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Is there no limit to the fatuousness of the UNP? The latest is that
President Rajapaksa's suggestion of a common currency for the SAARC
countries is a breach of privilege and why so? Because Parliament had
empowered only the Central Bank to issue currencies under the Monetary
Act.
What the President suggested was a common currency for the SAARC
region.He has not purported to issue currency. The Central Bank has no
power to canvass for a common currency for the SAARC region.
The President has every right to do so.
The leadership of the UNP, being totally bereft of ideas, is
clutching at straws and making a monumental laughing stock.
Vijaya Perera,
Colombo 3
This refers to Malinda Seneviratne's comment on Amnesty
International's anti-Sri Lanka campaign at the Cricket World Cup.
Amnesty International (AI) is not based in the USA, as stated by
Malinda. It is an international organisation whose roots are in the UK
and not the USA.
The AI official website gives the history. In brief, AI was born when
British lawyer, Peter Benenson, in 1961 when he wrote an article, 'The
forgotten prisoners' in The Observer newspaper, London, United Kingdom
(UK), moved by the imprisonment of two Portuguese students who had
raised their wine glasses in a toast to freedom.
A month later, the first international meeting was held with
delegates from Belgium, UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and
the United States deciding to establish 'a permanent international
movement in defence of freedom of opinion and religion.' Its first
office was in Mitre Court, London.
So Malinda is a bit off the mark, although it has been pointed out
that the United Kingdom is but another state of the United States of
America, a notion that Tony Blair appears to have dedicated his tenure
to confirm.
In my opinion this history makes it worse. AI can't plead ignorance
regarding cricket. AI knows cricket. AI does not understand, however,
what is cricket and what is not as per the adage 'it is not cricket'.
For the record, Sri Lanka beat England, a country which has a pretty
bloody history in 'playing cricket' during its colonizing days. England,
historically, never played cricket. They never believed in
match-referees. They were never penalised. May be AI, who believe they
are match-referees, should launch a campaign to compensate countries
looted by Britain.
Sri Lanka beat England. The better team did not break or bend the
rules.
We are waiting, Mr. Parritt. When are you going to get Elizabeth to
return the loot? Or, are you going to bend the rules in favour of
tyranny? Parritt and AI are being judged now. It looks like Amnesty
International has been caught napping in front of the crease.
The verdict? Out!
JAGATH JAYASEKARA,
via email
Many thanks to Stanley Jayasekare of Nugegoda for being the first eye
opener to the subject (DN April 3).
I was wondering why no one is shouting against the high rates of
telecom and internet. We should not call that "Telecom is making
profits", but call it "milking the customers" by applying high rental
and call rates, which no other country charges. I know that a country
like Saudi Arabia is not even charging for local calls. Therefore,
telecom should be a service provider and not a profit making company.
It is only the telecom who increased the monthly rental by 400 per
cent without any sympathy to its customers. How would some one expect
this country to be developed?
Look at the Internet charges; Dial-up connection (1250) is a real
waste of time and money, rather I call it a joke. Now the connection
called 'Broadband' is also very expensive and cannot be used by a normal
person. Not only is the monthly rental high, but also there are
limitations for usage, which means this country's development is
limited.
A student from a simple family would not be able to use internet for
his/her studies.
I hope all the telecom customers should come together and make a big
protest against those charges to enable the Minister concern to take
immediate action to reduce charges.
S. H. ATHULA KUMARA,
Panadura
Re-engineering the Government is a prime objective of the present
leader as we observe from the media. As a result, an e-Motoring project
is also on the way (as per the ICTA) to implement a comprehensive ICT
solution in order to provide effective and efficient deliveries by
automating things where-ever possible.
I am an IT Manager by profession and have enough experience with
several private companies, where efficiency and productivity are the
prime objectives. Meetings are held every week or every month in such
companies, sometimes involving a particular range of staff and sometimes
with top management, in order to provide the best customer service.
From my point of view, until the above project comes into being,
there are many more things which can be done easily by top people of the
RMV by looking into such matters.
As my driving license (heavy vehicle - class A) expired recently, I
wanted to renew it. I got to know from a friend of mine that three
photos and a Medical Certificate from National Transport Medical
Institute were required for this task.
After obtaining the above, I went to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles
(RMV) Department at Werahera. It was very disappointing to see the
inefficiency and un-productive nature of the above department. On the
other hand, attitude of the staff and the way in which the office is run
leaves a lot to be desired. It makes it a typical Government Institute.
I had a dreadful experience on April 05, 2007 and a half day was
wasted just to submit the relevant documents and charges for my licence
renewal.
There was a long queue at the renewal counter and it took a
considerable period of time to come to the front of the queue.
At the moment of submitting the documents, I was instructed to paste
two photos on the application by going to the corner of the hall where
the gum bottle was placed. on completing that task I was compelled to
rejoin the queue and on doing so I was given a rude shock, when asked
for a copy of my NIC.
There are no photo-copy machines placed inside the hall and I was
forced to get it from the booth which is near the entrance gate. I had
to wait in the queue for the third round also to submit the documents
and luckily no more things were required.
I realised why the queues were moving so; that is the officer in
charge of checking documents, must check the files which are brought
from another department by other staff members and those files are given
priority.
After obtaining the voucher from that counter, we have to go to the
cashier. At that time, both cashiers were not in their seat. It took
sometime for them to come back and start work. (I think it was almost
tea time). After paying the cash, the payment voucher should be pasted
on the back of the application and submitted to another counter in order
to get a temporary driving licence.
Two lethargic female officers were placed at that counter and I was
asked to wait another one and half hours to get the temporary permit. It
only would taken one minute to write down only the name and valid period
on the temporary licence and to get an authorised signature, if it was
handled efficiently.
Since I was on my way to attend to an important matter I kindly
requested the female officer in charge to expedite my job, but her reply
was in the negative.
It is astonishing to experience this type of clumsy and legacy
processors inside important Government institutes like this. I happened
to go to a private bank recently to open an account and it took me only
five minutes to open the account, deposit some money, receive the
updated passbook and receive a valid ATM card while I was sitting at a
single counter. Why is it not possible to implement productive measures
in Government departments?
When I was sitting in the waiting area only, I saw the instructions
board displayed in a corner of the hall. I thought it fit to give some
suggestions to a higher officer in the department and went in search of
the Deputy Commissioner, but got to know from a security officer that he
has not reported to work until that time (10.40 a.m.).
There were no designated places to be seen for the Administrative
officer or the Assistant Commissioner. So I gave up the idea of meeting
them.
Yasantha,
Boralesgamuwa
President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave an excellent speech at the launch of
Jathika Saviya, village development, nation building. (Reference DN
March 29).
He has the support of 20 million people, including the Army, Navy,
Air Force and the international community. And on the other hand, the
terrorist Tigers are into drugs, killing, suicide bombing, destroying,
slaving for overseas diaspora greed, suckers.
What a comparison! The majority wins.
So we are on track, terrorism does not pay. Some people must learn to
disassociate from this sick breed of minority terrorists who have
rendered themselves useless and disruptive to society. These shameless
people called terrorists use children and women to fight war.
EDDY FERNANDO,
via email |
