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]
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.
Ruhuna
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.
D. M. Victor E. Pieris Kalamulla
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.
N. Sangeetha
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.
C. Rudra Wattala
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.
Prof. M. Sivasuriya Colombo
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.
H. W. Goonesekera Panadura
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.
Dr. P. A. Samaraweera Australia
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