Morning
Spice by Ginger
Battle against sex crime
It was reported that the
women’s NGO’s forum would take to the
streets to protest against the murder of Rita
John, Manoharan. "For what? I wonder. The
poor lady was already dead and all the
demonstrations in the world were not going to
bring her back to life. Instinct tells me that
none of the ladies in that august gathering were
in immediate danger of a similar threat as such
dastardly crimes don’t occur very frequently
mercifully.
But the unpleasant fact is that
it could become common occurrence if no action is
taken with real resolve. Now trying to insulate
one sex from crime with the help of all and
showing little concern for the other sex is not
likely to draw as much public sympathy as it
would if it is against all forms of grave crime.
It must be remembered that it is generally an
aberration in the mind set of a country that
leads to a branching out of criminal activity in
different directions. It is the growing
disposition to commit crime in general that must
be addressed not just one aspect of crime. In
other wards we must urge the powers that be to
put up a sustained and intensive battle against
crime. They could make a token declaration of war
by cutting down the security strength of all
politicians without exception by 50%.
Board of selectors
I just read I think in The
Island that the Board of Selectors would be
influenced to a great deal in picking the final
fourteen of our cricket squad on how they fared
in the match between Mahanama’s team and
Hashan’s team. I wonder whether that would
be wise in terms of getting the best talent
possible. After all one cannot going on just one
solitary match decide on the form of players
leaving on a long tour. Technically of course the
Board would be covered as the figures would
provide the answer but the board was not calling
for tenders for the supply of cricket materials
but looking for men who could play the best
cricket in the conditions they were likely to
encounter on the tour. A single match would not
provide the answer to that question.
Fat guys and diabetes
Its Hobsons choice for fat guys
like Ginger who have diabetes. If you don’t
treat it you would hand in your dinner-pail. On
the other hand if you are obese and you give
yourself a few shots of insulin and you could be
heading for trouble for other reasons. This at
least is a recent discovery made as a result of a
study made on the disease.
It was established for a long
time that type of diabetes increase your chances
of a heart attack. The latest however is that
those who put on weight during insulin therapy
experienced a sharp rise in blood pressure and
even cholesterol levels on the other hand those
whose weight did not rise during their course of
these injections did not have the same problem.
Elections? Then give us these
assurances
It appears that another
election is around the corner. However, this I
suppose depends on the number of flags that our
General could hoist along A9. Anyway, having said
that, the main contenders continue to be the
present PA and the UNP. Now should there be a
presidential election, what would Madam President
have to say? After all, didn’t she promise
to abolish the presidential system way back in
July, 1995. So it is then a question of promises
are meant to be broken.
Now on the question of promises
it must be emphasized that the people of this
country are just fed up with the promises dished
out and the mood and attitude is far from what it
had been. Our needs and our problems are much
talked about in parliament and elsewhere by the
party in opposition. Come into power and all is
forgotten leaving us voters bewildered at the
over night physical and mental swollen headedness
of our representatives. So it is time, that the
voters should be able to challenge in a court of
law promises in a manifesto, which are not
implemented within 2 years of assuming office or
coming into power. In this way there will be some
meaning to a "Manifesto".
Now, what would the people in
different walks of life want?
These are some of the immediate
wants that has come to mind.
1. Bring down the cost of
living
2. Bring down the cost of
drugs, cement and fertilizer
3. Bread to be sold at around
Rs. 5/= per loaf (irrespective what the World
Bank would say)
4. Abolish GST on Electricity
and telephone bills in respect of residences.
5. A more restrained policy on
imports where our farmers and industrialists will
be protected.
6. Ban the import of luxury
vehicles.
7. Ensure that any vehicle over
Rs. 1.5 million sold is subject to a tax
clearance.
8. Increase the tax free
allowance to Rs. 250,000/= per individual.
9. Re-introduction of the death
penalty.
10. overnight steps to be taken
to halt corruption in the purchase of arms and
ammunition.
11. Appointment of an
independent Police Commission and a permanent
Supreme Bribery Commission, with one Rtd. Supreme
Court judge being nominated by the ruling party
and two by the opposition.
12. Ensure that no one is above
the law.
