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I was really impressed by President’s recent statement that
everywhere Sinhala, Tamil and English must be used, spoken and written
simultaneously.
According to his statement it is quite clear that name boards,
advertisements, announcements, reports, proceedings of courts, postal
service, telegram, money order, police entries, hospital prescriptions,
co-operative stores’ bills, bank slips etc. must be done in Tamil too.
But, even a little of the above matters does not come into force.
I observed notices and posters pasted on the outside walls of
Kingswood College, Seetha Devi College, Swarnamali, Kandy Girls’ High
School, Vihara Maha Devi College, etc. are beautifully printed only in
Sinhala and English not in Tamil language.
Why is this neglect of Tamil even after declaration of the President
to use Tamil also in all media equally?
Let the Directors of Education, principals of schools, police
inspectors, post masters, doctors of hospitals, shop-keepers etc. try to
learn Tamil spoken as well as written in order to communicate with Tamil
speaking people for mutual understanding and harmonious dealings.
M. Y. M. MEEADH - Kandy
As a former public servant and trade unionist, I was delighted with
the front page news item under the caption ‘Serve or Depart’ on July 21.
A country leader couldn’t have said anything better to its employees.
Most of them, I am sad to say, have nothing in their hearts for the
people of this country. They are selfish, self-centred and greedy. They
come not to serve but to demand. It is best that they all go!
I have nothing to do with Royal College; but the College motto is
good for our Universities as well. Disced out disced. It means Learn or
Depart. Universities are maintained by the people for their children to
learn; not to have a good time; not to form gangs and kill one another;
not to go on strike at the drop of a pin. If they don’t appreciate what
is available for their studies, they should go home.
Serve or Depart, you doctors, nurses and all State employees
providing services for the people; Serve or Depart, you Ministers, MPs,
Members of Boards, Commissioners, Members of Local Bodies etc. and the
whole of you, Serve or Depart! You have problems, yes; but the people
you have undertaken to serve, have more problems. Think of them; because
those people are your parents; and parents are the people. Serve them
like the heroic sons of Sri Lanka who have given all of us freedom from
terror.
The President has spoken well. He has a right to do so. We should all
stand by him. This is not the time to play the fool.
M.M.N. de Silva - Dehiwala
On July 18, I was flying back to the US via London Heathrow. After
all the basic check-ins and mandatory security checks I proceeded to my
gate.
There as is customary, all passengers boarding aircraft to the US I
was subjected to the additional check where my hand luggage was tested
at the gate. I was getting on board United Airlines UA 0949 to Chicago
ORD.
The gentlemen doing the check looked carefully at my name. He then
proceeds to tell me ‘You must be Sri Lankan’. He then says “I am Sri
Lankan too and my name is Ratnavale”. I thought he would engage in
polite banter about cricket, and asked him if he was one of the famous
Ratnavales of doctors, diplomats and lawyers.
He proceeds to tell me “my homeland is occupied by the Army”; and
that people were killed in Trenches and bunkers by a genocidal Sri
Lankan Army”.
All this time he was keeping a polite soft voice but it was obvious
he was indoctrinated and just repeating one-sided Tiger propaganda
created in England to brainwash the Tamil Diaspora to hate all Sri
Lankans. He says he was an engineer by profession and was born in
Malaysia in 1948.
How could a person born in Malaysia consider himself to be a Sri
Lankan and not Malaysian? and then he says “I have been here thirty to
forty years, I am an engineer by profession”. He kept repeating about
“we won’t have a place till we have a homeland, our home”.
I did proceed to tell the gentleman he should visit Sri Lanka and
help people if he was so concerned and that Prabhakaran should have
surrendered long ago and not force people onto the beaches at gunpoint
with the cynical hopes of having the Western world rescue him. How could
such a person consider himself to be part of the Tiger Diaspora
repeating all the propaganda and hate speech in Britain?
He was a nice gentleman who maintained a soft voice but his wrath was
obvious; I strongly feel a British Citizen, a British employee of either
the Airline or the Heathrow Airport assigned such responsibilities
should not conduct himself so unprofessionally as to engage passengers
about such issues. He knew very well I could not debate nor argue with
him. He is a British Citizen who has chosen to live there coming from
Malaysia long ago.
I did not feel harassed, but knowing how the British operate and
their double standards; I felt really sad that this gentleman would try
selectively engaging people in unprofessional discussions.
