Relaxing on my favourite easy chair one day, I let my thoughts to compare how Sri Lanka was about fifty years ago and how it is today. My thoughts did not centre on serious stuff like politics, the economy or how technically advanced the country was, etc. My thoughts merely entered on simple things like how in those days not only I but how every Sri Lankan freely went about travelling to any part of this beautiful land and enjoyed it as and when one wished. How we went on prilgrimages to different parts of the land, how we went to late night movies and walked the streets without any fear. Lived without any fear, walked the beaches without any fear. In those days no one gave much thought to politics and that kind of stuff and how everyone planned their future as everyone saw a future for him or her.

The more I think about all these the more I feel sad and bitter inside me.

In the early years of this land the people here had wonderfully high hopes for this country. After getting our independence the administrators too, like the people must have had great expectations to make this land 'flowing with milk and honey'. Hopes of making the people a contended lot, a happy and prosperous lot, free from want, fear, to eliminate poverty and give shelter to everyone and so forth.

But today, I need not recite the list of anxieties, racial, religious, political strife, powerty, decay, crime, hunger, and so on and on.

I cannot help but quote from the Bible a quotation which I think is very appropriate: "Thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness". I feel occasionally that for us today it is that kind of noonday.

It is easy to identify the problems we face in this country today; the search for an enduring peace, the eradication of poverty and want, a sense of security, malnutrition and the eradication of the phobia of living in fear, which most Sri Lankans now suffer from. We also have the other problems like: the improvement of education, jobs for all, housing, health, transport, population control, preservation of our natural environment; a never ending list at that.

The sadness, uneasiness, insecure feeling, a feeling that there is no future in most Sri Lankans today does not stem from one problem, but from all. Most Sri Lankans don't seem to have any solutions to any problem. Planning the future is a thing of the past for the majority of Sri Lankans. All these bad feelings have gripped us.

We could discuss these items exhaustively without even getting to the sources of uneasiness for Sri Lankans today, an uneasiness that stem not from any one problem, but from all.

Consider the recent turn towards violence, political or otherwise. Violence begets violence. It is time to speak out against those on either side who through words or actions contribute to conflagrations of bitterness and rage. They wreck more havoc than they know. They may create ruinous cleavages and paralysing hatred that will make it virtually impossible for us to function as a society.

Then finally consider the ongoing war. Where will it lead? There are bitter and vindictive people who hopes for the worst. Considering all these, everything looks gloomy and hopeless. But we as Sri Lankans should not be discouraged or disheartened and then break down and cry like little ones. We must believe that a saner path is possible.

Bertram Joseph
Negombo

An Open Letter to Minister Mangala Samaraweera
Watchdogs and Lapdogs

I am reliably informed that you control and direct the Lake House press, abusing your position as the minister in charge of the media. I do not know whether your influence extends to the state television and radio. The Lake House press, chiefly the Daily News appears to be the main instrument through which, with naivete in politics and journalism, you have overrun the mandate given by the people of Matara. You seem to have transmogrified the professionals in that institution to lapdogs.

The Lake House newspapers have a long infamous history of kowtowing to the government in power with predictable and inevitable disaster to the incumbent government at each election in this country. Yet, human weakness is such that nevertheless, successive governments have, as the doctors prescribe, ordered "continue same". Journalists are paid employees with wives and children to feed and it is very very rare to find one or two who will stick to professionalism disregarding consequences. The times have changed and it is now almost impossible to find employment. The top rate journalists as you have at the Lake House it is obvious to me, have to sing for their supper.

When Harry Truman wrote in his autobiography "It is a disaster for the President of the United States of America to be surrounded by yes-men" I think he was referring to fellows like you. To paraphrase a remark made by President Chandrika, when you speak on television like a re-born media freedom guru, are you talking through your mouth or from somewhere else?

Please take this letter in good humor. Do not mix dress designing and whatever it is that you do at the Lionel Wendt with ministerial responsibility to the watchdog of the media. Your colleagues on both sides of the house are merely passing through. Journalists and persons like me who have voted - and instantly surrendered power - await the inevitable hour when we shall vote again. An election is going on now. Please do not do to President Chandrika what the UNP fellows did to JR during the last two years of his government, isolate and insulate her from criticism.

Dr. Kingsley Heendeniya

Ethnic cleansing at Colombo airport?

A former UN expert - writing on behalf of Colombo Tamils - and appealing to the Justice Minister to honour pledges to increase the cadre of Tamil government servants to facilitate dealing with Tamil speaking people in government affairs - has pointed out that the deliberate non-provision of sufficient staff to man these posts can be interpreted as an insidious method of forcing Tamils to gradually abandon their language. He suggests if you deny a people necessary facilities to obtain their critical needs from government, on the grounds of insufficient cadres to handle essential work in a particular language, some people may be forced over a period of time, to follow an alternative language where their affairs can be accomplished speedily. If this is the intention then Chapter III Articles 10, 11 and 12 of our Constitution become meaningless.

