The rift between the majority and minority communities that lived peacefully in Ceylon, prior to Independence, commenced with the introduction of the Sinhala only Bill in 1956, the dethroning of the link language English and the district wise standardization for admission to the Universities. Hence, if these root causes can be eliminated, it may be possible to maintain a United Sri Lanka-without indulging in the time wasting exercise of introducing a ‘Political Package’ which , in my opinion, would never see the light of day till hell freezes, and even if it does, it would give rise to more Problems.
If political reforms are necessary, it would be advisable to re-introduce the Excutive Committee system of Government where all parties could participate in Government, and where meritocracy will reign supreme, sans ethnic, religious or caste differences.
To strengthen the unity among the racial and other groups we could have a nominal President and a Vice-President elected by Parliament and, constitutionally stipulate that the President and VicePresident should not be from the same racial or religious group.
Further, in order to give peace a chance, let the powers, which the Political Package seeks to vest in the Regional Councils, be vested in the local bodies, so as to assuage fears, of the Ultra-Nationalists, that the package seeks to divide the country, than unify it, and at the same time empower the people in the rural areas to improve their lot.
They have been completely neglected for the last 50 years by their representatives in Parliament, as a result of legislators living in air-conditioned bungalows, wining and dining in 5 Star Hotels, travelling in Pajeros imported duty free and enjoying, absurdly subsidized meals at the ultra-modern Parliament Complex in Kotte.
The Provincial Councils or Regional Councils should be scrapped, so that the tax-payers’ money spent on salaries and perks to provincial councillors could be utilized for development activities.
This, in my view, is the only solution to get out of the present mess.
We should realise that, in this day and age of Information Technology, when the world has been reduced to a Global Village, when concepts such as National borders and sovereignty are fast losing their age-old meaning, for us, living in this small Island, to talk of traditional home-lands to say the least, is to be naive. Let us, therefore, shed these old shibboleths, and unitedly be membes of the Global Village, and reap whatever benefits, we could, from the New World Order, which has come to stay whether we like it or not.
Although the PA’s young Minister of Posts and Telecom is trying to prove to the public that he has done much to improve the Postal Service etc., the real truth is that he is trying to white wash all its short comings and failures.
For instance among many other drawbacks please note the following lapses and the hardships imposed on us the poor people.
(1) Raised all local postal rates by 25% and postage stamp rate by more than double the previous charges and that too twice in less than two years.
(2) In spite of the expansion of Telecom and phone services at an incredible rate, no telegram (except state one’s perhaps) will reach the addressee on the same day, in contrast to the much maligned colonial times.
(3) Collosal sums of money were spent on a new scheme of giving code numbers to all grades of Post Offices in the Island, and exhibiting them on big boards with no instructions whatsoever at the P.O.’s or public places or the media. A list of such code numbers pertaining to each P.O. should have been published in the papers well in advance, and as a departmental issue, to instruct the public on its proper use.
(4) Another cause of heavy expenditure is the siting of a new type of top heavy mail boxes more like bird cages in contrast to the conventional, time tested pre-cast cement pillar boxes that proudly challenge all weather conditions and stand sentinel in the service of the poor.
(6) Postmen and delivery peons are a law unto themselves. Losses and misdeliveries are quite common. Registered letters in my locality are not hand delivered, but a note is given asking us to call at the P.O. and take delivery just like in Receiving Offices in remote areas. These are just a few of the hardships and punishments imposed on us the gullible public within less than two years.
It is a pity so many young lives are snuffed away by suicides for trivial reasons, as we read daily in the newspapers. The reasons are absurd - such as the mother scolding the daughter, failure in exams or a broken love affair.
It is high time we take notice of this trend where the value of human life is not taught to the children. It is a proven fact that the suicide rate is lowest among Muslims. A person who commits suicide dies as an unbeliever and will be punished in hell by going through the pain of suicidal death over and over again. Since suicide is considered to be a major sin, a human being has no right to harm his own body as much as he has no right to harm another human being. This is why, according to Islam it is considered a sin to smoke, to imbibe alcohol and take drugs. This body of ours is given to us by Allah as a trust. It is our duty to cherish and protect it throughout our lives in this world.
