Letters to the Editor
View(s):We need a ‘vote for the unknown’ campaign to save us as a nation
This is a formal thank you letter to all those who assisted the victims of the Easter Sunday bomb blasts in Sri Lanka including my relative with maximum commitment whether they were on duty or not. The doctors, nurses, ambulance men, volunteers and well-wishers worked very hard to achieve the best possible damage control for each victim. The services provided by our professional officers in police and armed forces spoke for themselves of their quality although politicos swiftly blamed them.Sadly this never ending carnage has become a regular feature in our country.
Starting from 1958 Tamil riots, exactly 10 years after Independence the carnage spread; the JVP uprising in 1971, 1982 -89 same again, then 1990 – 2009 the LTTE war and now in 2019 this catastrophe. It’s the people who suffer, especially the youth. The loss of life and damage to property and education put our country far behind in development when compared to other countries in the neighbouring region.
If you analyse each uprising, it’s the politicians who had nurtured this environment. It’s advantageous and profitable for corrupt politicians to promote their personal agendas at the expense of the poor working class and innocent citizens. We have over 8000 politicians in active service in this land in the central and local governments, but what for?
I blame politicians who spread hate for their own gain (based on race, religion, colour, size, gender and promote wars between and within communities and nations. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka have all suffered from this polarised democracy, and we were vulnerable this time because of our peaceful life, just like New Zealand. Malaysia escaped this political downslope and got a cap on racial violence after imposing tough rules following the1968 riots. As a consequence they are far ahead of us in development. We too, the general public should work to stop diversity becoming a political plot. Some parties have blossomed representing only a fraction of the community, wanting a ‘pound of flesh’ from the rest. We are all Sri Lankans and have to live here together in peace, whatever separation the politicians are dreaming of – again for their private gain.
We cannot expect any good from the current breed of politicos staging chicken fights for the whole world to see. They have no ability to argue pros and cons based on facts in Parliament and we, as voters should be blamed for nurturing this kind of politicians.
We also cannot believe anything they say. The President, our first citizen who vowed in front of the sacred Buddhist shrine that this would be his first and the last term of presidency is now planning to contest for the second term without keeping to his mission, to abolish the presidency. So too did others in the past.
As voters we can only try to change the current party politics through our votes. During the presidential election if we vote for the unknown we can ensure that not a single candidate will have a sufficient majority to be elected as the president. This will lead to a Parliamentary election where we can vote for good individuals with no track record of criminality or corruption to ensure that Parliament will host at least a good set of people with lesser interest in their own gain. They can promote a new constitution to abolish the presidency and ensure diversity is protected by legislation making all racially or religiously polarised parties illegal.
To do this, vote for someone for his or her character and track record and not the party or colour or their current political standing. This will ensure that party strongholds are broken allowing some independent good people to come forward to save our country slipping into anarchy and becoming another Somalia burdened with an unprecedented amount of high interest on Chinese loans.We need a ‘vote for the unknown’ campaign to save us as a nation.
Chula Goonasekera Via email
Computerised ticketing system could help ease woes of third class train passengers
For over 60 years, Third Class passengers have undergone the unnecessary stampede to get a seat on the train that leaves the Fort Railway Station for Kankesanthurai – some passengers even resorting to throwing their bags into the train compartment before the train stops.
All this rush could be avoided by adopting a computerised system when issuing tickets. Third Class seats could be clearly numbered and along with the ticket a computer generated sheet which gives the ticket number and seat number could be issued. Once all the seats are full, the ticket counter could display the seat numbers that become vacant at different Railway Stations. When issuing the tickets the computer printout could show the seat number falling vacant and the number could be shown as 15-1, 100-1 etc. The last Railway station could be Medawachchiya.
I hope the Minister of Transport will heed this suggestion.
Dr. V. Mahendran Chunnakam