| Letters
to the Editor |
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| Politicians
may be jokers but not the citizens of this country From 1995-2001, the Central Bank, Kolonnawa oil installations, Dalada Maligawa and airport were bombed by the LTTE. The army was thrown out of the Wanni and they also lost two major bases at Mullaitivu and Elephant Pass. The security situation was so bad that censorship was imposed. Why didn't the President sack the Defence Minister, the Deputy Defence Minister and the Defence Secretary then? During that time, the state media were like a PA mouthpiece. In the past 20 months, the state media have been more balanced than in the previous 30 years. The President wants to introduce media freedom. What a joke, coming from the daughter of a person who shut down the Sun newspaper in 1975 and who herself banned the Sunday Leader. Meanwhile, Lakshman Kadirgamar has been throwing tantrums on TV over the LTTE's Interim Administration proposals. This is only a piece of paper to be negotiated. Nothing has been finalised. There is no point getting high blood pressure over it as any deal with the LTTE has to be passed by a two-third majority in Parliament and at a referendum. Since Kadirgamar
has been so critical of the peace process I would like to suggest
that the President assign him the task of heading the peace delegation.
Another instance
of political hypocrisy is where the Sihala Urumaya (with a minuscule
islandwide vote base of less than 50,000 votes, which is far less
than what the UNP polls in Colombo Central alone) has condemned
the Norwegians for suspending their role in the peace process. It
was this party that earlier wanted the Norwegians thrown out. Some
of our politicians sadly seem to think that the voters of this country
are jokers like them. Why don’t
we have leaders? The fact of the matter is that we have never had leaders of the type (never mind Mandela) our great neighbour, India, has thrown up. Forget the Buddha -- have we had a Mahatma Gandhi, a Vinoba Bhave, a Sankaracharya, a Ramanujan, a Krishnamurthi, a Nelum, a Jai Prakash Narain, a Kamaladevi Chathopadyaya, a Sarojini Naidu, a Subash Chandra Bose or a Kamaraj? Why have we not thrown up such men and women? The answer is, I am inclined to think, that we are a shallow, empty and superficial people with no depth whatsoever despite over 2,000 years of Buddhism and three other great religions. All that we are interested in is power, being important, status, material comfort and so on. I'd like to see a man who is content with little. A leader is
one who lives in this world, but is not of it. He is a stranger
to the ways of the world. The people then look up to him and invest
him with leadership. Such an individual alone can lead a Third Force
that will cleanse this unfortunate land. Stop the
house-to-house lectures, give some relief This may seem to them an effective way of earning votes in the election campaign. But from the point of view of the public it is not so - it is an exercise that causes embarrassment and sometimes could earn their wrath. Most people in our society are already victims and sufferers of an unjust political system. What they need is not house-to-house lectures, but some kind of relief from the existing pressures and hardships. Why can't these politicians make house-to-house visits in the post-election period with valuable gifts as a mark of gratitude to those who elected them? In this age of advanced technology, who is not aware of what is happening in the country? Even in the remotest corners of the island people know what is taking place. Of course, those ignorant are the politicians themselves. The sudden
appearance of a vociferous gang at one's doorstep, in the name of
one or another political party is another form of intimidation,
violating individual freedom. The concept of house-to-house canvassing
gives a helping hand to thieves and criminals. It is a sheer waste
of money and time. No facilities
for agriculture undergrads However, due to many shortcomings at the faculty this vision will not see reality.
Meanwhile, the Teachers' College at Saliyapura has been closed and the buildings are decaying. This college has the following facilities:
Though many
requests have been made by both the faculty administration and the
students to hand over the Teachers' College building, neither the
Ministry of Tertiary Education nor the government has taken any
positive action. The students seek urgent action from the authorities. Lone
protest gone unheeded I must say that as a lone individual I made a protest by sending the article, 'Does the punishment fit the crime' when the unjust sentence was passed on Tony Fernando about a year ago, to an English daily. The Editor did not have the nerve to publish it. I have sent it again to the same Editor, now under more propitious circumstances, after Tony Fernando’s release from prison. Now I find that Kishali too has taken up his cause while condemning the "ostrich like attitude of those who had a duty to speak out.. were due to political affiliations, self-interest of the most despicable kind or plain and simple apathy". In the wake of important people like the UN Rapporteur on the independence of the judiciary, Dato Param Coomaraswamy, coming out harshly against Chief Justice Sarath Silva and his indiscretions and the servility of the other judges on the Bench, I expected the Editor to have second thoughts and publish the article. But apparently
he feels that he may be pushed into joining the august company of
Armand D'Souza, Herbert Hullugalle and Fred Silva, becoming another
cause celebre. 'Letters
to the Editor' should be brief and to the point. Address them to: 'Letters to the Editor, The Sunday Times, P.O.Box 1136, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Or e-mail to editor@sundaytimes.wnl.lk or features@sundaytimes.wnl.lk Please note that letters cannot be acknowledged or returned. |
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