KGB in Soviet Russia and Germany’s Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler were the most dreaded when it came to silencing people who stood against social injustice and the tyrannical rulers of these two countries.

In Sri Lanka too at present, the citizens, particularly those who carry the Tamil identity are experiencing a similar fear psychosis of abductions, detention without charges in undisclosed locations, assault, demands of ransom for release and murder etc. carried out by ‘unidentified’ elements who arrive in white vans. It appears there is no rule of law in the country to protect innocent citizens.

With the many security check points placed every few hundred yards in operation round the clock, these abductions by white vans have become a regular occurrence that cannot be taken for isolated incidents carried out by criminals.

The newly appointed police chief while falling down on his knees before Buddha statues on his assumption of duties has made an appeal to the public to trace those mysterious abductors, shrugging off the responsibility entrusted to him to restore the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation in the country.

The former police chief who recently retired boasted that he has thousands of efficient and loyal officers under his command, but was unable to stop the white van terror. He was not able to bust any of the serious crimes of murder and abduction during his tenure, as a reward for which he has been given a top posting.

All the leaders who fear for their lives have sought bulletproof vehicles for protection and do religious observations at every imaginable place of worship seeking divine protection. They pay little or no attention to the threats posed to the citizens of this country.

They are also impervious to the sufferings and anguish borne by the citizens, on the one hand by the skyrocketing cost of living, and on the other by the ubiquitous white vans that operate with impunity in this land of the Buddha. Don’t these hypocrites believe in the retribution that would follow according to karmic forces as preached by the Buddha?

A few months ago, the identity of some persons and their modus operandi in detail relating to certain incidents of abduction and murder was revealed in parliament. But the person taken into custody following this revelation has been released on bail with further investigations reaching a dead end proving the level of lawlessness prevailing in the country.

The President who assumed office with a controversial background of funding the LTTE and allegations of misusing tsunami funds amounting to millions is now desperately hanging on to power with the support of some turncoats who betrayed the people’s trust and accepted the gratifications offered by the President to support him to stay in power and ruin the country further.

Naturally when the main root of the tree decays, the whole tree would die eventually. Making a mockery of the constitution, Sri Lanka encourages and protects those who practise fraud and corruption.

The need of the hour is not Gestapo type state sponsored institutions that carry out intimidation, assault and assassinations and suppress media personnel who expose corruption and inefficiency in government, but leaders with honesty and integrity to salvage the country from the clutches of hypocrites who appear in patriots’ clothing and fool the people with their endless rhetoric.

The nomination of Major-General Janaka Perera as the United National Party chief ministerial candidate at the forthcoming North-Central Provincial Council election is a token of appreciation and respect the party has for the services rendered by the armed forces to our country.

Major-General Janaka Perera who commenced his career in the Sri Lanka Army’s Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Services Unit in the ’70s rose to the position of Chief of Staff having shown great leadership qualities, capacity for endurance and unlimited courage on the battlefields of the north and east of Sri Lanka in the efforts to bring peace to our country.

As an army officer who has extensive knowledge of war management and war strategies, many are the instances when he applied these techniques to the maximum benefit of the army and our country.

During the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Major-General Janaka Perera was detailed to Jaffna to lead the thrust against the LTTE which had surrounded Jaffna causing great concern to the then government, the security forces and the residents. It was this valiant army officer and his soldiers who fought tooth and nail to drive the attacking LTTE forces to retreat to their original positions which eventually led to the recapture of the army camps overrun previously.

Thereafter, in Welioya, our heroic armed forces led by Major-General Janaka Perera were successful in eliminating over 500 LTTE by executing a meticulously planned ambush on the LTTE cadres arriving to attack the Welioya Divisional Headquarters.

As a former member of parliament and provincial councillor of the Anuradhapura District which is buffered from the north by Welioya, I remember this Major-General, as the commanding officer of the Welioya Army Headquarters securing his area of defence so that LTTE attacks on the villages in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts were minimised.

During that period, the residents of these two districts underwent untold hardships due to LTTE attacks and it was this officer and his soldiers who secured the LTTE threatened areas of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Furthermore, having an engineering background, he and his soldiers played an active role in restoring the irrigation reservoirs and village roads, which benefited the villagers and brought the army closer to the people.

In selecting Major General Janaka Perera as a chief ministerial candidate the United National Party and its Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, has also recognised the dire need for professionals to serve the party and the country. In addition, this nomination is also a pledge of faith and recognition of our armed forces who are valiantly defending our territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The previous North Central Provincial Council administration has had many allegations of misuse of public funds, nepotism and corruption. As such, the United National Party by nominating Major-General Janaka Perera has nominated a man who has proved himself as an honest, dedicated and effective professional that the North Central Provincial Council so badly requires at this time to put the Rajarata on the track to advancement and development.

This no doubt must be the expectation of the people of the NCP.

I was amused to read in a daily newspaper recently that Professor G. L. Peiris, while addressing a gathering at Ratnapura on behalf of the UPFA for the Sabaragamuwa provincial election had praised "the national leadership deriving from the grassroots as opposed to the typical urban elitist leadership."

The Professor knows very well that he is a member of parliament through the votes of those who did not vote for the so called "leadership deriving from the grassroots."  He himself supported the so called ‘typical urban elitist leadership’ and got into parliament because of that support.

