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Morning Spice by Ginger
Never a dull moment when on the moveGinger had a strange and scary experience the other day. From the day he could no longer afford to run his car and became another commuter in the tender care of our public transport system his heart appears to have shifted closer to his mouth. The only thing to be said in favour of it is that bus traveller believes the monotony of my hum drum existence. There is never a dull moment once you are on the move. The latest incident certainly put the fear of Moses into him.
The bus started off in the usual fashion with the driver appearing hell bent on committing Hara kiri and taking his passengers along with him across great divide instead of their destination. It was full of thrills though I noticed that vehicles that started with us but travelled at normal speed wer'nt far behind at the end. Suddenly the conductor decided to change their mode of entertainment. He started abusing another driver at a bus halt and when that worthy retorted he rushed back into the bus and picked up some sharp instrument. Fortunately he was held back by some passengers. What would our plight have been if some one got killed? We besides being witnesses in a murder case would have had to waste the whole day in a police station.
Judo champion as wife
Would you like a judo champion for your wife. Ginger would not. Now take the case of Emoto Euko. This twenty five year old lass has of course gone a long way in reaching the top in the sport she loves best. She got a gold at the Olympics. She has realized however that life is not all Judo.She has chosen her life's partner and has given Korean Kim Hyuk a purek out. He incidentally is the present men's international Judo champion. Emoto will move to Seoul. Though she will give up competitive Judo as such she will not give up the sport altogether as she will be hubby's training companion for the 2000 Olympics.
Shikar
Quite a few Persian words seem to have found their way into the vocabularies of the sub continent. Now take the word Shikar. It meant some person or animal who was a victim and it could have been an animal or human being targeted. The Indians mean an animal that is hunted when they use the word and a shikare is a hunter or a tracker.Normally the word was used when hunting tigers. The Maharajahs and the white Sahibs of colonial India used the word when they went out hunting. Of course though Maharajahs went hunting tigers they were never in danger as hundreds of people went with them to help drive the animal where the Maharajah would be waiting for it on a bambo perch built on a tree. It was a one sided affair right along.
This statement is issued by the seven organisations which protested to Parliament against the Church of Ceylon Bill No. 38 presented to Parliament as a Private Member's Bill. It is made with a view to make the Buddhist Public and others who wish to see good governance aware of the injustice perpetrated by the government party and the opposition on the Buddhists by seeing this flawed Bill passed without debate, on 12th June 1998.
The Church of Ceylon Bill was presented to Parliament on May 12, 1995 by Hon. D. P. Wickremesinghe MP. Being unaware at that time of the placing of this Bill on the Order Paper of Parliament, we were time barred from taking our objections to this Bill before the Supreme Court.
On 16 December 1996, we the 7 organisations subscribing to this statement, made representations against some of the provisions of this Bil1 to me Secretary General of Parliament. The main objections as contained in the above and in other representations to the relevant bodies and individuals are as follows.
1. The Bill empowers the Church to form any number of dioceses throughout the country and to appoint a Bishop to each diocese, each such Bishop being a body corporate.
2. The Bill empowers me 2 present Bishops of Colombo and Kurunegala to appoint a constituent assembly to draft and adopt a constitution for the Church. This future constitution, the contents of which are unknown to Parliament or to the Public, being empowered to be adopted by a Statute will have the force of law. It will have an undefined but very wide scope and will include all matters relating to the powers, practices, regulation and administration of the Church and all the dioceses. With a widely expanded role sought for the Church, valid grounds exist to expect the future constitution to have consequences which will be detrimental to the Buddha Sasana and the Buddhists.
3. The power granted by Parliament to the Church-to form a church constitution the scope of which is not prescribed in the Bill and which will have the effect of law without any form of judicial review, is a violation of Section 76 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka which says that Parliament has no power to set up any authority with legislative powers in circumstances such as in this case.
4. The indiscriminate setting up of dioceses with no rhyme or reason with Bishops who are bodies corporate and with power to exercise the provisions of a future church constitution and to execute the programmes as set out in the church constitution enacted under the law, will function, among other undesirable issues, as a legal lever for stepping up proselytising of persons of other faiths and give rise to serious religious disharmony and unrest within the community.