13. Ensure that the general
public are not inconvenienced in any way by
closing of roads etc.,
14. Security allocated to all
and sundry is minimised on the understanding that
the risks involved in the game of politics is
only a occupational hazard.
15. Instruct the people’s
representatives to do away with pomp and
pajentry.
16. Drop the price of liquor
— particularly the cheap brands. The
turnover will cover any losses and will also hit
the kasippu trade and the earnings of some
policemen and politicians.
17. Drop the price of petrol,
diesel and k’oil in keeping with the world
market. No Govt.., has ever done this even for a
short spell like the loaf of bread which sold at
Rs. 3/50.
Are we asking for too much?
Certainly not. Cut down on waste, corruption and
the self-glorifying tamashas now.
Voter
Nawala.
‘Plenty
of gas-no cylinders’
I refer to the article of the
22nd September with the above heading and write
as follows:
Mrs. Sabar of Moratuwa has got
her wires crossed, as she is reporting an
incident heard from a friend, but I as an irate
customer went personally to Shell Gas to get a
cylinder. I too went in circles from dealer to
dealer, when finally a good dealer told me to
register at Shell Gas, as it will take time for
them to be able to issue cylinders freely.
I myself was annoyed by this,
as goods were not freely available when we want
to purchase and more over an essential commodity,
in a country that has an open economy.
When I went to Shell Gas I was
told the same story Mrs. Sabar writes about the
delay. So I requested that I see an officer
regarding this matter and was encountered by the
Customer Service Manager, who is a lady, who
waived me to sit as she was on the phone and her
explanations to customers on the phone gave me
the exact picture as she was explaining the
situation. Here I realized that it was not a
cylinder problem but a supply problem that Shell
Gas encounter.
Subsequently I was explained
that the present users of gas are of paramount
importance and they try hard to see that the
present users are well supplied without any
shortage and hence the issue of new cylinders are
limited. She went at length to say around
4000-5000 new cylinders are issued a month and
these issues too becomes customers and Shell Gas
is obliged to look after the requirement of gas,
for refills on every cylinder they issue. She
says this is due to the monopoly. Obviously
plenty of gas-no cylinders. According to what was
explained to me there was no shipment involved as
she said we can import enough cylinders but the
gas has to be issued systematically not
jeopardizing the present users.
Like Mrs. Sabar I too mentioned
to her about the monopoly situation, she frowned
but smilingly said that the monopoly will be over
one day and they are getting ready for
competition and with the operation of the
terminal which is now under construction, there
will be enough and more. This explains in
‘The Island’ of 23rd September 1998.
However, I got my cylinder on
registration within a month and a half. I wonder
whether Australia has this same problem, as I was
told by some friends who were here recently that
at the moment they are facing an acute shortage
of gas and they are now running in for more
electricity, which is quite expensive. I hope it
will not happen to us.
Shell Gas, please look into
this in advance.
Mrs. B.
Mallawaarachchi,
Walpola
More policemen alone won’t
do!
The DIG, Crimes and Criminal
Intelligence as reported in ‘The
Island’ of the 17th had stated that the
Police Dept., requires an additional 10,000 cops
to check the rising crime and the funds needed
could be raised by a new tax. I would have
saluted the DIG had he said that the funds needed
could be raised by taxing the public servants
including police hierarchy who are a non-tax
paying class of citizens instead of an additional
tax on those already paying. Therefore, it is
unpardonable for the DIG while not paying any tax
to promote an additional burden on us tax paying
citizens.
Mr. DIG we have every right to
be concerned about the rising wave of crime as we
contribute towards the maintenance of the police
dept. with all those sleek cars being used by top
cops. We feel that it is not additional cadres
but the approach and attitude of your men
attached to the various police stations that
matter.
The latest revelations over the
weekend is damning indeed where the police is
concerned. It would appear that the chief suspect
in the recent rape/murder had been taken into
custody and released as much as 15 times prior to
this incident. Is it then a case of lack of
personnel or a question of carrying out the
instructions of the businessmen who apparently,
like in many cases have some top and low rung
cops in their pockets.
It had not been, that the
latest rape and murder victim was the
daughter-in-law of a senior police officer (RTD)
and perhaps a foreigner no headway would have
been made in that case.