Maltreatment
In my regular visits to the Katunayake airport in the past few months, I am increasingly concerned about the growing maltreatment to Tamils there. If Tamil ladies are seen with their traditional "pottu" they are, more often than not, subject to long delays in checking, humiliating questions, etc. On several occasions Tamil passengers have lost their flights and suffered both financial losses and mental pain as a consequence. I have seen decent Sinhala friends travelling with us losing their temper when Tamil ladies remove their "pottu" as the airport approaches. These good Sinhala friends are blissfully unaware of what is actually happening today.

Passengers
If passengers happen to have I/Ds from the North or East of the country their position becomes more difficult. The moment these air force personnel find Tamils are in the vehicles dozens of them menacingly scoop on them. A few surround them and rudely ask them to alight and ask irrelevant questions as "where are you going" "with whom are you going to stay" "why are you going there" "are any of your children Tigers" and so on.

Comparatively, other passengers are checked by one or two air force men and are not subject to the terror of being surrounded by dozens of uniformed men. Tamils recognise their interests are also served by careful checks at sentry-points and they cooperate with the forces fully in this regard.

But Tamils resent those instances where passengers appear to be innocent travellers yet are subject to sadistic harassment - purely because they are Tamils. In several instances, I have seen Tamils subject to such harassment asking to see higher officials. The moment an officer comes into the scene the climate changes and often -the harassment stops. It is normally a small portion of the lower ranks that enjoy making the Tamils suffer - as it indeed was the lower ranks in the SS that heaped humiliation and untold suffering on the Jews throughout occupied Europe in the 1940s. Jews of today - after 50 years - recall these incidents of humiliation with contempt.

Authorities
While we respect forces personnel who courteously go about their legitimate work Tamils plead with the authorities to ensure they are not humiliated by the sadistic lot within their ranks in the air force precincts. Tamil ladies wearing "pottu" or Tamils carrying identity papers with Tamil names, these air force personnel must be reminded in regular classes and lectures within their system, are not legitimate targets to be heaped with abuse and humiliation. They must be constantly reminded that being born a Tamil is not an offence.

Airport
Marking out Tamils in the airport premises and making them suffer will not drive all Tamil women to give up their "pottus" - if this is part of some perverts' scheme. If some Tamil ladies are reluctant to wear the traditional "Pottu" to go about in the South this is sadly because Tamils do not feel safe and secure to go about in their preferred traditional ways, which itself is no credit to our society claiming to be multi- cultural - constitutional provisions being totally a different matter. A more effective method will be to man these sensitive points with senior officers or to have senior officers available to arrive at the point at short notice so that these acts of deliberate discrimination and harassment are gradually done away with. A mechanism by which a passenger is provided with expeditious facilities to entitle him to be checked in the presence of an officer, if the passenger feels he has been treated wrongly in a routine security check.

K. Arvind,
Colombo 3.

"Yala Revisited"

As Nihal Fernando has pointed out, in your issue of January 3, I also must commend the new system of administration at the Ruhunu National Park (Yala). On a recent visit, it was a pleasure to see eager, motivated, and fear-free trackers and rangers in this (with the inaccessibility of Wilpattu) the Country's foremost National Park. The added security, a resurgence of the conservational aims and values among the Departmental staff, supported by a military guidance that is willing to listen to and act to achieve these aims, has resulted in a return of Yala to that wild splendour that all of us who love it have yearned for, for some time.

Poaching has been greatly reduced. A well-fed contented leopard lounging among the branches of a Palu tree at Wepandeniya; fearless and calm, a herd of elephants at Buttuwa Wewa; waterholes and jungle glades twitching with large herds of ever-alert deer; all proof to the success of the present policies.

I was happy to see the Mahaseelewa bungalow rebuilt in its former style, by Departmental staff - men of great resource and talent. This was the way all the original bungalows were built. They served generations of visitors well. Simple, well-constructed buildings that are comfortable and blend with the surroundings, rather than the over-priced, ill-planned, architectural horrors that have sprung up in recent years.

The National Parks, all the wild places and wild creatures of Sri Lanka are the natural heritage of the people of this country. It should be the responsibility of the representatives of the people, the Government, to ensure the continued, healthy existence of this heritage. Sadly, this potential source of great revenue to the Country and to local populations has been the victim of policies that rather than promote, seem to actively work against the ideals of conservation.

Some wildlife enthusiasts, in desperation, see the only hope being some way of transferring conservation into private hands. But this is a national heritage!

However, the Brigadier and his administration at Yala have shown that which is possible if uncorruptible leadership that is prepared to listen and act on the advice of those with knowledge, maintains a disciplined commitment to its goals.

