Letters to the Editor
View(s):Where is the justice for depositors of failed finance companies?
A few years back, with the collapse of Golden Key and other Ceylinco Group finance companies, it was widely perceived by the public that this collapse would have a domino effect on other finance companies too, as the trend had been set by the Central Bank by disowning responsibility and doing nothing to prevent the collapse or doing something positive to revive them.
No doubt the domino effect has cascaded down the way leading to the collapse of many finance companies since then, and the trend seems to be continuing unabated.
Thousands of depositors of licensed or non-licensed financial institutions with CB such as Golden Key and other Ceylinco Group companies, the CIRL, the CIFL, Okanda Finance, Vajira Investments, Entrust, etc., to name just a few, have been deprived of their valuable deposits or monthly income, turning their lives into one of beggary after having lost their life’s earnings.
In my own experience, in the case of CIRL which is now functioning as The Standard Credit Lanka Ltd, though an arbitrary decision had been taken to convert 68% of the deposit to stocks and treat the balance 32% as the new deposit at a mere 8% interest thereon, even this pittance has not been forthcoming for the last five years and nobody knows what has happened to the 68% of deposit.
In the case of CIFL, things are at a standstill as no investor has come forward to take over the company for the mess it is and the chaotic way it had been run (down) under the scrutiny of CB. In the case of Okanda, the liquidator has not been able to dispose of the dilapidated teak plantation and other assets which had been exposed to the elements and there is no realizable value to compensate the depositors after settling liquidator’s fees and income tax owed to the Government.
At Vajira Investments too a similar situation prevails and they are unable to pay the balance amount owed to depositors. It is a matter of surprise for depositors as to why investigators have not attempted to unearth the Company Directors’ hidden assets.
If such is the situation in general of financial institutions allowed to operate in the country and those coming under the microscope of the CB in particular, which has turned a blind eye to the chaotic management and disregard of laid down regulations, what is the use of the CB calling itself the controlling body of financial institutions? Should such a situation ever happen in any other country where rule of law is supremely enshrined and good governance in place, all of those who played out the public would be behind bars, but not in Sri Lanka as those taken into custody have been bailed out and they will be free forever as no progress is made to frame charges against them.
I hope the new Finance Minister and the Central Bank Govenor would do something to address the issue of collapsed finance companies and redress the grievances of the innocent depositors and thereby salvage the image and reputation of the country in the eyes of the world outside.
Nihal Fernando
Moratuwa
Coming back home: Ecstasy and agony
On a warm summer day, with an elated feeling, bidding goodbyes, I board the luxurious bus from Canberra to Sydney. It is from there, that I will take a flight back home.
Upon completion of all formalities and immigration, I head towards the departure lounge. Most of the other passengers are on holiday or heading home.
Are they also happy as I am, I wonder. As scheduled, the flight takes off and with a brief stopover in Singapore it is now homebound. An ecstatic feeling engulfs me with the aircraft touching the ground, I feel a strong bond, my mother land, my home as I still call it, a great feeling.
Yet, as I go on, I realise things have changed.
This is the country I was born and educated in. Sri Lanka, known as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, depicting a tear drop. A beautiful country blessed in abundance with natural beauty and resources, culture and heritage.
Alas! Today this beautiful Sri Lanka has turned into a den of hooligans, corrupt with malpractice, deceit and scam. I felt a rush of nostalgia mingled with sadness for a way of life that has disappeared forever.
Leaders, high-ups, politicians and law enforcement agents, greedy for power and fame have turned a blind eye, to almost all wrongdoings, for their personal gain.
Righteousness and justice remain at the bottom line, offenders slip away from punishable crimes due to the lapses and loopholes.
Traffic jams in the city: Just one of the woes plaguing our country
Like many others, in various circumstances and grievances, I have been an unfortunate victim of a deceitful building contractor.
These building contractors trap gullible clients as they are aware of the loop holes and weaknesses of law and order enforcing agencies.
I had opted for an amicable way to sort out things, yet, to no avail.
With other fraudulent agencies and businesses, is the hotel industry, which goes hand in hand with the so called booking agents.
Tourism has become just a money making industry. Adding pain to injury, I have witnessed tourists charged ridiculously high rates.
Who will come to their rescue? Where are the law enforcing agents? Some take back bad images of our country.
With the conclusion of the war, (thanks to our former President) we were able to raise our heads as a nation, move around once again free from terrorism and horrifying incidents. The country was slowly and gradually rebuilding and moving towards progress.
