Letters

Mahinda should sign an agreement with Ranil

Mahinda Rajapakse though genial and amiable seems to lack a strong mind of his own. And so, being anchored nowhere, he merrily floats around, among 23 or more political parties, claiming to have united all the left and liberal forces under his leadership. But, these numerous parties with different agendas hold divergent and contradictory views. So the new Sandanaya is already paralysed and with just weeks to go for the big day. 

However, if elected it is the two extremist parties, the JHU and the JVP that will exert power over Mahinda. They could easily drag him towards Sinhala chauvinism possibly leading to war or a continuation of a 'no war, no peace' situation.

What we need most is political stability and that means a change in parliament. If Mahinda wins, the country will continue to be burdened with a weak, inefficient, minority government unable to move forward. The Parivasa and Sandanaya governments, both under the leadership of President Kumaratunga proved to be miserable failures. What then is the guarantee that the same Sandanaya government with a much weaker leadership would function better?

Rajapakse's contradictory statements reveal a confused mind. Unitary state, federal state, union of regions, united Sri Lanka - all these concepts are one and the same as far as he is concerned.  So, he innocently promises everything to everyone. He promises a unitary state to one group and federalism to another. "I'll abolish the P-TOMS" he tells one, "No I'll improve the P-TOMS", he tells another. Handy Dandy-War or Peace?

This is utter confusion. One common factor that binds Mahinda and all the parties supporting him is their collective determination to destroy the UNP and grab state power. Once in power, the Sandanaya will fall apart, plunging the country into chaos and total anarchy.

Rajapakse is also a frightened man, who seeks presidential immunity even before reaching that goal. He seems to be afraid of being proved innocent in the Helping Hambantota case! Having got the Chief Justice to stall the CID investigation, he may also order the Bribery Commission not to entertain any complaints against the future executive president of Sri Lanka!  Before the voters cast their votes, don't they have the right to know whether this presidential hopeful is above suspicion?

Rajapakse lacks the courage and the conviction to openly declare his views on important issues affecting the country, whether it is the ethnic conflict or his national economic policy. "I will bring honourable peace to this country, so that all Sri Lankans-Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers can live in harmony" he keeps repeating whenever he addresses the public. But how? The voters have a right to know.

He promises a disciplined society where law and order will prevail. In a country where he, the president to be, uses his power to stall or prevent CID investigations and one of his deputy ministers gets Kudu Lal, a notorious drug dealer appointed as a JP, how can law and order prevail? The voters have a right to know.

Rajapakse promises to eradicate poverty and bring in economic prosperity. Again we are not told how. He has been part of the Kumaratunga government for more than 11 years. What has he done to help the poor during this long period? If he wins, he will have the very same Sandanaya team to work with. Is he doing to achieve in the next six years, what he couldn't achieve in the last 11 years?

Rajapakse's reluctance to engage in a public debate also reveals his confusion and diffidence. He lacks confidence to face the public. He expects the voters to trust him to do what is right and does not want to be questioned in public.

Rajapakse has also admitted that he is more of a learner than a leader. He complainted that President Kumaratunga, his leader, refused to teach him anything. If he needs to be educated in economics and management, Rani Wickremesinghe and Bandula Gunawardena could do it better than the JVP or JHU.

It would be a better proposition, therefore, for Rajapkse to come to an agreement with Wickremesinghe. Ranil and Mahinda could promise each other that when one becomes the president, the other would be appointed prime minister.

That would not only prevent violence at the polls, but also lead to a national government to usher in P E A C E !

Leela  Isaac
Colombo

Misuse of state TV: Does anybody care?

There has been much concern expressed about the abuse of state media, especially the electronic media. The state television channels openly promote the candidature of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse while embarking on a campaign to generate mass disaffection towards the candidature of Ranil Wickremesinghe. It is indeed surprising that the Elections Commissioner who has won the confidence of many as being an impartial government servant is inactive in this regard.

Appointing a Competent Authority just before the elections would not do. A serious well organised campaign is conducted by those in charge of promoting the candidature of the Prime Minister, to exploit, mercilessly, state television for their propaganda and for their campaign of destruction of the opponent. Are we truly a democracy?

What they do not realise is that state television is public property. Use of public property for campaigning on behalf of a candidate is illegal. In this light the person whose candidature is so promoted stands answerable to the people at large. How can we expect such a candidate to lead us to an era of law and order, as promised over and over again?

Those who advocate the restoration of the rule of law must adhere to it and must abide by the law. This is an election to select a head of state. The person's past, and more, the present conduct must be exemplary if he were to be bestowed with leadership of a nation. It is therefore the responsibility of the Prime Minister to halt at once this abuse of state property by his faithful followers if he expects the public to place trust in him as a righteous leader.

The popular excuses given are that the private media supports the opposition leader and that previous governments have also abused state media. As to the latter, one must realise that two wrongs do not make a right. More over it is those who are now abusing the state media who vehemently opposed such abuse by previous regimes. When they do like wise, while in power, they stand miserably exposed before the public.

