|
This letter is in response to your editorial in the Daily News of
October 10 and Nadira Gunatillake’s Social Dialogue on October 11 on the
above subject.
Ours is a Federation of Muslim Associations in Kandy and we are
interested only in the religious aspect of animal slaughter.
We are in no way holding a brief for the meat traders of this
country. We have made this position quite clear to the Sri Lanka Law
Commission as far back as March 2000 when we first made our
representations to the Commission on the Draft Bill.
Haj is the fifth pillar of Islam. It is a festival of sacrifice. A
Muslim if he can afford should sacrifice a camel, a bull or a goat in
the name of Allah on the Haj Festival Day after prayers.
Nadira Gunatillake says in her article that we do not touch the pig.
That is an irrelevant sentence in the article. When one reads the whole
paragraph it is quite evident that she has used this sentence to insult
Islam. “But they do not touch the pig” as if others use the pig for
sacrifice.
In addition to the Haj Festival day, the Muslims also sacrifice an
animal on the birth of a child and on vows. These sacrifices are done in
the homes, if there is sufficient garden space after obtaining a permit
from the Local Authority. If there is no garden space, the sacrifice is
done in the Mosque.
Section 38(1) of the draft bill prohibits the slaughter of a
quadruped in a private dwelling house, or a place of business or a
public place. Public place has been defined as any way, road, lane,
square, Court, Alley, passage or open space whether a thoroughfare or
not, and any building to which the general public have access.
A mosque is caught up by this section. Section 38(2) requires a
person who slaughters a quadruped that is even a rabbit to have a
certificate of competence in the slaughter of animals. To obtain a
certificate of competence, one has to undergo a period of training to
acquire competence.
There are no training schools for butchers in this country. The draft
bill does not say from where to obtain this certificate. When one reads
sections 38(1) and (2) one gets the impression that this section has
been introduced to ban slaughter altogether in this country.
Instead of using the word ‘Ban’ the draftsman is trying to achieve
that goal by other methods. Nowhere in the world does the State demand a
certificate of competence from a butcher. If sections 38(1) and (2)
become law in this country, the Hadji Festival which is the fifth pillar
of Islam will be wiped out of the Islamic Calendar.
That is why we have appealed to the President to delete these two
sections from the draft. As much as no Court makes an order that cannot
be enforced however justifiable it may appear, the State should not
enact any legislation that cannot be implemented.
We have a very understanding President. He is a senior lawyer. He
cannot be misled by some who are making an attempt to get him to bring
legislation which affects the religious sentiments of the minorities.
The Muslims of this country have absolute confidence and faith in
President Rajapaksa that he will not introduce any section into the
Statute Book of this country which will affect their religion.
Sacrificing an animal in the name of Allah is one form of worship in
Islam. We are confident that our President will not bring any law to
curtail that freedom of worship which is guaranteed by section 14(1) (e)
of the Constitution.
The Muslims form only eight per cent of the population in Sri Lanka.
Most of the Muslims have taken beef out of their menu. You attend any
Muslim wedding or any other function either in the Five Star Hotels or
in their homes you will find that the menu is Mutton Buriyani and
Chicken Kuruma. Beef is nowhere in the menu.
Thousands of animals are being slaughtered in Sri Lanka daily. Is it
only the Muslims who are eating the meat of all these animals? No. The
bulk of the beef eaters in this country are the non Muslims. You ask any
meat trader and he will tell you that nine out of the ten customers of
his are non Muslims. The Hindus do not eat beef.
The NGOs like the Animal Welfare Trust and other animal lovers should
exert their energies in weaning the non-Muslims from beef eating. This
is exactly what the editorial of the Daily News of October 10 advocates.
The Editor says thus: “Quiet persuasion whereby the public could be
weaned off meat eating on a voluntary basis, could be an alternative. A
vigorous campaign has to be launched by animal rights activities to take
their message to a wider populace.” Once the people give up eating beef,
the beef stalls will shut down and animal slaughter will stop.
It is useless and a waste of time and energy by the NGOs and animal
lovers in trying to ban the slaughter of cattle and to import beef like
in Bhutan because we have a very large herd of meat cattle in the dry
zone.
We lack foreign exchange and we cannot afford to waste our valuable
foreign exchange to import beef which is available at our doorstep. If
we start importing beef, it is the Australian diary farmer who will be
enriched at the expense of our dry zone farmers.
M. B. M. ZUBAIR - Secretary, Federation of
Kandy Muslim Organisations
It is the duty of the patriotic Sri Lankan community to inform the
President and other Sri Lankans about corrupt officers in our embassies
abroad, especially in countries with a strong presence of Lankan migrant
labour.
There are housemaids running away from their sponsors due to several
problems but welfare officers of Sri Lankan embassies in are absconding
from the mission possibly without the knowledge of the head of mission.
They are diplomatic passport holders who bring shame to the country.
