FBO accepts challenge

The Federation of Buddhist Organisations (FBO) accepted parliamentarian Amal Senadilankara's challenge to the FBO to send 50,000 Sinhalese to the North to save the country.

The FBO accepting the offer claims that there were 25,000 Sinhala people before the war, and now though the number may have increased, still it is prepared to go to the north.

They point out that they will be accompanying the Maha Sangha, since they had been living there before.

Secretary of the FBO, G. Punyawardane said that they felt that this was the only practical way to solve the problem, but requested the MP to agree to certain conditions.

"We want the MP to make the transport arrangements and other facilities to all 50,000 and the Maha Sangha.

"The minister should also make available all building material to rebuild their houses, provide meals, agricultural tools and give them arms for their protection," he said.

He added that they are awaiting a reply from the MP so that the FBO can discuss the arrangements with the relevant government officials.

I got no land: Ronnie answers Warnapala

Former Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel has appealed to Speaker K.B Ratnayake to expunge references to him in the speech made by Deputy Minister Wiswa Warnapala on Tuesday in Parliament, saying that the allegations about land deals were false and defamatory.

Mr. de Mel states the statement referring to him is totally false and without any foundation whatsoever. He said he had not obtained any land under the UNP government and have not obtained any land except the 50 acres from his own land to which he was entitled under the Land Reform Law.

Under the Land Reform Law, his family surrendered about 5,000 acres of the highest yielding tea and rubber lands in the country and also some coconut and paddy lands, Mr. de Mel says.

They included, Gikiyanakande estate, Neboda, Maddagedera estate, Matugama, Glendon estate, Neboda and Puttalam Plantation, Puttalam.

Furthermore, he gave up his lands most willingly and gladly and also voted for the Land Reform Bill in Parliament and spoke in favour of it both in Parliament and outside, says Mr de Mel.

Under the Land Reform Law, on a application made by him for a statutory determination of 50 acres for which he was eligible under the law from his own Glendon estate at Neboda, however the Commission allocated 50 acres from Puttalam Plantations which also belonged to him.

On an appeal made to the then Minister of Agriculture and Lands Hector Kobbekaduwa on 3 Jan. 1974 he was given 50 acres from Glendon estate in lieu of the 50 acres given to him from Puttalam Plantations. This was done on 24. 2. 1975, Mr. de Mel stated.

He also said that he had not received any land under the UNP government and that he got the statutory allocation of 50 acres under the SLFP or United Front government in 1975.

Therefore he had requested the speaker to expunge the totally false and defamatory statement made by Wiswa Warnapala from the Hansard and also to permit him to make the necessary explanation in Parliament at the very next sitting to put the record straight.

Cyclists catch minister's eye

By Arshad M. Hadjirin

Special bicycle lanes are to be marked on highways, in a bid to protect riders, who are seen as the most vulnerable road users, Highways Minister A.H.M Fowzie said.

Mr. Fowzie explaining the latest improvement to the already congested highways said that cycle lanes will be marked on the extreme left of the roads. "Galle Road, High Level Road, Baseline Road and other important roads are being earmarked for this purpose," he said.

The ministry has also established a National Road Safety Secretariat, (NRSS)for the purposes of formulating policies on road safety in Sri Lanka, in a bid to minimize road accidents.

A release from NRSS said a sharp increase in the number of vehicles in recent years, and congested roads have contributed to an alarming rate of road accidents.

"The cycle riders are the most unprotected group of road users and even a minor accident will leave the rider injured as they are fully exposed," the release said. Minister Fowzie said that he will be encouraging cycles, as it is a low cost, environment friendly vehicle.

"We are trying to provide the best protection to cycle users," he said adding shortly insurance coverage for bicycles would be made compulsory.

AirLanka top brass interdicted

Two senior Marketing Managers at AirLanka were interdicted by the Management of AirLanka last week. A senior official at AirLanka said that G.P. Jayaseelan, Senior Manager Marketing, Planning and Administration has been interdicted allegedly due to misappropriation of funds. Mr. Jayaseelan when contacted by The Sunday Times refused to comment.

Manoj Gunewardena, Marketing Executive Promotions, it is reliably learnt, has been sent on compulsory leave due to having addressed a letter to Minister for Aviation and Tourism Dharmasiri Senanayake minus the usual protocol. Mr. Senanayake was not available for comment.

ACHC appeals to Vajpayaee for solution

All Ceylon Hindu Congress(ACHC) in its felicitation message to the new Indian Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee has solicited the new Indian administration to play a constructive role in finding a speedy and fair political solution to the problems of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

ACHC has said the Hindus in this country, 99 percent of whom are Tamils look upto the new Indian government to play a constructive role in finding a speedy political solution .

It has also appealed to find a fair solution to bring a halt to the sufferings of Tamils and to the harassment meted out to them during the past several years.

Gem case tomorrow

The Rs. 655,000 cheating case where a gem merchant is alleged to have defrauded another in the same trade by taking away two precious stones is to be taken up at the Colombo High Court tomorrow. It is alleged that the suspect had taken the gems from his friend in 1992 with the promise of selling it but had failed to do so.

Handicapped teen girl molested on way home

By S.S.Selvanayagam

A deaf and dumb teenage girl who was allegedly molested by four unidentified persons in the Jaffna peninsula attempted to commit suicide by burning herself.

