7th February 1999

• Stop talking about a solution and act
• Elections: Oh no, not again
• Bringing back bad Hair days
• Farce of fast food
• Learn to play the game
• Breaking barriers with emotional intelligence
• Lunacy of a high order
• What a sorry lot they all are!

Stop talking about a solution and act

To talk or not to talk? That is the question. Whether to suffer the sins and ravages of war or to take up arms against fate? That is the question facing our country, where leaders have failed to envisage a democratic way to solve a national issue, as a statesman would, placing country before self and bringing peace we all crave for.

The point is whether we are qualified to talk with the LTTE when our two main political parties, the P.A. and the U.N.P. are locked in a battle for supremacy miserably failing to realise the suffering of the people. Law and order have become insignificant because the parties take the law into their own hands and do everything to eliminate those who oppose them. This has become the political law and order of the day. This political interference with impunity should be nipped in the bud and since law is no respecter of persons, it should be enforced without fear or favour. The law should instil fear in law breakers instead of the law breakers instilling fear in the law enforcement authorities because of political patronage of under-world criminals!! What then is the position of law abiding citizens? Are we so blind as not to see the dilemma the people are placed in.

"United we stand, divided we fall," as the saying goes, it is time the two main political parties join together, and talk boldly with the LTTE and make it possible for a political solution.

Being in the opposition, does not mean opposing all government projects done with the intention of solving a national issue, but putting forward constructive criticism or ideas that can be debated and put to vote and come to a consensus , thus relieving the country and the people of their suffering. It is said that a statesman looks at the welfare of future generations and a politician looks at the next election for power to suit his own gains. Every blow that is hurled against the country and the people by bureaucrats and politicians is a nail driven into the coffin of Democracy. Where have our culture and intelligence gone? Why doesn't the Opposition Leader rise to the occasion like Mandela of Africa and Sein Fein of Ireland who solved the national crises of their respective countries, and brought peace and tranquility after a long and hard struggle. "Success comes to those who dare and act; it seldom goes to the timid," Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said.

All parties want a solution, but merely talking of solutions with divided policies will never see any kind of solution. It will only aggravate the position. We must cry a halt to this nonsense.

R. Gurusingham

Colombo 4

Elections: Oh no, not again

The President has said that elections to the other five Provincial Councils will be held soon. Please, Oh President, don't do it, because we are innocent people who want to live peacefully. The government may be under the impression that Wayamba was a segregated area that had no relevance with the other provinces. No madam, we who live in Colombo have friends and relatives in Wayamba. As such I was in Kuliyapitiya and Mawathagama during the election campaign and was an eye witness to many incidents that took place within a period of three days that I was there.

I saw people being manhandled, a house set on fire and several Pajeros and other vehicles without number plates going about threatening the people of the area. People like us were simply horrified to see these - how gallantly these Ministers, MPs and their stooges were trying to ''serve the people''.

On election day the crimes committed were admitted by the Elections Commissioner and the President herself. Impersonation, stuffing of ballot boxes, thuggery etc., were rampant also during the UNP days.

They took the law into their hands. That is why many like us decided to vote against them. We did this because we believed in the promises given by the present President on peace, elections devoid of thuggery and other malpractices.

But Madam, it is rather unfortunate to say that this was the first election where thuggery and fear ruled from beginning to end. Gun culture was rampant. For the first time, when the people went to vote, they were assaulted and chased away. Politicians of the highest level went to polling booths, demanded the officers to do as they wanted, finished the voting in some, even before lunch. Madam, it was not the voters of Wayamba that voted. They did not get an opportunity to do so. Other people voted for them or stuffed ballot boxes. I am not saying that the PA did all this. But the government either encouraged this type of election thuggery or it miserably failed to maintain law and order. Whatever the cause may be, the people of Wayamba were harassed, punished, insulted, their houses burnt; innocent people injured, maimed and killed and finally deprived of their right to vote. The mere fact the President had proposed to scrap the votes where rigging took place is an admission of guilt so far as the election was concerned.

The government cannot give lame excuses that the UNP was responsible for all the thuggery. The government has state power to maintain law and order and punish those who breached it.

As the government has failed to maintain law and order in Wayamba , let us not have a repeat performance in the other provinces. We do not want that type of dirty election here. Let us live our lives peacefully. Let the stooges and puppets have their day. So do not have election meetings etc. Just stuff the ballot boxes at one centre and announce the results at the end of the day that your government has won, but allow us to live peacefully without making a mockery of democracy.

A voter of Colombo.

Bringing back bad Hair days

In connection with the Hair raising furore Down Under, here's a verse, with apologies to the radio station in Durban which aired the song on the Peter Kirsten - Darrel Hair incident during a Test match in Australia in 1994:

"Ross Emerson, what are you doin' out there?

Every time Murali goes out to bowl you stick your finger in the air.

Darrel Hair! we'll remember Darrel Hair!

But if you come to Sri Lanka, put your finger elsewhere."

Former Australian captain Allan Border who has played more Tests than anyone in history said about the Hair-Murali controversy in 1995 that " it had been set up. .... if I were an umpire I wouldn't be prepared to call him (Murali). I think it's a bit of a set up.'' (Sydney 'Daily Telegraph' 28 December 1995).

P. Perera

Kelaniya

Farce of fast food

There is no shortage of bread. We have several varieties of bread, ordinary bread, soft bread, fancy bread, current bread, garlic bread, sliced bread, bread rolls - all at a price! Certainly not at Rs. 3.50.

It is the price of fast foods which is alarming. A pattie is Rs. 10/-, a fish bun Rs. 11/- or more and some pastries are sold at prices ranging from Rs. 15/- to Rs 30/-. But what is inside the bun or roll is hardly worth talking about. There is either potato with a sprinkling of fish or meat, leeks and karapincha.

There is more pastry than meat or fish. Perhaps the owners of these outlets think these, short-eats are health foods. These food items are called junk food in the west. There is no quality control or any kind of control over the sale of fast food. Some have this type of food for their lunch. The consumer is fleeced and should get a better deal. In the case of sausages, pawkies and meat loaves there is also cereal and other vegetable matter like carrot. Some of these food items do not conform to international standards relating to the quantity of meat or fish which should constitute these food items.

A. Fernando, Colombo 8.

More Letters to the Editor * Learn to play the game * Breaking barriers with emotional intelligence * Lunacy of a high order * What a sorry lot they all are!

Return to the Plus Contents