Denying the Right to Return

• by Riza Yehiya 
• - on 12/08/2015 

Resettlement in Musali South and the Wilpattu Controversy
Shahul H.Hasbullah, Kandy Forum 2015.
124pp. ISBN 978-955-7902-00-5
Priced:Rs.500.00

Denying the Right to Return is an in-depth academic study on the history of Musali South and the issues and problems of the displaced and the returnees. This study explores the historical, socio- economic, political and geopolitical aspects of the pre and post war status of the Musali South displaced communities. This study unravels the myriad of factors that contributed to dispossessing the Musali people and then denying them the right to return to resettle in their places of origin. In presenting this as a case study of the backgrounds to conflict and post conflict resolution, this in retrospect contests the allegations and the aspersions cast by environmentalists and chauvinists for misrepresenting the facts and failing to redress the quarter century of suffering of the Musali people for no reason of their own.

Denying the Right to Return by Thavam Ratna

Ekneligoda - Five army officers produced before courts

 

Dec 08, 2015

Five army officers who are in custody for the connection with the disappeared journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda was produced before the Homagama Magistrate under severe security.

The courts decided to further remand them to carry out further investigations.

Despite the news few organizations has planned to start a protest opposite the courts against the arrest of these army officers the courts banned protest marches. However a group of people by the name of “War heroes for the motherland” protested outside the courts precinct in the middle of Homagama town.

MP Jayantha Senevirathna of the National Freedom Front also joined the protest and said the government is engaged in a mission to release the members of the LTTE and arresting the members of the army.

The wife of the disappeared journalist Sandya Ekneligoda said the case is due to call on the 17th of this month.
“The CID filed all the relevant facts and evidence. The respondent’s lawyer said to produce them to the prisons doctor and the courts gave the required permission” she said.

She said that there is no assistance from the army heads for the ongoing investigations.

Ekneligoda’s wife said it is the duty of these officers to tell what happened to Prageeth in the name of my two sons.

However Rev. Iththekande Saddathissa of the Rawana Balaya too came to the courts to observe this case. He alleged prageeth Ekneligoda for assisting the LTTE.

Sandya Ekneligoda questioned as to why these failed to allege these allegations for the last five years.

She said the few people connected with the former regime is trying to false allege against her husband and trying save the true culprits.

While president is transforming into a crooner the Rajapakse hooligans attack law abiding citizens !

(Lanka-e-News- 08.Dec.2015, 11.40PM) The gangs and goons of the South nursed and nurtured by the former murderous lawless Rajapakse regime are still on the rampage attacking officers who are lawfully and honestly carrying out their duties, even after the criminal regime was thrown out lock , stock and barrel by  the people , based on reports reaching Lanka e news. 

Piyal Dayaratne (53) , the Manager of Administration of Chinese project named Katik engineering Corporation that is engaged in the reconstruction of the Pitabaddara Hiniduma road , was the unfortunate victim of these Rajapakse  hooligans this time. He was brutally assaulted and his limb broken on the 28 th of November at about 7.30 p.m.at Pitabaddara,

The reason for this brutal assault is , the victim had obstructed the robbery of assets belonging to the project. Unfortunately , those carrying out the contract and employed in the project are pro Rajapakse scoundrels. These are scoundrels like their chieftains  who rob anything they lay hands on. In keeping with their favorite hobby and habit they have been robbing diesel and iron among other things, which are then purchased by crooked traders of the Rajapakse clan. Recently , two water pumps were  robbed . The  Manager Dayaratne with the assistance of the police had somehow apprehended the crooks and the traders who purchased them.

These rascals who were angered and offended by this incident had trailed Dayaratne in the night of 28 th when he was going home after work , and  attacked him most brutally with clubs and rods. These assailants have arrived in motor cycles wearing face covering helmets and black jackets. Following the attack , the left arm of the manager had got completely dislocated. He was first taken to Morawaka hospital for treatment when he had developed  a heart ailment  because the assault was so fierce and ruthless. As his condition was serious  , he was trnsfered to Matara hospital where he is in a critical condition.

Sadly , the Pitibaddara police have  not  been able to  apprehend any suspect in this grave assault so far, even after 8 days have elapsed. Though the politico of the area is Sagala Ratnayake the minister in charge of the police , the assailants are still at large . The victim is a father of three children and holds a master’s degree.