Report from Meesalai, Jaffna said that the victim was waylaid and blindfolded by four persons when she was on her way home on a bicycle from Chavakachcheri hospital last Tuesday afternoon. Then she was carried to a lonely spot and allegedly molested by the abductors, the report added.

The victim then went home and attempted to commit suicide by pouring kerosene and setting herself on fire on but the relatives foiled her attempt and took her to the Chavakachcheri hospital. She was later transferred to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital as the bleeding was profuse, the report said.

Mother, 4 children shot and burnt

A mother and four children were shot and burnt in their house in the Akkarapanaha area in the Weeraketiya police region yesterday morning, Police said.

The father of the children was injured and admitted to the Matara hospital. The killing occurred around 6 am yesterday when some unknown gunmen entered their house and opened fire indiscriminately. All five died on the spot, while their father escaped with serious injuries.

Tangalle ASP,I,K. Arasaratnam said that, this appeared to be a sequel to a family dispute. No arrests have been made so far. This happens to be the fourth gruesome murder in a series of such incidents where nearly 30 have died in 3 months, all said to in a family feuds.

Batty showing some true colours

Batty Weerakoon would have been born to have his name punned on. The old Trinitian was nicknamed way back in his Trinity college days, and the name stuck on. Weerakoon by some quirk was seen as some kind of anachronism, and the sobriquet Batty at times didn't seem to be a misnomer. Here was Batty going on about social equality and such, when the Soviet Union had collapsed and communism was for all intents and purposes dead. Batty, to be unkind, not only felt like an anachronism, he even seemed to look like an anachronism.

But then Batty and the brigade came to power, and it seemed as if the old left had revisited. Batty Weerakoon and the dear departed Bernard Soysa, bless him, belonged to a different avian when politicians looked as genteel as they actually were.

But when the old left hitched their wagon to the Chandrika led PA, things were looking the same for a while. Particularly Bernard was not about to give up on his old lifestyle of being politically genteel and non - partisan.

Bernard trundled along with the government, almost quaintly holding on to a portfolio that didn't fit him. because Science and Technology would not have exactly been Bernard's idea of a cabinet post.

But then Bernard died, and Batty Weerakoon graduated to the position of Minister. To put it as gently as possibly, there seem to be interesting developments that followed this turn of events. Batty Weerakoon has turned performer, and it is as if his gentility has been replaced with a pugnacious style that we ringside spectators never thought Batty was ever capable of .

Batty Weerakoon is now holding a brief for laissez-faire in the behaviour of the police to political opponents. He also seems to have been appointed the government's favourite hatchet man, even though there is nothing intrinsically quite wrong with that. So what's new about all this ? Batty is after all is a government politician who has a role to play as a front-bencher in parliament.

There is nothing wrong in Batty Weerakoon trying to prove to parliament and the people that the UNP was made up of a bunch of crooks. That is almost the role of the gentleman politician, , because Batty has to hold his colleagues accountable to the polity and the people.

But Batty Werrakoon, remember, is not a core member of the core party of the People's Alliance, which is the SLFP. As an old leftist of the Sama Samaja persuasion, Batty's association with the PA is as a conscientious ally, and that means that he is not a dyed in the blue party member. As a good ally, for example, the LSSP and the Communist Party maintained its own identity, and old campaigners like Colvin R de Silva were notoriously keen about maintaining that separate identity. Colvin even thought that he was smarter than Ms. Bandaranaike of the SLFP who had got to be Prime Minister because of the accident of circumstance. Both Colvin and NM behaved as if they would were merely marking time, before they would graduate as the leaders of the coalition and country. But, though that spirit was an overestimation, in retrospect it appears this helped them retain a sense of identity. The party was not subsumed by the larger United Front. It was a limb, that was finally detached when Ms. Bandaranaike accused the coalition partners of "vituperative politics'', and had them despatched from the party before the polls.

Though this is not to say that the old left did not become wimpish and weak after selling out to the Bandaranaike led SLFP, it is to merely make the point that the Colvin's and the NM's appeared to hold their own to some extent. This may have been because they were an arrogant lot who were convinced that they were intellectually ahead of the SLFP leadership. But the reasons notwithstanding, the old left, to say the least, didn't like to play second fiddle.

When Batty Weera-koon, and the much emasculated left joined the PA government, it appeared that they were joining the ruling coalition on this same basis. On many occasions, the left has played renegade and maintained their party profile within the coalition. But what's significant about Batty's post ministerial performance is that he has either politically become more expedient, or come of age, depending on the way you look at it. He is now Al Capone's team player.

Fundamentally, the long and the short of it is that Batty has taken up the position that the party should be defended, to hell with integrity and all that. He says Eppawela happened because the police culture ( and the political culture ) has changed because of the way the UNP behaved in government. The UNP asked for it, he presumes, therefore, the governments role is to look on as a helpless observer even when the UNP is being victimised by various goonda tribes. There are many problems with that argument, but it will be redundant to enumerate them here. Suffice to say that the PA came into power on a platform of fairplay, which includes fairplay by political opponents. If the PA came to power on a platform of not repeating what the PA did, isn't it an irony that coalition partners such as Batty support aggressive behaviour by saying the UNP has no right to talk? Batty the name was earned or what?

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