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Rarity in governance

The decision by President Kumaratunga to appoint a committee to probe allegations of irregularity and corruption against Mahaweli, River Basin Development and Rajarata Development Minister Maithripala Sirisena, at his own request, is certain to draw warm accolades from the public as a rare act aimed at achieving transparency and honesty in governance.

While the President establishes herself afresh as a Head of State and Government who cares deeply for clean governance, through this decision, Minister Sirisena too is bound to carve out a niche for himself in the history of governance in this country as a Minister who attaches primacy to personal integrity.

After all, the usual tendency among many of those who hold public office in this country is to sit tight in their positions, even when accused of malpractices, with hardly a care to clear their names. Minister Sirisena has chosen to be different and this could be considered a rarity in the history of local Cabinet governance.

The people expect those holding the reins of governance to not only discharge their duties efficiently and honestly but to also crack the whip hard on corruption, power abuse and misgovernance, in whichever quarter they may occur. We are happy to note that President Kumaratunga is living up to this trust. We hope the committee in question would do what is expected of it expeditiously and that its findings would be acted on.

Meanwhile, those levelling the allegations against the Minister are now conscience-bound to assist the committee in its investigations by providing it with the relevant evidence, if any. A failure to do this would expose them as being most irresponsible and even unsuited to hold office.

We hope there would be a replication of this precedent set by the President. There should be no hesitation on the part of those holding high public office to clear the public arena of corrupt elements.

This is where the UNF administration failed. While corruption allegations accumulated against UNF personages, nothing was done to clear the Augean Stables. No wonder, they were resoundingly rejected by the people.

Golden Oceans

All women and even men out there who love gold, take heart; the good news is that rich deposits of the precious metal are contained in undersea volcanoes in the South Pacific. The bad news, of course, is that it will not be so easy to extract the gold as it is actually in the deep end of the ocean - more than 6,500 metres down.

The discovery was made by the Japanese Shinkai 6500 submarine, which can dive to depths of 6,500 metres (21,450 feet). It found the gold-rich volcanoes in the Lau Basin, a seismically active part of the South Pacific between Tonga and Fiji. The 9.5-metre-long Shinkai 6500, which can carry three people, will continue its research next week in active undersea volcanoes about 300 kilometres northeast of New Zealand that are also believed to be rich in minerals.

Just when we thought that the world was running out of gold and other metals at the rate we are consuming them, nature has sprung a surprise. Now it turns out that the gold deposits on terra firma are literally a drop in the ocean compared to the treasures that lie under the water. It might be decades before we can exploit these mineral resources commercially, but it is reassuring to know that there is no immediate danger of the world running out of metals.

The truth is that we know so little about the oceans, which cover more than seventy five per cent of the Earth. As the volcano project leader Cornel de Ronde says, "it's a whole new world down there". Exotic marine animals, micro life-forms, volcanoes and mountain regions are all there. Scientists discover new species of marine animals all the time.

However, only a very few people get an opportunity to go the unfathomable depths of the ocean. The new Japanese submarine's advantage is that it can take scientists to experience the marine environment first hand, with only a (super-strong) glass pane separating them from the dark waters of the abyss.

Space is often described as the last frontier, but the description really fits the ocean. It is indeed embarrassing that we know more about the mares on the far side of the moon than about the Earth's oceans. New techniques, as exemplified by the Shinkai 6500, will help scientists to lean more about our seas.

In time, Man will devise ways and means to tame the mighty ocean for energy (wave energy, oil, gas etc) and the extraction of minerals. In an environmentally conscious world, this will have to be done without damaging the intricate and unique ecosystem of the oceans, whose unhindered existence is vital for our very survival.

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