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Misconceptions on security issues
Try as hard as
the state might to clarify matters, misconceptions seem to be
persisting among sections of the North on security issues. The
Defence authorities have time and again given the public to
understand that objective considerations and none other, account
for the adoption of certain security arrangements in the North.
Despite it being clarified by no less a person than the
Defence and Urban Development Ministry Secretary that there is
no disproportionate military presence in the North, rumours and
misinformation on these questions seem to be abounding. Besides,
they are treated as the truth by some.
On our front page we run a news story quoting top security
officials on the factual situation as regards these security
issues. While some sections cling to the misconceptions in
questions for reasons best known to them, the truth is that over
the past two and a half years, the military presence in the
North has been gradually scaled down. Besides, the Army is
playing a very significant role in meeting the development needs
of the North-East, including providing housing for the
displaced.
These and many more developments are visible to the naked eye
and one needs to only visit the region concerned to convince
oneself that the information given by the authorities is
correct.
Myths and lies are propagated by interested political forces
for the furtherance of their narrow interests and this seems to
be happening currently with regard to the North. However, the
state authorities have no choice but to do what is right and
tell the world about it so that the separatist rumour mill could
be busted. Besides, they have to act in deference to the
national interest. In the case of the military presence in the
North, this must be regulated in a manner that the security
needs of the country are met. The state cannot afford to succumb
to popular sentiment on issues as crucial as these.
The irony is that there are more army camps in districts,
such as, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Ampara than in the North.
Besides, the general public of the North-East get on well with
the military and do not generally see them as a hindrance.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has gone on record that
this is so and it is plain to see that efforts are continuing to
cause popular disaffection in particularly the North over these
issues.
Apparently, to the extent possible, the state needs to engage
with those sections of the North which are yet to see eye-to-eye
with it on security and related issues. If misconceptions and
rumours are abounding on these crucial questions, the
possibility is that, on the one hand, destructive forces have
not given up their efforts to destabilize Sri Lanka and, on the
other, some are yet to come out of phobias and obsessions which
have caused divisions in our polity in the past and are
continuing to do so.
In the case of the latter category of opinion, the state
needs to continue to engage them with a view to disabusing their
minds. If sections of the TNA are continuing to cry ‘foul’ on
these issues, it would be in the interests of the Tamil
community, if the TNA is indeed desirous of promoting the
interests of the Tamil public, for it to seriously consider the
state proposition that the TNA joins the PSC process and helps
to work out a solution to the conflict.
In relation to the former category of opinion, the state must
work out means of alienating them from the general populace.
They in no way represent the totality of the public of the
North, and the government must seek to engage with those
sections which are intent on working with the state towards
advancing the interests of the Tamil people within a united and
geographically whole Sri Lanka. |
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Beating Dengue
In the early hours of April 19, 2012, the doctors
of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) Medical Intensive care (MICU)
were fighting to save the life of my five month baby son Jason,
after having been diagnosed with a severe attack of dengue. It was
the first time LRH-MICU had dealt with such a badly managed dengue
case of a baby in its history, and the job of not only dealing with
this severe dengue attack, but also undoing the damage done due to
the bad management of Jason's dengue, fell into the hands of a
brilliant young paediatrician Dr. Daham de silva who was a Senior
Registrar at the hospital. If not for his out of the box, bold and
aggressive treatment of Jason, with the support of Dr. Srilal de
Silva and Dr. Nalin Kithulwaththa the Head consultants of the MICU,
and God's direct intervention of making the impossible, possible,
Jason my son would have been lost.
 Full Story
Big power push for Sustainable Development inadequate
Attendance at the Rio Summit on Sustainable
Development has apparently reached phenomenal proportions but the
uncomfortable irony is that some of the world’s foremost leaders are
reportedly giving it a miss. Among the latter are US President
Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Full Story
Kataragama: shared heritage of Buddhists and Hindus
Kataragama, Kacaragama in Pali, is first
mentioned in the Mahavamsa in relation to the festivities connected
with the planting of the sapling of the Bodhi Tree at Anuradhapura
during the reign of Devanampiya Tissa (250-210 BC). The chronicle
states that the Kshatriyas or the local chieftains of Kataragama
also participated in the ceremony. It is interesting to note that
the text contains the fact that, of the eight saplings which
sprouted out of the original Bo sapling, one was planted at
Kataragama. This reference indicates that a Buddhist ritual centre
had developed at Kataragama from pre-Christian times although it
cannot be located with any degree of certainty.
Full Story
The Laws’ Delays
A couple of months back, I wrote in this series
about the Laws’ Delays, but I was talking then of a very different
sort of delay. I was referring to delays in the application of laws,
the manner in which dates are given ad infinitum (endlessly) for
cases, how cases are adjourned sine die (without a date, so that
those who suffer have no idea when they can get closer to justice),
that individuals are remanded with no idea for how long this might
be.
Full Story
‘Huge debt owed to Presidential Initiative overlooked’
Teaching Tamil as a second language to Sinhala
students' (Daily News: June 11, 2012: Page 19) is more about
teaching English than about teaching Tamil to Sinhala students.
Describing herself as a lecturer in English at the English Language
Training Unit of the Colombo University, Attanayake takes on the
subject of English teaching in Sri Lanka and its present status
without as much as making a passing reference to the most important
and far reaching initiative taken in this field in Sri Lanka in the
past 100 years or more, namely, the Presidential Initiative, English
as a Life Skill, now popularly known in the country as the 'Life
Skill Programme'.
Full Story |
