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| Wednesday, 8 January 2003 |
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Letters | |
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Peace is vital for development as pointed out by the Prime Minister and the cessation of the war and compromise with the LTTE is praiseworthy. It is satisfying to note that opposition parties are also conforming to the peace process towards achieving the progress of the country. KINGSLEY W. DIAS, It is disheartening to note that the SLMC, which came into mainstream politics to articulate the rights and aspirations of the North-East Muslim Community, seems to disintegrate into two factions, thereby becoming an unwitting victim to machinations and manoeuvres which are usually associated with dirty politics. Till the advent of the SLMC, the Muslim community did not give any inclination towards forming a political party on their own. In the early 1900s Tamil political leaders not only sidelined and marginalised the Muslims, but even had the audacity to mislead the then colonial administration. For instance, Ponnambalam Ramanathan boldly asserted in the year 1885, that the "Moors of Sri Lanka are Tamils". But Siddi Lebbe who was instrumental in establishing the Colombo Zahira College, not only resolutely refuted and defended the cultural identity of the Muslims, but also debunked Ramanathan's hypothesis. In the 1940s, a rising Muslim star by the name of Sir Razik Fareed, together with Dr. T. B. Jayah, took centre stage in politics and awakened the political consciousness of the Muslim community. Later, Dr. Baduddin Mahmood became actively involved, and in fact helped S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike to form the SLFP and became the Vice President of S.L.F.P. To some extent, Muslim votes became a deciding factor, for the two major national parties to form a government. The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in July 1987, and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which miserably failed to meet the legitimate rights and aspirations of the North-East Muslims, paved the way for the creation of the SLMC. Credit should go to late M. H. M. Ashraff who single-handedly established the party. As a matter of fact, the present power struggle with the SLMC is partly due to Ashraff's tinkering of the party's constitution to suit his style which made him look like an absolute monarch with unfettered powers, to fire any member with impunity. A host of founding members including Segu Issadeen, who was second-in-command, were expelled from the party by the leader. Strictly speaking, the religion of Islam, which the SLMC purportedly upholds, stresses the concept of compromise, consensus and tolerance, and never advocates "one-man-shows" or cronysim. To all intents and purposes, the SLMC which is now apparently heading for a split, should bury the hatchet in the true Islamic spirit. Instead of globe-trotting to Saudi (Salvation), Oslo and Thailand (negotiations) and London (consultation), Rauff Hakeem should firmly concentrate on the domestic Muslim issue more vigorously. On the other hand, Athaullah and Hafrath should be a little flexible and accommodative for the sake of the Muslim community. Didn't our beloved prophet sign the historical "Hudaibiyyah Treaty" with Suhail bin Amr, who was a sworn enemy of Islam, for the sake of achieving everlasting peace? In short, "Brain" (Hakeem) "Brawn" (Athaullah) and "Backbone" (Dr. Hafrath) should sink their petty differences, as well as parochial interests and devise an action plan to canvass the support for a separate administration unit for Muslims, should the North East be allowed to merge. As the SLMC is supposed to represent the Muslims' interests at the fourth round of peace talks in Thailand, it is prudent to adopt the technique of Henry Kissinger, a world class diplomat who would never negotiate without profoundly studying a comprehensive profile of his opponents. Since Dr. Balasingham is a master strategist and a skilful negotiator, he knows the art of dealing, as how to extract a pound of flesh without shedding even a drop of blood. Negotiation is a vital aspect in the management process and can be akin to the game of chess where the skilful player outfoxes the rivals and wins due to sheer ability and strategy. Hence, the SLMC should appoint high calibre professionals like Shibly Azeez PC to negotiate on behalf of the Muslim community. The SLMC should also not forget how the Tigers artfully 'coaxed' Rauff Hakeem to sign the MOU over 'Halal Chicken" meals prepared by a muslim cook at Vanni. Ironically a few days later, the very same Tigers mercilessly roasted the bodies of two Muslim cooks at a wedding house in the Tiger controlled Tamil area. In conclusion, with due apology to Edward Lear, may I paraphrase his lines below: There was a young man of Niger, Who smiled as he rode on a tiger They came back from the ride With the young man right inside Winsome smile on the face of the Tiger - I'm sorry, "Its' my habit" said the wily Tiger. A. M. M. MUZAMMIL, The CMC should re-think and plan its work strategy. As it is; it is normal for water taps to flow non-stop, often, lights burn and electricity is abused. Street and home animals are deprived of the rabies injection. These vaccinators have not visited this area for several years. It is known that they sell the stuff privately. There's no proper supervision. One way out is to appoint one person to a small area to perform all these duties including cleaning. I hope the Mayor will get into action and begin from the top. Action is the need of the hour. T. WICKREMASINGHE, The fire that claimed the lives of over ten people at the Adamalee Building in Gas Works Street is a deplorable tragedy. This incident raises urgent issues regarding health and safety in buildings. One question that arises is that why was a shop selling fireworks allowed to operate in a building that also had residents. The newspaper reports also stated that there was only one exit/entrance and