It is a crying shame that an educated man like Peiris could have forgotten his voters and for the sake of the perks and privileges of a Ministry let his voters down and pole-vaulted to the other side.

When out of ‘elitist urbanity’ he scorns the urbanity and is all for the rurality, but when in the urbanity it is a different tune that he plays — typical of third grade soapbox political orators and not principled statesmen.

Perhaps it is absent-mindedness that has made him into a political chameleon.

I have just purchased a copy of the latest Annual Report of the Central Bank. As, I normally do, I went through the report briefly and found it as usual to be very educational, informative, full of substance and a storehouse of knowledge, which indeed, is entirely due to the efforts of the officials of the bank and its team.

Another thing that struck me is the price at which it is sold to the public, a nominal price of Rs. 300.

I am fully aware of the fact that it is heavily subsidised by the government which I think is a very good thing, especially with the runaway inflation in the country and the high cost of living, as it would be affordable not only to institutions and libraries, but also to the average student and average individual, to purchase same, to enhance ones knowledge be it on banking, economics, political or social. This book is definitely the ultimate source of knowledge on Sri Lanka.

It is my earnest hope, and desire that the Central Bank continues to publish the Annual Report and other publications at the subsidised price, so that it is within the reach of  all. Let the Central Bank Annual Report be a shining example to the other so called publishers, booksellers, and institutional publishers who demand blood money  for their so called ‘great publications,’ and do not care two cents for the average person who can barely make ends meet. They are only interested in profiteering.

I salute the Central Bank and its officials for this remarkable achievement.

I draw your attention to the above article published in The Sunday Leader of July 6, and kindly request you to publish the following clarification

The article titled A tender bender in the railway, has pointed the finger at the General Manager Railway (GMR) and the Chief Engineer Way and Works (CEW) of the Sri Lanka Railway as to have attempted to "manipulate" the tender for new locomotives. Please publish, for the benefit of your readers, that the tender procedure is managed by an independent Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (CAPC) and an experienced and qualified Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC). The GMR is not a member of any of these committees.

It was my duty as the GMR to identify the rolling stock requirements to operate train services. I specifically requested for new locomotives to operate upcountry trains, which requirement I have made in writing at the commencement of the procurement procedure.

Sri Lanka’s rail tracks beyond Nawalapitiya are very special in terms of terrain, curves, slopes, and also the condition of tracks and bridges. As such, it has been a persistent problem to procure suitable locomotives which could haul heavy loads in the upcountry without disturbing the tracks.

The upcountry terrain is so sensitive that a derailment or an accident would imply a disaster of more severe scale than on flat terrain and therefore, the GMR cannot authorise a locomotive to operate in the upcountry tracks without a track worthiness certificate issued by the Chief Engineer Way and Works (CEW), who is the sole authority to decide on various track parameters. This is an imperative requirement in order to ensure safety of passengers and railway property.

Your article has omitted the fact that, at the outset, the tender specifications prepared by the TEC, which includes the Chief Engineer Way and Works and chaired by Additional General Manager (Technical), stipulated a maximum weight of the locomotives to be 92 tonnes for the upcountry operation. This maximum limit has been subsequently relaxed to 100.5 tonnes subject to provision of radial bogies; and thereafter to 111 tonnes, the rationale for which change is not known to me.

I have no rail track engineering expertise to argue out these maximum weight parameters. But, on the back of the locomotive purchases for upcountry operations during the past two decades not being successful, I am duty bound as the GMR to establish the maximum permissible total weight of a locomotive (allowing provisions to double-head locomotives in case of a failure of the running locomotive) the upcountry tracks and bridges could withstand. Quite apart from the current locomotive tender and its outcome, such determination is of prime importance in order to ensure safety of rail passengers travelling upcountry.

The "chain of correspondence" I have initiated with the CEW, who is also the authority in the Sri Lanka Railways with regard to tracks and bridges, as well as to the loads, weights and lengths of the rolling stock the tracks could withstand, was to establish these technically permissible parameters. I have duly referred CEW’s recommendations to the Additional General Manager (Technical) who is in charge of the entire technical wing of the SLR, and also the Chairman of the TEC, for necessary action.

CEW and Additional General Manager (Technical), both being members of the TEC, could appropriately make use of the information contained in these correspondences. In any case, standards pertaining to such critical technical parameters according to times and conditions need to be established at least for future use, quite apart from the current tender, as some of these parameters have persistently been constraining the flexibility of permitting locomotives to operate in the upcountry, and have compelled the railway management to withdraw from up country service almost all locomotives procured during the past two decades.

It is true that I requested your journalist not to discuss in a newspaper the "confidential" information you may have sourced pertaining to the current tender as such could disturb, and potentially be detrimental, to the tender procedure. This was mentioned in good faith without any prejudice to your journalists. I consider that such restraint is particularly important when only a "part" of highly complex technical information is discussed, and it is my duty as the General Manager Railway to ensure that the TEC and CAPC carry out their job without any interference.

However, I believe that no parallel could be drawn between such open publication of tender information in a newspaper whilst evaluation is in progress, and in my official communication of relevant internal correspondence to senior officers of the Railway Department, and the TEC members for their consideration.

Last, but not least, may I say that it is the duty of all public servants to ensure that the goods procured at the expense of millions of dollars from the public coffers can effectively serve their intended purpose. If they cannot, it will not only be a waste but also a crime.

Kandy