5. There is absolutely no good reason to seek the protection under a separate Act for the activities which the Church seeks to perform. To provide State patronage to the Church of Ceylon which has a congregation of less than 30,000 members in order to expand its activities and to blindly legalise their powers over unknown areas is an unequivocal violation of Article 9 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka which makes it mandatory for the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana. Surely the duty of the State to assure the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14 to all religions does not demand that the State must foster and promote any other religion by Statute, which is precisely what the State has done in this case.
On 4th June 1997 we were summoned to appear before the Standing Committee B of Parliament and clarify matters in regard to our representation to the Secretary General of Parliament. We then explained to the Committee our objections to the Bill and particularly about the wide powers to be given to the Church to expand their activities and to draft and adopt their own constitution. Excerpts from declarations made by various Christian sects of their designs to Christianize Sri Lanka in the near future and our experiences on the campaign of unethical activities conducted by cash rich Christian groups to convert Buddhists, were placed before the committee as additional justification of our concerns and objections to this Bill and to the hidden agenda in a future constitution, the scope of which was unspecified and unknown to Parliament.
Waiting to be interviewed on that date were groups of members of the Church of Ceylon who also had objected to the Bill. We were told by them that their main objection was to the cunning and illegal manner in which a provision to draft and adopt a new constitution for the Church by a constituent assembly of only 22 persons a majority of whom comprise the 2 present Bishops and their 10 nominees, was engineered through this Bill.
The existing Ordinances applicable to the Church of Ceylon requires a 2/3 majority of the whole (not of those present) of each of the Council of Clergy and the Council of Laity, to amend repeal or replace the constitution and these groups contended that this requirement had not been complied with.
As we have shown later on, this requirement had in fact not been met. This alone which meant the violation of the present constitution of the Church, was ground enough to reject this Bill but we later understood that the Standing Committee had not given an opportunity to these groups to be properly heard on their representation.
We were again summoned before the Standing Committee on the 18th June 1997. The meeting was short and the Chairman conveyed to us the Committee's decision to ask the Bishop of Colombo to prepare a constitution for the church before further action, and that the 'Bill will be frozen ' until the constitution is prepared. This was conveyed to us before a number of members of the Committee including the Hon. Lakshman Jayakody.
Again for the third time we were summoned before the Committee on the 21st October 1997. The notice summoning us stated that we were required to clarify matters referred to in our representations but as soon as our representatives presented themselves before the Committee, the Chairman informed us that the matter had been referred to the Attorney General who saw no objection to the Bill and that the Committee will recommend the Bill to the Speaker. The meeting ended abruptly and was called to a close with no opportunity given to us to speak.
We have to lodge our protest and strong displeasure at the manner in which the Standing Committee representing Parliament handled this affair. At first, they were convinced that the Bill cannot be proceeded with but later with no valid reason our objections were arbitrarily dismissed. In this instance the reference to the Attorney General had been made by an Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and a reply from an officer of the Department had been sent to him and not to Parliament or to the Standing Committee. In any event the Attorney General would have expressed an opinion on any inconsistency of the Bill with the Constitution of Sri Lanka and not on other matters in issue which was the duty of the Standing Committee to look into.
We reliably understand that Bishop Kenneth Fernando was asked by the Standing Committee to prepare a constitution but that he had flatly refused to do so. Thus the Standing Committee has wrongfully failed to insist upon a constitution being submitted to them before recommending the Bill..
The failure of the Standing committee B to act in accordance with the assurance given on the 18th June 1997 was brought to the attention of the Hon. Speaker by our letter dated 27th October 1997 and four of our representatives met the Hon. K. B. Ratnayake on 27th November 1997. He appreciated that we had a valid grievance and agreed to summon the parties concerned with a view to rectifying the situation before the Bill was sent from his office. However there were no further development until we learnt that the Bill was to be placed on the Order Paper of 5th May 1998 for its Third reading.
