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ISF condemns attack on cricket team

We condemn the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team by an extremist group based in Pakistan. Islam does not permit Jihad and Jihad means killing of your egoesm and not killing innocent civilians.

Islam does not permit sucide bombing or killing your own self. Pakistan has helped Sri Lanka in every way and we Sri Lankans should strengthen ourselves to fight terrorism. So I appeal to the general public to help solve this problem amicably and do not get carried away with extremists.

During the 1996 World Cup when no team wanted to come to Sri Lanka, it was Pakistan and India who came in support of our country. Today Ravi Karunayake is blaming the country. The reason Ravi is upset not because of the love for the team but the military support we got from Pakistan to eradicate the LTTE. The UNP are the friends of the LTTE.

Country before self.

Reyyaz Salley Chairman Islamic Solidarity Front of North America [email protected]


The best UNP leader...

Yes. Ranil is the best UNP leader SLFP ever had! As expected Ranil did it again in style. Add another diamond of defeat to his crown already bursting with such jewels. Someone wrote that this is his 14th election defeat.

Can anyone actually keep count of his failures? I am not going to do a critical analysis of the election results per se. I will leave it to the experts. But the bottom line is Mr. Wickramasinghe is dragging the party screaming towards oblivion.

The UNP going down the gurgler is no surprise and I don’t think there is hope in hell of Ranil reversing that trend.

The simplistic argument is that the war against terrorism is going great for the President and he is riding high the wave. Attempting to find simple explanations in a complicated situation is one of the many problems facing the UNP today.

Even if that is the case have they asked the question ‘Why?’ One of the techniques used in problem resolution is to ask the question ‘Why?’ five times and by the time you come to the fifth ‘why’ you would have found out the root cause of the problem. If winning the war is the reason for President’s victories one must ask “Why is he winning the war when Ranil (and all the other leaders) could not?”

Because Ranil did not have the political will, courage or determination to fight the terrorists let alone defeat them. Because Ranil did not provide the political leadership and support the Armed Forces needed to fight a war.

Because Ranil allowed half baked politicians (including himself) to conduct the war instead of leaving it to the Generals. Because Ranil shivered in his boots every time a ‘white man’ opened his mouth against the war. Because Ranil did not have the backbone to confront the INGOs and NGOs that ran a parallel Government.

The list is endless. Considering the infrastructure and brutality of the LTTE and its foreign support base, one must not be under any illusion that the LTTE problem is going to be over any time soon.

But the only hope is that the political and military leadership provided so far by the President, the Secretary of Defence and the Army Commander will see the country through this critical period. As a friend of mine who was a very high official of the last UNP Government emailed me ‘.. though I must say that the Big Boss is doing a wonderfully great job in the war front’. Coming from a faithful UNPer, it sums up the mood of the country.

Now that the war has failed to propel the UNP to popularity Ranil must be banking on the economy to give him the much needed momentum.

I am sure the people in the country are intelligent enough to realise that the economic downturn is a worldwide phenomenon and that Sri Lanka cannot accelerate development in isolation. Another card constantly played by the UNP is the appointment of family members to influential positions in the Government.

One must not forget that the real problem is not the appointment of such people but their inability to do the job they are expected to do.

Again Rajapakse family appointees have so far not failed the nation. Mr. Wickramasinghe may even be thinking that if I don’t do anything I cannot make mistakes and if I wait long enough the Government will lose popularity and the people will have no choice but to elect me to power.

He seems to be heavily banking on natural attrition most political parties in power experience over a long period of time. Or maybe he is thinking that with the help of foreign ‘aid vultures’ and their supporting ‘human rights investors’, the few blind followers left would be able to hand over the country to him again. Well, there are no laws against dreaming!

One can comprehend the UNP’s path to destruction. But the JVP following suit is rather astonishing and also disheartening. The ‘new’ JVP started so well and many thought that they will provide the active opposition and an alternative much needed for a vibrant democracy.

Instead they are becoming, like the UNP, a party out of touch with reality and losing touch with the constituency. The JVP needs to go home and look in an ‘honest mirror’ if it has got one. How rapidly the JVP leadership lost their marbles is beyond belief. A party that had such a strong grass root level structure seems to be just floating in the air like a hot air balloon without a navigator.

Considering the history of the party from its ’71 days one would expect it to be robust enough to self-correct and get into track pretty smartly. But like the UNP the JVP leadership too has failed to keep the finger on the nation’s pulse. It appears that Somawansa and Ranil have one thing in common. Both are blissfully ignorant of what the nation needs.


Lincoln and President

Today the President is confronted with challenges from all corners of the country. The on-going war, suppression of media freedom, the escalating Cost of Living and many more.

During the American civil war Abraham Lincoln was faced with a similar situation. He was criticised by a deputation sent to call on him. This is what he said, “Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin famous for crossing the Niagara river on a rope.

Would you shake the rope and keep shouting ‘Blondin stoop a little more go a little faster, lean a little more to the North, lean a little more to the South. No, you would hold your breath, as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off, until he was safe over.”

The Government is carrying an immense weight. Untold treasures are in our hands. We are doing the very best we can. Don’t badger us. Keep quiet and we will get your safe across.

No more deputations were sent.


A drain on foreign exchange

Director of Pensions had sent letters to Sri Lankan Retired Pensioners living abroad stating “It has been decided to pay pension of those living abroad in their respective country and requesting details of their Foreign Bank a/c No etc.”

