Letters to the Editor
View(s):Time to fill coffers of EPF at the Central Bank with IMF loan
It is also time for the government to take some of this money and fill the coffers of the EPF at the Central Bank.
I had to wait for five years before applying to claim my EPF once again. I applied for it in April last year (2022) and I am still waiting for it. Six years is a long time for an old man like me who is 75 years old now to have waited. I am in need of the funds to pay for my medical examinations and without these funds I cannot attend to my health needs.
Already we are seeing newspaper reports about the large amounts of money swindled by unscrupulous individuals who are politically connected. It is high time that such corrupt acts are halted once and for all and the funds given by the IMF utilised through proper channels.
The question everybody is asking these days is whether the IMF has given the money for the benefit of the people and the country or to sustain corrupt politicians.
If Sri Lanka continues to waste funds in this manner we will not be able to repay the loans taken from other countries within the required time frame.
There must be an end to financial madness in this poor country.
T.B. Rahaman Via email
Supporting theatre in these hard times and fostering society’s sense of humanity
Of all the arts in Sri Lanka, theatre is the most neglected, considered unnecessary for the development of societal values, discipline, and most importantly the sense of humanity or compassion which seems to be fast disappearing from the minds of the present-day society.
The prevailing indiscipline and corruption can be avoided greatly if indirect disciplinary modes are implanted in society. One such simple means is driving people to freely and voluntarily watch theatre. The late Dr. G. K. Hattotusegama was one who took this concept to the people through Street Theatre.
Theatre folk are unable to commit fully to the theatre arts even voluntarily due to a lack of finances. The poor practitioners of theatre, and particularly the partners – playwrights, actors, actresses, stage hands, make-up artists, and the whole gamut of involved personnel have become totally pauperised and have no way to survive.
I have a solution to solve this problem. If the President, as the Finance Minister and further as a lover and promoter of the arts, can approve the introduction of a lottery titled ‘Nataya Setha’ by the Lotteries Board to create a “theatre fund’, it can be a means to support all the artists involved in the field through a grant system. This Theatre Fund can be a separate department of the Ministry of Culture.
I can vouch that the general populace too would support such a lottery since they know whom the funds would be allocated to. The buyers of the lottery tickets spend only a tiny sum of Rupees 20 with the aim and wish of winning an award. The government of course would have its share of profits and the tax benefit too.
Theatre is a means to bring out what humanism is. Viewing meaningful serious theatre, audiences become moved to tears. So it is when they see good comedy, they break into laughter. Theatre is a collective art, and most importantly and fundamentally it is religious for it moulds and guides the character of humans imbuing understanding and perception.
In the West, specifically England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia and the United States, a play runs for years. Some go on even for 30- 40 years with daily performances, of course with regular changes of cast. When Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of the Phantom of the Opera opened, I was in London. My wife and I waited for almost three years to watch it.
London is so famous for plays mainly at the West End which has some 38 huge theatres within a radius of one kilometre. This is besides the theatres right round the suburbs of West End where there may be close upon 50 middle range theatres. All of them are famous as experimental theatres. Theatres at Hammersmith, West Hampstead and Kilburn like the Tricycle Theatre are known for such productions.
Theatre is a source of income for governments too in those countries. In 1997 or 1998 I could remember in the UK Budget, the second highest revenue earner was theatre as published in the British media.
I do not want to elaborate on theatre in Broadway. There are very, very, successful and popular productions, some running for decades and decades.
Theatre can be converted into a decent source of income also for the annual budgets too if it is encouraged by the Government to prosper whilst providing a good employer scheme as well. This has to be made into a professional mechanism like any other business.
One must remember that there are a huge number of graduates passing out from universities all over the country and a separate University (Aesthetic Studies) exists for theatre and the arts. Besides theatre and drama is also a curricular subject in all educational institutions in the country. What artistes want is encouragement and the availability of finance and freedom.
-Dr. Namel Weeramuni Via email
Rahula@100: No looking back after facing many hurdles
Rahula College, Matara celebrates a proud milestone tomorrow, May 1, - its 100th anniversary.
It was in 1923, when British colonialism was at its peak and the English language was dominating the national fabric of Ceylon in every respect, not only in the public service and the private sector, but also in the homes of a wide Ceylonese community in preference to the indigenous cultures and oriental practices.
In the Southern Province, beyond Galle, hardly could the upcoming generation progress without a properly streamlined English education, as was enjoyed by the more fortunate children in and around many other cities of the country.
Bridging the gap
F. Gordon Pearce who was the Principal of Mahinda College, Galle — one of Ceylon’s best known educational institutions of the day undertook to bridge this gap in terms of English education, between children in Matara and those in Galle.
He spoke to a group of philanthropists from Ruhuna to start a school in Matara with the prime objective of teaching English. Organising themselves as the Matara Buddhist Education Society (MBES), with the popular notary public D. T. W. Rajapaksha as Secretary, they founded the Parakramabahu School in a small building rented out on Main Street, Matara.
Great generosity
Pearce very generously offered to release one of his most committed and dedicated senior teachers Williams de Silva to be the principal of the new school. Williams de Silva earned the respect of all southerners for the sacrifice he made and the risk he took, by giving up his well-established position in Mahinda College to pioneer a small, unregistered school in Matara.
A well-known businessman and industrialist of Matara, C. A. Odiris de Silva and his family with great generosity offered their valuable property called Siriwardena Watte where the famous Saram Walawwa was located, to shift the Parakramabahu School to a more spacious premises. With the shift in location, there was also the shift in the name; Parakramabahu School becoming Rahula Vidyalaya.
With these developments, Rahula was attracting more and more children, but it somehow remained unregistered with the Education Department. Instead of recognising the need for the new school, the Department threatened the parents that they would be taken to courts for sending their children to an unregistered school. The leadership of the MBES, highly perturbed, appealed to the then Legislative Council member Forrester Obeysekara for assistance.
Gordon Pearce, who was then resident in India, again came to the rescue and through the new director of education McRay, he was able to register Rahula Vidyalaya with the government as an Assisted School.
Many achievements
With the major hurdles thus cleared, there was no looking back for Rahula. Year after year, the school made major strides to the delight of its pioneers.
The achievements of Rahula and its students in the past 100 years have been numerous and multi-faceted. Students of Rahula have had considerable impact on a variety of areas ranging from fields such as engineering, medicine, law through to industries, business and trade, sports and politics.
Rahulites are active today in all places and in all fields, within Sri Lanka as well as overseas. The role of Rahula and the Rahulites was succinctly translated into a few words by the Principal, Gurudeva D. J. Kumarage who masterminded the renaissance of Rahula in 1937 and worked relentlessly for the glory of the school, as well as for the wellbeing of the students, until he retired in 1956.
He wrote “It may not be possible for every student to become a government official or a member of the learned profession, but it is possible for everyone to become an honest, disciplined and useful citizen, living at peace with himself, and his fellow human beings, and thereby fulfill the purpose of life”.
-Rakhitha Hemawardana (A student of Rahula from 1998 – 2011)
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