It is high time the elders take notice of this sense of hopelessness prevailing among the young. Problems with education and unemployment are affecting children on one side while the decadent TV programs are teaching them totally false values on puppy carnal love and violence, with no emphasis on family life, perseverance in achieving worthwhile goals or the pleasure of serving the underprivileged. Lack of religious knowledge is another reason for the decay of our young society. In spite of the fact that we have almost 24 religious holidays in addition to the weekends, it is questionable whether those holidays had guided our younger generation towards religion. If a concrete effort is made to guide the children towards practical religions we are in effect losing a lot of man-hours on these holidays.
Plain sermons and lectures can never create interest in religion among the young. They need activity, involvement and results. The best way to teach children is to involve them in social services, which is a way of teaching human life, irrespective of caste, creed and status, and of training them to always remember those who are less privileged. The training should be done in such a way that the priority of school education is not lost nor should they be allowed to roam around the road on pretext of collecting money or staging demonstrations. It must be done with the supportive supervision of the parents, teachers and religious leaders, so that some needy souls benefit.
Youth have untapped potential beyond imagination. It is up to us the adults to harness it, and put it to proper use, for the betterment of the society. Unless we think along these lines and take action now, we are indeed heading for a world of sick, frustrated youth.
The Inter-School Drama Competition is probably the most prestigious event in School Drama. As a participant in the contest and particularly as a member of a winning team, some years ago, the experience of being a part of this grand event has been truly amazing, that many of us, although no longer in school, find ourselves coming back and getting involved in some minute way. As can be expected there have been many disappointments. Yet, when compared with the gains - the wealth of knowledge acquired, the friendships that have been formed - these drawbacks seem almost insignificant. Sadly, this year’s competition had been very controversial. There were very high expectations when the word got around that the organizers were flying-in a foreign judge. Many believed that this year’s contest would be an experience never to be forgotten and that was exactly what it turned out to be, but not quite as was expected.
Contrary to the usual practice - i.e., to have an odd number of judges in the panel - there were just two, one who, perhaps due to jet-lag or some other unknown reason, could not even stay awake during a majority of the performances. One begins to wonder then, how this very same judge could actually state that this competition was "unique". I think I have the answer: perhaps, the atmosphere at both venues were so enchanting that sleep had never before been such a wonderful experience!
The organizers claim that their aim this year was to ensure that all decisions were impartial and fair. It is true that as the judges were non-nationals, there was no question of each pulling for a particular school. Still, why is there so much dissatisfaction, not only among the participants, but also among the audience? The judges’ criterion (so they say) was "innovation and creativity". Maybe this means that we should simply ignore all technicalities, mask our fellow actors "deliver" lines (not actually "speak" them) and in general do everything that upto now have been taboo. There is also a degree of ambiguity in the decisions, for one particular school was invited to the finals to show that Shakespearean dramas can be fully appreciated without any gimmicks whatsoever, while another entered the finals simply because of a wonderful piece of choreography (which was not even the focal point of the play).
It is interesting to note that while there haven’t always been very satisfactory decisions before, one has always been able to reason out as to why they were so. However, this time, no matter how hard one thinks, one just cannot find an excuse for such unfair, unsound and absurd decisions. At this point the organizers should take stock of their commitment to this event. Perhaps they need to be reminded that the students are the most important part of the contest, for somewhere along the line they seem to have lost sight of this fact.
As a regular reader of The Sunday Times for the last 10 years I wish to offer my heartiest congratulations on its Tenth Anniversary.
I wish to mention here that The Sunday Times reporting had been fair, equal, balanced and independent. Its reporting was frank and did not yield to pressures and threats of the powers that were during this period of ten years. The regular reader of this independent paper would be aware that there were times during the former regime when its newsprint quotas were curtailed to control the publication of this paper.
We also remember the instances when the Editorial Staff were hauled before the Courts of Law on various charges, for publishing various news items which were not palatable to the rulers of that time.
The Sunday Times has been trying to maintain the highest standards of professional journalism, by exposing the short comings of the various rulers and by its investigative reporting.
The regular readers of this independent paper hope that it will continue in its mission to be a newspaper of the people and for the people.
Political interference with the transfers of teachers serving in the Kaluwanchikudy Educational Division has greatly affected those - especially the needy teachers who had already applied for transfers through the respective heads of their schools where they are invariably working amidst political victimisations as well as the subsequent departmental threats.
In this connection a certain Tamil MP for Batticaloa is directly involved in this unwanted activity which would cause immense damage to the day to day education of the children. It is still more a matter for regret now that those in charge of the division too are divorced from the real needs of the teachers.
During the past couple of months, there have been several transfers done purely on the recommendation of this politico.
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