• Electing the leader of the nation

• Not superstars

• 'Sooriya Thevan' strikes again

Electing the leader of the nation

The President of our country is the Head of the State, the Head of the Executive and of the Government and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces as expressly stated in the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. This may be put in simplistic language to the masses, that the President to be elected will be the supreme leader of our country. Therefore, he or she has to be a person drawn from the cream of the citizenry of our land.

By the spirit and terms of our Constitution of 1978 we should have by now greatly realised the vision of a democratic and socialist republic and come to the forefront as a developed nation in the international community.

But, most unfortunately, we are a far cry from that position considering particularly the dire straits we have landed ourselves in owing mainly to the frequent malfunctions of our political establishment over the years: in point of fact, we are on the brink of anarchy and we find that a major part of the people living in this small island home are still in acute want and misery.

The introspection indicates that we have become victims of a vicious circle of one crisis following on the close heels of another with, as it were, demonic proportions.

Apart from the most fatal lesson taught by Mother nature in the advent of the tsunami of December 2004, horrible disasters have emerged out of our own inhumanity to our citizens.

In the circumstances involved, it behoves on the enlightened members of the citizenry to make all and sundry aware, especially through the courtesy of the print and electronic media, that the voters should exercise abundant concern and care so as not to be swayed by the cunning and repeated propaganda emerging from political adventurers and chauvinists. The discerning section of our people should persistently remind the simpletons regarding the responsibility in the franchise for ensuring that no trouble-maker will have access to a position of power.

The person to be elected as President should not only be of unquestionable integrity, but also possess a fund of other sterling qualities such as humility to society, intelligence above par, self-confidence, initiative, drive, patience, tolerance and tact to deliver succour to the hapless masses: in short, he or she should have a charisma to win over dissenters by being guided by the principle of giving pride of place to humanism.

This is remarkably applicable to the settlement in respect of the unsolved core issues with the LTTE and other organisations prone to militancy.

Accordingly the President will be able to get a positive breakthrough from the stagnation after the Ceasefire Agreement of 22.02.2004 leading tor commencement of negotiations with the LTTE.

It is also vitally necessary that the new President should leave no stone unturned to inspire his or her own attributes indicated above in the ethnic and religious groups to coexist in amity and dignity to carry on their legitimate work in life in any part of the island.

For this purpose a small band of competent and independent experts in various fields of human endeavour, hand picked by the President, should be available for advice on the strategies to be adopted to rescue the economy and also to re-establish the requisite moral values and discipline.

Above all, immediately on assumption of the supreme office, it is submitted, the new President should publicly sacrifice his or her political party obligations, which should lead him or her to a stance of being independent, neutral and impartial in governance.

Such course of action will inevitably result in the President commanding the respect and co-operation of every citizen.

The writer is of the view that the operation of the political party system has proved to be a woeful failure and is now a milestone round the neck of the population hampering progress.

It is a challenge to an independent and executive President to spearhead moves to dispel the accumulated rot in the working of the party system and make it to take an about-turn for the system of function as it should bear the necessary fruit to the country.

D. KURUNERU - Moratuwa

Not superstars

The Sirasa Super Star selections at the Trans Asia Hotel, Colombo is not bent on promoting the genuine efforts of our up and coming singers.

The panel of judges are inexperienced, incompetent and incapable of holding auditions. Their ratings are cock-eyed and they are biased in their selections. However much presentable a participant performs he or she is finally sent off with a witty remark and a sarcastic smile. This is most unacceptable and unbecoming of a judge.

Two are only good as singers and could not be rated as 'Pundits' in the field of oriental music. The participants have the liberty to render any kind of numbers be it, Sinhalese, Tamil, English or Hindi. But these judges insist only in listening to Sinhalese songs which is unfair. In most cases, the participants return disheartened, disillusioned, disappointed and dejected about their performances.

Our country's leading and popular music directors should have been afforded the opportunity of serving as judges in this all important Super Star Show so that they could give a genuine assessment of the latent talents of our budding teenagers singing in whatever languages they prefer and grant them a break in society to further enhance their careers as future singers.

Sirasa has striven to give our youth a place in the sun and let's hope they would continue to uphold this tradition.

MOHAMED NALIM - Colombo 9

'Sooriya Thevan' strikes again

Lakshman Kadirgamar had been killed by a sniper's bullet. It is alleged that he had been shot by the LTTE but as usual this had been denied. He adds to a long list of Sinhala and Tamil leaders who had been killed by the LTTE. So far, the only person who had escaped death by the LTTE is the President. A suicide bomber missed her by the skin of her teeth. Sinhala and Tamil leaders who cowed down to 'Soorya Thevan' had been spared.

In the past, whenever, the LTTE was on the verge of defeat various international and local religious organisations which stood for separatism cried genocide. A decade ago when suicide bombers were playing havoc in Sri Lanka killing innocent civilians the western world was silent. And it took a long time for them to crack down LTTE funding despite its record as terrorists.

The USA, UK, and Australia had to wake up and declare 'War on Terrorism' when it came to their backyard.

Sri Lankans had always stood for peace but the LTTE had sabotaged them on flimsy grounds. When the peace process is once again on the move this cowardly act confirms 'Sooriya Thevan's' (Prabhakaran's) ulterior motive - Thamil Eelam.

Dr. P. A. SAMARAWEERA - Australia