It is a pity while this is the sorry state  of affairs in the country , the president Maithripala Sirisena while talking about united government and showing concern towards reinforcing the SLFP, is  doing nothing as minister of defense  to take action against the rogues. Instead he  is going around the country singing songs he is incapable of (not realizing politicos are only good at bhaila) while dabbing his face with a one inch thick layer of talcum powder. It is deplorable when one  Rajapakse rogue of the high rung is  being pampered and protected , hordes of rogues of the lower rungs are taking advantage to commit crimes freely and with impunity. 

It is paramount that the president as defense minister and the IGP should take immediate steps to remedy the situation , with a view to protect the law abiding civilians , and the foreign  investors who have come into the country . 

Of course no one can stop anyone’s puerile desire to become a crooner , let alone  a president with grave official responsibilities. He too cannot be denied that right. But , let not the order of national priorities be overturned  , and let not eagerness to become a crooner outrun sureness of one’s onerous responsibilities towards the people. 

In the photo is the injured victim Dayaratne after the brutal attack.

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by     (2015-12-08 20:32:40)

A skills development policy framework for achieving Budget 2016 objectives 

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

The 2016 Budget of the Government of Sri Lanka identifies several key issues facing skills development in the country. Foremost is the familiar story about gaps in the supply of skills and the mismatch between supply and demand. More significant is the identification of the structural problem of 400+ Government training institutions operating in isolation and the more fundamental issue of the examination-centric nature of basic education in Sri Lanka.

A Skills Development Policy Framework for Achieving Budget 2016 Objectives by Thavam Ratna

Staggering External Debt: Lanka’s Economy May Dip Similar to Greece – Economists

08/12/2015

Tax experts and economic analysts cautioned that the country’s economy may take a dip similar to Greece which needed bail outs to avoid defaults on foreign borrowings. Sri Lanka’s foreign borrowing on high interest rates by the former regime have gone into colossal amounts which would be passed on to the people who will have to pay through their nose by way of taxes.

Sri Lanka recorded a Government Debt to GDP of 75.50 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2014. Government Debt to GDP in Sri Lanka averaged 90.83 percent from 1990 until 2014, reaching an all-time high of 103.20 percent in 2001 and a record low of 75.50 percent in 2014.

External Debt in Sri Lanka increased to Rs. 3,181,800 million in June from Rs. 3,069,400 million in March of 2015. External Debt in Sri Lanka averaged Rs. 814,798.55 million from 1986 until 2015, reaching an all -time high of Rs. 3,272,700 million in June, 2014.

Commenting on the 2016 Budget, a tax expert said bridging the budget deficit which is Rs. 740 billion for 2016 will be an uphill task given the staggering loan repayment and the projected global economic slowdown next year.

The deficit for 2016 is up from Rs. 675 billion in 2015. However, certain tax experts commended the move in the Budget to widen the tax net and improve administration.

They said the proposal, which will net in around 60 percent of the affluent class who evade paying taxes, is a praiseworthy move but how the government proposes to achieve this feat is left to be seen.

Tax consultant and Partner Gajma and Co., N.R. Gajendran said the government has focused on wooing more FDIs to the country by slashing corporate tax, revising the land lease tax and doing away with the dividend tax for shareholders outside Sri Lanka.

“Policy makers should focus on stimulating more FDIs, promoting exports, research and development, encouraging innovation and investment in human resources development, if it is to get to the next level of development,” Gajendran said.

With regard to income tax being increased from 12 percent to 15 percent for value-added exports, he said we need to see the total picture. Today, the cess on exports has been removed and the devalued rupee is a big advantage for exporters. No country has an income tax structure as low as Sri Lanka. An increase from 12 percent to 15 percent will not have a major impact on exports, he said.

Tax experts said the land alienation policy adopted in the past sent a negative signal to foreign investors who were uncomfortable investing in Sri Lanka. Foreigners could not buy land. There was an upfront cost of 15 percent which meant the cost of commencement of business shot up. The move to revise land lease tax in the Budget will show the country’s appetite for foreign investors and the space for development.

The reduction in VAT (Value Added Tax) by around 3-4 percent will offset the increase of PAL (Ports and Airport Levy) and NBT (Nation Building Tax) which have been increased from 5.0 to 7.5 percent and from 2 to 4 percent, experts said.