Following this information, some of our representatives met Hon. Lakshman Jayakody on 27th April 1998 and apprised him of the situation. At this meeting a firm assurance was given to us that he will hold back the Bill until it is presented with the church constitution.. We also met Hon. Anil Munasinghe, Deputy Speaker and informed him of the assurances the Speaker had given us. As a result of these representations the Bill was withdrawn from the Order paper of the 5 May 1998..
During this period, comments on the Bill appeared in the print media. For the first time the Registrar of the Colombo Diocese of the Church of Ceylon made a statement in the Island Newspaper of 10th May 1998 in defence of the Bill. He attempted to simplify the issue by stating that the new Bill sought to 'REPLACE' the Ordinance No. 6 of 1885 and specifically quoted Section 2 which says;
"From and after the time when this Ordinance shall come into operation, it shall be lawful for the Bishop, clergy and laity, being members of the Church of England in the Diocese of Colombo, to hold such synods assemblies or conventions in connection with their ecclesiastical affairs as to them shall deem fit, and to make and enforce regulations in connection therewith, which shall be binding on such persons as have either directly or indirectly assented thereto: Provided that nothing herein contain shall authorise the imposition of any rate or tax on any person or persons whomsoever, whether belonging to the said church or not, nor the infliction of any temporal punishment, fine or penalty upon any person .......................... or the making of any regulation contrary to the law of Sri Lanka.'
If one compares this Section with the new Bill he would not find the important features of this
Section reproduced in the new Bill.
The Registrar also states that the Bill will not be detrimental to other religious communities and that their fears have no foundation because the issues concerned are the same as that contained in their 1930 constitution to which there was no protest. While the lack of any protests at that time does not debar us from protesting now, if there is any sincerity in this statement, why keep the new constitution under wraps until the Bill is enacted or alternatively why does the Bill not state that the constitution shall be the 1930 constitution?.
Coming to another important point, the Registrar categorically states that the objection of not having
received the relevant 2/3 majority is false and totally incorrect. It is clear that the Registrar is either interpreting the related provision incorrectly or is trying to mislead the public as regard the true position. Section 8 of the Ordinance No. 6 reads; ' It shall be in the power of the synod, assembly, conventions or Council of the Diocese of Colombo and of the Diocese of Kurunegala, respectively to alter their constitution in any way, so, however, that no change be made except with the consent ofthe Bishop of Colombo or the Bishop of Kurunegala for the time being as the case may be, and also of two-thirds of the whole order of clergy, and two-thirds of the whole order of lay representatives as above described'. In the Diocese of Colombo the whole order of lay representatives is said to comprise l95 persons but as per the figures produced by the Registrar the number of lay persons voting for is 95 which is not even half of the whole order of lay representatives. In terms of these figures the provisions of the present constitution has not been met for a change in the constitution or for a future change by other means.
The above matters are being included in our statement to show that the relevant issues have been highlighted in the Media. Public opinion should have been taken into account before the Bill was passed.
Apart from the representations referred to above we have apprised the Hon. Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, Hon. Lakshman Jayakody and senior MPs both in the Government Party and in the Opposition on all the illegal and offensive aspects of the Bill. All of them held the view that the constitution must be drawn up before the Bill is passed and that other matters also needed careful consideration. We also made a written representation to Her Excellency Chandrika Bandaranaike on the 4th June l998.
After the withdrawal of the Bill from the Order Paper of 5th May 1998 pressures applied by interested persons have been successful in having the Bill included in quick succession on the order papers of 20th May, 10th June and 12th June 1998 and to have it passed on the last date.
During the entire period when the Bill was due for its Third Reading we were assured by the Hon. Lakshman Jayakody, the Minister in charge of the subject and also the Minister of Buddha Sasana on whom the entire responsibility lies to foster and protect the Buddha Sasana in terms of the Supreme Law of this country, that he will not have the Bill passed until it is presented with a constitution for the church. Notwithstanding these assurances and the representations we made to Her Excellency the President and other senior MPs, it is a matter of deep regret and 'grave concern to the entire Buddhist community that the government and the opposition who both saw a breach of Article 9 of the Sri Lanka Constitution, the other injustices involved and the inherent dangers of this Bill which empowers a constitution, the scope and content of which are not specified and which would have the force of law without any judicial review, were content to sit through the passage of this Bill on the 12th June 1998 without even a whimper. We have grounds to believe that the Hon. Minister of Cultural Affairs who had in no uncertain terms told us that the Church constitution must first be submitted, had been compelled to change his stance on this issue and allow the Bill to go through unopposed due to pressure brought to bear on the power that be by a few interested persons.