Private media, as the name suggests, is privately owned and as elsewhere in the world, is free to promote its own political philosophy and align itself with any political group, so long as it conducts itself within the law of the land. If the allegation is that a private television channel is supporting the candidature of Wickremesinghe, legally no wrong is committed by such a channel, for there is no law against it. Such a partisan coverage, if any, does not give the organisers of the PM's campaign the right to abuse state television channels for the candidature of Rajapakse. The solution lies in not suppressing the private media but in having one's own channel or one that sympathises with one's cause.

To be fair by the private media, both television and radio, it must be appreciated that news coverage and political programmes on these channels are balanced, compared with the coverage and propaganda of the state media. Perhaps these private channels stand accused of bias because they give coverage to Wickremesinghe's campaign as well. Had they devoted all their energies to the campaign of Rajapakse, like their state counterparts, the private media would certainly not be accused of being biased by the organisers of the PM's campaign.

The election's commissioner needs to act immediately if we are to expect any fairness in the conduct of this election. In the last few elections we saw election observers by taking into account the reduced incidence of violence etc. on the day of the elections, issuing statements to the effect that the election was free and fair. Whether it was so must be determined not only by looking at what happened on the day of the election but by looking at the fairness of the campaigns leading up to the election. In fact the presentation of a budget, of a government whose Prime Minister is a candidate, just a few days before the election raises a very serious question as to the fairness of this election.

M.  Ranaweera
Nugegoda

Time to crush LTTE militarily

JHU member Kotakadeniya recently said that it is time to crush the LTTE militarily. He is a retired S.D.I.G. who has tackled terrorism whilst in service, successfully, albeit transferred and forced to lull in his doldrums for his line of action in a place called Siberia, at  police headquarters.

A front page news item in a Sunday paper read thus. "The fate of the three police officers, including a sub-inspector of police and two police constables, attached to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) currently being held by the LTTE cadres, will be decided when they will be taken before the LTTE courts in Kilinochchi on September, 27, police said".

"The LTTE  has refused to release the three police officers in custody," states a Sri Lanka English newspaper on September 28.

What a damning indictment on the three armed services and the police. Here is an unlawful terrorist organisation keeping three lawful police officers in unlawful custody and proposing to produce them before an unlawfully established court of law. Can we have faith in the three armed services and the police? They are paid to protect the citizens within the island which they are neglecting. One can imagine if Sri Lanka is invaded by a foreign power, our protectors will run home and hide behind their mothers' skirts.

Another banner headline of the same paper in the middle page states "Upto 5513 violations of the ceasefire agreement by the LTTE, by September 24. 2005, which include adult abductions -1110, killings of civilians - 237, child abductions - 198, child recruitments - 1971, killing of security forces - 60.

Have the armed forces and the police gone to sleep? Can they as protectors of persons and property tolerate this any longer? Future generations will ridicule and laugh at their former protectors.

It is earnestly hoped that there will be many more Kotakadeniyas in Sri Lanka, with the same mentality.  Kotakadeniya has repeatedly reminded that given the option, the Tamils in the LTTE held territory will migrate to other areas. It has happened and it will happen.

M. D. B. De S. Seneviratne
Colombo 8

Three wheeler Buddhism?

We are faced with a new brand of Buddhism by the three wheeler drivers who erect Buddha statues at public places, violating all the rules and norms. This three wheeler Buddhism caused a chaotic situation in Trincomalee and at present they are making another attempt to create social unrest by erecting a statue of  the Buddha, which was a practice scorned by the Buddha Himself, near the Muslim Masjid at Kollupitiya.

We address this to the conscience of all mahanayake  theros and monks, President, Prime Minister,  Leader of the  Opposition, Mayor of  Colombo and all right thinking citizens of this country to come forward to solve this mischievous behaviour of a three wheeler driver which would eventually create only hatred and social unrest disrupting normal and brotherly relations prevalent amongst communities.

Timely action to remove this unlawful Buddha statue would be a great honour that Buddhists of this country may bestow on him, instead of allowing a  Buddha statute to become a symbol of hatred.

Mohammed  Dahalan
Makola

When 'Yes' means 'No'

Presidential candidate, Mahinda Rajapakse is proving an adequate ploy for his campaign manager. While the latter opens his loris eyes wide and utters the most absurd, blatant and obvious lies, Mahinda goes around saying and doing things which he denies and reverses soon after.

He enters into agreements with desperate and extremist groups which in effect literally mean war, if he is victorious in the presidential poll.

As the rejection of these agreements by the general populace becomes evident even to him and his advisers, he makes it known that he had no intention of sticking to the agreements. To the extremists concerned, who haven't the chance of a snowball in hell if they go it alone, this denial is something to be ignored.  Similarly, the P.M. has back tracked on many issues when cornered and continues to lose credibility.

Worst of all, instead of welcoming a chance to legally clear himself from the Helping Hambantota scam, he scampers to the court to have it stalled.

What of the host of documentary material to prove he broke laws and regulations.  Is taking Rs. 83 million no offence, if it is returned (almost in whole) when detected.

He continues to go on his merry way promising everything to everybody, while making it known that his promises are only made as a vote catching stratagem. What then is the conclusion to be drawn by the voter? Are we to presume that a 'Yes' from Mahinda is a 'No'. When he says 'Vote for me', does he mean 'Cast your vote for Ranil?

A. A. B.
Attidiya