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| Tuesday, 6 November 2001 |
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Letters | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Sports Obituaries
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I would very discreetly like to refer to a news item appeared in an English daily broadsheet titled 'BBCs Hardtalk Demolishes Chandrika .....' The entire news item looked so ridiculously absurd tissue paper journalism and I presume the writer has indulged in amateurism relating to writing to the broadsheets. Tim Sebastian, I regard as one of the most respected Presenters, having served as an energetic and prolific news reporter with the Beeb for a long time even before this writer set her foot to the world. His questions are very realistic and obliging to any State leader or otherwise. I watched the Hardtalk with President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga with great enthusiasm. The entire session was rather entertaining and gave an insight to the viewers how situations could be tackled with so much of ease and not upsetting the person at the receiving end. I trust, by no means Tim Sebastian wished to "Demolish" the Sri Lankan President at any point. He merely fired the questions. Those journalists who have not watched the style of Mr. Sebastian's conducting of interviews, then they should not write nonsense to the newspapers. One must recall the way in which Tim Sebastian did his bit with Ian Smith, former Rodhesian Prime Minister some years ago. The questions were so dreadful that Ian Smith in his cool approach did exactly what the President of Sri Lanka did. He won the hearts of his opponents as well as his own. Our President will only speak on Sri Lanka and not anything else. Her country's elections is the main in the agenda and she better does that where ever goes. She never expects people to come from other countries to vote for her. All her interviews with CNN, Breakfast with Frost and Hardtalk were of excellent quality. I doubt very much in the distant future no Sri Lankan leader would achieve that. The young lady who wrote that should tender an apology first of all to Tim Sebastian and then to our President. After all we all make blunders in life especially using the English language. ASOKA N. PATHIRANE , In Daily News front page of Oct. 25 there was a column which said that I did a hasty retreat from the Cricket Board Elections of 1999. This is untrue. I left the elections hall along with my voters as the conditions there were worsening with some of my voters being assaulted by the then President of the Board of Control and the unruly elements there did not permit a free and fair election although I was assured of 78 votes out of 127. CLIFFORD RATWATTE , The eight PA dissidents to support the No Confidence Motion against the Government was a great betrayal. They are not patriotic but brought shame to the very constituents who have elected them. Among the dissidents are somersaulters who will do the same thing to the UNP. They cannot be trusted. The former Minister S. B. Dissanayake who was thought to be a confidante of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga let down her wholesale by conniving with the UNP Leader Ranil. However, these dissidents will learn a bitter lesson at the forthcoming general election. A. SENANAYAKE , Praise to our humble politicians whom we have in the recent past seen playing 'Musical chairs' by crossing over from one party to the other. This seems to be very common amongst a certain percentage of politicians and accepted as a norm and code adopted no sooner they are exposed by the print and electronic media with regard to illegal deals, embezelments etc., and no sooner they crossover it is evident that their loyalty is more for self gain and not with intention of serving the masses who vote such people into Parliament. Regretfully, the law does not apply to such corrupt politicians and invariably immune to any action taken against them. Sri Lanka should in fact learn from its immediate neighbours such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh where even the top politicians are taken to book. Legislation should be introduced against politicians who are or have been involved in corrupt dealings, thuggery, murder etc., and allowed to re contest only after having his/her name cleared from any charges. Further political parties should not accept any member who has left before and rejoins as their loyalty is indeed transparent not forgetting their real motives. It is now left to be seen as to whether the same set of corrupt politicians be re elected and if so history will be once again repeated with no country advancement economically or otherwise. T.F.S. DOLE ,
As a person who travelled through Asia and being involved in the gem business since more than twenty years, I decided to found a company in Sri Lanka not only because of its beautiful gems but also my intention is to do something positive for this country. I came here for investment, what this country urgently needs is to increase the income of foreign currency. That is only a small contribution to globalization and to support a country's economy. The background of a positive economy is to maintain a people's culture and nature, which I really like from the first time I came here. Trying to realize that idea I came with my family, gladly sacrificing the comfortable and secure life in Europe to start business here. But I had to experience that some people of BoI prefer to follow their personal interests to profit from an intentional reach of contract between BoI and us, rather than to represent the country's idea to make Sri Lanka an interesting place to invest for foreign companies. After going through a lot of formalities I signed an agreement connected with paying fees. Some days after the signing it, BoI restricted the offered conditions in the contract. That creates a distrustful situation for me to establish the business by knowing that this could happen any time again. Whenever I went to BoI I was negatively surprised about the non co-operative activities of some of their officers. While signing the agreement the Chairman of BoI told me whenever I have problems I can talk to him personally. After some time I tried to get a personal appointment with him through a letter and fax but no reply or reaction came from BoI. What impression should I get as a foreign investor when bureaucrats are operating in an impolite and even arrogant way. Also for the visas I had to pay a big amount of money; actually the visas should be free if you invest in the country and you'll stay here some years or even longer. This is a very sad matter for such a beautiful country. It is to wish that some things have to be changed when it comes to the administration and its officers regarding the way they care about people and their matters. One way is to talk open about the experience one makes, what I do now writing to you. SABINE ALAMGIR , I wish to refer to your article on the late Dr. Gamini Wijesekera (DN Oct 23) in which the writer states that "Dr. W. received his early education at Ananda College" This is incorrect. Prof. O. H. D. Wijesekera who resided at Peradeniya sent his sons to Kingswood College from Grade 1. During the tail end of their school career they must have left for other schools. The fact is that they were KINGSWOOD ALUMNI for a major part of their school