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The Government has deferred the grant of duty-free vehicles to public
servants because of the serious financial situation in the country.
A way out of the impasse is to enable them to buy already imported
reconditioned vehicles duty-free. At present the garages of
reconditioned car importers are chock-a-block with vehicles which they
find difficult to sell.
Since they have already paid duty on these vehicles, the Government
can refund the duty paid on those vehicles purchased by public servants
under this scheme.
This way the Government saves on foreign exchange, the importers can
dispose of a good number of their vehicles and public servants will have
theirs.
The Government should also ban the import of new and reconditioned
non-transport vehicles exceeding 1,300 c.c. for a period of at least one
year or until the war is over. This would be a bid saving on fuel. There
are too many vehicles both on the roads and in the importers’ garages as
it is.
ROHAN JAYASUNDERA - Colombo 6
H.L.D. Mahindapala’s ‘piece’ in the Daily News of July 5 is indeed
very interesting and also full of facts. His bold and candid opinion
should receive the praise of all. It is indeed a shame that Major
General (Rtd.) Janaka Perera stooped down to such low ebbs to join Ranil
Wickremesinghe to contest the forthcoming North-Central Provincial
Council Elections to become its Chief Minister.
Before I proceed, I would wish to stress that because of his selfish
action, he will not only lose face, but the general public who held him
in high esteem as a ‘battle-hardened war hero’ will realise that he too
is a national betrayer and a general public were hitherto misled.
The Sinhala diaspora who once were all out to back Maj. Gen. (Rtd)
Janaka Perera as a Presidential Candidate at 2005 Presidential Polls -
if the UPFA was to nominate anybody other than the then Prime Minister,
Mahinda Rajapaksa, must be hiding their faces in shame and utter
disgust.
He, the Retd. Maj. General showed himself to be big hero and a real
patriot.
A series of serious discussions/meetings were held at ‘Sanathana
Mandira’ Maharagama and in the residence of Dr. and Dr. Mrs. Ratnapala
at Narahenpita in May/June, 2005 with a very distinguished and patriotic
gathering comprising Nimal Liyanage of WAPS Australia representing the
expatriates, Nimal Jayawardena, Gomin Dayasiri, S.L. Gunasekera,
Ex-Solicitor-General, Douglas Premaratne, Dr. Piyasena Dissanayake, Dr.
Nath Amarakone, Col. Anil Amarasekera, Col. Nihal Dharmaratne, Jayantha
Kulatunga, the writer himself and the two distinguished hosts. Major
General (Rtd). Janaka Perera himself attended no less than three such
meetings.
A MoU was ultimately agreed upon after amending its clauses many
times over between Eksath Sinhala Maha Sabha (a duly registered and
recognised political party and the Helasetha Group representing the
expats. For this purpose the name of our registered Political party was
changed to read as Eksath Lanka Maha Sabha and its symbol ‘the Fountain
Pen’ was changed to a ‘Gemstone’.
Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Perera vouched that he knew how to defeat the LTTE,
eliminate terrorism from our land for good and how to develop the
country as on Unitary Sri Lanka. Our expatriates - even many Tamils and
Muslims (not only the Sinhalese) readily agreed to back him up and spend
even up to US$5 million for his campaign, so much so a special office
was set up for this purpose in Mount Lavinia.
Our proposed candidate not only agreed to tactically and
strategically finish off the war, but also to rid the country of
corruption, waste, inefficiency and malpractices and to start on the
well planned national development programme.
Anyway, this event never took place as the former Government
nominated Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Presidential Candidate whose policies
were the same as ours.
Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Janaka Perera’s intended candidacy was published in
the Sunday Times front-page of Sept. 4, 2005 and in the front page of
The Island of Sept. 2, 2005. The Island in its Editorial of Sept. 3,
2005 under the caption ‘Can one man do it’ expressed their doubts if
this person could deliver.
How right The Island Editor was although we were hoodwinked to
believe the former. We thank the Editor of ‘The Island’ for having
published our reply on 13/09/05 unedited in its Opinion Column titled
‘Janaka Perera can deliver’. All our genuine efforts have since been
belied by his action.
Mr. Mahindapala deserves the praise and plaudits of all patriotic
citizens for having conferred the best title on Ranil Wickremesinghe -
Major General (meaning a ‘major’ disaster to the Nation and for putting
himself in a ‘general’ mess of his own) and for exposing the real Janaka
Perera.
RANJITH C. DISSANAYAKE - Battaramulla
As an organisation agitating and clamouring for effective measures to
control tobacco smuggling, the Swarna Hansa Foundation is so pleased to
note that Customs Preventive Division has at last taken interest in
dealing with the matter and at the outset would like to thank K.A.
Dharmasena, Assistant Director, Customs Preventive Division for the bold
initiative.
In fact the public have been casting doubts about the integrity of
the Customs officers, when once in a way they detect a container load of
cigarettes and destroy them in the presence of media. People cannot be
blamed when they were saying that, this cannot happen that way without
some sort of understanding among those on the chain of tobacco smuggling
racket.
