Letters to the Editor

Targetting poverty and enslaving the receiver
Many letters have appeared of late in various newspapers expressing fears, deep concerns and even anguish about the possible consequences of the proposed "Anti-Conversion Bills," to be tabled in Parliament shortly. A commonly accepted psychological syndrome is that it is only those with guilt complexes and other designs that quail before the law. The upright and righteous hardly ever entertain such fears.

Although there is a created perception that it will only be the Buddhists, who will stand to benefit by these laws, this is manifestly not true. The Hindus are also largely victims of these insidious and surreptitious conversion practices. In fact, surprisingly, many orthodox Christian groups themselves have recently staged a number of public rallies protesting against the conversion and coercion of their flock into various spurious new fangled religious Christian sects.

There are over 150 listed Christian sects in vogue today, some accepting an "almighty Creator God" some "the power of Jesus" and some others the Virgin Mary and so on. It is indeed perplexing to reconcile how all these variations can flourish at the same time.

Buddhists have no such external divine power to appeal for succour. Hence they have to depend solely on the laws of the land. It must be categorically stated that Christianity can never convert, but the Christians do convert. On the contrary, the Dhamma has converted many intellects, although the Buddhists never convert.

The Sunday Times of July 4 carried the photographs of two graduates who had completed their course in nuclear physics at Cambridge and donned the Bhikku roles asserting that they can see more peace in the Dhamma than in modern physics. Bhikku Bodhi, a Ph. D from America became one of the most acclaimed authorities of the Pali Suttas.

Those who are aware of the history of this country will no doubt recall how Robert Knox spent his captivity in a poor village in the Kandyan Kingdom. It was he who observed 'Take a poor ploughman from the field and wash his mud off and he is fit to rule a kingdom." It was only the pure Buddhist Sinhala blood that coursed through their veins that made them so potentially regal.

The descendants of these very same people now exist in various far- flung hamlets in this country. They may be poor but they are noble. It is this poverty-stricken group that the foreign-funded mercenary NGOs are targeting. Alleviating poverty is praiseworthy. But the subtle insidious sinister and deliberate efforts to convert particularly the younger generation and alienate them from their great cultural heritage is most repulsive and repugnant. Mind you, this great cultural denudation is being perpetrated by a group who themselves have been advised "Don't sell your souls for a mess of pottage." The proposed bill is also thus aimed at preventing the gradual infusion of Christian Sinhala blood into the simple minded, unsuspecting peoples by bribing, duping, luring and cajolery.

Charity in its purest form is to offer one's own personal effects to help another, with absolutely no strings attached. But the NGO charity is the disbursement of foreign funds tied up with other expectations, in fact hooking the receiver and enslaving him.

What is more suspicious is that these NGOs bypass thousands of impoverished Christians, to get at some Buddhists. The poignant situation in Sudan, and the African states gives a grim realistic picture of the aftermath of such Christian charity.

A respectable government must be alive to the various inimical influences that affect the people. It could be physical such as drugs, AIDS etc. It must also be cognizant of any influences that can affect the cultural ethos of its peoples such as pornography, unethical conversion practices etc. Hence the government must be commended that at least now, they have decided to introduce the Anti Conversion Bill.

It is quite clear that all those who truly lay claims to the great historical Buddhist cultural heritage of this country will support this Bill with one accord.

Suicide tragedy exposes lack of police training
The bomb blast that occurred a few days ago is utterly tragic. The constables on duty were very alert to apprehend the suspicious looking woman and remove her from the Minister's office area.

Whilst performing their duty these junior officers however exposed their total lack of basic knowledge with regard to dealing with suicide bombers. Hence they took the suspect to the police station where officers were on duty along with civilians who had gathered on other matters.

I think this suspect should have been handcuffed immediately with her hands behind her to ensure that she could not manipulate the working mechanism of the bomb. She should have been taken to a secluded area for further checks and not to the receiving desk at the police.

Many officers of the police and the forces are yearly sent overseas for advanced training. It is of no use unless on their return they impart their new knowledge to all ranks down to the lowest.

The seniormost police officers should take responsibility for this carnage. Those in authority think that monetary compensation is the be all and end all in times of tragedy.

That is only to save face. They just can't appreciate how it affects the families.
I hope the IGP will express his views on the conduct of the police in this situation.

CMC officials can’t be blamed for all the filth
I read with interest the letter written by Sanath Nissanka of Nittambuwa, regarding fast food outlets in the city of Colombo. I am a retired government servant and a citizen of the city of Colombo for the past 60 years. Mr. Nissanka in true Sri Lankan style had tried to run down one of the few organisations in Sri Lanka namely the Colombo Municipal Council health authorities who are trying to do their duty to the best of their ability in the control of food sanitation and other public health issues.

I would like to state that the Chief Medical Officer of Health of the Public Health Department of the CMC and his staff are carrying out a tremendous task within the city and should be appreciated for what they are doing rather than found fault with. The recent daring raid carried out on a food storage establishment was a good example.

Futhermore, in his letter, Mr. Nissanaka pointed out that food handlers showed scant regard for hygiene, picking their noses and scratching themselves. I am well aware that the Public Health Department carried out a number of training programmes and awareness programmes for them.

However, cleanliness seems to be a national and cultural problem. Are we going to hold this officer and staff responsible for that too? All I have to say to the CMC’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and his dedicated staff is keep up the good work.

Get the information and get cracking on payments
It is well-known that Govt. Pensioners are being pushed from pillar to post by the pension paying authority in Sri Lanka, that is the Provincial Councils. I retired in 1980 after serving the government for 38 years. There was no hitch anywhere when old age particulars were collected after a great lapse of time. This letter is about the information I have received from Sri Lanka that the Provincial Councils have issued a circular to all govt. pensioners calling for some information.

The particulars asked for should be available in the pension files which are now in their offices as they were handed over by the Dept. of Pensions several years ago.

I hope these files are stacked safely and carefully to facilitate the derivation of particulars expeditiously. The only thing to be done is to take an intelligent interest in the process of extracting the required information from these files.

If the information is so important what should be done is to start the work immediately to get the particulars as the pensioners cannot wait long.

I hope the present govt. will take action to expedite the payment of enhanced pensions when and where due, as the pensioners are fighting to make ends meet consequent to the prevailing high cost of living in Sri Lanka.

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