|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 14 February 2002 |
 |
|
 |
Letters | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Sports Obituaries
|
Execute death penalty - to save democracy On December 5, 2001 ten youths of Madawala in Kandy were massacred. A date reminiscent with the 5th of April 1971 when the 1st insurgency of the JVP commenced and an estimated fifteen thousand perished thereafter. Political analysts claim that this was the beginning of the socio political blood let in the entire history of the country, which has now spanned over thirty years and claimed over sixty thousand dead and a further thousands maimed and destitute. The tragic event in Kandy should hopefully be the final act of politically motivated mass killings. It should never be allowed to happen again. There have been ethnic and religious riots in the past one hundred years, but they had died down soon enough as those who resorted to violence of the kind we face today, were executed within the ambit of the law. Grievous crime, gang rape or armed robbery was dealt with equally appropriate punishment. Today, not a single day passes without reports of automatic weapons being discovered in the hands of the undesirables. Contract killings are common with underworld and private armies maintained by politicians at public expense. As the reports indicate this to be the case in Kandy. Such has been the practice of political parties over the past thirty years. The justification being that they are under threat from the warring LTTE or in the South, by rivals in the political field attempting to assassinate them. A new Government, and a political culture devoid of the guns are in the offing. The great majority of this country have endorsed this as a prime requirement and has voted accordingly. Yet, these very sentiments were expressed by the previous Govt. of Mrs. Kumaratunga in 1994. Perhaps, Kumaratunga's a vision at the time was exactly that of the new prime minister but circumstances and the realities led to the inevitable. The one hundred day political honeymoon of the new Govt. would soon be over and the acid test of realities would soon emerge. Especially with the Government in pursuit of a desirable end to the Northern conflict which is fraught with the self same enigmas faced by President Kumaratunga, except perhaps that the world has changed decidedly after the September 11 attacks in the USA and the world coalition against all forms of terrorism. The distinction between armed struggles and freedom fighters being devalued and being unacceptable by the world community. The LTTE should therefore beware that to renege agreements with the present Govt. would seriously affect them internationally and a peaceful end to this conflict permanently impaired. Besides the Northern conflict, the new Govt. must be cognisant of the fact that at the last general election they won by 45.62% of the total votes cast and apart from the appendage of minority parties and the percentages thereof, the total votes against the UNP accounted with 37.19% for the PA and 9.10% to the JVP. As such as the total polled against the Govt. is 46.29%. These facts represent a dormant but very potentially dangerous figure if the honeymoon goes sour. In the south, the defeated parties are aware that their comeback is only when this Govt. faults either in the peace negotiations and/the escalation of the war or the escalation of the cost of living, all of which is interconnected. There are already signs of the Opposition parties criticising the removal of barriers, the rapid normalising of goods and services to the undearned areas without security safeguards and agreed conditions. The Govt. I believe cannot be naive to implement these without adequate safeguards. At least they must activate the dormant intelligence services to keep a double track vigil to the activities of the LTTE. This should be done from the standpoint of past experience and back up for a hiccup. A fact neglected by the previous Govt. with calamitous results in the end. It also happened to the Premadasa Govt. earlier on. There is no doubt that measures must be taken to build confidence between the warring LTTE, but most importantly the civilians must be provided with all facilities to lead normal lives. However, preparation for the unexpected must be given the highest priority. It is in such default that the possibilities for violent protests and a backfire exist. And is the very test, the Govt. has to pass where demonstrations are not met with force. If the present Govt. fails to address the issue fairly and squarely, then the return to violence is inevitable. The self same predicament the Kumaratunga Govt. faced in the past. The resort to extra judicial killings becomes inevitable. As such, the one and only safeguard to assure the rule of law prevails
is the implementation of the death penalty. Such a measure would have
assuredly minimised the amount of social and political crimes and a
deterrent to the former, in the past. Yet, it has been conveniently set
aside, perhaps for the reason that it allowed the politicians to exercise
their powers at will without facing the consequences. Or that they thought
to appease the lobbyists of clergy, NGO and other organisations who at
best passively watched the erosion of social justice without murmur: Or
lest they worried; "The haft of the arrow would be plumed with their
own feathers and the arrow head would pierce their own bloody-necks".