This country has internationally renowned experts in different fields of conservation. The Wildlife Department is full of experienced staff at all levels who have devoted their lives to conservation. Their knowledge and expertise has been depressed to pander to the personal ambitions of politically-appointed and patronised individuals. Their priorities are merely the conservation of self.

In this age of wildlife management, I share Mr. Fernando's optimistic hope that the Brigadier or those with ideals similar to his, be placed in charge of all other Parks; all of them suffer from poaching, felling, and encroachment.

But what of politics?

Yala is well again, and long may it remain so. The cure was no miracle, simply the application of honesty and commonsense.

Listen ye who will!

Rohan Wijesinha

Why are local western music teachers dodging Trinity's ''Improvisation option''?

David L. Robinson is a highly distinguished and perhaps senior-most Examiner of the Trinity College of Music, London, to visit Sri Lanka. He has been examining the current batch of candidates taking the bi-annual exams in Colombo at the Polytechnic Ltd, Wellawatta.

The syllabuses of Trinity College have been revised since January 1997 and now include indispensable ingredients of personal development which candidates must acquire in their growth toward full musicianship.

In the instance of the singers (vocal music), Trinity makes compulsory, at the top grades, the study of compositions of the Baroque period of music with its florid writing and ornamentation which are fundamental elements of exercising on a daily basis, and contribute toward technique, fine tone and vocal flexibility.

In a more vital general sense, Trinity College has now introduced a carefully considered methodology from the very first grades of developing the imaginative skills of young musicians with a great option to take the discipline of personal Improvisation, leading in due course to another option (at the top grades) of presenting their own compositions outside of the section with compulsory material. This is one of the most exhilarating recent innovations anywhere in the world because it has been a debilitating fact of past syllabuses worldwide that colleges and academies have turned out graduates who performed without individual imagination or innovation in the manner of ''well-tutored parrots''!

David Robinson nevertheless expresses concern that Sri Lankan teachers of western music have totally ignored (since inception in 1997) these innovative measures aimed at students' personal creative development, and candidates are still being tutored mostly at memorising and re-producing notes without too much attention to other indispensable criteria in performing beautiful music! He has even noted an overall decline in the standard of performing over the past decade, during which he has visited Sri Lanka three times.

It therefore seems absolutely essential to conclude, in the interest of student-development toward a new breed of high-calibre musicians that the local music teachers must revise their own methodology and disposition and forthwith be concerned with all of the very highest available options on behalf of exam-candidates. If necessary, they ought to be in consultation with persons who specialize in the instruction of improvisation technique. This would place Sri Lankan candidates (at present at disadvantage in reasonable comparison with students elsewhere.

The stocky powerfully built Robinson has been a Music Examiner for twenty six years, and presently resides in Malaysia on behalf of Trinity College, overlooking the Asian region, in line with Trinity's decentralized scheme to effect superior contact and service. The local representation is at the Polytechnic Ltd Wellawatta, headed by Mano Muthukrishna, Ramola Sivasundaram and Sharada de Saram.

David Robinson is, in private, a passionate enthusiast of classical organ-playing with a career commencing at famed Rochester cathedral in England. At nearby Rochester College he had also excelled as a Rugby wing-threequarter, and his lively alertness is perhaps indicative of the fleetness of foot which was once his forte in the game.

At sixty-two years, David Robinson manifests a gentle fatherly concern for exam-candidates meeting them at the door in un-precedented fashion and making light conversation which puts them at ease. These personal attributes, in the rarified realm of sensitive appreciation of all persons, places this warm soft-spoken British gentleman at the highest levels in universal human communication.

Rohan Jayawardana
Dehiwala

Dwelling houses on rent purchase system

I wish to find out whether there is any authority that could introduce the ''Rent Purchase'' system with regard to dwelling for the needy.

The system prevailing now is that half payment has to be made at once for such houses and the balance value is spread into the required number of monthly instalments which I believe, will include interest. This system is not within the reach of every person and the normal person with average means could never get ever closer to the proposal.

I presume the ''Rent Purchase'' system as applicable to the purchase of dwelling houses is adopted and practiced in certain countries with much success. The system adopted in Sri Lanka even by the state authorities is that half the value of such houses has to be deposited in a lump sum and the balance spread into the number of instalments so decided upon to be paid by the purchaser. The normal person with no such means, therefore, does not have the ghost of a chance to own a house in his life time.

Take, for example, a house offered for occupation valued at Rs. 10 lakhs by any state or Private sector authority. The purchaser will have to provide or make available half the value, i.e. Rs. 05 lakhs which the normal wage earning person could never even dream of achieving.

The person who has the means however gets the chance and the one without such means but has the capability to pay in instalments, remains in the same miserable position.

Can the authorities concerned, therefore devise a reasonable system and introduce the ''Rent purchase'' system for dwelling houses for genuine buyers so that all persons who need a dwelling house to suit their requirements or affordability could be the owner of his ''Dream House''.

