Letters to the Editor

• Let us learn a lesson
• Don't expose the children
• What were they doing then?
• Here is a job for you
• Politicians, Police and gain
• Let the peacemakers know… 
• Ministry Secretary posts: Not only for SLAS people
• Scrap the pension for MPs
• This ridiculous situation must stop

Let us learn a lesson

Vietnam proved to the Americans that ultra-modern and sophisticated weaponry alone could not win wars of liberation - a lesson the French learnt at the hands of the Vietnamese in 1954 in the plains of Dien Bien Phu.

Together with details of Clinton's visit-warmly greeted by some former North Vietnamese commissars - the networks also showed shots of deformed Vietnamese children, tens of thousands who will remain handicapped due to napalm and Agent Orange.

Why did two countries - mortal enemies just two decades ago, agree to the state visit of a leader of a former enemy power? Perhaps the answer lies in the truism, "In as much as there is no such thing in the realities of the contemporary world as permanent friends, neither is there indeed such a thing called permanent enemies." 

The leadership of both Vietnam and the USA have clearly decided to bury all time memories of the dark period of their relationship in the greater interest of the future wellbeing of 40-odd million Vietnamese and 250-odd million Americans. This is a clear example of the victory of pragmatism over emotion. 

Deeply divided Sri Lanka should not miss the lessons from this significant example. If Caucasian (with a little bit of Afroid in-between) Mexicans can learn to forget the horrors of their Mongoloid adversaries and vice-versa, it should be that much easier for us to seriously embark on a process of swift reconciliation with our own kith and kin. 

The religious, cultural affinities and commonalities between the Sinhalese and Tamils provide sufficient space for us to overcome our recent differences, however deep the wounds of recent times are-July '83, Arantalawa, Kokkadicholai, the Central Bank blast, Welikada prison massacre, the killing of over 600 policemen, Dalada Maligawa blast and Bindunuwewa. 

The bestial list will grow longer and the wounds more painful and difficult to forget, unless we resolve our differences in the spirit of accommodation and reconciliation now emerging. 

The process of setting in motion early reconciliation must continue. Not only the hand of Norway, but every single friendly hand extended to help us regain peace and harmony should be firmly grasped. 

A. Kandappah 
Colombo 7

Don't expose the children

We see on TV how areas where mosquitoes are likely to breed are being cleared. It is important to try to prevent the disease, as there is no cure for it.

Children are the most susceptible to dengue and the disease-carrrying mosquito bites between 8-11 a.m. and 3-5 p.m.

By using schoolchildren during those hours, to clean mosquito-infested areas, aren't we exposing them to dengue? This does not mean that children should not be made to clean their school or home gardens.

But with dengue, spreading, is it advisable to expose them?

Shoudn't the authorities get the Parent-Teacher Associations to handle the cleaning of school premises?

During the last dengue epidemic in 1997, Kuru-negala was the worst-affected and several children died. Then people took immediate preventive measures and children had to clean up not only their school premises but the surrounding areas as well. Boys of leading schools in the town were sent to clean drains and dirt around shops, boutiques and shanties. 

Why shouldn't boutique-keepers, shop-owners and shanty-dwellers clean their own surroundings?

A recent report indicated that the schoolgirl from Matara who died of dengue had been involved in the shramadana campaign in the area.

Maybe, she was bitten by the dengue mosquito while she was thus working.

The Ministries of Health and Education should take necessary action to spare schoolchildren from such chores.

Chandra Disanayaka
Kandy

What were they doing then?

This implies that their predecessors have been idling.

If the new Ministers want to do something new let them do so and prove their capability.

Danapala Patabendi
Ambalangoda

Here is a job for you

President Chandrika Kumaratunga should appoint him as Minister for Garbage Disposal. This would solve the problem of garbage and also curb dengue. 

P.M. Gunasekera 
Boralesgamuwa

Politicians, Police and gain

This shows that our politicians are not interested in serving the people, only themselves, and that too to the detriment of the masses. 

Much public opinion has been expressed against political interference in the police. That was in the context of politicians of the party in power exploiting the police for political gain. Political interference in the police is now more menacing and manipulative. 

In the politicians' scramble for spoils, the police service is the worst affected. 