Tourism started picking up, yet, today with the new political scenario everything has taken a U turn going back to square number one.
Thanks to the former Defence Minister, Colombo was beginning to bloom. It was a pleasure and a proud privilege to bring visitors from overseas to show my beautiful country. It is short lived now and a dream fading away.
The disarray and disorganized manner in the current transport system has made travelling very stressful. I was stuck in traffic jams on several occasions. Heavy vehicles emanate poisonous fumes threatening the lives of innocent civilians who cannot afford luxury travel. The common man is penalised for violating negligible traffic rules while the high and mighty slip away.
It is time that people stood up together, before it is too late and before irreparable damage is done to our country once again. A desperate need for unity among the masses is the need of the hour.
Hope people recollect the dark and frightful days from which we were rescued. A fact and truth that the entire world knows and accepts.
It is with mixed feelings, disappointment and a heavy heart, that I board the flight back, hoping that things would change for the better.
Mary Mendis
Australia
Collect the garbage before demanding annual rates
I saw a banner displayed near the YMBA Kiribathgoda by the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha calling all residents to pay immediately the annual rates to the Pradeshiya Sabha.
For the past one month the PS has stopped the collection of garbage saying that a Minister has ordered them to stop the collection process.
If PS officials are responsible for the management of the administration of the area under their purview they should decide to stop the collection of rates as well, which is more reasonable.
The collection of garbage is one of their main functions and if they fail to carry out their duties the PS should be dissolved immediately.
Will the minister in charge intervene in this matter and provide a solution soon as the dumpped garbage is left uncollected for days, polluting the envirioment.
Mahinda Wimalasena
Kiribathgoda
41 years as an educationist and this is the thanks I get
I was in the government teachers’ service from 1975-2012. In 2012, I was appointed to the Principal Service class II. I retired from my service last December (2016).
At the time of my retirement, my Principal Service had not been confirmed. I was asked to get it confirmed by the Ministry to get the permission letter from the Secretary of Ministry of Education, to be sent to the Pension Department.
I got all the relevant documents certified by the Zonal, Provincial Department heads and submitted it in February 2017, to the Principal Service Branch of the Ministry of Education at Battaramulla where I was told, I would have to wait two more weeks to get my confirmation letter from the Education Service Commission at Narahenpita.
After three weeks, when I inquired about my letter from the E.S.C., I was told that they didn’t receive any letter from the Ministry (Isurupaya) relevant to my subject. So far, when I went to Isurupaya I confirmed it from my personal file. But the clerk pretended to me as if it had been posted.
In April I was told by the Ministry that the documents of Principals of class I and higher ranks were only confirmed by the Education Service Commission and since I was in class II my service would be confirmed by the Secretary of the Ministry itself.
During the past six months three clerks were handling my personal file. But none of them bothered that I was without any payment since my retirement day.
I have been to Isurupaya more than ten times to produce the relevant documents they wanted to get my work done. But still my work remains undone.
I served my country in the education field for the past 41 years.
In return the Ministry of Education treats me like a dead cent. I don’t know how long it will take to get my pension in this just government. Will it be before or after my death? Only the Ministry of Education knows the answer.
A victim
of Education Service
Correcting two oft-repeated inaccuracies regarding South Indian Tamil labour during British rule
This is to highlight and counter two oft-repeated inaccuracies regarding the import of South Indian Tamil workers for the British tea and coffee plantations which appeared in your editorial (Sunday Times- 21/5/2017- Plantation workers are Sri Lankan citizens of recent origin).
The two contentious issues are that a) Indian labour was brought in because the Sinhala peasantry refused to work in colonial plantations and that, b) the Indian labour became disenfranchised and made stateless at Independence in 1948.
Since space does not permit me a detailed analysis, I only state the bare facts. After the 1817/18 anti-British uprising (or the Uva rebellion) Governor Brownrigg wrote to the Colonial Secretary on 19.02. 1818 that “…the rich province of Dumbara…will not be reduced to good order till severe examples are made in it affecting both life and property”.
Thereafter extremely harsh measures were adopted to evict the Kandyan peasant by killing over 14,000 young boys and men over 14 years of age ( a horrendous act of colonial genocide for which the British have never apologised), destroying houses, agricultural lands, temple lands, crops, fruit trees, livestock, forests, water sources etc, culminating in the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1840. The Sinhalese were driven out en-masse from the hills.