However, industrialists said the revision of PAL and NBT will have an adverse impact on capital investment programs.

It has also been proposed to introduce the Revenue Administration Management Information System (RAMIS) in 24 institutions.

Gajendran said the measures taken to simplify the tax system and improve tax administration is good. However, the government will have to walk the talk and the private sector will have to keep pace with the rapid changes taking place across the globe.

Director, Taxation Service, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Sri Lanka, Charmaine Tillekeratne said Sri Lanka has become a low tax regime country with the reduction of income tax to 15 percent from 24 percent as proposed in the 2016 Budget.

She said tax concessions have been granted to the agriculture, construction and condominium sector to drive growth. The cost of acquisition of machinery for the agriculture and construction sector will get double deduction.
SO

THAJUDEEN INVESTIGATION REACHES POINT OF NO RETURN

Police report made by the Narahenpita Police in May, 2012, describing the incident as an "accident"

The remains of Wasim Thajudeen being exhumed in August this year.

DEC. 09. 2015

When former Rugby player Wasim Thajudeen’s body was exhumed in August this year, just seven days before a crucial Parliamentary election, some sections of the society thought it would be another ‘election gimmick.’
 Thajudeen Investigation Reaches Point of No Return by Thavam Ratna

Provide lands for the Tamil teachers who has come to the southern schools – Jinadasa Kithulgoda

Dec 08, 2015

Southern Provincial Council JVP member Jinadasa Kithulgoda has presented a proposal to the southern provincial council to provide plots of lands to the teachers who has come from North, East and other provinces to the southern province to teach Tamil language to the schools in the southern districts. The MP stressed that the southern provincial council should provide lands for these teachers and make them permanent in the southern province.

The minister said the teachers attached in other provinces should be permanently kept in the southern province as a permanent solution to the lack of teachers to the Tamil language in the southern province. Therefore we should give permanent lands to them and keep them in the southern province. He said this would be a permanent solution for the lack of Tamil teachers in the southern province.

The MP produced a letter to the provincial council signed by 50 Tamil teachers stating their willingness to permanently serve in the southern province. They said although they came to teach temporarily due to the hospitality of the southern people they would like to serve permanently in the southern province and request the authorities to provide them with permanent residencies.

 

The MP said this would not only serve the lack of teacher’s problem but a positive step towards national reconciliation. 

Defense secretary from loony bin clearly confirms LeN’s Avant Garde exposure :

- ‘Rescinds agreement, ignores laws, imitates MR ; whither justice’

(Lanka-e-News- 08.Dec.2015, 1.35PM) The news report of Lanka e news on 12 th November under the caption ‘President to hand over Avant Garde to Navy : Rescinds agreement, ignores laws, imitates MR ; whither justice?’  was confirmed as absolutely true based on a statement made by the defense secretary  to a weekend (Sunday) newspaper . Poor defense secretary Karunaratne Hettiarachi best  known for his worst tomfoolery has let the cat out of the bag!

Defense Secretary From Loony Bin Clearly Confirms LeN’s Avant Garde Exposure by Thavam Ratna

Two After-Paris Lessons

By Kumar David –December 8, 2015

Prof. Kumar David

Permit me to follow my ‘West Blind to Root Causes of Terrorism’ on 6 December with two comments. Many have contacted me to say the analysis was spot-on but some sharp minds said that while most of it came across ok, two points need to be highlighted. Viz: (a) Much ‘jihadisation’ (bourgeois media and leaders call it “radicalisation”) takes place without contact or conversion by recruiters. (b) The San Bernadino attack was probably a misfiring which has security implications.

What (a) means is that the jihadist message can spread on its own; some people come to the ‘cause’ without being personally canvassed and recruited. As I said on 6 December the big recruiter to jihadism is despair, frustration and downtrodden state of people across the Middle East, especially Palestine. Minus this, those ideologically radicalised by faith alone will shrink. Jihadisation of socially marginalised Western youth is a nexus between their own exclusion (no jobs, living in the dregs) with despair in the Middle East. Even if Daesh is militarily defeated, territory taken back and the Caliphate destroyed, conflict will not go away till socio-political causes are addressed. Alienated people become more, not less radical. Surveillance, control and military offensives, sans solution of root causes will get nowhere. In other words, the current strategy will fail.

