• Of lawyers and litigants

• Tsunami and credit cards

• Door-to-door campaign

Of lawyers and litigants

SEVERAL letters have appeared in the press in recent times regarding the travails faced by poor litigants at the hands of their heartless lawyers who fleece them for several years by postponing cases (often in collusion with opposing lawyers and/or the police).

These litigants are reduced to penury and often die off or see their witnesses die off without cases ever going to trail.

The undersigned too faced the same situation recently and was forced to part with well over Rs. 150,000 (for which no receipts whatsoever were given and no cheques were accepted) before he plucked up the courage to withdraw the case and incur the wrath of his lawyer and his instructing attorney who had listed his future fees in their budgets as income for the ensuing year.

Really lawyers in Sri Lanka take the cake and the stories of their tardiness are legion.

The writer knows of a case which as usual dragged on for very many years and the old lawyers who made much money was a wastrel and being short of money actually handed over this case and others to his intended lawyer son- in-law as dowry for his daughter so that the next generation of family too could live in comfort at the expense of the poor litigants.

It is amazing but true that many lawyers truly believe that they are part of a noble profession socially on par with other noble professions like engineering, architecture or medicine etc.

It is a truism that the legal profession is the only profession that can claim their fee without performing a service merely by asking for a date or sending a junior counsel so that no work gets performed.

A reform of the law and lawyers is of utmost urgency as it is only a matter of time before litigants take matters into their own hands and bash their lawyers.

The reforms initiated by the late Minister of Justice Felix Dias Bandaranaike gave litigants respite and must be reintroduced immediately if justice is to be served to the suffering public or surely the next youth insurrection will take place sooner rather than later.

- I. K. PERERA,
Nawala.

Tsunami and credit cards

CUTTING down the credit limits of People's Bank's Credit Cards holders those who affected by the tsunami:

I'm a cardholder of People's Bank, who had been a victim of tsunami disaster, which devastated the country on December 26,2004 by means of which my property as well as my family had been damaged severely.

In the circumstances, I asked the Card Centre of the People's Bank to grant me a grace period to settle the dues of my credit card on a concessionary basis, where I was responded with "Tsunami is over it is up to you to settle your dues."

Due to this, I was unable to use the remaining balance of my credit card too. My problem still haunts me all the time and I would like to know whether this is the way that another unit of a reputed State bank in Sri Lanka, treats their own customers especially in a situation created due to a natural disaster, at the same time contributing millions of funds to the betterment of tsunami victims.

- H. A. L. PERERA,
Bandaragama.

Door-to-door campaign

UNP launched 'door to door' campaign (Pracharaka) on Sunday 7/8 in which groups of party Parliamentarians and provincial Councillors and party sympathisers will see to educate the general public on the present political situation.

UNP and all political parties pledged sometime back on the necessity to abolish the Executive Presidency.

UNP also says the sovereignty of the people should be protected and demand a Presidential Election. They and all other political parties except the Hela Urumaya seems to have forgotten that they pledged to abolish the Executive presidential system earlier before a Presidential Election.

This is 'Bala Lobi and Thanha Lobi' and playing to the gallery. The Executive Presidential system is the bane of Sri Lankan politics.

It is a must to abolish the Executive presidential system if Sri Lanka is to remain a unitary state for certain parties are holding all Governments to ransom and are undermining the democratic rights of the majority community.

Can you with an iota of self respect call these parties democratic socialist parties?

They are democratic only by name, but practising autocracy, where power is vested (absolute) with one person. Sri Lanka is a small country and it should not be fragmented among the different communities. Therefore a Federal System will be a failure.

There will be constant friction with the Government and the minority parties.To avoid all these problems and friction and also for the economic development and mental well-being of its inhabitants and especially after the tsunami, power has to be devolved democratically under a Unitary System of Government.

Under the Indian Federal Constitution it had been possible for Tamil Nadu State Government to undermine the authority of the Central Government on several occasions.

- V. K. B. RAMANAYAKE,
Maharagama.