Judging from the events that have taken place we are compelled to conclude that this is a clear instance where the Buddhists have been denied even their right to a fair hearing and where the State has bartered the protection afforded to the Buddha Sasana by the Supreme Law of the Country in order to satisfy the demands of a handful of schemers. This is another significant milestone in the long list of recent events where the minority has been in the powerful position of winning their demands at the expense of the legitimate rights of the majority.
President, All Ceylon Buddhist Congress
President, Young Men's Buddhist Assn.
President, World Fellowship of Buddhist (SL)
President, All Ceylon Women's Buddhist Congress
President, Sinhala Arakshaka Sanvidanaya
President, SUCCESS Colombo
President, Dharmavijaya Foundation
I wrote a letter to the Daily News. I wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue appealing eye im-plants to be exempted from GST. He replied by his letter dated 12-08-98 stating that .... 'eye implants are liable to GST.' Subsequently, I forwarded copies of both letters which ap-peared in the Daily News to the Deputy Commissioner (GST), specially in view of Mr. Bala-chandran's advice to me in his letter ... 'Therefore, I suggest that Mr. Fernando makes an appeal direct to the Com-missioner General of Inland Revenue requesting for appropriate relief.' In reply to this letter the Deputy Com-missioner (GST) sent me a letter dated 16-09-98 statingÉÉ 'Accordingly GST will not be charged on importation of eye implants after 1.9.98. It is regretted that GST paid on purchases prior to 1.9.98 cannot be refunded.'
Thereafter, I wrote to the Secretary, Ministry of Finance & Planning with copy to the Hon. Minister of Finance & Planning on 21-09-98 enclosing copies of letters which ap-peared in the Daily News. I received a reply dated 25-09-98 from the Deputy Director, Fiscal Policy & Economic Affairs stating that eye implants have been exempted from GST w.e.f. 01-09-98 and that there is no provision in the GST Act to refund tax already paid.
Your readers will observe that I have very rightly pointed out that eye implants should be exempted from GST which was supported by Mr. Balachandran of the National Chamber of Commerce. I am indeed extremely happy that I have been able to get the authorities concerned to include eye implants in their list of exemptions from GST w.e.f. 01-09-98 which would indeed benefit those who purchase eye im-plants after 01-09-98, even though I had to make a sacrifice of Rs.1725/- by paying GST on the two eye implants I purchased in June and July, 1998. Can any reader explain to me the logic behind the non-refunding of GST when there has been a glaring omission on the part of the authorities conerned in, not including eye implants in the list of exemptions.
L. A. AFernando
Dehiwela.
Discrimination in compensation to victims
I am prompted to write this letter, after a careful study of a full page Government Notice, published in the Daily News of 7.9.98, by the Secretary of the Ministry of Port Development, Rehabilitation and Reconstruc-tion under the heading, 'Rehabilitation assistance in respect of damaged properties and persons, who died or sustained injuries due to political violence,during pre-election, elcetion and post-election periods.
The notice statess that, 'The Govern-ment has decided to implement a scheme of compensation for deaths, injuries and damages caused to properties due to political victimisation during pre-election, election and post-election period of Presidential, Parlia-mentary, Provincial Council and Local Government Elec-tions held during the period 1977 General Election to 1994 Presidential Election and the Referendum held in 1982'.
Two specimen forms are published one for property damage and the other for persons injured or killed. There are two notes in the specimen,both of which qualify the period as follows:
"Only persons whose properties have been damaged/ destroyed during the elections held from 1977 to 1994 and the referendum held in 1982, within the period from the date of nomination to 30 days after the election, are eligible to apply'. The second note is in respect of persons injured or killed and also has the same qualifying period as per underlined above.
The requirements in the specimen form are, inter alia, assessment of the premises, damage caused, separately assessed value to walls, doors, windows, furniture, date of purchase, estimated value at the time of damage and also a certified copy of the Police entry.
