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| Wednesday, 17 September 2003 |
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Japan has expressed its serious concern over the undue delay in re-starting the peace talks. Japan feels LTTE would have to return to the negotiating table for there were to be any meaningful flow of aid to the North, East. No new building projects would be started without renewed talks. Of course the donor countries which met in Tokyo really extended the financial aid to Sri Lanka with the sole expectation that peace would be attained here. This aid is supposed to be an incentive and inducement to attain peace, and to be utilized for rehabilitation and reconstruction. And now it looks as if these donor countries including the E.U are thoroughly displeased and disheartened over the LTTE's long dragging on. It's now up to the two parties concerned to meet each other at the negotiating table at the earliest. Any further delay would demean the good intentions of the donor nations which have extended 4.6 billion for rehabilitation and reconstruction which is possible only in an atmosphere of peace. S. SABASUBRAMANIAM, Wellawatte. Recently, following the unethical token strike resorted by the private bus companies, ITN held a discussion on the correctness of their action and matters pertaining to it. The panel included among many a representative of the JVP, the secretary to the relevant ministry, the Minister of Agriculture, the Police Chief of Traffic (western province), and a well-known private bus owner. One of the issues raised by the moderator was whether the issue that caused this very irresponsible token strike resorted to by the private bus drivers - viz. that the Traffic Police are charging them unfairly under the rules of the Traffic Commission - was unjust. I am sure, that all those bus travellers who followed this program would, with me, doff our hats to both the Secretary to the Ministry and the Police Inspector for maintaining that the law of the land does not bow to the whims and fancies of its citizens, regardless of the degree of power or political clout they might wield. Today, private buses have become a very sad reality. The State run public transport system being completely neglected by successive governments, and SLTB being relegated to the level of a necessary evil, this essential service of transport has been sacrificed to wolves in sheep's clothing who demand to operate their business in any old way they feel is right and necessary to earn the fast buck. Together with the ever-irritating three-wheeler, the private buses are fast becoming a public nuisance for which the general public has no other alternative. We ask the Minister of Transport to not back down from the rules that he and the commission have put in place to curb these criminals, rather let us see the further strengthening of the SLTB, so that the private bus mafia cannot continue to treat the general public as their cats-paw to get their law-disregarding demands from the Government. PASTOR A. PERERA, Wattala This refers to letter by G.M.C. Bartholomeusz of Peradeniya (DN, Sept 4) on the unimportance of teaching history in schools. He says that "the rising generation should not be encouraged to live in the past". Learning of history does not make anyone to live in the past, but to know the past. Let Mr. Bartholomeusz understand that history is the study of civilisation and, morefully, as the guide to world religions. If not for history, we would not be able to know the life and times of the Buddha, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Guru Nanak, Zoroaster etc., who figured in the past as religious leaders. How can a student, ignorant of history, speak about these great men, who showed the path to salvation? Mr. Bartholomeusz must be aware of the popular saying 'History repeats itself'. To say that those who stress on the importance of history, would lose positions and privileges, in their forward march, is mere bunkum. The Board of Education in England laid great emphasis on the teaching of history in schools, to know about those great men and statesmen of the past, who rendered a yeoman service to humanity. Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975), the world famous historian, in his voluminous work (Study of History), has said that "history is the foundation upon which exists our stories of the past, which every student should know to enrich his knowledge into the past". Therefore, it must be borne in mind that history is a chronological narrative bound together to develop a child's mind as to the people and incidents connected with the past. A student may say that in this scientific age, history is not worth knowing. It shows that debunking history from the school syllabus is considered immaterial, because most pupils hate history, being unable to keep with chronological data. The Education Department seems to follow the least line of resistance in introducing history as a subject to be taught in schools. A few professorial pronouncements in recent years have excited so much controversy as Dr. J.B. Bury's challenging assertion that "History is a science, no less and no more". ARYADASA RATNASINGHE, Mattegoda. To pacify customers who have to bear a more than 100% increase for the monthly telephone rental, Sri Lanka Telecom has announced 200 call units would be free of charge. Sri Lanka Telecom has also advertised the time allowed for one call unit. For instance, for a local call during the peak period one (1) minute calling time is one unit. But Telecom has not indicated whether the calling time allowed per unit (during different time bands) is the same as before charge increase. Sri Lanka Telecom should clearly clarify regarding this and show the comparison if there is a revision to the calling time allowed per unit. K. ABEYWICKREMA, Nugegoda Falling savings interest rates I read with considerable dismay a news item on reducing interest rates on Savings. It states that the authorities supported the falling interest rates by stating that "Japanese savers don't earn interest on their deposits." What an erroneous comparison. Are these gentlemen Japanese! or have they lost their sense of values? Or is it that they are following the doctrine of bringing the existing disorder in the country into complete chaos and thereafter introduce a new order. Senior citizens, monthly pensioners are striving hard to meet the day-to-day ever rising cost of living on food, medical bills, rising water, electricity bills, transport etc. etc. The interest on their saving helped and helps them to a great extent to meet these costs. Two years ago the interest rates was 16%. At the moment it is 7%. As it is it has become a struggle. The older the pensioner, the lesser the pension. With falling interest rate and coming to zero level in Japanese style, the elders are going to be throttled. Nobody with a sense of reality or common sense would try to change the existing systems, however faulty they may be, overnight. It has to be a gradual process. Trying to be over ambitious and making the country a Singapore or Japan overnight is wishful thinking. Let Sri Lanka be Sri Lanka. It is time the authorities put an end of this fanciful ideas of persons who do not appear to be standing on Sri Lankan ground. S. THAMBYRAJAH, Colombo 3 |
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