Letters to the Editor

Let’s remember his efforts to promote religious harmony
Every aspect of the tragic assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadir-gamar has been covered by the media. It was, however, refreshing to note that at a time when Sri Lanka is seemingly being riven apart by both racial tensions and religious intolerance, the fact of his being both a Tamil and Christian was positively recognised.

A good opportunity was however lost — in the plethora of tributes paid to him at his funeral — to place him among all the other patriots, Tamil, Sinhalese, Burgher, Muslim — who in spite of professing other religions — promoted and espoused the cause of Buddhists, especially during a rigid colonial era.

Among his other achievements, the fact that he got recognition for the most important Buddhist festival of Vesak, internationally, at the highest possible level, by the UN, is praiseworthy indeed. However, even the Ven. Bellanwila Wimalaratana Thero, in his anusasana, at the funeral gave credit only to Colonel Olcott for his efforts to make Vesak a public holiday, in predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka. He failed to even mention the efforts of Pandit Batuwantudawe and practising Christians like E.W. Perera, who made the initial efforts to both gain recognition for this foremost Buddhist festival from a somewhat reluctant British government and also for later getting it declared a public holiday.

Racial and religious harmony, of which Mr. Kadirgamar, was probably a living embodiment — is in a precarious and parlous state in Sri Lanka today and the best tribute to his memory and to everyone who shared his views is to use every opportunity to actively promote it.

Dowry woes and time to reverse the roles
It is extremely disheartening and heart-rending in this scientific modernized era to note that the so called 'dowry system' prevails in our splendid isle especially among Tamils.

Nowadays most young men go to the Middle East and other western countries to earn lucrative incomes and give handsome dowries to the men who marry their sisters and other kith and kin. It is because of dowry that hundreds of young women of non-affluent families remain spinsters for so many years.

Recently I listened to a broadcast over the Muslim Tamil Service, where a scholar commented that it is justifiable and humane to request dowry from men for the women.

He emphasized that women are vulnerable, easily fall victim to diseases and require money when they are ailing at a later stage.

Legislation must be strictly enforced by the government of Sri Lanka to ban the dowry system and if any man requests dowry, he should be punished by law. New legislation must be enacted that men should to pay dowry to marry a woman.

Mushrooming clinics and deteriorating standards
The Sunday Times report of fatal cases of meningitis caused by spinal injections shows how carelessness and indifference have set in, even in our medical services, today.

Recently, I witnessed an anti-tetanus injection being given to a child at one of these unregistered labs (there are many all over the country today) by a nurse. She was quite a greenhorn, going by the way she jabbed it into the child's arm when this particular serum should be administered slowly and gently.

With HIV too now on the increase, one wonders whether one route of infection could be through improperly sterilised needles and handling by inexperienced staff, when blood is extracted, for various medical tests, like for sugar, blood counts etc., at these clinics full of untrained staff. Maybe, many of them have never had any previous training at all and have been recruited on meagre wages, picking up their training by trial and error!

It may be worth considering whether these clinics and labs should be registered by the Health Ministry after ascertaining the proficiency of the staff employed by them.

Stop the pious lectures and start curbing the Tiger marauders
How much longer do the people of this country have to listen to the pious lectures of the international community admonishing us to exercise patience, tolerance, and do everything to further the peace process, while the Tiger-feeding centres in their countries are allowed to thrive and provide the LTTE with funds and weapons, to wage a barbaric war against those of all communities in this country?

Make no mistake! I, like the majority of Sri Lankans, am no war-monger. If a vote is taken for peace, I will put both my hands up; but by peace I mean, a condition of absence of murder and mayhem, and the prevalence of a peaceable life, with dignity for all. I do not mean abject surrender, in the name of furthering the so-called peace process. I do not mean a state of affairs, wherein the Tiger roars and rampages through the country, sharp claws out, with the Norwegians, those Tiger-controlled facilitators, patting it on the head.

The circus masters of the capitals of the world crack their whips at the lion, saying, 'Down Leo, Down!' until that beast rolls on to its back, spreads out his four limbs, exposing his soft underbelly, purring gently, while the Tiger eviscerates him and his kin or even that beast's own ethnic kind, that does not submit to the will of this blood-thirsty serial killer.

While those great big white hunters of terrorists, who do not hesitate to flout every statute of international law, when it is in their interest, and even invade a country perceived by them to be a threat to their interests, stand mouthing platitudes, signing condolence books and back-patting, and at the same time, scolding and admonishing the government of Sri Lanka for not speeding up the peace process, this country haemorrhages fast, and we are compelled, diplomatically, to do our duty by just standing and waiting.

No! I am not asking for a return to arms. That would be folly of the greatest magnitude. I am not asking for foreign armed intervention. But we, the citizens of this country, must needs ask this international community which shouts itself hoarse calling for peace, to declare and wage an all-out rigorous diplomatic offensive against these now, world recognized, at least in theory, terrorists (the BBC once referred to them as freedom-fighters).

That is, if they really want this country to be at peace and remain a democracy. Unfortunately, there are apologists, both local and foreign, who still fan the hypocrisy and illogic of the Tigers. Why these soft, caressing fingers in velvet gloves, for these killers, these singularly favoured terrorists?

The Tigers scream vociferously, and Norway bows obsequiously, that it is the SLG that stands in the way of peace. They demand the protection of the SLG armed forces for their so-called unarmed cadres, apart from helicopter rides. They ask for their own beaches, their own sea-space, they lay out their own air-fields and they demand the disarming of all paramilitary groups opposed to the LTTE!

What about the paramilitary groups that are not opposed to the LTTE and that are responsible for so many brutal bombings and assassinations and loss of life , over the years, of security and non-security personnel, and of the politicians who do not kow-tow to them? Who do not accept them as the sole representatives of the Tamil people?

And as a matter of definition, is the LTTE not a paramilitary group, if by that term is meant an armed group that does not belong to the regular army of a country? Can any sovereign state have two official armies? Fine! Let’s disarm all paramilitary groups, including the LTTE. That would be logical.

That would bring peace! But who will bell the Big Cat? To accentuate the positive, knowingly repeating myself, if the international community is genuine in its bid for peace, let that Great Coalition of Forces that declared war, including armed intervention, on terrorism, defying the United Nations and the will of a large number of their own people, even at this late hour, cry halt and immediately let loose the dogs of a powerful, conjoined, non-military offensive against this marauding beast — an offensive that will rapidly dim its lustre, so that it will no longer have the strength to strike and strike again.

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