There are some pertinent questions that arise:
(a) What is the definition of political violence?
(b) Does it include the violence unleased for e.g. in l977, covering the period 13.8.77 to 15.9.77, in respect of which a Presidential Com-mission of Inquiry sat - Sansoni Commis-sion, Sessional paper VII of 1980- and 1983.
I was a victim of the the violence unleased in 1977. My entire belongings were looted, house severely damaged, all documents damaged and in thorough disarray.
All that I was left with were the clothes I was wearing.
I do not have a party label nor am I a member of a political party. At the time I was a public servant working in the Kandy Municipal Council.
According to the records I possess, I have lodged a complaint at the Kandy Police Station on 23.8.1977 and it has been recorded by 'P.O.Gunapala 3378 - I.B -Complaints from outsiders'. Whether I can get a certified copy after 21 years, remains a big question mark. In any event will it be worth my having to go through all this trouble, if finally I am told I am not a victim of political violence.
(c) What is the logic or basis of restricting the eligibility to 30 days after the election? How can lawlessness and hooliganism be expecteted be limited only to 30 days.
I shall again refer to the period covered by the 'Sansoni' Commission 13.8.77 to 15.9.77. The election held immediately before these incidents was the General Election on 22.7.77. 30 days from 22.7.77 will end on 21.8.77, then what happens to the victims from 22.8.77 to 15.9.77.
My humble appeal to the government is this. Please do not give false hopes and add insult to injury.
Also at a time when every effort is being made to forge unity, communal harmong, please do not discriminate against the victims of ethnic violence, on the grounds that it was not potitical violence.
In recommending full compensation to the extent of damage suffered, the Sansoni Commission made pointed reference to Professor L Harold de Wolf's,' Crime and Justice in America' (1975)page 195, which reads
"There should be framed as part of the effort to do justice,when a crime has occurred as a symptom of social disunity and a further disruption of the social order. If we are to regard justice after a crime as social restoration, victims should be compensated. When a community has been wounded by a crime, the community has not been made whole while its living members who have most grievously suffered for the crime are uncompensated'
I trust the issues raised by me will be publicly clarified to help all concerned.
S.Thambyraja
Colombo
Dehiwela-Mt. Lavinia clean city sans garbage
I was very amused to read the news para 'Dehiwela-Mt. Lavina to be model cities (sic)' in the press recently.
There is a huge garbage dump outside my front wall, bordering Dutugemnunu Street. Garbage from this dump spreads right along the wall, across my gate and even spills over inside my gate and on to the drive way.
On April 2, 1998, I wrote under registered post to the Municipal Com-missioner seeking relief. On June 15, I wrote to the Mayor, along with a copy of my letter of April 2, and sought his assistance in getting relief. On September 9, I wrote under registered cover, to His Worship the ''Mayor inviting attention to this intolerable state of affairs.
I have not had even the courtesy of an acknowledgement! Needless to say, the garbage dump continues to flourish!
G. H. Wadinambiaratchi
Dehiwela
Child combatants of the LTTE and Cat's Eye
Cat's Eye has the knack for putting his or her tail in the mouth. But what puzzles me is why the author of that column is displaying so glaring a bias towards the LTTE. For example in that column on Oct. 07, the government had been faulted for showing those child combatants of the LTTE who had surrendered to the troops during the Mankulam battle.
Why does Cat's Eye think that these children should not have been 'paraded' on TV? Why has this parading hurt the Cat's Eye so much?
Being a father myself and a person opposed to the on-going brutal war, let me make it clear to the Cat's Eye that the International Children's Day was the best day for these children to be shown to the world.
That was the only way of telling the world that is funding the LTTE that funding it was to ruin the future of the Tamil community, as you had ccmmented in one of your editorials.
No doubt this war must be ended as soon as possible. But that cannot be done only by pressurising the government to be amenable. The LTTE must also be made to make some sort of compromise.
This is where the likes of Cat's Eye have failed. What is Cat's Eye doing to bring pressure upon the LTTE to lay down arms? I await an answe from that worthy person penning that well written column.