Mr. DIG it is high time that
these colonial preinformed inspections of police
stations by gazetted officers are called off,
when the station, vehicles etc., are all spruced
up. Visit the stations during day and night on
the basis of surprise visits. Again, have the
OICs of police stations taken the trouble to
acquaint themselves with the residents in and
around stations? (essential for security
reasons).
Many visitors have noted that
the police personnel attached to stations are
unaware of those living virtually under their
very nose. A classic case was when a visitor
enquired sometime back from the Mirihana police
the whereabouts of a retired IGP living not far
from the station. The answer was, "We
don’t know".
Therefore, before anything
else, it is absolutely essential that the police
dept., regain the respect and the confidence of
the general public which has slumped to zero
level.
Tax payer,
Nawala.
Capitalism stands victorious
over socialism
In Edition of The Island your
Editorial "An alternative to
capitalism?" (Island 8.10.98) very lucidly
and dispassionately drove home the now unarguable
point that at the tail end of the 20th century
capitalism has emerged as the victor standing
over the carcass of socialism (in all its forms).
I find it quite incredible that
several years after the humiliating collapse of
the socialist-communist world some apparently
intelligent, educated persons still try and
promote socialism as a viable economic model for
the world in general and the third world in
particular.
The fall of the iron curtain
and the vanishing act of the various Asian
"bamboo curtains" revealed the full
horror of what "socialist
egalitarianism," meant to the populations of
these Totatilitarian systems.
Man made famines, mass murder,
serial torture, concentration camps, mass brain
washing all rivaled and in some instances over
took Hitler’s gory record.
Before the first world war
Russia was the worlds largest exporter of grain.
After the Communist take over
the soviet union became (till the very end) the
worlds largest importer of grain.
If socialism in it’s most
extreme formfailed to work in the Soviet Union, a
vast country of immense natural resources and
with colonies in Eastern Europe and central Asia
along with client states in Latin America,
Africa, and Asia, how then can it be expected to
develop the under developed nations of the third
world?
Post Mao Communist China was
stunned by the capitalist miracles of Hong Kong,
Singapore and Taiwan and became the first
communist nation to take the "capitalist
road" in the late 1970’s. The
leadership covered up it’s
"heresy" by coming up with the inspired
slogan "it does not matter if the cat is
black or white as long as it catches mice!".
The experiment went so well
that the great Deng proclaimed to the
increasingly prosperous Chinese people that
"it is glorious to be rich!".
Today with the exception of
Hermit north Korea and (to a certain extent)
Castros embattled Cuba, all the Surviving
communist dictatorships have invited the once
reviled "rapacious western robber
barons" and are busily privatising their
remaining assets.
It is an amusing irony that
today western investors seem to prefer communist
ruled nations because when it comes to keeping
the working classes in line the champions of the
proletariat are proving to be the most ruthless!
When Fidel Castro shot his way
into power (on a promise of restoring democracy!)
he nationalised all foreign properties and vowed
that the "Western capitalist vampires"
would never be allowed in again.
He rounded up all the
prostitutes and sent them to work in the sugar
cane plantation claiming that prostitution was
the product of the "evil capitalist
system" and socialist Cuba would never see
it again.
After the demise of his Soviet
"sugar daddy" (whose massive economic
and military aid made the so called Cuban
"Miracle" possible) this aged
revolutionary has cut a sorry figure peevishly
protesting that his oppressed nations severe
shortages and economic stagnation were all due to
the wicked US governments trade and investment
ban preventing American and Western
"capitalist vampires" from coming to
Cuba and "Exploiting" his workers!
A recent BBC programme showed a
mob of young women trying to solicit western
tourist outside a Cuban government owned hotel.
The security guards and police were turning a
blind eye.
It turned out that the girls
were not full time prostitutes but young working
class women trying to "earn" some US
dollars so that they could buy foods, soap, shoes
and clothes etc. from special US dollar only,
state owned "luxury shops.
It seems that in order to cling
onto power the Cuban communists are prepared to
see the country reverting to being (Castro’s
phrase!) the "brothel of the
Caribbean". Disgusting!
