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| Saturday, 15 February 2003 |
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Letters | |
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Agitational politics and the C.O.L. The JVP and their cohorts in the PA ought to have one thing in mind. YOU CANNOT FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME. It is admitted that the C.O.L. has gone up for reasons beyond the control of the Government in power, compared with three decades ago. You say the poor man has no money but have you seen the poor man in the streets purchasing their essentials and non-essentials may be at a price?. You shameless politicoes - JVP and the PA will you deny the following: 1. You wallow in the subdisised meals, five star hotel standards, and carry loads of packets to your kith and kin well accommodated in the Members Hostel. 2. You shed tears (crocodile?) for the poorly paid government/mercantile and other workers. Have you taken any step to forego any of the fat allowances or a pay cut? 3. Let us go back to the 1970s. Are you aware that one stood from the early hours of the morning in queries opposite bakeries to get a loaf of bread. What of other essential viz: flour, sugar, chillies and even cloth on coupons. One could not buy clothes even for a pansakula ceremony but at a price. Our witty Minister Ronnie de Mel used to say that of women: Elovai Melovai dekama pendai ape ammandilata siddawela thiyenne. There were rice barriers - no one could transport rice. No rice meal one day of the week. One has to eat manioc. Children on the streets were seen scooping dustbins for something to eat. No one could leave the country except on an exit permit. No foreign exchange. Those going to India did pay Rs. 1,500 to get Rs. 1,000 from the India jewellers. Various other restrictions on the day-to-day life. Present trend: One could see the saintly politicians with their kith and kin at Mac Donalds and other 5 star hotels for their dinner. Beware, the hand of nemesis is nearby. T.J., While welcoming the idea and the implementation of a Women's Committee for peace, I am indeed very disturbed by its composition. There are two Muslims to represent Muslim women of the East and the women of the rest of Sri Lanka. There are LTTE women to perhaps represent the Tamils of North and East, which is an assumption, arrived at with no hard facts. Does the LTTE legitimately represent the views of the non-LTTE parties and the Tamil Civil Society as a whole? There are many who doubt such a proposition. Why did not the Government appoint at least one Tamil woman or even two to represent non-LTTE interests of the Plantation Tamils? There are quite a few who will fit the qualification needed much more qualified than one or two who are appointed now. It is discrimination again? On what grounds can such an important omission be explained? What does the Committee think about this omission? Does it approve this discrimination? What action have they taken about it? That is why I think it is a manifestation of an ideology. I also wonder how the committee can keep silent and how feminist activist who shout so much on the injustices can keep quiet now. PARAMSOTHY, Film advertisements display nude pictures outside the theatres mostly in public places where adults and the youths move about. When the immatured young ones look at these obscene pictures, their minds are sexually aroused. For instance anyone who happens to visit the Kandy public bus stand near the clock tower he/she can look at large posters depicting nudity of women characters in the adults only films. Though the films are strictly for adults, they are exposed to the children and the youths. M.Y.M. Meeadh, There is no price control for packeted milk powder. As a result the consumer is swindled and fleeced by constant overnight price increases effected by unscrupulous companies that market packeted milk powder. There is a particular brand price marked at Rs. 120 a packet of 400 grams. The retailer from whom I purchase this brand of milk powder charges from me Rs. 115 only. Thus you can imagine the margin of profit that goes to the company and the retailer. It seems that the Government has no control over the price increases in milk powder as in the case of LP Gas. At a time when the Government is exploring possibilities of reducing the cost of living, it is prudent that the Government steps into regulate unjustified price increases of consumer commodities commonly used by consumer. D. MADURAPPERUMA, 'Great men that freed their motherland' I was somewhat puzzled by Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar's choice of Arumuga Navalar among the 'Great men that freed their motherland from British rule' (4 February). Navalar's interests were very narrow and sectional, restricted to his own Vellalar caste. It is no doubt true that during the colonial period 'a large mass of people were oppressed ....by those who claimed to be superior simply on the basis of birth', but Navalar never worked against this kind of oppressive system based on birth and privileges. He infact worked toward revitalizing the ancient caste system, whose elites saw their power and privileges grow within the British colonial system. In his ceaseless missionary activities he aimed to elevate the status of the Vellalars, the dominant caste in Jaffna. When he began his first school, for instance, all the pupils enrolled in the first class were from the upper castes: three Brahmans, three Vellalars, and one Cetty. During the severe famine in 1876, Navalar distributed food only to Vellalars, and certainly not to the low castes, whose plight under those circumstances would have been worse than that of others. The food distribution was in line with his teaching in the fourth Palar Padam, that requires cattiram (gifts, alms) to be given not only to Brahmans, but to the deserving Vellalar poor as well. Evidently, Navalar was not inclined towards liberating the oppressed, dalits, on the contrary, his sole concern was to reify an oppressive caste system. His activities in the orthodox temples were equally sectarian. The temples that Navalar chose for his "Prasangams" were all exclusively dedicated to various members of Siva's family. He would not tolerate rivals competing for devotees; thus he launched a successful crusade against the goddess Pattini/Kannaki. By claiming that she was an heretical Jain goddess, he managed to banish her from the Jaffna soil. In the temples he aimed his teaching and preaching at