By 1883, the Kandyan territory was amalgamated with the maritime provinces (already under colonial rule) and the whole island thereafter divided into 5 provinces and much later, in 1889, it was further divided into 9 provinces which yet stand. Interestingly, the Northern Province (1833) included the present north-central region of Anuradhapura, thus proving the British had no intention of demarcating provincial boundaries based on ethnicity, i.e. a ‘Tamil’ north.
It was colonial policy to prevent any further uprisings for which the Sinhalese had to be prevented from returning to their ancestral lands.
In 1852, Governor Viscount Torrington stated – “ …the expediency on political grounds, of separating the old Kandyan provinces from one another and breaking up their political unity…” ( British House of Commons sessional paper No. 568; xxvi; p.27, 1852) which proves the above point.
By 1883, 1.8 million acres of upcountry lands had been allocated to British plantation companies. Initially the remaining Sinhala peasants were forced to work in jungle clearing and cutting access roads as unpaid slave labour.
Thereafter they were evicted and not provided employment. This was British policy to evict the Sinhalese after getting the initial hard work done for free and thereafter planting an alien population in the heartland of the island so as to keep the Sinhalese permanently out of the hill country.
J. Whiteford, Secretary of the Uda Pussellawa Planters’ Association wrote to the Ceylon Observer in June 1889: “I can give you the names of scores of villagers who have died of want and destitution within a short distance of this estate, after being turned out of their ancestral lands”.
There is much more evidence but space is a limitation. The Indian Tamil workers were brought here with the sole purpose of creating instability and not because the Sinhalese were lazy and refused to work on the planatations. Even if they did refuse, they cannot be blamed.
This same colonial policy was followed in other British colonies such as Malaya.
The second issue is that of the Indian workers becoming ‘stateless’ and thereafter ‘disenfranchised’ at Independence in 1948. Prior to Independence, both Indians and Ceylonese were officially British subjects.
Indian and Pakistani workers being British subjects had limited voting rights in Ceylon due to this fact.
At independence all such Indians and Pakistanis lost this privilege automatically and reverted to their original status which they never lost in the first instance since the Indian constitution guaranteed their citizenship rights even when abroad.
Thus there was no question of them becoming stateless.
Those Indians/Pakistanis who wished to remain here and had continuous residence of seven years from 01.01.1931 were initially granted citizenship under the Indian and Pakistani Citizenship Act of 1949. About 134,000 qualified.
The rest, most of whom wanted to get back home were asked to register themselves at the Indian High Commission in Colombo, a mere formality.
However estate trade unions backed surreptitiously by the Indian government placed all kinds of obstacles to prevent registration until the final date of application expired.
Thus, they were administratively prevented from returning to their own country and thereafter declared ‘stateless’. It was the intention of India to keep a permanent large population of Indians here and the local trade unions gladly colluded with this.
This Indian plan was amply signified by Prime Minister Modi’s recent remarks on his visit here.
It has also to be mentioned that Indian workers who wanted to return home during the war period ( 1939-1945) could not do so since there was a travel ban imposed by India during this time.
Thus these people had been stuck here for six long years and were eager to return home after the war but got ‘stuck’ again at Independence due to the machinations of India.
Most of these details and facts have been hidden so far and distorted by political parties for political expediency.
Cecil Dharmasena
Kandy
Politicians will be booted out if they don’t change their deaf and blind stance
I agree with Mr. Walter Fernando’s letter in the Sunday Times of June 11, requesting the President to take control of the country.
Catering to the Ministers’ needs is not the agenda of the day. To make them do their duty to the public should be uppermost. This and the committee appointed by the President is not going anywhere other than wasting our money.
Flood victims, doctors, students, farmers, etc are all protesting blocking the main roads demanding their rights.
Dengue and garbage problems are a headache to the government. If the garbage problem can be solved, the dengue threat can be minimised.
A student protest
Politicians do not see these things because they travel by helicopter or in luxury glass tinted vehicles. The President cannot give an order for all Ministers to use one kind of vehicle (ideally a Micro).
The ordinary people were there for the people in need but not the politicians. It’s pathetic when they try to distribute donated items in front of the TV cameras.
The day will soon come when politicians will be booed and chased away from their electorates.
The day will come sooner if the government does not change its DB (deaf and blind ) stance.
Sunil R. Wickremeratne
Mathugama