To those leftists who gloat
over the current economic crisis in the east
Asian "Tigers" I would like to point
out the sharp differences between the living
standards of the communist north and the
democratic capitalist south.
The vast majority of the North
Korean people are living close to starvation
level.
This is despite the fact that
the North has more land and less people than the
South. The dictatorship alternates between
begging the international community and
threatening it by missile firing and nuclear
bluster.
Of course the leadership and
the vast armed forces that protect it are very
well fed.
There also seems to be still
enough cash to stage lavish displays praising the
"great (now dead) leader", and his son
the ‘great junior leader’ (the
communist world’s first royal family).
We in Sri Lanka have learnt to
our bitter cost how foolish it was to trust the
false hopes that socialism promised.
The triumph of the left wing
nationalist and their economic foreign and
ethno-religious policies from the late
1950’s onward’s derailed the very good
prospects of one of post colonial Asias
"best bets".
One hopes that now that both
the PA and the UNP have adopted free market
economics and turned their back on socialism Sri
Lanka will have a second chance.
I appeal to people like Dr.
Mervyn de Silva who profess to want to
eliminating poverty in the third world, to devote
their energies and skills to helping the splendid
work carried out by NGO charities like Sarvodaya,
Save the Children, the red cross and HelpAge etc.
This will result in some real
inroads being made into poverty, unlike the
futile attempts to revive and pay pooja to a dead
ideology.
‘Homo Sapiens" is an
individualist and cannot be expected to emulate
ant, termite and other insect colonies who are
the only species who can be expected to,
‘make socialism work‘.
S. L. David.
Let’s remember Rita John
Manoharan
The statistics have revealed
that in the last few years number of rape cases
in Sri Lanka in 1995 were 542, with 716 cases in
1996 and 900 cases in 1997, and the way rape
cases are reported by the end of 1998 the figure
may be alarmingly higher than last year. Eleven
years ago in 1987 the figure was 42 cases. These
figures which are only reported to the police,
many of the rape victims suffer silently and they
feel it will be a stigma to their families and to
the society, also fear of repercussion from the
thugs, if they are reported to the relevant
authorities, and further harassment in an open
Court of Law for the raped victim, it would be
like a man fallen from the tree, been gored by a
bull.
After the rape and murder of
the young bride who was on honeymoon in Sri Lanka
at the Modera beach rape killing of an innocent
Indian national, much publicity has been given in
the print and electronic media, perhaps in the
next couple of months this grave crime would have
been forgotten by all.
We, Sri Lankans should be
ashamed of ourselves, and we too are responsible
for the alarming rise of sexual crimes and
murder, we only talk, but fail to take meaningful
action and bring awareness to the Government and
the people of the seriousness of sexual
harassment of wives, sisters and mothers.
It is sad, but true that the
gang leader of killing Rita John was nabbed 15
times for rape and robbery offences, but was
released through the intervention of a
businessman, unfortunately today in Sri Lanka the
politicians and people of high influence pressure
the police to release criminals, and these
criminals thereby take the Law into their hands,
they know they will be released soon and go scot
free. It would appear the Police the Custodian of
Law and Order in the country are just onlookers
as to what is happening and rightly many people
speak openly today that the country has gone to
the dogs, as no discipline at all levels.
It is time the people and the
womens organizations raise their voices
collectively and agitate for the reimposition of
the death penalty or whipping in public, as a
deterrent for rape, murder and other sexual
serious crimes, and continue picketing and other
ways of peaceful protest, and make safe for the
women to walk freely during the day or night.
With the Armed forces and the
police are greatly involved in the battlefront in
the North and East and other areas maintaining
security round the clock. The time has come as
the late president J. R. Jayewardene once
mentioned the people have to protect themselves.
It would be a good idea if
leading citizens organised themselves to form
Vigilant Societies in every Grama Niladaris
Division or Neighbourhood Watch. This of course
should be under the leadership of an Incumbent of
a Temple, Parish priest and leaders of other
religious organisations the Committee should
include a representative of the local police
station, a school principal, youth movements as
the YMCA, YMBA, YMMA and YMHA. Those selected to
this Committee should be persons who believe in
an old saying "To thine ownself be
true". Politicians should not be appointed
to this committee.