Earlier it was a conflict between political powers on the one side and the law of the land on the other. The problem has now been exacerbated with politicians in the same camp vying with each other even in picking police stooges to support their personal pursuits. This has resulted in conflicting instructions by different political masters, leaving the police in utter confusion. 

The Bindunuwewa incident and its repercussions in Talawakelle are examples of such indiscretion. Both in Bindunuwewa and Talawakelle, it was negligence on the part of the police to just look on when a build-up was clearly seen and even while the incidents were taking place. It seems to be that the police were just taking the lead given by their 'handlers' with no proper application of the law or investigation procedure being adopted. Too many 'handlers' giving conflicting leads to the police, is creating confusion. 

Tassie Seneviratne
Gampaha

Let the peacemakers know… 

The key words here are "substantial account" and "aspirations".

"Aspirations" are what somebody desires or hopes for. In this case, it means what the LTTE is fighting for. "Substantial account" means whatever the LTTE desires must be granted in sufficiently large measure, so as to satisfy them. Almost all the Tamil leaders have said that talks are absolutely necessary with the LTTE and that what the LTTE wants is what the Tamils want. Also, in this so-called conflict it is noteworthy that "Tamil grievances" have been replaced by "Tamil aspirations".

Whether the aspirations of the LTTE and the Tamils are justified, is another question. What the Europeans assume is that they are. What the Europeans desire is that these aspirations must be met substantially.

In the opinion of Tamils, substantial achievement would be tantamount to: 'Eelam'

If not Eelam, then confederation (the actual meaning of which or the implications of which have not been understood by most foolish Sinhala politicians) 

If not confederation, then the Thimpu principles and more that is: substantial devolution.

All these imply that a large portion of our land will be carved out and recognised as "traditional homelands" of Tamils (the Muslims to get whatever the Tamils may give them).

This is despite the fact that the larger number of Tamils live outside the claimed traditional homelands. This is despite the fact that large areas of the Eastern Province have been historically Sinhala inhabited areas for centuries. This is despite the fact that large portions of arable land are in the Eastern Province. This is despite the fact that landlessness is largely among the Sinhalese, especially the Kandyan peasantry.

It is tragic that Europeans who hardly have any knowledge of the historical background of non-European countries should sit in judgement over the future of our children and grandchildren. The Europeans dare not interfere or intervene in powerful countries like China and India. The Sinhalese in particular are not to be taken seriously because they do not constitute a big market and are comparatively small in number.

The Europeans think of our so-called ethnic question as one where a chauvinist and intolerant majority has down the years suppressed a minority. They do not know, or do not care what the picture was during the colonial era where minorities got a privileged position. They do not understand the significance of how down the centuries a small ethnic group called the Sinhala were under continuous aggression by South Indians. They would prefer to ignore the agitation now being mounted among 65 million Tamils in South India by Tamil chauvinist groups which hold a grave threat to us.

Let the European Union peacemakers like Solheim read a few books on alternate opinions, as distinct from what they have imbibed from the Tamil diaspora and from some NGO lobbies both here and abroad. The book Towards a sovereign state by Malinga Gunaratne may be a good starting point, not to speak of the historical works of a host of others, especially Europeans who lived and researched in Sri Lanka for years before they wrote about Sri Lanka.

LKC 
Colombo 4 

Ministry Secretary posts: Not only for SLAS people

The President of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association implies in these articles that the position of a ministry secretary should be filled only from the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS). 

He argues that a large number of the SLAS cadre are stagnating at the lower salary grade and should be given ministry secretary positions to enable them to get salary increases; and that SLAS personnel are the most competent in administering the rules and regulations of the bureaucracy.

Firstly such executive positions exist not for providing promotional avenues for government servants but for those who are capable and competent enough to facilitate the development of the sectors coming under their purview. 

The appointment of non-SLAS personnel as secretaries is not new and even during 1970-77 there were more than nine secretaries who were non-SLAS. 

Subsequent governments continued this practice too. The Report of the Salaries Commission of 1995 states that the Secretary and Additional Secretary..... "posts are outside the SLAS, and officers from all services are eligible for appointment to these posts". 