They are abusing diplomatic immunity.
They were appointed to these embassies during an earlier regime.
Who is responsible for this type of mockery? Do they deserve to be
assigned to foreign countries? Who appointed them to the mission? They
have violated the law of the host country. Is it justified?
We appeal to the President to be directly involved in investigating
these matters.Who is responsible for this shambles? Does the minister of
Labour Relations and Foreign Employment know this matter? Are they
suitable to represent Sri Lanka abroad? If it is so how have they been
appointed?
AZAD ALIF - Saudi Arabia
Is there a Sri Lanka Standard for the display or stamping of date of
manufacture/expiry?
Numerous products are available for sale made in Sri Lanka as well as
those imported. there does not seem to be a standard for display of date
of manufacture/expiry. There are products with year/month/date,
year/date/month, date/month/year. I came across a local product that had
date of manufacture 07/07. Date of Expiry 08/07.
This was a puzzle to me. Product expires one day after manufacture
but available for sale in October which is month 10. What is the Sri
Lanka Standard for display of date of manufacture/expiry? Trust the
authorities will clarify to educate consumer.
TISSA JAYAWEERA – Chairman, International
Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka
It is a well-known fact that the Ruhunu Kumari express train that
travels from Maradana to Matara in the afternoon is fully packed within
seconds.
Last Friday it took only about ten seconds for the train to be
filled.
Even going half an hour before the trains arrival, I could not manage
to get a seat and had to travel all the way up to Aluthgama standing.
My humble request to the Minister of Transport and to the railway
authorities is that with a little bit of thought we can to some extent
comfort at least a small percentage for the passengers at no extra cost
by adopting a FIFO system (First in First Out) on this train.
For this purpose, for the afternoon travel we have to fully reserve
the first compartment solely for the Kalutara bound passengers.
The first third class compartment which is just next to the engine is
fully isolated from the other third class compartments.
So there is no chance of any third class passengers from other
compartments creeping inside on the way. According to the present system
Kalutara passengers will never get a seat immediately.
If the FIFO system can be adopted you will see that this compartment
though it is fully packed will be fully empty no sooner it reaches
Kalutara.
This will surely guarantee a seat for about a 100 of passengers
getting in from Kalutara, otherwise they will not get a seat as the
train is fully packed to the maximum capacity in all the compartments. I
hope Minister of Transport and the railway authorities will take note of
this.
M. H. S. HAMEED – Galle
Suffering in an abyss of despair, I sat to pen this letter, with the
intention of giving vent to my unmentionable repentance over what I have
come to know on television.
The shocking news item was that the murder rate of the first half of
this year, vis-a-vis that of last year has outnumbered the latter. It
has become a swelling number by robbing innocent lives.
The conundrum before me is that how a civilised society can further
turn a Nelsonion eye to this cataclysmic erosion of human values.
Indeed, the answer is blowing in the wind.
The harsh reality evident in this news report is that from every
second to second humanity gets eroded. It is needless to say that the
society should necessarily focus its attention on how to uphold the
sacrosanct human values in this hell bent social milieu.
But all these discussions and reforms should be first propped up by a
fundamental requirement. That is Capital punishment.
Capital punishment is a long felt need.
Human rights were established and are being cherished for the secure
life of the human race. But it is very ridiculous and ironical that
human rights have been hampered in the course of protecting human lives.
The vociferous cry of anti-execution fanatics is that it violates
human rights.
But what of the human rights of victims like Kanchana of Passara who
was brutally raped and murdered by a devil camouflaged in human guise on
her way to sit for G.C.E. Advanced Level examination.
Really, the deterrent punishment of execution is a cane to discipline
the society.
If there is execution in action, one wouldn’t easily settle his mind
on committing a murder.
At the same time, capital punishment should be implemented not only
for murders but also for rape cases because the constant reports on rape
cases is living proof of social degeneration.
I would like to entreat on behalf of the whole community that the
President to put execution into action.
Mr. President, we know that you are a devout Buddhist.
And, I’m firmly sure that it wouldn’t accumulate sins on you by
putting your signature to approve the worthy course of purifying society
and guiding the derailed society on the correct path.
But, by stamping your signature to approve capital punishment, you
would have safeguarded thousands and thousands of innocents who would
otherwise be future victims of barbarism.
To cut short, it is high time and even though belated to exercise
Capital punishment to heal the ulcerous wound of the entire social
fabric.
CHAMARA NANAYAKKARA – Baddegama
I read with much interest the article written by writer J. B. Muller
(DN Oct. 21). This article made me reminisce my childhood days which
were full of happiness, laughter, mad frolics, Christmas carols,
carnivals at our church grounds and parties on Saturday nights - musical
instruments used were the box guitar, kifel base (made out of an empty
tea venesta chest) and bongos.