Now that the Colombo Municipal
Council, his Worship the Mayor Karu Jayasuriya
has started to clean up Crows’ Island
"Waters meet" providing electricity,
park benches, and a police post, so that citizens
of Modera could be free to breathe fresh air, and
as an act of gratitude to the memory of Rita
Jones, that this park be named "Rita John
Manoharan park" she did not die in vain of
the gruesome murder, so that others may be free
to walk in the beach, and let not this type of
crime happen again.
F. A.
Rodrigo-Sathianathen,
Kelaniya
Look at the ethnic conflict
dispassionately
I want to thank your esteemed
journal for publishing significant excerpts from
Rohan Gunaratna’s superb analysis of Sri
Lanka’s current military conflict.
He is obviously better informed
than most (if not all) of our military and
political leaders about the LTTE and its
strengths and weaknesses. He has bluntly stated
that the Sri Lankan Tamils do have legitimate
grievances and that our nation’s crisis is
too complex to be solved by purely military means
or by purely pacifist political methods.
He does not have any naive
illusions about the LTTE’s duplicity when it
comes to its ruthless and fanatical desire for a
separate Tamil Eelam whatever its apologists
abroad may say about ‘just
alternatives’ etc.
However, he very accurately
points out that in spite of the fact that the
majority of Sri Lankan Tamils realise that
separation is unrealistic and Prabhakaran’s
dictatorship is even less pleasant than military
rules, they are reluctant to support any move
that would help the security forces crush the
military power of the Tigers.
They strongly feel that without
the pressure of the LTTE’s war machine the
Sinhala Buddhist hegemony will once again move
towards colonisation, standardisation along
ethnic lines, language chauvinism etc.
The Tamil people are well aware
of the harsh views expressed by hardline elements
of the "Jathika Chintanaya" believers,
the "Sinhala Buddhist" clergy and some
political leaders of the majority ethno-religious
community.
They watch and read
translations of articles speeches, TV and radio
programmes which portray them as a once
"British pampered" minority who resent
the fact that post-independence governments gave
the "true sons of the soil" and their
faith the pivotal role in national life.
This sort of false and unfair
Tamil and minority baiting is one of the most
potent sources of propaganda for the LTTE’s
spokespersons, writers and fund raisers.
Contrary to popular belief in
the south, the average Tamil is well aware of the
non-racial, anti-castist and compassionate,
tolerant, teachings of Buddhism. Hence their
bitter anger when the post-1956 era saw violence,
insults, discrimination and oppression against
the minorities being initiated and justified in
the name of this first great missionary faith.
I strongly urge Dr. Nalin de
Silva, the Ven. Sobitha and others of their ilk
who deny that the Tamils have any true grievances
and insist on a military victory over the Tigers
as the only solution, to very carefully read Mr.
Rohana Gunesekera’s seminal and ground
breaking book "Sri Lanka’s Ethnic
Crisis and National Integrity."
Sri Lanka’s economic
resources are limited.
It will show them how wrong
their understanding of the current conflict is.
Sri Lanka is a small country
heavily depend ing on Western aid cum investment.
Our resources to finance the war effort is
strictly limited.
Without a good political
solution being offered to their democratic
leadership, any offensive against the LTTE will
be seen by the Sri Lankan Tamils here and abroad
as a brutal attempt at a ‘Final Solution.
They will provide the Tigers
with enough financial support to ensure a never
ending guerilla and terrorist war.
While Eelam is unrealistic
given the military, geo-political and economic
realities, a prolonged war of human and economic
attrition that will almost completely erode the
economic sovereignty of Sri Lanka’s a very
real possibility.
Surely this cannot be what the
hardline Sinhala Buddhist want?
As they never tire of pointing
out this is the only nation they can call their
own.
Even if the Sri Lankan Tamils
are fought to an exhausted standstill years from
now, will the price of economic ruin be worth it?
It not for the unjust (and
un-Buddhist) treatment meted out to the Tamils,
it is quite possible that the Sinhalese would
have peacefully absorbed and assimilated them
within a century or two.
Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism
has been reactive and defensive in nature.
An Anti-Separatist and
Patriotic
Sri Lankan Tamil,
Colombo
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