Read More

SL should not buy arms from Israel

by Shaahidah Riza : -Dec 07, 2015

"Among those who came to pay the respects were Ehud Olmert, then the Mayor of Jerusalem future prime minister, and Ehud Barak who holds the distinction of being Israel's most decorated soldier....Barak was largely seen as Yitzhak Rabin's designated successor. The expectation was that if elected he would take on the role of peacemaker, a role which Rabin had paid for with his life.

SL Should Not Buy Arms From Israel by Thavam Ratna

Death penalty in Islam

Featured image courtesy TheDailyJournalist

• by Reeza Hameed 
• - on 12/08/2015 

Many Muslims I have spoken to are opposed to the death sentence imposed on the unnamed Sri Lankan housemaid in Saudi Arabia.

The death penalty, in my view, is not in consonance with the spirit of Islam. According to a Hadith in the compilation of Prophetic traditions known as the Mishkat al-Masabih, an adulteress was forgiven for quenching the thirst of a dog. The dog held out his tongue from thirst when she passed by a well. The woman drew off water using her boot, which she tied to the end of her garment, and gave the water she drew for him to drink. We are told that she was forgiven for that act of kindness.

Islam values the sanctity of life. Killing under the guise of punishment denigrates this cardinal principle. Islam does not condone either stoning to death or any other form of killing masquerading as punishment. The imposition of the death penalty in the name of Islam gives the religion of Islam a bad image. Islam was revealed to deliver mankind from ignorance and inhumane practises and as a mercy to mankind.

Compassion is an essential part of the message of the Quran. In the very first chapter of the Quran, God is described as the Compassionate and the Merciful. The Quran reminds mankind of creation in all its forms and declares it as an act of His mercy.

The death penalty is wrapped up in medieval notions about crime and punishment forming part of the fiqh, which is the legal part of the sharia, and refers to the body of principles derived by juristic interpretation from primary sources. On many themes, the sharia provides no more than general guidelines and they have been elaborated by jurists into a detailed body of laws.

The Quran is immutable but juristic opinions are not, and the latter may be reinterpreted to accord with contemporary thinking about crime and punishment. Even during the early centuries of Islam, Muslim jurists debated issues relating to the sharia, including on crime and punishment, as is evident from the differences in opinion that exist among them on various issues. For instance, there is a difference of opinion among them as to what constitutes intentional murder.

Criminal wrongs in Islamic law

The classification of crimes in classical Islamic Law is a construct of Muslim jurists of medieval vintage. The jurists have distinguished criminal wrongs by reference to the punishment that may be prescribed, based on whether it is determined or fixed, or whether it is discretionary. Determined crimes are those for which penalties have been prescribed in the Quran or the Hadith of the Prophet. Where no such penalty is prescribed then it becomes a discretionary wrong.

Jurists have also categorised criminal wrongs as qisas, hudood and ta’zircrimes. Qisas are retribution crimes committed against a person causing physical injury. The punishment for a qisas offence may be remitted either by the victim or his heir on payment of compensation, or waived altogether. In effect, qisas crimes are virtually treated like private wrongs.

A hudud crime has been described as an offence for which a mandatory penalty is required to be imposed. Adultery and theft are hudood crimes, although they are not the only ones. In reality, though, hudud crimes require very strict proof which is virtually impossible to satisfy.

Adultery

Adultery is a hudud crime. Short of a confession, it would be impossible to prove adultery because it requires the testimony of at least four male Muslim eye witnesses of unimpeachable character. They must testify that they saw the offence being committed at the same time.

A confession to adultery is required to be repeated at least on four separate occasions. A person convicted of a hudud crime such as adultery may withdraw her confession at any time before the application of the sentence, whereupon the penalty cannot be applied. Most schools of Islamic law do not permit a conviction for a hudud offence based on circumstantial evidence.

Stoning to death for adultery is not a punishment mandated in the Quran. It is mentioned in the Hadith of the Prophet which is one of the sources from which Islamic law is derived.

Is hudud a crime against God?

The term ‘hudud Allah’ is one that appears in the Quran in many places and is used to signify the limits of tolerable conduct, and to refer to moral guidelines which the Quran has prescribed as righteous conduct. However, it is not used in the Quran to signify punishment for crime. The juristic interpretation has transformed a concept that signified the limits of acceptable behaviour into a crime that is visited with a fixed penalty.

