Letters to the Editor

Flour war: The unpalatable bread reality
As the tussle between the Trade Minister and Prima Ltd., over wheat flour continues, the people are left reeling under exorbitant bread prices. The tussle is now becoming an extended battle with blame being passed on to cooperative societies, traders and bakers.

The government has, according to media reports, imported flour from Argentina, Ukraine and Turkey to keep bread prices low. Amidst the turmoil, a core aspect has been overlooked. It is a matter for regret that there has been no knowledgeable officer in the Trade Ministry to advise the Minister that bread of texture to suit the Sri Lankan palate could only be made from American or Australian wheat flour or a combination of such flour and flour from other countries. It is also surprising that the Bakers' Association, too, has not spoken of this aspect.

I have served as an Assistant Food Commissioner and later a Deputy Commissioner in the Food Department during its heyday and have knowledge and experience gathered over a period of 15 years from 1973 to 1988. I have also served as a Chairman of a Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society for a considerable period.

During the pre-Prima days, a large percentage of the Food Department imports was from the United States under the PL.480 agreement, while smaller quantities were imported from Australia and Europe. Our bakers preferred American flour for bread and the department met this requirement by issuing American wheat flour to bakers through the MPCS network, while flour imported from other sources was sent to estate areas and the north and the east where there was no big demand for bread.

Whenever there was a shortage of American wheat flour the bakers used a mixture of American flour and other imported wheat flour to make bread of the required quality. There was constant monitoring of this process by officials of the Food Department and the Price Control Department. Unfortunately both departments are ineffective now.

After the Prima Flour Mill was established in 1988, the import of wheat flour by the Food Department was discontinued and Prima took on the responsibility of supplying flour to the department. Under the new arrangement, the Food Department imported whole wheat grain and issued it to Prima which supplied milled flour to the department. Even under this set-up, most of the wheat grain was imported from the United States under the PL.480 agreement while the balance requirement was met with imports from other countries. For milling flour suitable for Sri Lankan conditions, hard wheat and soft wheat had to be imported in certain proportions and issued to Prima and not just any wheat.

The above facts would indicate that the import of wheat flour from other countries, including India, will not solve the problems of our bakers or consumers as such flour would not be suitable for making bread. Bakers will continue to purchase Prima flour at a higher price and make bread which will be sold at a premium price as at present.

The introduction of two varieties of wheat flour priced differently will only help racketeers and crooked traders who will sell flour at the higher price fixed by Prima. We are being naïve if we believe that our traders are some sort of 'Vessantaras' who will display two varieties of flour for sale marked 'Prima flour' and 'Government imported flour' with a two tier price structure.

I urge the Minister and his officials to consider these facts and work out a practical scheme to bring relief to the bread consumers without indulging in rhetoric. It may be unpalatable, but we must admit that bread has become a staple food of the rich, not so rich and poor masses of Sri Lanka.

Doctorates dime a dozen
Some media persons have been misusing either wittingly or unknowingly the title professor and doctor in relation to certain personalities. We address a person as doctor if he or she is a qualified medical practitioner or if he or she has earned an academic doctorate from a university for a learned thesis while some others - especially eminent persons who have served worthwhile national, educational, cultural or religious causes have received doctorates honoris causa.

Generally, all such persons are addressed as doctor (Acharya) while academic and medical doctors who serve or have served as professors in various faculties of the universities are rightly addressed as professors (Mahacharya).

It has been observed that some persons with doctorates who have not functioned as professors in any university or higher seats of learning are being addressed as Professors. This I think is not correct and creates confusion in the minds of students and others.

In this context it is worthwhile mentioning that the conferment of doctorates is seen to be proliferating to such a degree that we might in the course of time come into contact with a swarm of doctors at every street corner or as they say locally under every bush.

For sometime now we have observed that quite a number of persons have been glorified by certain institutions which do not have anything to do with higher academic, cultural, intellectual or religious involvement bestowing doctorates on some individuals who are not actively engaged in any of the faculties or disciplines connected with academic, medical, religious or intellectual attainments.

A clear case of such indiscriminate coining and offering of doctorates is the recent announcement that a martial arts organization had conferred doctorates on a politician, an actor and a past beauty queen.

Taking a cue from this, various other institutions might also start offering 'doctorates' to their friends and fellow travellers. I may be labouring under a misconception. It is left to our knowledgeable readers to elucidate the correct position and clear our doubts in this context.

Sangha schism: A weighty kamma
As most Buddhists may be aware, there are serious kammas that a human being could do. These kammas as said in the books of the Dhamma are known as weighty kammas or in our parlance - grievous kammas which will not be pardoned in samsaric lives. They are: matricide, patricide, the killing of an arahant, the wounding and causing to shed the blood of a Buddha, and the creation of a schism in the ranks of the Sangha.

Though one or all of them are serious in nature, I wish to dwell upon the last - the creation of a schism in the ranks of the Sangha. With all due respects to the Gem we venerate, are we all or a section of our society guilty of the crime of causing a rift or dissension which we may call 'Sangha Bhedaya' – an ‘Ananthariya Kamma’ or weighty kamma?

Have we not or the Sangha themselves, been involved in the creation of a schism? Many examples could be cited in this respect; but to mention just one, the Sangha Bhedaya politically takes a fair share. It is not the division alone, it is the person or the sections of persons who are responsible for causing such rifts in the community of the Sangha. If so, do they come within the ambit of the range of kammas known as the Ananthariya Kammas?

Can an ombudsman wake up a sleeping council?
People’s participation is vital to curb bribery and corruption particularly in local authorities. People have closer contacts with local-level officials than officials at the centre.

However, the inaction, lethargy and indifference exhibited to public complaints by most local authorities have discouraged public-spirited citizens from offering cooperation to such local bodies in the discharge of their statutory duties.

I am constrained to write this letter to expose the deep-rooted indifference on the part of the Colombo Municipal Council to public complaints. I have made a complaint to municipal authorities against an obstruction to and the pollution of a common drain that runs across my garden. For the past two years, I have written several letters to the authorities, but I have failed to arouse them from their deep slumber. The minimum courtesy of replying to letters is deplorably absent in this premier local body and that makes any complainant dispirited. Only an ombudsman for local administration could provide the answer in such helpless situations.

The city council in crisis
The UNP controls all municipal councils in the country. The premier council is the Colombo Municipal Council which all local authorities look up to for leadership and governance.

When Karu Jayasuriya was mayor of Colombo, he formed the National Chapter of Mayors to share experiences and strengthen their councils. Each council learnt from the other while the Colombo MC gave leadership and direction.

The good work started by Mr. Jayasuriya was continued by his successor Omar Kamil for the next three years, enabling the National Chapter of Mayors to receive international assistance.

Unfortunately the good work has come to an end. Colombo no longer gives leadership. The administration in the city of Colombo has fallen apart and public complaints are not being looked into or resolved because of dissension.

Ratepayers and officials have complained to the authorities concerned but no corrective action has been taken. They ask what the council has done in the past three years with all the taxes collected. Will the authorities concerned appoint a commission to look into these irregularities before there is a total breakdown of the services of the council?

Harrold, according to laws
When World Bank Country Director Peter Harrold gave an interview to The Sunday Times last week he came under Murphy's Law: 'If something can go wrong, it will'.

Then this week he has come under Finagle's Law: 'Once a job has been fouled up, anything done to improve it only makes it worse'.
All this for an outlaw.

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