Further, it is not only the SLAS cadre that have been stagnant at the highest salary scales and the Salaries Commission Report states that at the time it was written, 49% of officers in Class 1 of the Sri Lanka Education Service and 55% of Class 1 officers of the Sri Lanka Scientific Service counted over 25 years of service and were stagnant at their highest salary scale.

Secondly, the main function of a secretary is one of advising the minister in respect of the policies to be adopted for the relevant sector and guiding the personnel of the ministry in implementing such policies. 

This is more important than enforcing administrative rules and regulations. The Secretary should be a specialist on the subject matter covered by the ministry. 

A postgraduate qualification in public management (stated in the news item as necessary qualification for a secretary) will not provide the background necessary for a person to carry out the duties that are required of a ministry secretary.

Such a qualification and a knowledge of the rules and regulations may be suitable for the Senior Assistant Secretary of a ministry who assists the secretary to deal with administrative aspects such as the personnel management of the ministry.

We appreciate the fact that rules and regulations are necessary to ensure transparent financial management and equitable treatment of personnel in a large organization. 

However, we wish to point out that the rules and regulations that are in force today are generally recognized as being a great hindrance in carrying out development work. They are not conducive for the present role of the bureaucracy of planning, policy formulation, facilitation, monitoring and evaluation and are more suitable for the earlier role of bureaucracy of implementor, controller and doer.

We, from the Planning Service, believe that the need of the moment is a professional bureaucracy geared to accelerating the development of the country. Secretaries should be appointed from among those who have the relevant experience, knowledge and aptitude for the subject areas of the relevant ministries.

K.W.D.U. Dahanayake
Secretary, 
Sri Lanka Planning Service Association

Scrap the pension for MPs

The other political parties have been more keen to gain fabulous salary increases and various perks, obtain luxury limousines etc. for themselves while preaching austerity to the people.

MPs being pensionable after five years is unjustified. These days politics has turned out to be a profitable profession and not a way of serving the country. Even men of the underworld, through sheer thuggery and money, can win a parliamentary seat. 

Sometimes Parliament becomes a "House of Babel" even leading to fisticuffs. Parliamentary decorum and traditions are maintained more in the breach.

It is time that politicians who are guilty of bribery and corruption are hauled up before courts and punished. The way should be eventually paved for people of calibre to sit in Parliament.

J.P. Nanayakkara
Kalutara

This ridiculous situation must stop

It is up to our political leaders to take special notice of this as it comes from a respected, impartial body of professionals who are not politically motivated. 

On close scrutiny it will be obvious that the two major parties, the SLFP and the UNP have in fact, divided the Sri Lankan population, the majority constituent community being the Sinhalese, into two rival groups whose relative strengths are more or less equal, varying only by a very thin margin. 

Today there is hardly any difference in the two parties' policies: both are following the principles of an open market ecaonomy. This is pathetic but true with respect to the present political scenario in Sri Lanka. 

The result being that the party in power, is more or less, dependent on minority support for its survival. 

This support is heavily burdened with demands extracting the maximum benefit. Thus the real king-makers are the minority pressure groups. 

This aspect must be clearly understood and appreciated by our political leaders and remedial measures adopted. It will be obvious that the only remedial measure to overcome this situation is for the two major parties to work together and arrive at a consensus. Then unwanted minority influences will get weaned out. Such amalgamation in the national spirit will ensure equal treatment to everybody, irrespective of caste, or race, with all being treated as Sri Lankans. 

Apart from the minority influences and demands, there is another aspect that threatens a party in power with a slender majority, in a "hung Parliament" as the one we have today. 

The governing party will have to offer incentives to MPs lest they crossover, destabilising the government in power. Therefore, as added incentives the members are elevated as ministers or junior ministers. Today we have 45 ministers and 44 junior ministers. This is how the tail wags the dog. 

This ridiculous situation must stop if the country is to advance economically and socially. What is the alternative? The obvious one seems the formation of a national government. The opposition must cease to exist. 

Ministers could be appointed in proportion to the relative strengths of the parties in Parliament. The underlying principle being governance by executive committees, each committee should be under a minister, and comprise MPs allocated by the Speaker in accordance to their wishes. If the major parties adopt consensus politics and govern the country together the militants will realize the impact. It will also give an added impetus to our soldiers.

Dr. George R. Wijegunaratne
Colombo 8.

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