Conventional opinion is that, because a hudud crime is intended to protect the right of God, it is a crime against God, and only Allah can forgive the sinner. This is a debatable notion. God does not require the protection of man. The real objective of a hudud crime is to protect the public interest, and in the case of adultery, to prevent indecency in public and to protect public morals.

The same act may or may not be a hudud crime depending who witnessed it. Adultery witnessed by four women of unimpeachable character cannot be punished as a hudud crime. Likewise, adultery cannot be punished as ahudud crime if the eyewitnesses happen to be non-Muslims.

Theft is classified as a hudud crime and so is rebellion against legitimate authority. How do they become crimes against God?

The God of Islam is compassionate, loving, forgiving, and kind. The Quranic philosophy on crime and punishment does not have retribution as its sole objective. It also encompasses the idea of reformation, repentance and forgiveness. The Quran in many places calls upon the believers to repent, and forgive. The juristic interpretation giving primacy to retribution seems to have foreclosed these further objectives.

In Sura An-Nisa, the verse in the Quran which is cited in support of death as the punishment for adultery, the Quran assures that Allah will accept the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and repent soon afterwards

Qisas

In so far as the death penalty for qisas crimes is concerned, the verse in the Quran that is invoked in support does not in fact support the death penalty. It speaks of the principle of ‘an eye for an eye’ that was prescribed for the children of Israel. It is not prescribed for the Muslims. Indeed, the verse ends by saying that it did not prevent the continuation of killings and excesses being committed.

Islam does not condone the retributive philosophy of an eye for an eye. Muslims believe in the prophet-hood of both Moses and Jesus. The Law of Moses as laid down in the Torah prescribed stoning to death for adultery but Jesus came and revoked it. When the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus and accused her of adultery, and asked Him if she should be stoned, Jesus replied, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus was no sinner but he refused to stone the woman to death. The Prophet of Islam did not revert back to the Law of Moses.

Sharia is not inflexible

The sharia is not an inflexible source of law. Caliph Omar, a companion of the Prophet, refused to enforce the Quranic injunction of amputation on a thief because the crime was committed when there was a famine. Mutilating punishments were hardly, if ever, applied in the Ottoman Empire and 19thcentury Egypt. Many leading jurists have argued that the sharia ought to be adapted to accommodate social change and that it has the necessary tools to accomplish such change.

There are references in the Quran to slavery but no one will condone slavery in this day and age. Every Muslim is obliged to pray five times a day and perform ablution before prayer. How will a woman with an amputated arm perform her ablution, or change her infant child’s clothing?

Finally

The death penalty cannot be condoned as Islamic, or at all. It is contrary to present day notions of justice. The punishment regime of sharia must accord with current realities. It must be tempered with compassion and mercy.

Death By Stoning; The Legal Process

By Mass L. Usuf –December 8, 2015 

Mass L. Usuf

Remember the revulsion and disgust with which our society reacted to the gruesome murder of that angel ‘Seya’ last September. Suggestions for the punishment of the accused at that time ranged from decapitation, to killing by torture, to stoning to death like in the Middle East. The rage was all over their faces and the revengeful fury of the public expressed in their loud voices.

Today, we are concerned about the sentence to death by stoning or lapidation of a Sri Lankan woman in Saudi Arabia. The crime, Adultery.Adultery or zina (in Arabic) is sexual intercourse between a man and a woman not married to each other. This can be classified as illegal sexual intercourse between two married persons or two unmarried persons (fornication) or one of them married and the other unmarried. Note the distinction between adultery and fornication. The married person, male or female will face the death penalty if proven.

An allegation leveled at the Sharia law is that the woman is sentenced to death and the man only sentenced to be flogged. This allegation is false as there is a distinction between adultery and fornication. For example in the present case if the woman was unmarried and the man married, then the man would have been awarded the death penalty. It must be stated that the evidential burden, explained below, to sentence a person to death for adultery is extremely high and very, very difficult to prove.

Like fishing in trouble waters, it would be grossly immoral for anyone to subtly capitalise these sensitive moments and sinisterly condemn Islam as having a barbaric penal system, as an archaic religion and so on. Each of these allegations can be rationally, scientifically and convincingly explained but this is not the place and time for this. Our focus now is to save the life of this woman. To do this we need to have an understanding of the law relating to the matter and I hope the thoughts below will be seen by the relevant people.

