a second term – and once again the contents of the Mahinda Chintanaya were spelled out. Those who retired before 1997 draw a pension that had been computed on the last salary they received. All public servants’ salaries were increased in January 1997. Those who retired in 1997 and after are enjoying a bigger pension and those who retired in 1996 and before draw a small pension. The Mahinda Chintanaya promised to rectify this but it has not happened so far.
Assuming that the next Presidential election is around the corner and assuming that the President will come forward as a candidate again, another version of Mahinda Chintanaya will be unfolded and the promise of rectifying the pensioners’ anomalies will surface once again. There are about 550,000 government pensioners – they could be a decisive factor in a national election. Therefore they hope meaningful steps would be taken to rectify the anomalies. Pensioners are still hoping that at least something will be done by the President.
Pensioners should live a decent life. As senior citizens, they have heavy expenditure on medicine as the prices of drugs are subjected to various taxes. A heart patient will have to spend at least Rs. 10,000 on drugs for a month. Only a few pensioners can afford it because they have children who work abroad but the majority suffers. There is no medicine in the hospitals — even a Panadol tablet costs Rs. 2.50. The increases in electricity and water bills and the high cost of living have brought misery to the pensioners – many of them are reduced to the status of beggars.
Please give careful thought to the plight of pensioners.
On behalf of all pensioners
Lenin Jayasinghe
Kadawatha
Diyawadane Nilame: Putting on his vanity cap?
Pic courtesy Dalada Maligawa Media
A picture in the Sunday Times of November 17 showed the Diyawadane Nilame with his head gear in the inner chamber of the Dalada Maligawa near the sacred casket containing the Tooth Relic. Even the Royal visitor did not wear shoes, we were told.
Not wearing headgear or footwear when entering places of Buddhist worship is a traditional custom practised by our kings and devotees. This was enforced when other dignitaries paid their respects to the Sacred Relic in the past.Even the service chiefs in uniform when accompanying the head of state the uniform, remove their caps and footwear when entering temples on ceremonial occasions.
How come then the lay custodian of the Sacred Tooth Relic identified as the Diyawadane Nilame took the liberty of wearing headgear when going in to the inner chamber with Prince Charles? Did he want to impress the Prince with his antique hat?
Wing Commander Ranjith Ratnapala (Retd)
Nawala
Maveerars day: Prabhakaran is not Elara
I refer to the December 1 Political Column which highlighted attempts made by certain Northern Provincial Council members to celebrate Maveerars day on November 27.
Their motive is clear; however I wish to desist from making any reference to this. But I cannot restrain myself from making comments on the Chief Minister’s statement, which referred to the memorial erected by Dutugemunu for Elara. His statement was apparently to justify the celebration of Maveerars day.
Elara and Dutugemunu were sovereign kings and decent human beings. For whatever reasons they fought each other and in keeping with the conventions of war at that time, Dutugemunu showed his magnanimity in honouring the fallen hero and ordered the public to show respect at the memorial site where the body of King Elara was laid to rest.
The memorial has not been destroyed as cynically implied; it has undergone deterioration as any other ruins. This is quite different to the brutality committed by Prabhakaran and his followers. Innocent men women and children, including infants, were brutally murdered. His crimes include the massacre of Buddhist monks and Muslims at prayer; the use of child soldiers as cannon fodder, ordering suicide bomb attacks on civilian targets, killing of state leaders, politicians and eminent personalities such as Lakshman Kadirgamar, Neelan Thiruchelvam and Appapillai Amirthalingam. Are these the achievements of the “Great Heroes” who are to be honoured?
The Chief Minister, a person of great regard and respect, and now holding a responsible position in politics should be careful before making unconscionable statements.
A Citizen
A right royal salary
Perhaps older readers may recall the rejoinder made by the then Chief Justice Neville Samarakoon in response to a statement made by the then President J.R. Jayewardene.
JR had said that he was on a “pauper’s salary”. Mr. Samarakoon replied that ‘it cost the tax payers ‘a hell of a lot of money’ to keep the President on a pauper’s salary.
I wonder what Mr. Samarakoon’s response would have been, if he had been alive today and learnt that it costs the taxpayer more than Rs. 20 million a day to maintain MR as President of Sri Lanka. Is it any wonder then that he would wish to be President for life.
T.T. Agalawatte
Ukuwela