due to the fire there was no other fire escape route. Surely architects and planners should take into account the need for fire exists. While I acknowledge the fact that Adamalee Building was 110 years old it would have been possible to make a structural change to accommodate a fire escape. Sadly due to the negligence of health and safety officials in the country a fire has claimed the lives of many innocent people. The Government should also place importance on health and safety issues in buildings as some of the buildings in the country are veritable death traps. Each Town Council/Urban council has a planning department, surely those officials should have the knowledge to ensure that building have the required fire escapes. If these people are not trained then money should be invested in training them in this important aspect of safety. TINA EDWARD GUNAWARDHANA, What's the policy on Hambantota Port? Hambantota is a good site for a port but it is not an alternative port for container transshipment business in the near future to replace Colombo. Colombo must be developed urgently before a severe loss of transshipment business occurs. Singapore lost two container lines, each handling more than Colombo's annual total business due to arrogance and not due to lack of capacity or efficiency. SDA under the President with Navin Gooneratne from 1995 made a rosy picture of Hambantota, advertised pages after pages in newspapers for international airport and port but all in vain after spending several hundred millions of rupees. SDA failed to make even a feasibility study whose importance was reiterated by Ronnie de Mel many times. Today same advisors are taking the Government down the garden path with interested parties to make a fast buck. Government will learn a bitter lesson in the hard way after about 2 years like late Mr. Ashraff learned about Galle from a free study of Dutch and Chinese. Canadians or French would not be any better. It is a folly the container transshipment business of Sri Lanka is ruined by wrong advice of some novices. Two container Ports cannot work; it has to be either Colombo or Hanbantota. But can Hambantota replace Colombo in even 10 years? Is it a viable proposal So both Hambantota and Colombo must develop for two different purposes and that policy must be declared urgently for the good of the country. LLOYD FERNANDO, Sri Lankan migrant workers who are registered at the SLFEB are driven from pillar to post when they want to renew their registration at the end of the 2 years. Earlier the system was so smooth that workers on production of their passports were able to pay the money at the bank or SLFEB H/Q and renew their registration at the end of the 2 years, without any further ado. Now there is a new requirement of an English translation of the current visa and the previous visa (entry and re-entry) pages of the passport. For the translation also applicants will have to go to SLFEB's designated sworn translators at Colombo Fort or Maradana. If anyone visits the head office of SLFEB at Thimbirigasyaya, for payment of renewal fees, he/she has to travel again to Fort or Maradana and get the translations of visa pages done at his/her own expense, which of course is in addition to the stipulated renewal fees. (Rs. 3,000/- odd amount). This is a great inconvenience and an utter wastage of time of the migrant workers who have come to Sri Lanka for 30 days holiday, after toiling in the desert for 2 long years. They can not afford waste valuable time running in circles for the new requirement of the SLFEB. If SLFEB wants a translation of the visas, they should have a translator at hand without making themselves a public nuisance. If they can spend colossal amounts on purchasing buildings all over the country, and issuing identity cards to migrant workers, surely they can afford to employ regular in-house translators for this task, or teach Arabic to few of their staff. Best joke is that if any worker is leaving Sri Lanka without the renewal of the registration he/she is checked at the KIA and forced to pay the pound of flesh (renewal fees) at the KIA without the stipulated requirement of the visa translations. It is the migrant workers' hard earned cash which fills the kitty of the SLFEB, which in run pays thumping salaries and perks to the officials, so do not throw the migrant workers to the wolves. ARIYASUMITHRA WIJEYARATNE, In accordance with the Gregorian Calendar which is now in use, and which was invented by the Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1525) and introduced in March 1582, with the assistance of the German Jesuit and Mathematician Christopher Clavius Julius Caesar, 01.01.2003 (Wednesday) was the beginning (the first day) of this month January, the beginning (the first day) of this year 2003, the beginning (the first day) of the 3rd year of this decade, the first decade of this century, the beginning (the first day) of the 3rd year of this century as well as the 21st century,the beginning (the first day) of the 3rd year of this millennium - the 3rd millennium. The parentage of the Calendar which has a confused history takes us to the dawn of the primitive civilisation. The savages seemed to have seen the sun goes right down into the sea in the West in the evening and again comes up in the East on the following day. The men so called the Astronomers with the commencement of the civilisation began to reckon and measure time referring to the Sun, Moon and Stars. Gradually they accepted and adopted the days, months and years as units of time. There is enough evidence to prove that the Chronology came into being in lunar months. In the latter period in countries like India, where Hindu system of astrology is existing, the month is determined by the movement of moon and the year is determined by the movement of Sun. A Greek monk Dinousus Exiguis, a theologian first practised the method of daily events. The birth of Christ is the epoch universally adopted in modern times. WALTER WIJENAYAKA, |
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