people of 'respectable' family and caste. His intention was, in part, to acquaint them with a strictly textual religion so that they may be enabled to fulfil their ritual/caste duties correctly and be proper Saivites. Navalar of course was not blindly reasserting a traditional religion. In a carefully worked out strategy he was advancing certain claims on behalf of his own Vellalar caste, with the aim of upward mobility. Traditionally Vellalars were regarded as Sudras in the varna order, however, owing to their historic alliance with the Brahmans their status had remained somewhat anomalous. Navalar however attempted to elevate their ritual status by ascribing to them the right to wear the Punul and the right to read the Vedas. Implicitly, therefore, he did elevate them to the status of the twice-born. This is, of course, a well known 'brahmanical' device used by the lower castes to climb the social ladder within the varna order, but this kind of pursuit had little to do with the struggle for equality, dignity and freedom! Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar's short account of Navalar exhibits a few glaring errors. Arumuka Navalar was born in 1822, not 1882 and died in 1879. Also it is very misleading to state that he "translated the Bible into Tamil at the request of Rev. Peter Percival". This statement can imply that Navalar was solely responsible for translating the Bible and that he was the first to do so, in fact, such claims are widespread. Unfortunately these claimants are ignorant of the history of Tamil Bible translation. Even before Navalar became associated with Bible translation there were already two Tamil translations in the market, that of Philip Fabricius (1710-1791) and C. T. E. Rhenius (1790 1838). The translation of Fabricius is the most famous. He was a saintly and devoted German missionary, whose New Testament was published in 1773 and Old Testment in 1791. He translated from the original Greek and Hebrew texts, and his version's faithfulness to the originals has commanded the respect of all subsequent translators. His translation is now the real base of the Tamil Bible which is now widely in use. So in what sense did Navalar contribute to Bible translation? The Tentative Version of the Bible or the Jaffna Version associated with Navalar was produced in 1850 by the Jaffna Bible Society. It was however rejected by the Bible Society of Madras on the grounds that it was too heavily loaded with Sanskrit words and that it did not stick closely to the originals. More importantly it departed too much from the standardized "Christian Tamil" of the Fabricius version, hence the regular users were unlikely to endorse it. The result is that the Jaffna Version never reached the market; and another version based on Fabricius was produced in 1871 by Rev. Bower assisted by poet Krishnapillai. All this means that Maniccavasagar is referring to a version of the Bible that hardly anyone could have seen or used in the history of Tamil Christianity. In any case that particular version could never be the product of Navalar alone. The fact is, he simply did not know Greek, Hebrew, or Latin, the languages of the original text whose exact meaning the translator had to discover before rendering it into Tamil. The Jaffna Version was translated by a six member committee, headed by Peter Percival, Principal of Central School. Jaffna at that time had a tremendous fund of scholarship from which to draw, both on the side of Western missionaries as well as on that of Jaffna Tamils. Among the American missionaries were Levi Spaulding, H. R. Hoisington, Samuel Hutchings, Daniel Poor and Miron Winslow. Two Tamil pundits, Arumuka Navalar and Elijah Hoole were enlisted by Percival to help with the style, while the missionary scholars took final responsibility for the version's accuracy. Under these circumstances it would be an exaggeration to claim that Navalar translated even this extinct version of the Tamil Bible. As Percival's assistant he worked under the guidance and supervision of a team of eminent missionary scholars. With Elijah Hoole, he no doubt helped the missionaries to purify the idiom and polish the language, but Navalar could hardly be considered as a major contributor to this translation work. The Jaffna Version was a product of a committee, whose chairman was Peter Percival, hence it would be more accurate to associate this translation with his name. The above account shows that it has now become virtually impossible to know the Navalar of history. Virtually every significant development in the nineteenth century, actual or imagined, is being attributed to him by his biographers. In the Geertzian sense, whatever Navalar originally was or did as an actual person, has long since been dissolved into an image. The image of Navalar as a social reformer, religious revivalist and a great national leader is so well established in people's minds that it is virtually impossible to distinguish fact from fiction or myth from reality. Dr. Charles R. A. Hoole , I had the opportunity of visiting a Government Department recently in order to attend to a personal matter. I was told that the officer in charge of the subject is on leave and requested me to come on the next day. Subsequently on the next day also I got the same reply. I am a retired public servant having served a period of almost thirty years in the public service. During our period when an officer is on leave the acting officer has to attend to his work. No member of the public was turned away saying that the officer dealing with the subject is on leave. After all the duty of the public servant is to help the members of the public, when they come for their needs. R.P.S., I refer to the news item (DN 21.01.03) under the above caption. It is a fine gesture of the Finance Minister to consider a salary increase for public servants to beat the rising cost of living. I appeal to the Minister to also consider the plight of the retired citizens of this country who are pushed down to earth by the escalating living costs, which are rising daily in leaps and bounds. It will be appreciated that a majority of the retired persons are dependant on the interest from their life's savings. The interest rates are going down and down every month whilst the cost of living is increasing at an alarming rate. These citizens you may call them 'Elders' or 'Seniors' have rendered invaluable service to the country and I believe it is the duty of the Government to recognize them with honour and dignity in the