Many representations have been made on behalf of the employees of the Valaichchenai Paper Mills who have been rendered jobless due, amongst other factors, to the reduction in duty from 35% to 10% and a nil turnover tax on all grades of printing and writing paper. It is appropriate here to refer to the role played by the then Eastern Paper Mills Corporation which was re-named 'National Paper Corporation', only in name but with all other deficiencies intact and thereafter made 'National Paper Company' whilst nobody wanted to touch it when it was offered for sale under the privatisation.
The machines are old and dilapidated to supply the requirements of the Government Printer who, with the reduction in duty, found it cheaper to buy imported qualities and the National Paper Company remained without a customer.
I believe that the Embilipitiya Mill is not functioning due to lack of raw materials which requires more imported pulp than the Valaichchenai Mill.
The Embilipitiya Mill is a danger to the community, in that poisonous chemicals are pumped into the stream used by the people for drinking and cooking purposes.
The National Paper Company itself has admitted that the machines are forty years old and dilapidated and therefore, it is only appropriate that the machinery be scrapped and the workmen given a "golden handshake".
No entrepreneur is supposed to be willing to take over the Mills.
There is another side to the story.
When the duty on printing and writing paper was 35% and the turnover tax was 20% totalling 55% plus the margin of imaginary profit 25%, all totalling to nearly 80%, the ground was very ripe for unscrupulous importers who under-invoiced in addition to the jugglery resorted to by a single importer under the bonded warehouse scheme. These matters were brought to the notice of the Members of Parliament in Parliament by Lakshman Jayakody who was then in the Opposition and copies of the Hansards were delivered to the Director General of Customs and other appropriate authorities but nothing came out of it - only it was intensified. Nowhere in the world is the duty and tax as much as 75-80%.
This has no doubt affected the National Paper Company and without saying that it is the survival of the fittest, I ask the question as to why the general public should be subjected to pay a high rate of duty just to protect, I believe, 1200 workers with a wider ramification.
The National Paper Corporation was not an industry in the real sense since it thrived on the sole import of Newsprint some years ago and thereafter was the sole importer of all kinds of paper and boards and the profits on both subsidised the Corporation.
Like other industries, the National Paper Company must stand on its own feet by retrenching excess labour and making itself profitable.
If they fail to do so, they must be liquidated in the interest of the country, viewing all what has been stated above.
The Government should really appreciate the action of the Sri Lanka Catholic Church for pointing out the exposure of the massive coal power plant to a possible LTTE attack if it is sited at Kalpitiya.
The Bishop of Chilaw who heads the church in the Puttalam district has said in a statement that there is a real possibility of unsuspected attacks on the four-Km (2.5 mile) long coal unloading pier protruding into the sea causing immense damage and disrupting the power supply.
The CEB's plan is to have a 300 MW station at first and later extend it to 600 MW and finally to 900 MW. According to reports I read in the newspapers a 900 MW coal power plant will produce more than double the quantity of electricity now produced by all the hydro power plants in Sri Lanka put together. Can the country face a disruption of power supply of such magnitude?
If the danger to the coal unloading pier pointed out here is ignored and the CEB sets up this power plant at Kalpitiya, then any destruction to the pier by a terrorist attack can surely be entirely blamed on the CEB and no one else.
The word 'education' rates very high in our values and priorities. Parents of growing children are sometimes so worried about giving the best education their child deserves, that they even go to the extreme of placing restrictions on activities that are so essential for the children's physical and psychological growth. It is regrettable that for most of us education is seen as a ladder by which one climbs to the top to be part of the so-called elite and the educated. It is sought after as a means by which one gets employment which pays one well. It is undertaken to receive honour and praise from others. In short, the present prevailing attitude to education turns us inwards doing everything associated with it for our own good and our good alone.
The need to start educating your children early is stressed more than ever by child psychologists. According to extensive research, it is said that the rate of learning is at the highest in a child from infancy to the age of 5 years. This is because the brain develops more when the stimuli received through the senses are more.
But is that all there is to it?
Education is certainly more than just learning your lessons at school.....
We also need to teach children moral values from a very young age, by talking about right and wrong. Unfortunately, these important lessons are sidelined in the rush of making our children the intelligent people we want them to be. We must allow them to go through the consequences of their actions be it good or bad, not sparing the rod if necessary lest we spoil the child. The lack of discipline undertaken by parents of this age is alarming when we compare our childhood. I believe this is not going to help our children in the long run. Apart from this, we need to provide opportunities for them to socialize with others of their age and learn to handle problems on their own.
As part of the educational process, children must be encouraged to develop their own interests. Our parental tendency is often to coax the child to do what we are interested in or what we failed to achieve, and this could be very difficult for a child. Many a child ends up heartbroken by trying to do what they are not made up for.
Why we need education is as important as how we educate. The education we receive must not make us inward looking but outward looking. In keeping with that attitude, we must encourage our children to channel their learning towards the service of the humanity however small or big in the jobs they choose to do. Whether in work at home or work outside, the education received must equip them to make this world a better place for others and them to live in. We must be 'educated' enough to consider the needs of the country and the people when we choose our jobs. This is not taking into account the fact that jobs are not going begging for us to choose! But, it is sad to note that monetary and other benefits are the only factors that govern our decisions sometimes. Even higher studies are embarked upon merely because everybody else does it and not to equip us better in our field of work. What is even more saddening is the fact that those who get free tertiary education in a poor developing country like ours decide to serve the rich developed countries, effectively robbing our country of it's resources and the people of their funds.
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