Perspective

In Islam, adultery is considered a great sin. It further opens the gate for many other social evils. The Kegalle High Court in December 2013 sentenced a woman and a man to death. The woman who had an extra marital affair conspired with her lover and had murdered her husband. The body was dumped in a toilet pit.

We have seen even in Sri Lanka, how it severely affects the family structure leading to quarrels, suspicion, disoriented children and even murder. Finally, the destruction of the family. It impacts on the laws of property, ruins the reputation of both parties, the dignity of the children and facilitates the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. It also dents the moral psychology of the persons.Read More

Godahewa who illegally gave Rs. 5 million of securities exchange commission to Namal arrested -All suspects remanded until 14 th

(Lanka-e-News- 08.Dec.2015, 1.40PM) The former chairman of securities exchange commision , Dr. Nalaka Godahewa who was absconding arrest was at last taken into custody last morning (7). He was later remanded until the 14 th of December after he was produced before the Fort magistrate Priyantha Liyanage yesterday. 

The ex Director General Dhammika Perera and Director Ronny Ibrahim ,(Carlton sports club Director)  of securities exchange commission were earlier arrested by the FCID on the 4 th, but Godahewa could not be arrrested.  The securities exchange commission became  most notorious during the lawless Rajapakse regime on account of its  monumental corruption .All the suspects were remanded until the 14 th.

During the tenure of office of Dhammika Perera and Godahewa , a sum of Rs. 5 million was illegally granted to Namal Rajapakse the son of Alibaba (the chieftain of the thieves ).This sum had been purportedly given to Namal for his ‘Tharuniyata hetak’ organization supposedly to educate the youths on stock brokering despite the law stating explicitly and expressly that the funds of the commission shall not be used for any purpose otherwise than stock exchange affairs. 

The signatories to this payment approval for Namal were Dhammika Perera and Nalaka Godahewa. These Directors perhaps thought by helping the so called Tharuniyata hetak , they can gain under ‘ horata hetak’ program under the last regime  . But to their dismay , Alibaba lost his ‘Rata hooragana kana hetak’ following the political upheaval.
 
The photos show the culprits being taken to remand custody after the arrests. (courtesy Lankadeepa)

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by     (2015-12-08 08:20:49)

Who pays the ferryman?