evening of their life as is done in many of the developed countries. I appeal to the Minister to consider the following benefits to them as a measure of relief. Exempt from income tax the interest accrued from savings deposits. Make available at subsidized prices (on a quota basis) food, clothing, medicine etc. from Govt. controlled outlets. Make available from the medical profession discounted rates from Consultants in Govt. practice. Provide concessionary public transport facilities. These facilities could be provided on the production of the Senior Citizens' identity cards issued by the Dept. of Social Services. R.E., There was much publicity in the print media recently about the dangers and damage to our valuable natural resource - WATER. I wonder how many read this "warning". There was just a mild flutter from the general public when an excess chemical ingredient was noticed in the drinking water and the quick retort was to blame authorities for "negligence". But there is more danger to our natural gift, that we do not give any thought to, and we will have only ourselves to blame. Even our air is not much cleaner than our water. There are many factors that are causing this gradual destruction. Need we ask who is pumping raw waste liquids and acidic waste into the nearest body of water? Most of our rivers have become sewage canals. We have treatment plants mostly outdated models and what is the guarantee that all is being treated before release into the environment. Another pollutant is the nitrogen fertilizer that is used to produce crop yields. Garment industries also can be included in this category because they have to discharge all their waste chemical water into soakage pits. Our ground water, even our wells and soil may now be containing nitrate levels above the maximum allowed for drinking water. Beaches crucial for tourism are no cleaner than our rivers, copious amounts of sewage could still be flowing into the seas. This lethal outflow could destroy our coral reefs. The frequent sea erosions could definitely be attributed to this factor. Our littering has become a national plaque. We treat our land with contempt. We are an environmental careless public. Currently with our enthusiasm to build and build, the authorities have neglected environmental concerns. In spite of having an environmental authority we continue to pollute the air and our land. Dumping garbage near airports could cause airplane disasters with birds and storks that could collide with the planes as they fly in and out of these garbage dumps. All levels of most pollutants including carbondioxide and carbon monoxide are on the increase considering the frightening jump in automobile use over the past 20 years. Smog has almost doubled the permissable maximum. Frankly we are all to blame for this chaotic situation and something will have to be done fast to arrest this situation as the danger and damage to this valuable resource is ever increasing. The print and electronic media can do wonders to educate the lethargic general public at frequent intervals and tighter controls by the authorities in the use of chemicals for agricultural use will also help a great deal. Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink - We are not very far away from this situation if there is no action to control our negligence. N. B. MELVILLE PERERA, At election time, we are made to believe that all citizens of this country, whether rich or poor, influential or otherwise, are all equal. During the past 20 years, apart from soldiers, many ordinary people in villages in conflict areas had lost their lives and nobody has come forward to speak regarding compensation for their kith and kin. It so happens that when a politician meets with an accidental death, all their ilk - in govt. and opposition, get together and give their consent for compensation. A recent case in point is the award of compensation to the son, widow and mother of a former Minister who met his death in an air-crash, while on his election campaign. The news report stated that the son was granted Rs. 5 million, the widow Rs. 2 million and the mother Rs. 1. million (Rs. 80 lakhs for the whole family!) It was also revealed that 7 or 8 others who accompanied the Minister too met their death, but not a word was said about compensation to these poor and more deserving dependants of these victims. When it was pointed out that the late Minister's mother has since died, the present Cabinet had suggested that Rs. 1 million be distributed to the dependants of those who accompanied the Minister - the lesser mortals. L. DE. SILVA, Take away unnecessary restrictions It is one year since the present government has been able to usher in an era of peace after decades of destruction and hardships. But it appears that some security planners are still living in pre-peace era and trying their level best to inconvenience the public by refusing to dismantle the barriers. Added to this is the chena mentality of wanting to put up the gates when it gets dark. One good example is the security arrangement at Sri Dalada Maligawa. Before the MoU, vehicles had to go around the lake because the Maligawa road was closed to vehicular traffic due to security reasons. This arrangement added about two km in distance and approximately 45 minutes of delay to more than two thousand vehicles everyday. Most of these vehicles, being public transports, large number of daily travellers to the city were greatly inconvenienced. Even after the MoU was signed, the authorities took a long time to open the Maligawa Road. But even that opening has been done half way. The road is open only from 0600 hrs to 1900 hrs and that is also only for light vehicles. As there is absolutely no danger for Sri Dalada Maligawa from vehicle bombs in this era of peace it is not only a grave injustice for the people of Kandy but also has a bad effect on the image of the country as the tourists who come in thousands every day would wonder why such an important religious place has been converted to a garrison if the country is not having a war. Time has come for the authorities concern to examine the security arrangements at Maligawa and take away unnecessary restrictions that would make the life in Kandy less inconvenient and more peaceful. It is also pertinent to mention that having lot of security arrangements, some of which are obviously superfluous, is not how a nation should respect its greatest place of worship. INDIRA ELIKEWELA, |
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