I wish he would return to Sri Lanka and use his money to help
rehabilitate innocent Tamil refugees rather than contributing to Tiger
coffers to generate more hate and terrorism. Judging by the vast number
of Sri Lankan Tamil people flying back to Colombo, it seems that lot of
people are waking up to reality that Tiger terrorism was resoundingly
defeated. Now it is time they help win the peace by not wasting money on
terrorists.
Ratnavale’s job is to make sure Islamic terrorists and other
terrorists do not board planes to the US and not to engage passengers
who mind their own business. I hope I could bring this gentleman to Sri
Lanka so he could start the healing process.
With rumours that Prabhakaran’s parents were Indian Tamil migrants
not traditional Tamil inhabitants of Sri Lanka, one wonders how such a
recent immigrant could lead a separatist war based on a claim to a
traditional homeland when his ties were in India. Perhaps Ratnavale had
Malaysia on his mind?
Mano Ratwatte - USA
All citizens of mother Sri Lanka expect equal treatment from the
State. The working class of the country, irrespective of whether they
are State sector employees or private sector employees, are all citizens
of this country. The State has a duty to provide equal facilities to all
of them but when the SLCTB, which is not private, inaugurates a special
bus service for only State sector employees. It is stark discrimination.
More so when the bus services depart from points where Government
Departments are located and at 1630 hours, when only those offices
close.
The Transport Minister is one who stands for equal rights for all and
sundry but it is surprising how he has given pride of place only to
State sector employees and forgotten the thousands of private sector
employees, who outnumber State sector employees by a large margin.
Government employees have to report to work at 0830 and depart at 1630
hours whereas private sector employees work till 1730 hours.
Private sector employees do not in any way grudge the benefits State
sector employees enjoy but when all citizens are guaranteed equal
treatment, the question of equality arises. In our country the rules
relevant to punctuality, attendance, departure, leave and holidays are
enforced rigidly in the private sector and enforced to the letter. They
also work upto 1700/1730 hours. Some have to work half a day on
Saturdays.
Even when salary increases are granted in the annual budget the
increases are automatic in the State sector whereas the Labour Minister
only makes a mere request to the private sector managements, which has
no binding and invariably ignored by them, sometimes with contempt.
As private sector employees comprise a large segment of society, very
much larger than the State sector, and have always stood by the present
Government they expect enforcement of equal rights and facilities and
not verbose utterances from politicians.
M. Piyasena - Boralesgamuwa
A man, with a wound
And swollen leg, bandaged
Sitting helpless on the floor
Beside the door of the office train
Not a single man offered him a seat
A shower of harsh words, instead
From the crowd, as they get in
And was nearly trampled in the rush.
Isn’t it the reflection of the modern society
‘Man’s inhumanity to Man’?
Harshi Wijesinghe - St. Mary’s College, Veyangoda
I trust the new Justice Minister Milinda Moragoda, will take early
steps to confine all All Island JPs to the respective Judicial Districts
where they are residing and do away with the present system of
appointing All Island JPs.
When you look at the Government gazette you will find that more than
75 percent of the appointees are All Island JPs. These appointees are
all persons recommended by Ministers and MPs and it is disappointing
that some of them are misfits and their only qualification is that they
are henchmen of Ministers and MPs. I appeal to the new Justice Minister
to formulate a new scheme for appointment of JPs.
Vijitha Ananda Jayasena Ganemulla
It was indeed a pleasure to walk along the Mount Lavinia sea beach
about two to three years ago. However, today it is not so. The Sri Lanka
Air Force took all the trouble to plant a series of trees along the
beach. Each tree was protected by four PVC reinforced pipes around which
was installed a nylon net as a further protection. But today nothing is
left because of beach rugger played along the beach.
The pipes are all broken, the trees are no more and 40 percent of
seats installed along the beach are broken and 90 percent of the
dustbins installed are also broken. This is a serious matter and no one
seems to remedy this unfortunate situation as this beach is a tourist
attraction. The Government should ban all games played along the beach,
especially the beach rugger.
A number of persons have been seriously injured and taken to hospital
because of rugger players. The beach is there for visitors to safely
walk along the beach but today it is most dangerous to go along the
beach. The Ministry charged with the function of maintaining the beach
should first clear the entire beach, ban all forms of games (beach
rugger) and make the beach a safe place to visit.
Dr. M.M.J.W. Herath - Consultant Geologist, Mt.
Lavinia
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