21st February 1999

• Misery and woe
• What paragons of love!
• Of police promotions and keeping peace
• These tarnish Lanka's image 

Misery and woe

His heart and soul patriotism bred;
A canopy of palmyrah, a carpet of scorching sand,
Grant the valiant soldier a hero's welcome for the noble service he renders for his motherland.

War machines roll on; hi-tech machines fly above,
On terrain, once flourishing with crops
That fed the country with brotherhood and love.

The valiant soldier witnesses a deserted land with populace abandoned,
Misery and woe with friend and foe, happiness unmercifully lost and now,
In this land untold human suffering founded.

The valiant soldier not jubilant at victory,
Is moved by what he sees in friend and foe,
He wishes, "Let equanimity and human happiness in this land remain,
Let no one see what I see at this battle pitch;

H. Ariyarathne

What paragons of love!

In their eagerness to develop the country and help the poor they stop at nothing short of murder. They don't mind what happens to themselves if they can develop the country. Day and night they risk their own life as well as that of the others and destroy anything and everything on their path to develop the country and serve the people.

The will to undermine and eliminate even their own party people in the race to serve the people ahead of the others sees no bounds and respects no law. The one and only thing on their mind is to serve the people. They will spend any amount of money, travel any length of distance and spend any number of sleepless night to serve the people. They even do not allow the voters to take the trouble to walk the distance to the polling station to cast their vote; they themselves cast it.

So our politicians should be taken right round the world as paragons of love to serve the people and as exhibits of outright dedication to serve the people. I think the rest of the world may have a lesson to learn from them how to serve people without serving themselves.

E. M. G. Edirisinghe
Dehiwala

Of police promotions and keeping peace

Under Section 79 any person who in a public place or meeting uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour which is intended to provoke a breach of the peace or whereby a breach of the peace is likely to be occasioned, shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

Though offences were committed in breach of the Police Ordinance and the Election Laws, no action was taken by the Police to arrest the offenders to ensure a free and fair election at Wayamba. Thuggery and intimidation by any political party should not be tolerated in a civilized society.

Section 82 spells out the Punishment of Police Officers for neglect of duty and any Police Officer guilty of such offence "is liable to a penalty to pay three months' salary or to imprisonment not exceeding three months".

In Sri Lanka, however, Police Officers who neglect their duties of maintaining law and order are promoted.

C. A. Fernando
Colombo 08.

These tarnish Lanka's image 

On the eve of my departure back to India I thought I should pen these lines so that what I write about does not happen again and that the image of your country will not be tarnished due to incidents such as these.

I am a Buddhist convert and have studied Buddhism at length in India. 

While I was in India I decided to make a trip to Sri Lanka with my parents.

When I was in Sri Lanka, I took the opportunity of visiting all the religious sites. I thought myself privileged when I found that at most of these places I was not charged for entrance when I mentioned that I was a Buddhist.

Unfortunately there were two incidents which happened to us on January 26 when we visited Dambulla and Polonnaruwa.

In Dambulla they insisted that I buy a ticket. Yes, I agree my parents had to buy their entrance tickets but insisting a payment from me a "Sil Mathavo" was wrong in my thinking.

In Polonnaruwa too we had to face an unpleasant experience and here I wish to say a very big thank you to the Officer in Charge of the Tourist Police and his team for settling this problem in a quick and efficient manner.

I also wish to say that Sri Lanka is a beautiful place and the people are warm and friendly.

Sister Khema
Maha Bodhi Society
India

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