The time has come to put an end to such parochial interests and do what is
right by the country at large, to safeguard Democracy. The LTTE is of the view that they are not in the position to come to the negotiating table with the Sri Lankan Government to bring an everlasting solution to the ethnic conflict due to their proscription. They say that their organization has been illegitimate since it was proscribed in our country as well as in some other countries and it is no point in going to negotiating table as an illegal organization. This is a democratic country where all the elections are held in due time in the terms of the Constitution. The Government appointed by the voters in the country is legitimate and can dominate the whole country where all the governmental or non-governmental institutions as well as organizations and political parties established elsewhere. If they are set up according to law and order prevailing in the country, the government in power has no alternative but to recognize them and take the full responsibility of them. Nevertheless, if any organization or party acts disregarding the law
and order, no democratic government has a moral right to consider it
legitimate. Thus, if the LTTE has a desire to negotiate with the
Government, in order to take a lasting solution to this problem, they have
to take an initiative to get their organization registered in the Election
Commissioner's Department following all the rules and regulations enacted
in the country thereby gaining the recognition of it automatically from
the Government. Having read articles appeared in the press during the past couple of weeks on growing oil palmm the South of Sri Lanka, as a senior agronomist who worked for the State for over 30 years. I also felt that I should express my opinion on this issue for the benefit of the country. I am glad that the RRI as a national organization has carefully analyzed all pros and cons of planting oil palm in prime rubber growing areas in the wet zone of Sri Lanka and brought them to the notice of the public to decide which crop is more suited for the country. It is clear from the evidence shown by RRI that the obvious choice for Sri Lanka is 'Hevea' rubber which is virtually a "Kapurkka" without having anything to be rejected other than the leaves: whereas as in the case of oil palm only edible oil is provided for cooking purposes. In this affair authorities who take decisions at the ministerial levels
should also be conscious of the interest among plantation management
companies in making quick bucks from the estates managed by them at the
expense of the environment of the country. Already they are felling
valuable trees planted in estates decades ago to maximise their profits.
Some are secretly exploiting all mineral resources including gems. For
them the environment and the future of the country is nothing compared to
the monetary benefits they can gain. Hence, from my opinion the nation
must be grateful to RRI for the effort taken to protect the environment of
Sri Lanka for our children yet to be born. The new mood in the country urgently cries out for peace. Unless we successfully take advantage of it, the country is doomed to failure. What we need is statesmanship. To localise a well-known axiom: a statesman thinks of the next generation; a Sri Lankan politician only of the next election. The intransigence of the long drawn-out war, excuses for its failures, the struggle for proscription of the Tigers and its notorious lack of integrity are all immaterial, irrelevant and moot. Let's get down to brass tacks. What we need to do now is to: A. Prevent an Impasse by pursuing a fresh initiative in our peace talks. B. Allow a government - given mandate for peace to seize bold initiatives. C. Permit a "political mature and war-weary" country to seek peace even by de-proscription - primarily as a means to an end. Let the pundits, political analysts and pothay guras continue to wage this contentious issue even till doom's day. The villager and the average man-in-the-street still yearns for peace - even as he fights for his daily survival living below the poverty line of a dollar a day. The damage inflicted by the war has been immeasurable. Sri Lanka was a country, which in the 1970s, was viewed as an emerging economic power in South Asia. But all that was lost in a war that has continued to ravage the country and fritter its economic resources to the tune of over $800 million annually. With a new government in power, we should take this opportunity to settle this war without reservations. But at the same time, we should also take the precaution not to drop our defences - even while disarming our protagonists. Finally, it may be an astute, mature and worthwhile political risk to
negotiate in good faith. Ultimately, what we need to do is to win the
