Focusing back on ‘In Focus’

June 13th strikes a chord with me for two reasons. It reminds me that I have grown older by yet another year and particularly marks the first anniversary of my Column in the Daily News.

Having dabbled in journalism, as a part time hobby from my London student days, what struck me in Sri Lanka was that the majority is either not hot and bothered or just complacent type most of the time towards social issues that matter. Up until recently, piling up of garbage at every street corner was displayed like a sore thumb. How long has this been going on until Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, ensured that it could not be tolerated for the sake of a healthy society and a cleaner environment.

Infrastructure facilities

How many would bother to take such things seriously and attempt to bring such misdemeanor to the attention of authorities concerned in the hope that remedial action might take place. Despite the general public crying out on social and administrative lassitude in the press and on TV, from time to time in small doses, such exposure most of the time have taken a back seat due to lack of power on the citizenry unlike in the case of the Defence Secretary, who has the capacity (within his perimeters of responsibility) to bend even a mighty arm of any official who is not be up to snuff in their responsibility.

In such a backdrop I decided mainly to focus on issues that needed drawing attention of the authorities concerned in the hope that at least one percent out of highlighted issues would be looked at through a tolerant eye.

Having decided myself on an appropriate caption and a logo to go with it, the first contribution appeared on June 13, 2010 under the heading ‘Lead us from darkness to light’, highlighting a vital issue on street lighting along the Parliament Road. In my introduction I wrote thus:

‘President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently observed that “an effective mechanism for the maintenance of the road network would be implemented to pass the dividends of the country’s development effort to the common masses”. Very rightly the President emphasised on the provision of infrastructure facilities such as construction of streetlight and sound drainage systems to go hand in glove for people to receive its real benefits.

Road users

Since then part of the road from the Parliament locale up to Kotte turn-off (opposite Waters Edge) has been illuminated (an area which did not even have electrical connections before), but the patch from Kotte Road turn-off up to Ayurveda roundabout in Borella is still left in complete darkness despite having lamp posts arching from the centre reservation of the dual carriageway making night driving a nightmare!

‘VIPs and Hell’s Angels’ was another article which concentrated on the suffering of motorists and other road users when convoys of security men flying on congested roads at rocket speed escorting VIPs while road users were (metaphorically speaking) pushed into nearby drains to clear their path! Thanks to President Rajapaksa’s personal intervention, this problem has now been resolved by curtailing escort to a single vehicle.

Electronic signals and traffic police

‘Till the sun goes off course and the moon loses its splendour’ was another column which I received a lot of positive feedback on the chaotic traffic conditions and the Traffic Police. Sri Lanka has been seemingly allowed to ‘merge’ with European Union and USA road rules where driving on the right in Sri Lanka becoming man-made Law and overtaking from the left! A tragic feature is that from the inception of the Motor Traffic Act in Sri Lanka the authorities have not been able to wake up from their slumber to such a vital issue that the problem has become deep seated where motorists today have either no regard for the law or are completely naive about high way code interpretations that they keep on creeping in and out and overtaking at will causing more and more road accidents and avoidable deaths.

A major folly in traffic implementation is to have colour electronic signals and traffic police giving two different commands simultaneously. Contrary to the idea of easing off traffic flows, such exercises do not create a balance when a major road traffic is cleared to make traffic flow in an adjacent road a chock-a-block.

Fundamentally, two sets of commands cannot work simultaneously. If the traffic police decides to overrule electronic signals then they MUST switch off the lights and make a manual operation. As otherwise there is a danger of someone observing the green light proceeding while the traffic police officer commands motorists facing red light to advance.

Any accident taking place in such a situation will end up in misery - physically, mentally and especially legally. Granville R. Jayalath, Somalatha Ramanayake, Joe de Livera, Ben Simon, Dr. Hector Perera, Chiranmayu Medis, Sarath Gabri Dassanaike, Tuder H. Wickremesinghe, Ranjan Atulugama, Asoka Jayawardena, Rohan N Fernando, Kithsiri Athulathmudeli, Shamila Shafeek, Dr. Tony Usuf, GC Perera, S.T. Perera to name a few, have particularly encouraged and livened up my spirits with additional oxygen to focus on issues that matter by adding a pinch of sarcasm and ginger at times not to make readers bored to tears.

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