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| Wednesday, 19 March 2003 |
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Letters | |
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Please forward your letters to editor@dailynews.lk in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
Federalism to re-unite a divided country I wish to express my view on the contents of the article under the caption "Federalism - to reunite a divided country" that appeared in the issue of 3rd March 2003 if you consider it as a matter of public interest. The thrust of the views expressed by the author of the article is that there is convincing evidence of the existence of traditional homelands for the Tamils which is quite contrary to historical evidence. Hence the solutions proposed are for a non-existent problem in order to discriminate against the Sinhala population, the origin of which lies in the colonial exploitation of this country by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British and establishment of an elite who have benefited by the actions of these Western colonialists and consequently who have no sympathy towards the common people of this country. The dire economic straits in which the majority of the Sinhala population that inhabits the areas which staged uprisings against British administration as Wellassa and Matale and the areas inhabited by the Sinhala Population subjected to colonial harassment and in spite of which they did not betray their traditional religion as well as their culture is sufficient evidence of the mythical creation of this traditional homeland concept exclusively for particular enclaves to further the aims of the colonisers through their accomplices in the ruling elite by proxy, some of whom parade themselves as anti-imperialists and Marxists and saviours of what that is left of the environment of this country and enjoyed by the indigent among the Sinhala,Tamil and Moor communities. King Senarat saved the Moors from being exterminated by the Portuguese while the King of The Kandyan Kingdom saved the Roman Catholics from persecution by the Dutch who were Protestant Christians. These acts of our Kings were well received by the Sinhala population but some of the beneficiaries consider these acts to be due to the weakness of the poor Sinhala Buddhists and ignore their tolerance. ALBERT P.WiCKRAMASINGHA
"Man's inhumanity to man, make countless millions mourn" One to two children per family of all countries is the only rational and permanent solution for the eradication of poverty, end the "killing fields" and prevent irreparable environmental disasters. There is no other guarantee of a permanent, safe and prosperous future for our children and grandchildren. Otherwise the poor masses will produce the maximum number of children possible, in keeping with our culture, causing problems for themselves, others and the state. There is rocketing inflation and social disintegration in every field of human activity which has culminated in insurrection, terrorism and war. Human destruction has taken priority over human development. Our meagre resources are sacrificed (wasted) for security, defence, refugees, rehabilitation, reconstruction, compensation, food stamps, subsidies, flood-relief, drought-relief, servicing bad-debts, feeding and rendering medical care to an ever-increasing morbid population to the point of total breakdown of law and order that we witness in many areas of the world today. The super-powers thrive on arms-sales to poor nations. This is the world's biggest business - estimated at 1 million USD per mintue. The arms manufacturers hold vast int'l arms exhibitions in the ME capital of Abu Dhabi to fleece poor nations and grab 'oil money'. People of the 3rd world produce broods of children, buy arms with our meagre resources and kill our own children. If poor nations limit family-size and maintain peace, then there will be no demand for arms, and the superpowers will be compelled to harness their efforts at agriculture an other avenues of human development. Ceylon was a "Dharmadvipa" (island of peace and harmony) up to 1953, when our population was 8 million. Today, with a population of 19 million, we are a "killing field". Our population must be stabilised at any cost for the restoration and maintenance of peace. Natural disasters occur so frequently in territories with high population densities. Dr. P.A.C. DE SILVA
The recent three lectures given by Prof. J. B. Dissanayake, Prof. Colvin Gooneratna and Dr. Seneviratne Epa prompts me to quote from P. C. Ganeshan's book, "How to Develop Mind Therapy to Cure Diseases", a few instances where mind therapy had cured diseases. A patient was afflicted in the spinal chord and suffered from excruciating back pain and could not open his jaws. A doctor had explained that a leakage from metals such as uranium could have caused the fatal disease and death sentence within a short period was passed. The patient had worked long hours in a Russian metal plant. The patient took the view that if stress could be the cause of the sickness, happiness, joy, enthusiasm, he could strengthen the immune system and help to cure the sickness. He could not sleep even with sleeping pills, but after watching comedy films, the backpain became less. He had experienced that if you cold laugh continuously for ten minutes after watching the comedy films, you will be induced to sleep and realised its therapeutic value. After a few months when he visited the same doctor, the doctor was surprised to see him alive and could not find even a trace of the disease. After 15 years of research, in 1979, the patient Norman Consius wrote a book An Anatomy of illness. A patient suffering from asthma, became acute when the sun rose from the east. The doctor induced him to a hypnotic sleep and made him to go back in memory to trace when he first suffered an asthmatic attack. At the age of ten, living in a hill-resort, lying in bed, one morning, looking at the sun through the windows, he had imagined the mountains moving towards him and crushing him and had felt a heaviness in his chest, began wheezing and felt a pain in the chest. The doctor thereafter implanted necessary hypnotic suggestions and cured him. A lady patient at fifty was suspected by the doctor on stone formation in her gall-bladder. While on surgery the doctor found her suffering from cancer of the liver and it had spread to all other parts. As surgery would not have helped, the daughter had requested the doctor not to tell the mother of the sickness, but to tell her that the stones have been removed and she will be all right. After eight months the same doctor was surprised to see her alive. On inquiry she had said that she came to him on a suspicion of cancer, and that she was happy when she was told it was only a stone in the gall-bladder and