This exercise does not appear to be in the interest of our country when the Government is doing its best to earn more foreign exchange and asking those abroad to make inward remittances.


Buddhism in India

The article ‘Buddhism in India’ (DN Feb. 18) traces the birth, rise and fall of Buddhism in India citing well-known, authorities. However, the concluding paragraph where the author claims that 300 Sinhala monks who continued to stay at Budhagaya to look after the temple from destruction is rather untenable.

For, when Anagarika Dharmapala, the great Buddhist revivalist visited Budhagaya in the 19th Century, he found the holy place desolate and desecrated. A Hindu Mahan (Chief Priest) was said to have usurped the site and had complete sway over it.

It was after long and arduous legal battle and with the cooperation of unbiased Hindus that Anagarika was able to restore the place to Buddhists. In all probability, the Islamic invasion during the 12th and 13th Centuries and would have dislodged the Sinhala monks or they would have deserted the holy place and fled Southwards. Hence the decline of Buddhism in North India.


Prabhakaran’s destiny after 54?

A very interesting and realistic article by Upul Joseph Fernando on the above topic which appeared in an English Daily of November 26, 2008 prompts me to write this letter.

The letter referred to above in my view conveys several authentic undisputed facts and let me present some of my own personal views though I feel many of your readers may not agree/concur with what follows.

I am of the view that our birth is ‘coming from God/Our creator and our death is ‘going back’ to God/Our Creator and what we perform during this period from birth until death is our ‘journey of life.’ I firmly also believe that God/Our Creator also determines when our life is to end. This applies, again in my view, not only to the LTTE Leader Prabhakaran but also to everyone of us.

Let me also frankly state that I have absolutely no belief or faith in astrology; everything that happens in our life whether good or bad happens, again in my view, according to our Karma both past and present (Karma is accepted/acknowledged by both Buddhists and Hindus the world over).

In correctly understood Buddhism and Hinduism, whatever that happens to us during our life - whether it be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ would be dependent upon the agebraic sum of both our ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Karma of both the past as well as the present. This could be compared to our monthly bank statement which reveals both the ‘credit’ (comparable to ‘good’ Karma and the ‘debit’ comparable to ‘bad’ Karma) columns.

To illustrate the ‘folly’ of astrology, let me quote this classic example. When a jet air liner ‘explodes’ in mid-air the passengers travelling in it at that time could have included a three month old baby as well as an eighty years old person. Do any one of you think that all the passengers in that plane at that moment would have had the same planetary positions in their astrological charts? Definitely not.

Similarly with ‘terrorism’ widely prevalent the world over today so many innocent people of different ages and sex are dying/incapacitated simultaneously at the same place at the same time. What about the horoscopes of each of these persons - it would have been obviously impossible for the ‘stars’ to have been in the same/identical position in their astrological charts.

All of us, in my view, will die only at the time decided upon by our Creator/God not one second earlier or one second later. So Prabhakaran too will die only when his time for it arrives.


Panadura garbage problem

Garbage collected in the Panadura Urban Council area was dumped in the centre of the town on a land belonging to the Council situated opposite the railway station for a long time causing much inconvenience and a health hazard to the residents as well as to train commuters and those who come to the commercial area in the town.

As a result of the intervention by the former Chief Minister of the Western Provincial Council and specially by the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe, Kalutara District MP who provided the necessary financial provision, the mountain of garbage accumulated has now been cleared.

However, it is a matter for concern that the Urban Council, Panadura has again started to dump garbage a little away from the earlier place obstructing the roadway and blocking the side drains awaiting final disposal by a garbage clearing service.

Thereby the good work done which the residents of Panadura highly appreciate has been nullified. I wish to request the Special Commissioner of the Urban Council and other relevant authorities concerned to look into this matter and ensure that dumping of garbage at the present place is stopped forthwith and moved to an area away from the centre of the town. At the same time the land already cleared which is held by the UC be put into proper use.


Terrorists aim at Sri Lankan cricketers

The latest on terrorism is that on March 3 unidentified terrorists opened fire using sophisticated weapons and lobbed grenades and rockets at the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team travelling to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The cricket world was struck with dismay and treated this attack with contempt and horror. The Sri Lankan cricketers escaped with injury but unfortunately six policemen and two civilians had been killed.

Australia, India and Pakistan condemned this cowardly terrorist attack. This incident shows that terrorists could attack at anytime, anywhere. The other recent attack was in Mumbai which killed 170.

After this tragedy, the Indian Government banned the Indian team from touring Pakistan and as a result, the Sri Lankan team stepped in. These incidents clearly indicate that terrorism is lavish in the backyards of India and Pakistan, who are friendly neighbours of Sri Lanka. In the past, both countries had supported Sri Lanka to combat terrorism and maintain peace in the region.

Sri Lanka had been fighting terrorism for the past 26 years and now the terrorists are facing imminent defeat.

To counteract mixed signals sent by some countries to Sri Lanka and to clear reports by the Western media, Human Rights Monitors, Peace Activists and so on, the President of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Takasu of Japan remarked, “...Sri Lanka cannot be compared with other situations, like Sudan where there are implications for international peace and security, as Sri Lanka’s is an internal issue where a Government is combatting a group described as a terror organisation by many countries...”

Therefore, with the recent terrorist attack on the sporting arena, cricket loving India and Pakistan should wholeheartedly join hands with Sri Lanka and give unequivocal support at this crucial moment to eradicate terrorism in the region.

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