The Customs should certainly can trace the smugglers, because if
there is no such person or address as stated in the package, the
officers at the point of sending should have all the details of senders
and also the intended persons who should receive the packages. Surely
the freighters have checked the parcels in containers very well and
checked the ownership of those.
These are questions raised by the general public who may not know the
exact freight procedures and rules. But it is common knowledge.
They have been seen quite right when at last the Custom officers
began investigations with regard to the ownership of the items, and
getting information from Air Cargo Companies that handled the items.
The Swarna Hansa is quite certain that the brave Customs officers are
well aware of the fact why no proper action was taken in previous
detections, and is quite aware of the pressure that will come from
interested parties. They will definitely try to mislead the Custom
officer and also to confuse the whole thing saying that it is an
international game and that not even the other powerful countries have
been able to do anything about it so far.
But the Swarna Hansa is quite certain that brave Customs officers
would not have resorted to this action if they are not aware that
European countries have on several occasions caught big bats red handed
and that they know what they are doing.
The attempt by the Sri Lankan Customs officers to deal with tobacco
smuggling racket is also a timely action of so much significance that it
will be an example for the conference of parties now in session drafting
guidelines on Article 13 of the Frame Work Convention on Tobacco Control
(FCTC) the first ever international Treaty on Tobacco control. In the
sense the attempt of the Sri Lanka Customs Preventive Officers will be
internationally commended and hailed.
GALLEGE PUNYAWARDANA - Swarna Hansa
Foundation
I refer to the letter entitled ‘dowry hunters’ by R. Somasiri (R.S.)
appearing in the Daily News of June 9.
I don’t agree with R.S. that according to the Muslim customs among
Sri Lankans, the parents of the Muslim bridegrooms give dowries to the
Muslim brides. R.S. may be referring to the customs prevailing in other
Muslim countries.
As far as I am aware, the majority of Muslim parents of bridegrooms
almost always insist on dowries from the parents of the brides and this
usually includes a house. I know of some poor Muslim parents who find it
difficult to give their daughters in marriage, as they cannot afford to
buy houses to be given as dowries to their would be son-in-laws.
One Muslim friend of mine told me that some of the present day
Muslims are happy as long as their sons-in-law receive money as dowries.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, dowry consists of money, goods,
or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage. The dowry has
a long history in Europe, South Asia, Africa and other parts of the
world.
Some of its basic functions are to protect the wife against
ill-treatment by her husband and by the husband’s parents especially by
the bride’s mother-in-law, since a dowry can be a conditional gift, to
help the husband discharge the responsibilities of marriage and since
the dowry makes it possible for the young man to establish a household;
to provide the wife with support in case of the husband’s death; and to
compensate the groom’s kin for their payment of bride wealth.
In Europe, the dowry served to build the power and wealth of great
families and played a role in the politics of grand alliance through
marriage: The giving of dowry more or less disappeared in Europe in the
19th and 20th centuries but the dowry system still persists in other
Asian countries. If the bride does not bring a dowry as promised by the
bride’s parents to the groom the bride will sometimes have to live in a
twenty four hour hell.
In some cases the delayed or insufficient dowry given some young
wives has made them the victims of their husbands or the in-laws in
countries such as India. Some women have had to pay the ultimate price
with their lives. The above practice is known as ‘bride burning’ or
‘dowry death’.
In Sri Lanka, marriage brokers (who sometimes used to get assaulted
by the groom’s parents at the end of the marriage) who have been helpful
in arranging a large number of marriages in the past especially in the
rural areas are not heard of these days. As far as I am aware, the dowry
system is disappearing in Sri Lanka, especially among educated people in
the urban areas.
I know of so many successful marriages arranged by the parents of the
brides and grooms, thanks to the Sunday newspapers which always devote a
few pages to marriage proposals.
D. P. A. - Colombo 7
A former Sri Lankan who is now a Philippine citizen and I stayed up
until the early morning hours to watch the Asia Cup matches and was
overjoyed at Sri Lanka’s victory especially the swashbuckling batting of
Sanath Jayasuriya, the brilliant bowling of Mendis and the astute
captaincy of Mahela Jayawardene. Sport is a great unifier.
Here in the Philippines whenever Manny Pacquiao, the four division
world boxing champion fights, people of all political hues and walks of
life are one in supporting him and taking pride in his achievements.
I pray that all Sri Lankans no matter what their heritage or whatever
their religion feel the same way and join hands in saluting a courageous
team and finding the opportunity to come together as one nation in
peace.
God bless the Sri Lanka cricket team and God bless the land of my
birth.
RONNIE NATHANIELSZ
A. de Zoyza’s (Letter DN July 10) suggestion of the odd-even traffic
system has been successfully implemented in the Metro Manila area in the
Philippines for many years to ease traffic congestion.
I see no reason why same system cannot be implemented in our country,
minimise petrol usage and save valuable foreign currency?
RATNA
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