it was removed and thereafter she happily engaged in her usual work. Two quotes from the same book by P. C. Ganesan, to draw the attention of those in the business: "It is unfortunate that the medical profession is fast becoming commercial and patients are not treated as emotionally-charged human beings, but as products in a commercial market. In such unfortunate conditions, it has become essential for the patient to choose the right doctor." "Nowadays we get expensive medicines. Doctors are professionally knowledgeable and efficient. But, unfortunately the patient is deprived of affection, love and sympathy from the doctor. Doctors and nurses do their jobs with their eyes on the clock and so everything takes place in a mechanical fashion. Consequently, the patient does not get the free benefit of modern medicine." An Anatomy of Illness (1979) by Norman Cousies extracted from P. C. Ganesan's book. It is worth quoting Prof. J. B. Dissanayake to the Kandy Society of Medicine, "When the mind is reassured of recovery, it helps the body to regain its hold. The Veda Mahattaya's communicative therapy succeeds in building a trust between him and his patient. He builds such a trust that the patient begins to claim that the physician has a special capacity to cure patients, called 'atgune', in Sinhala folk idiom." KASI SILVA
Recent media reports have given much publicity to National and Local authorities effort to control the stray dog population in a humane manner. Over the past two years, as a member of one of the oldest animal welfare organisations, I too have participated at these deliberations where top level government and local government officials have made pronouncements on the need for an alternative to the inhuman destruction of dogs through gassing, poisoning and suffocation. We have also talked about the need to introduce sterilisation programs to control the stray dog population. To date, progress on these initiatives by the National Anti Rabies Office or the Colombo Municipal has been confined to proposals. As recent as February 4, in preparation for the Independence Day celebrations, innocent dogs were rounded up by the Dog Pound Van and executed. Not a single sterilisation operation has been done nor the government veterinary surgeons, informed to participate in this alternative program. The AWPA, a non governmental organisation which is supported entirely by donations from our members and well-wishers continues its monthly free sterilisation campaigns directed at low income pet owners. We are proud to record that we conducted over 15 programs last year and sterilised/neutered 465 cats and dogs, thus averting the birth of hundreds of unwanted pups and kittens, many of them ending up in the streets or in places of worship or even at the door step of the Transit Home, maintained by the AWPA. We appeal to the Government and local level health authorities to assist these programs either financially or through medical supplies and help to sustain this activity in the effort to eliminate rabies. It is time to end talk over tea and pastries at the Town Hall and even a lunch packet through the generosity of the Ministry of Health and to get down to action. MALSIRI DIAS
Proposal to resume judicial hangings We view with deep dismay the proposal to reintroduce judicial executions after a lapse of over quarter of a century. We are certainly concerned with crime control and law enforcement, and appreciate the serious law and order problem facing the authorities. But the death penalty is no answer. Nowhere has the death penalty (as opposed to other punishments such as long term imprisonment) been shown to have any power to deter crime. On the contrary, it diverts attention from the real solution, which is prompt and efficient investigation of crime followed by effective prosecution and conviction. "The greatest deterrent to crime is the likelihood that offenders will be apprehended, convicted and punished. It is that which is lacking in our criminal justice system." (South African judgement of 6 June 1995 in which all eleven members of the Constitutional Court writing separate judgements, found the death penalty unconstitutional). The death penalty is irreversible, and is known to have resulted in the execution of innocent persons. In England alone there have been a number of proved instances of wrongful convictions being set aside many years later. Can we say that our own investigative, law enforcement and legal systems are such that there is no real possibility of innocent persons being convicted and scapegoats being hanged? It is precisely in cases that mostly shock public opinion that there is pressure on the police to somehow make arrests and ensure convictions. Miscarriages of justice, of which the poor and the disadvantaged are the most likely victims, can never be rectified. As Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan has said, "The forfeiture of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one person to inflict it on another even when backed by the legal process. Let states that still use the death penalty stay their hand lest in days to come they look back with remorse knowing it is too late to redeem their grievous mistake." It is the responsibility of an enlightened legislature to give the lead towards the adoption of rational and humane approaches to the ills of society. There is urgent need for careful and serious study of crime in Sri Lanka and the problems of investigation and law enforcement. We urge that executions not be resumed under any circumstances, and that instead real solutions to violent crime, both short and long term, be identified and pursued. Signatories include R. K. W. Goonesekere, Sunethra Bandaranaike, Jezima Ismail, Maithree Wickremesinghe, Prof. Osmund Jayaratne, Prof. Savitri Goonesekere, Prof. J. Uyangoda, Prof. Ranjith Amerasinghe, Prof. Carlo Fonseka, Prof. Laksiri Fernando, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Dr. Neloufer de Mel, Manouri Muttetuwegama, Dr. Pradeep Jeganathan, Dr. Selvy Tiruchandran, Suriya Wickremasinghe, Kumudini Samuel, Dr. Deepika Udagama, Dr. Lal Jayawardena, Ramani Muttetuwegama, Manel Fonseka, Lal Wijenaike, Nimalka Fernando, Desmond Fernando, Dr. Sepali Kottegoda, Ketesh Loganathan, Dr. Devanesan Nesiah, Sunila Abeysekera, Hector Abhayawardhana, Dr. Mala de Alwis, Faizun Zackariya, Dr. Vasuki Nesiah, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Rohan Edrisinha, Dr. R. K. de Silva, Ram Manikkalingam, Sunil Bastian, Leela Isaac, Dr. Kumari Jayawardena, Dr. Darini Senanayake Rajasingham, Anne Ranasinghe, Dr. Mario Gomez, Dr. Neluka Silva, Amina Hussein, Bernadeen Silva, Sunil Wijesiriwardena, Shyamala Gomez, Chandragupta Thenuwara, Gameela Samarasinghe, Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham.
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