broader military war even if we are to lose the domestic political battle. Whilst thanking you for prominence given to M.B. Mathumaluwe's article (DN, Feb 7), please allow me a few comments. Referring to my recent book Evolution and Development of Water and Soil Conservation Ecosystems from Ancient Dry Zone Forest Garden to Modern Jaffna Market Garden, he has exaggerated beyond limits of credibility my contribution to the struggle to save the precious Eppawala apatite deposit from depredations of multinationals. That was a combined effort led by the Ven. Mahamankadawata Piyaratana of Eppawala, supported by many others including Nihal Fernando, Prof. Jonathan Walters of USA, Prof. Illeperuma of Peradeniya, scientists and well-wishers some of whom still remain anonymous. That struggle is not yet over; as Mr. M. correctly observes what has been achieved is reprieve. My own contribution was to focus on the ancient water and soil conservation ecosystems of the Rajarata, brilliantly documented and described by R. L. Brohier in his well-known historic lecture at a Royal Asiatic Society meeting in Colombo in 1935. In the first book in my Eppawala trilogy, titled Eppawala, Destruction of Cultural Heritage in the name of Development, Jonathan Walters describes Kalawewa Jayaganga as the "jugular vein" in the beautiful throat of the fair lady Lanka. This appealing turn of phrase draws attention to the critical function of this unique yoda ela in the human-made water and soil conservation ecosystem of Rajarata, the term used also in Justice Dr. A.R.B. Amerasinghe's Supreme Court judgement in the Eppawala Fundamental Rights case. Appropriately, Mr. Mathmaluwe's article starts with that description of Jayaganga. Incidentally, that Judgement set right a surprising misconception concerning this unique achievement of the ancients, in the report of a Committee appointed by the Minister of Science and Technology in the National Science Foundation. The NSF report, quoted in the judgement, said that the "Jayaganga is an engineering marvel that must be preserved for eternity as the Heritage of humankind just as the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, or Ruwanweli Seya are preserved for posterity". Fortunately, since this judgement is said to be already a landmark in the literature of environmental law, the Supreme Court (unlike some of the learned NSF scientists) understood are recognised. Jayaganga's function as man-made water and soil conservation ecosystem. Mr. M's over-generous article. First, the quotation he uses viz. The major hydraulic works are not created rationally and systematically, but haphazardly as pieces of self-advertisement by individual leaders", is from Professor E.R. Leach's well-known 1959 essay, Hydraulic Society in Ceylon. I had used it to show that Leach's misconceptions and errors have surprisingly escaped criticism by historians and scholars, to date. In passing I said that these remarks apply better to engineers responsible for the design and construction of Lunugamvehera, and others who are now promoting the design and construction of Moragahakande. Second, the reference to Samanala weva is from a paper titled:
"Some Thoughts on Technology Transfer for Irrigation and
Multi-purpose Development Projects in Sri Lanka" published in 1977,
nearly 25 years ago, well before the project was constructed. With reference to the letter to 'Readers' Mail' from A.A.H. of Wattala (DN. Feb 4) we wish to clarify the following: a) All account holders who maintain the required minimum balance (Rs. 10.000 Savings Account or Rs. 5,000 in a Current Account) will qualify irrespective of whether there have been transactions to the account or not. b) The names of the account holders who have been drawn are also included in all subsequent draws of the Pathum Vimana Scheme in order to encourage customers to continue their Accounts with the Bank and be eligible to win more prizes. According to the scheme each account holder maintaining multiples of the required minimum balance will have more chances. As an example, a customer maintaining Rs. 50,000 in his/her savings account will have 05 chances for each draw. Therefore, as a customer is entitled to one chance for every deposit of Rs. 10,000 maintained in his/her account, the customers account will automatically be included in subsequent draws as he/she is entitled to participate in the draws, for each required minimum deposit maintained. c) The same applies for the branch-based draws, where a customer maintaining an account with a high balance or several accounts with the said minimum balance, will be allocated a chance for each eligible balance maintained. Depending on the number of chances allocated to a customer in some instances customers maintaining higher balances will win more than one prize. Since the launch of the Pathum Vimana Scheme in 1993 over 18,500
account holders have been awarded prizes. Each year value additions are
incorporated into the Pathum Vimana Scheme in keeping with people's
expectations, providing more people in more places with more opportunities
to win. All draws are held under the supervision of officials from the
Ministry of Home Affairs. Any account holder may by prior appointment call
over at any of the branches or the Head Office to examine our records
pertaining to the draws. I am referring to the letter by K. S. Sivanandan titled "Feature
Articles" in your journal on 31.1.02. What we Sri Lankans need is
peace at the cost of Eelam, so that all communities can live in peace
anywhere in our beautiful island. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