career. T. H. WICKREMASINGHE , The "Pay As You Earn" Tax was introduced in October 1971 by the then Finance Minister - Dr. N. M. Perera with the view to collecting taxes from the employees efficiently and with the minimum burden on them. i.e. the annual tax was collected in monthly instalments. The exemption limit was Rs. 500 per month or Rs. 6,000 per annum at that time. With effect from 1.4.1978, the public employees were exempted from paying this Tax and there was certain amount of displeasure among the private sector employees regarding this discrimination. However, no action was taken by the relevant authorities to rectify this matter even though there were changes in the governments. The exemption limit was increased from time to time considering the increase in cost of living and the salaries as well. With effect from 1.4.1997 the earned income relief was fixed at Rs. 144,000 per annum and this has not been revised up to date despite the material increase in the cost of living. I have no intention of requesting for full exemption from this tax for the private employees, but make an appeal to the authorities to consider increasing the earned income relief to Rs. 216,000 per annum with effect from 1.4.2001. It is always possible for the employers to re-compute the PAYE tax liabilities of their employees and refund the excess tax recovered from their employees since April 1, 2001. I wish to state in this instance that on May 1, 1994 the then President D. B. Wijetunge announced a PAYE Tax exemption limit of Rs. 144,000 for the year 1993/94 and employers were requested to refund the PAYE tax recovered in excess for the previous year to the respective employees. It should be appreciated that a full exemption from PAYE Tax is not requested, but only an increase of the earned income relief (Statutory Allowance), to Rs. 216,000 per annum is being requested. We are grateful to the Government for abolishing the Save the Nation Contribution (SNC) effective from 1.10.2001 which was imposed on a minimum income of Rs. 15,000 per month or Rs. 45,000 per quarter. A similar relief in respect of PAYE Tax would be much appreciated. KANORJI ANGARE ,
Politicians and statesmen are people involved in politics. Although both categories are involved in politics, statesman is a person who has higher degree in politics with a real love for the country. Politician is a person who dangle in politics not with a real love for country but to better himself in perks and other privileges entitled to him as a politician. Today we have bags full of politicians but statesmen are just a handful. We have seen the difference between the politician and statesman in the recent past. Both these categories should fall under the simple word 'Gentleman". Before I elaborate on who is a gentleman let us examine the definition of"gentleman". When I was a school boy one of my teachers said the definition of "gentleman" is self respect and respect for others. Today very few will fall into this category. One may be a professor, doctor, lawyer, pandit or visharadha but if they do not have self respect and respect for others they cannot be called gentlemen. This has been proved by the behaviour of various personalities in the recent past. VS , I felt like writing this note after watching the Janatha Adikaranaya - the panel discussion program telecast over ITN. With the elections are nearing every TV channel telecasts political debates or discussions. But most of these can be termed as political cock fights rather than discussions. They are so vulgar, indecent and senseless. The Janatha Adikaranaya shown on ITN last Tuesday was a welcome different from most other such programs. The program was moderated by Asoka Serasinghe. The Government was represented by Susil Premajayantha, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and one other person while the Opposition was represented by Tyronne Fernando, Keheliya Rambukwella and one PA, MP who had crossed over to UNP recently. The topic was the change of political parties and the issues connected to that practice. Both sides presented their points of view without being disturbed and intimidated by each other. In their best way they presented arguments and counter arguments with facts and figures. The language was decent although some times they too tend to sway a bit because of the callers who try to link un related topics to the discussion. The moderator played his role very well by keeping the discussion in focus and at the end of the program presenting a summary of key points discussed respecting the intelligence of the viewer to make a decision. ITN must be congratulated for their role in presenting such programs. TV producers must remember when a person appears on TV screen it amounts to an uninvited guest at home. The participants should remember that they behave as if they are in a living room. In fact when millions watch the TV participants become visitors. In that case will they behave in such low level when they visit a house of a person not known to them. The answer will be a clear NO, in that case why do they behave in such demeaning manner visible to Hundreds of Thousands of TV viewers of all walks of life. The TV producers too have a responsibility in choosing participants for such programs. D. SOORIYAARACHCHI ,
Judging from news items, articles and readers' opinions in the daily newspapers, there is no doubt about the clamour for more and better English in the country today. It is sad to refer to the fact that the standard of English as spoken in Sri Lanka which was years ago of a very high standard, has now reached 'rock bottom'. This has been mainly due to politics after independence. English has been referred to as a tricky language to learn maybe, but let us not forget that it was mastered by many of our own in the days gone by. Many methods have been tried out to raise the standard to its former level, but most of them have been dismal failures. Having read the recent articles on "English our English" by Nedra Vittachi in the Daily News, I personally feel that there is hardly anything wrong in using our 'brand' of English among ourselves and even foreigners provided one makes oneself intelligible. However, we should strive to fall in line with the Queen's English as far as possible. Avoid quaint 'Singlish' expressions such as 'kill and put'(marala daanna), 'keep and take' (thiyaganna), 'tell and give'(kiyadenna) 'go and come' (gihillaennang), for example. People say, "May I take my leave" instead of "May I take your leave?" or "May I take leave of you?" Then there are many instances of redundancy. These are not confusing as such, but they should be corrected as they can be categorized as wrong English. E.g. 6p.m. in the evening, 6 a.m. in the morning, returned back, quite all right, you can be rest assured, most unique etc. There is also a mix-up of the comparative and superlative involving adjectives. E.g. most happiest, more harder and so on. To sum up, I would advise all those who wish to learn English to stick to the use of British idiom. Read good books in English, listen to the BBC news broadcasts, get interested in good English TV programs and take every opportunity to converse with people who speak good English. I shall end with this suggestion. Pass on what you learn to others. Correct your friends when they make mistakes. You can rest assured they will be greatful to you. E. FERREIRA ,
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