Douglas de Alwis
Mt. Lavinia.

Monuments to Sita Devi

Why are the major environmental groups silent about the high-handed action of the Tourist Board attempting to hand over acres of land to build Kovils in one of the most beautiful areas in Sri Lanka, near Nuwara Eliya?

The forests, water falls and land surrounding Ella and Hakgala should remain unspoilt for future generations. If Indian architects are to come and build Kovils and other infrastructure to support tourists, it will invariably spoil the aesthetic value of these places. Let the legends of Sita Devi remain among the waterfalls and forests, without artificial stone structures being built to bring in Indian tourists. Let the small shrine in her name remain and not add a clutter of new buildings. We can see how the influx of pilgrims to Kataragama has polluted the waters of the Menik Ganga.

It will also create problems of a religious nature with an increasing estate population demanding a right to this sacred religious area now being created with much fanfare. Do not forget that the Ramayana myths have created problems in India too e.g. Ayodhya. Why stress this legend here?

Sri Lanka with its peaceful Dagabas in the skyline of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, and the great rock edifices of Sigirya and Dambulla have attracted tourists through the ages. Buddhism came to this island and dispelled the myths and legends of demon kings and powerful gods who took a lesser role in our folk culture. It was Buddhism, which inspired our Sinhala Kings to build our great monuments in this island. We should not pave the way for other myths and legends to take over our culture. After all Buddhism was the greatest gift of Emperor Asoka to this island and NOT the Ramayana.

N. de Silva

Appreciation
Kumar Abayanayake

I was much shaken by the death of Mr. Kumar Abayanayake on the 25th December 1998. He was an embodiment of precious qualities that is fast becoming a rare commodity among people who are miserably ensnared by numerous temptation which have become part and parcel of present day to day life.

Being sincere disciplined and dedicated; he did invaluable service to make the Sampath Bank what it is today.

As its General Manager and Chief Executive Officer, he imbued new life, vigour and dynamism to Sampath Bank management bringing it to the pinnacle of the banking field. He contributed in no small measure to make Sampath Bank get elected by the Asia money as the best managed commercial bank for 3 consecutive years 1998, 1997, 1996 and the first in the South Asian region to introduce the Debit card systems.

Let me quote his words:

"In 1987 when Sampath was conceived, banking in the island was to say the least, blank; devoid of vigour where focus on the customer was almost unknown. The banks were those that mattered most in the business; they opened their doors and customers, if they so wished, could do business with them. Sampath was the first to identify the value chain in the delivery of products and services and then, very deliberately, engaged itself in adding value to every link of this service and product delivery chain. We achieved this with the strategic use of information which, hitherto, had been only known vaguely as computerization and data.

After Sampath we recognised that data by itself was of little or no use unless it was translated to tangible information. This we did by the introduction of technology and painting it with bright and young staff who are well motivated. The outward manifestation of this philosophy is the seamlessly integrated, online, real-time network of branches which was the first of its kind. It is thus that a new star was born in the movement of banking in this land, UNIBANK, uniquely Sampath, manifestly user-friendly. This was, indeed, this revolution of which we are so justifiably proud. It is from this launching pad that we have evolved so happily over the last decade, through the ubiquitous SET, the premier AIM Card, now transformed to the only AIM/DEBIT Card Mastel card, Circus, Maestio, Telephone Banking and Home Banking. Layers of value super-imposed upon products and services.

We will not stop where we find ourselves now at the end of our first decade, but evolve strategically and respectively in meeting the challenges that verily await us in the new millennium reason enough to say "WE PRESENT THE FUTURE".

The strict disciplinarian he was, he followed every rule to its letter as well as its spirit and insisted on others also doing the same. Undoubtedly this exemplary model he set was an eye-opener to many.

It was the good fortune of the Sampath Bank to have been able to obtain the service of a banker of his calibre of Mr. Kumar Abayanayake. It was Mr. Ernest Gunesekere who persuaded Mr. Kumar Abeyanayake whom he met while the latter was holidaying in Hambantota beach enjoying his vacation from a Middle East Bank to join the Sampath Bank at a time when the Bank found difficult to obtain local talent as the Central Bank did not favour recruiting experienced hands from local banks.

Being a computer expert Kumar Abayanayake with Mr. Ekanayake was responsible for introducing the Unibank system and in a way revolutionising the banking system in Sri Lanka.

Being a sportsman to his hilt, he always insisted on fair play and devotion. The spirit of his strict adherence to rules and regulations, he did not loose his human qualities, for he was ready to help and do justice wherever he found it was lacking.

His sudden death is certainly a great loss to all his friends and an irreparable loss to the Sampath Bank.

May he realize the bliss of Nibbana.

Deshabandu Albert Edirisinghe
Founder Director
Sampath Bank