When I was a child, our family lived at Dematagoda. There were
Burgher homes from Maradana junction up to Baseline Road and in the
evenings you could hear singing and the sound of the guitar (country and
western was our forte).
We had a rollicking time and above all we had togetherness -
everybody knew everybody else. Looking back at time the comradeship
prevailing among us at that passage of time was sometimes overwhelming -
I bet you, it really was.
Members who belong to other communities also joined our groups and
enjoyed our friendship. When I was a young lad living with my sister’s
family during my school holidays at Alwis Town, Hendala, I used to be
invited to some Tamil houses in the vicinity and I could watch concerts
in their homes performed by their children of my age.
I used to play badminton with some of them. (Incidentally at that
time Hendala was beautiful with open space and fresh air). I even used
to exchange comic books with my Muslim and Malay friends. I remember we
had a Radio Club called ‘The Tuesday Club’ at Ceylon Broadcasting
Corporation - compere was Aunty Mahes Perera - our members were of
Burghers, Catholic Tamils, Catholic Sinhalese and Malays. Today it’s sad
that our present boys and girls have missed that magic era.
Most Burghers had migrated to other countries because of economic
reasons - most of them did not own houses and property in Sri Lanka and
they left our shores with heavy hearts. (Today most Burghers possess
house and property unlike the early days). They worked hard in those
countries to improve themselves economically.
They easily adjusted themselves in those countries because of their
fluency in the English language. Most of them come back to visit the
country of their birth for a holiday after saving a part of their
earnings for the air ticket.When they were here they did not demand
anything from the country, instead rendered their humble services.
Most Burgher families are Roman Catholics and parents just like
parents of other communities are anxious that their off-spring marry
partners from their own communities.
For example, a Buddhist Sinhala parent will never consent his
daughter to marry a Tamil. Likewise, a Muslim parent will not consent
his daughter to marry a Buddhist or a Catholic. There are communities
who have intermarried and most of these families with mixed parentage
belongs to the popular ‘Run-away and marry later scheme’.
The childhood days of the lady writer seems to have been very glum
and she had missed out on the joyful days of our teen years.
TULUS FERNANDO – Kandana
As a litigant for nearly 15 years I write this letter in pursuance of
seeking relief for these set of lawyers’ clerks. It is astonishing and
surprising to note that these set of clerks, male or female are a
neglected lot overseen by the authorities.
They have no fixed salary or wages approved by the Wages Board. They
are not paid any EPF, ETF and their statutory dues. Just only a day’s
wage for their work done. After retirement, no pension. After death, no
gratuity or compensation. Who is to be blamed? Various Governments come
and go but still these people are confined to a hand to mouth existence.
Most of them are paid a small daily wage and with great difficulty they
resort to solve their livelihood to keep their home fires burning.
There are legal firms and associations that look after these clerks
very well but most of the individual lawyers’ clerks are being affected.
Even the lowest grade of worker the natamy/coolie worker is governed by
the Wages Board and they have a fixed daily wage but in the case of the
lawyers’ clerks, a mere daily wage of Rs. 100 to Rs. 150 per day, which
is not sufficient for them to meet their daily needs.
Thus, a few of them are dragged into unlawful activities.
They cannot rise against their masters or superiors as the next
opportunity would be ‘no work’ and sacked. Thus no income. Even with all
these difficulties these clerks still survive the ordeal in the legal
fraternity.
It is time that the Government takes an initiative to solve this
burning problem to remedy their franchise rights as citizens of Sri
Lanka.
I do hope the Government under the Mahinda Chintanaya could achieve
the rights of these clerks though going against the attorney-at-law.
LITIGANT – Kandy
Aprops B.A. Aryatilake’s letters in the Daily News of Aug. 03 and
Oct. 04, he claims to be a ‘Bright and intelligent’ person who believes
only in evidence and not on the ‘fantasies’ of astrology, theology and
mythology and goes on a tirade insulting ‘a moral preacher’ of 2000
years ago. B.A.A. cannot be that intelligent to waste his time, anger
and frustrations on someone ‘tortured to death’ two centuries ago.
Instead of flaming religious and racial intolerance that has played
this nation in the recent past, please allow us - dull and foolish
believers in God to be in peace with our ‘fantasy’.
After all, it is only a fantasy and not worthy of comment by the
intelligent.
I for one would not attempt again to counter the high and mighty
Aryan.
God is too big to fit into or not to fit into one
philosophy/religion.
DR. NARMA WICKREMESINGHE - Colombo 6
A sign board is a form of information and in this case, it should be
clear in big and bold letters, so that any person standing a few miles
away is able to read it clearly. Yes, as said, it should be in all three
languages.
In other countries they also have a timetable as to say, at what time
the bus passes by that particular station/stand - which once again
brings discipline. I think someone out there should give serious
thoughts to these public services.
This would make our life a little comfortable and luxurious.
NINA H. KAMAL
|