Let me also point out that the Cat's Eye had also made a vain attempt to picture a different picture of the loss that the army suffered in the north. The columnist was silent on what had befallen the LTTE. Why was this?
Where is the balance that the columnist want the media to strike in reporting on the war? I think this columnist must set the example himself/herself.
May I tell your columnist that some people can be fooled all the time and all the people some time, but not all the people all the time.
The world has been fooled by the likes of Cat's Eye for some time. But the international community is beginning the things that are happening in Sri Lanka for themselves.
I don't see any difference between these LTTE child combatants and my children (there are five of them). My position is that these children had been brainwashed and trained to hate a particular community (Cat's Eye knows which) and were on a mission to kill the troops.
Therefore, I think the government has been more than fair by these kids in spite of their intent and mission.
Showing them to the world is the only way to expose the LTTE, which I think is far from being just a militant group fighting for a cause.
The columnist had also accused the governmet of using children in the war. If he/she has any evidence to prove this, let it be made public so that the world can bring pressure on the Sri Lanka government too, to decomission those children if there are any and to allow them to live their lives.
Holding a brief for sessionist forces is not the solution to the war.I agree with the columinst that this internicine war must be brought to an end soon. But what she proposes is certainly not the way to do it.
Sagara Wijetunge
Moratuwa
On the evening of 24th September, 98, I witnessed the Prize-Day function at the Good Shepherd Convent Kotahena where Prof. Luxman Jayatilleke, Chairman National Education Commission, was the Chief Guest.
Prof. Jayatilleke delivered a speech which was very useful to the students, parents and teachers and the school. The Report of the Principal, Sister Lynette Perera, gave the many activities of the school and its achievements.
In the field of sports, the school had achieved something to be proud of. Students from the school had been selected to represent the Sri Lankan schools abroad and some had even been captains of the teams. In education too the school had done quite well.
All these were possible, no doubt, due to the dedicated services of the Principal and the teachers, the support from the education department and above all from the parents and well-wishers of the school, especially the past pupils.
The number of teachers, according to the Report of the Principal, is 120, of which 44 are graduates. The salaries of the teachers, office staff and others, the the maintenance of the large buildings and compound and the expenses for the extra curricular activities would, I think, need a staggering amount.
There is a limit to the support the government could give to the schools. It is the parents of the students and the past pupils who should see that the schools are able to give the best education possible to the children of the country.
About twelve years ago I had been indirectly responsible for a donation for a Challenge Cup in one of the subjects. I was very happy to see that the Challenge Cup was still being awarded and the recipients over the years getting encouragement as a result.
If we want to raise the standard of our country, it is the standard of the schools that should be raised first.
Arul,
Colombo 13
During my stay in Sri Lanka, an amazing phenomenon was noticed. It is the mixing up of Urdu with Hindi by the Sri Lankans. It's mainly because the production line of Indian art and culture is largely in the Urdu language. But having no acquaintance with the Oriental languages, people term Urdu straight way as Hindi. It became most amazing when Radio Sri Lanka in programme 'Sirasa F.M.' also called Urdu songs from India as Hindi top 20 songs. It's great blunder to overlap two major languages of the South Asia.
Urdu and Hindi are two distinct languages but are very similar to each other in speech. Urdu and Hindi arose from the same or very similar colloquial bases. Nevertheless both are written in two different scripts, Hindi in 'Devanagri' and Urdu in 'Arabic' script. Urdu is a modern language, few centuries old, where as Hindi is an ancient language with strong influence of Sanskirt. Both the languages are from same Indo Aryan family of languages.
During the great 'Mughals' rule in the subcontinent, a new language was developing to serve the purpose of a link language. It was a pragmatic blend of Arabic, Persian, Hindi and other Indian languages mainly for the convenience of troops coming from remote corners of the sub-continent. This language functioned better and reduced the barrier of linguistic estrangement. It was called 'Braj Bhasa' during 15th to 17th centuries. It is a dialect of Hindi. It was further revised in the course of time and finally named 'Urdu', a turkish word meaning 'language of troops'. It was termed to highlight its function as a link language. Urdu justified its function and even now it is a major link language of the sub-continent. Other languages had influenced Urdu variously including Turkish, Pashto, Punjabi, English et al.