Wednesday, 9 December 2015
Those coming from a different and perhaps saner environment will find it difficult to understand why the medical profession in Sri Lanka is threatening strike action on the basis of a withdrawn privilege; the right to import a duty free car. In more evolved environs it will be very unusual for there to be a tax imposed, and then to have various groups exempted from it due to pressures exerted on the government by them.  
It will also be unacceptable for a government to impose a general tax on the people and exempt their MPs from its application, one of the reasons being the obvious hypocrisy of such a course of action. The imposer of the tax does not want to be subject to it! In their understanding (those coming from saner environments) tax is the primary way of contributing towards the society you live in, paying your dues to the polity, sharing in the wider development and the providing of services.
The doctors in Sri Lanka, for that matter doctors anywhere in the world, do not fall within the definition of the needy or underprivileged. On the contrary, as a group, they command a life style far above the average. While those doctors in government service are on a high salary scale relative to other public servants, in private practice money just flows in to their pockets. 
The demand for medical attention is such, whether really needed or not is another issue, which a doctor rarely spends more than a few minutes with a patient. (It is said that the vast majority of those who crowd medical clinics would have been cured naturally with a few days rest and perhaps a Disprin or two – a case of the ignorant unnecessarily elevating a service provider.) 
While the standard of basic medical service in the country is claimed to be good, if compared with the poorer countries, it is still a fact that those who can afford it, including the politicians, prefer a place like Singapore for treatment where we are told the professional standards are a world apart.
While their very function arms them strongly in the demand for duty free concessions for imported vehicles, we must not forget the rest, including those earning fixed salaries in both public and private sector; hard pressed to buy their family vehicle on account of the exorbitant import duty imposed. The doctors, have the coercive means to demand a privilege and are well aware that to deny them will be costly for the government. Given the social and political realities of the country, the government must but succumb to the demands of the doctors. 
To a person, every doctor in Sri Lanka, from kindergarten to becoming a doctor has studied at the cost of the tax payer. Compared to other disciplines, study of medicine is expensive. For each doctor, the tax payer of a poor nation has spent loads of money. Obviously, that is not enough, a life time of concessions, priority and privileges must be provided.
But in the backdrop of an inescapable social decay, this uninspiring scenario of unionised doctors threatening strike action is not exceptionally grim. The tragedy is that such conduct could even be considered as representing the everyday moral temper of our times, the way to do things, the standard. In no way are the doctors solely responsible for the attitudes, habits and outlook that brought about this culture. The inclination to squeeze out any benefit from the system, using ones position to obtain every advantage, exploiting each situation to gain profit in one form or the other, owes its legitimacy to another much more powerful phenomenon: the political mores that grips our society now.
At least the doctors are in a position to argue that they are practicing medicine in order to earn their bread and butter and perhaps a little more .It is nothing more than that. Hippocrates lived in Greece 500 years B.C. and any oath in his name has little bearing in our distant and disparate culture and clime! Given the prevailing ethos, such fine oaths and ideals have no meaning or bearing. 
The politician, on the other hand, tells us that he is not taking to politics to make a living. He has ideas, resources and skills which will make our lives better. He only wants to enrich us, not be enriched by us!
Clearly the political establishment of our country has no moral right to ask the doctors to pay the duty on their imported vehicles. How could they, when the first thing the politicians, who have the power to decide such things, have done is to exempt themselves from paying the duty on their cars? It is not as if they are lacking in vehicles. The entire fleet of their Ministries is there to be used and abused by them. Even their family members are driven about in the sleekest vehicles available in the market. Those vehicles are only one aspect of the plethora of benefits that our so called leaders have allocated to themselves. All that is not enough, they must also be given duty free vehicles which can be sold later at a tidy profit.
Undoubtedly, the lowering of moral restrains in public matters reached its nadir during the Rajapaksa regime. When it came to the Rajapaksa family, there was no distinction between private and public. Any need or wish that occurred to a Rajapaksa was immediately turned in to a public cause. In the ensuing hullabaloo, businessmen, pressure groups, lobbyists jostled with each other to make their deals with the family. The only requirement, which was absolute, was the grovelling acknowledgment of the primacy of the ‘first’ family. It is amazing that those guilty of such conduct still function, with no accounting for their abjectness before something so primeval and faulty. With that heavy cloud now lifted, it is difficult to imagine that village ruffians, hangers on and con-men; so limited, self-content and trivial, held the fortunes of 21 million people firmly in their coarse hands for so long. 
With the Rajapaksas gone, the vulgarity of a ruling family has receded. But alas, nepotism, politicisation and abuse of power which they thrived on and attempted to legitimise, remain very much the theme of the times. The only difference seems to be that politicians are now obliged to publicly condemn nepotism and corruption. But in the everyday reality we see not only the continuation but even the encouragement of these evils. Clearly, the stubborn stains on the minds, institutions and systems so soiled, are not that easy to remove.
Looking at the 70 years of our post-independence evolution, the glaring feature hitting you straight in the eye surely is its utter mediocrity. We still remain a poor country, troubled and uncertain. Our main income source is from remittances of blue collar workers in the oil producing countries of the Middle East. Not a single service we are provided with, is of high quality, leave alone world standards. Even the tea we sip is made of the dust of the leaf, the best part of it being exported! Overall, there is little to inspire us and there are so few role models around. From the parliamentarians to professionals, businessmen to bureaucrats much is to be desired, and much more to be forgiven for. Everywhere epigones, inferior and inadequate imitators of the role, rule.
In the context, if an elected politician can have the duty lifted for a private vehicle, what justification is there to impose a duty on a doctor, or for that matter on anybody else wanting a car? Equally, if an employee is not to be given a pension, what right has a parliamentarian to a pension, and that after the barest of service?
But eventually, somebody has to pay the ‘ferryman’.
Nearly every morning I cross a train coming towards Colombo. It is jam-packed with office workers, some even hanging on dangerously to the door handles and windows of the fast moving train. In their desperation to be on time, heavy risks are taken. Accidents are common on such crowded trains. It is sad that the bill ultimately ends up with people like those commuters, powerless and helpless.