Influence
Urdu has Arabic script because of the dominant influence of Arabic and Persian languages. Persian seem to have influenced Urdu more as it was the official language in the sub-continent for a long time up to 1857. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and also is widely spoken throughout India. Although Hindi is the official language of India, Urdu serves a link language in a multicultural and multilingual India. This is the reason for Bollywood's production being largely in Urdu to enhance their utility. Urdu for its common features with local languages of Indo-Pakistan region is conveniently utilized. Secondly Urdu has great tendency to absorb words from local and international languages. Urdu has a simple structure, easy word forms and grammar. This fact is responsible for the wider use of Urdu in the subcontinent, which is densely populated, rich in civilizations and with a plethora of languages.South Asia has been a cradle of many ancient civilizations and religions. In modern times, people of South Asia are becoming more aware of a regional identity. Therefore this region is more prone to a link language. Both Hindi and Urdu are on the 'Top 20' languages of the world.
Urdu unlike other languages, is not a languages of any religion, race or geographical area. Pakistan had to opt for Urdu as a national language because it had 14 local languages in the different parts of the country. Therefore Urdu is void of any conventional linguistic bias. It has the potential to bring the region to linguistic unity, as Spanish is in South America and Russian in Central Asia.
Hindi and Urdu despite their similarity in speech and grammar are two different languages. It'll be a blunder to mix up them with each other. For South Asians particularly, this knowledge is essential so as to be better informed about the linguistic scenario. It seems to be incredible when the state-owned Radio Sri Lanka too, is not aware of this fact and frequently commits this blunder. The BBC has two separate transmission on radio for Urdu and Hindi.
Shahid Abrar Awan,
Lecturer (English)
South Eastern University of Sri Lanka
Oluvil
Appreciation
Mr. P. KaralasinghamThe late Mr. Karalasingham, an Hons. Science Graduate, an Attorney-at-Law and Tax Consultant of internat-ional repute and, above all a warm, congenial and lovable soul, has stunned his friends, as his dear family itself, by his lightening departure, virtually in the prime of his life.
Hailing from Suthumalai, a typically traditional Jaffna village, went to school at Jaffna Hindu College, the premier Hindu educational institution founded by the savant social reformer Arumuga Navalar as the repository of the Jaffna Tamil Saivita culture and values. His village and his school shaped him and nurtured him as a fruit of the traditional Jaffna values. To the last he remained a Jaffna man, through and through. On a personal note, I am happy about the fact that he studied at the school where I myself was a resident student for years, years earlier. To Karalasingham his Alma Mater, the Jaffna Hindu College, was always dear to his heart. Unto his last day he was a very concerned and active member of the Jaffna Hindu College Old Boys Association, Colombo.
Karalasingham was a very warm hearted man with a heart full of benign and benevolent feelings for others. Each and every person who knew him loved him. That is because of his benign heart. He loved the world, and consequently found the world, a loveable place to live in. Wherever he was, there was mirth and laughter. His spontaneous and ringing laughter generated similar happiness in the hearts of those around. Not stopping with mirth and laughter, Karalas-ingham never lost an opportunity to be of assistance to others. These qualities of his endeared him to anybody and everybody who came to know him.
Besides all these qualities, Mr.Kara-lasingham, true to his Jaffna traditions, was a studious man. Those who were at school during his years there knew him as a very studious and diligent student. He carried these qualities of studiousness and diligence right through his life, to his work. Whatever he did was done with meticulous care and devotion.
Many people have extolled, and still will extol, Karalasingham's intellectual prowess and achievements as a tax consultant and tax lawyer of international renown. Magnificent as these are, what appealed to me most were his human qualities, a couple of which I have here touched on.
Karalasingham was a loving, caring and considerate husband and father. To his children he was a friend and companion. He enjoyed a very happy and fulfilling family life. And for that reason his wife and sons will certainly find this bereavement intole-rable. I join them in the sorrow. We will all cherish the sweet happy memories he has left with us.
S. Sharvananda
Former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka and Former Governor, Western Province
