Letters to the Editor

Vehicles for our MPs: Why luxury ones?
The Sunday Times of August 22 carried a front page news item headlined "CoL soars, MPs want luxury vehicles''. The story is a glaring example of how concerned our politicians are about the citizens of this country.

It is immaterial which political party these politicians represent. It appears that no sooner they enter Parliament than they demand a luxury vehicle! With no exception, MPs in every government have been eyeing luxury vehicles even before they have shown any results which would prove that they really deserve such luxury.

Sri Lanka is a poor country, which is struggling to get out of the economic mess that politicians have created. We go around the globe with "a begging bowl" asking for aid on the pretext that aid is needed for poverty alleviation or whatever other excuses we can make to look pathetic enough to gain sympathy. Who pays for this? Certainly it is not those who borrow the money, but a few generations who are yet to be born.

Our country does not look or act like a Third World country when one sees the latest Benz cars, BMWs, Pajeros, Monteros, Prados and even Jaguars flying past on our rutty narrow roads. Our MPs already have the latest cars to transport them to parliament and back for which they are paid an allowance. Vehicles are given to the MPs to serve their constituents and steer the country towards economic prosperity - not for them to waste public funds and allow their kith and kin to live luxurious lives at public expense.

One Sinhala newspaper headline caught my attention. It read, "Apita Puthe Watura Nathe, Api Marunath Wagak Nethe''. This headline captured the gruelling experience of a drought-hit people who had not had a square meal. Their children are undernourished due to poverty with the soaring cost of living making even their basic needs a luxury. They do not have proper transport systems that will take them to sources of water 10 kilometres away.

On the other side of the coin, we hear of politicians demanding luxury cars. Dear MPs, please do visit our rural folk who are starving for months, children who cannot afford to go to school for lack of books and uniforms before you demand luxury vehicles. When a suggestion was made to increase the cost of a meal at the MPs' cafeteria in the parliamentary complex, our MPs asked for an increased food allowance! Do you know how many citizens of this country are dying of hunger? Shame on you!

One needs a vehicle (no doubt it must be in good working order) to go from one point to another to attend to official or private work. To do this, one does not need luxury vehicles. A basic vehicle would do.

Permits for the import of luxury vehicles are given not for the MPs to do business by selling them and make profits. It appears that we see politicians on house-to-house visits on foot only until they enter parliament!

Bloody horror at 'sacred' Mahiyangana
They say Mahiyangana is hallowed ground. Or was? The Sri Lankan habit of spoiling most things has surely erased "hallowed" from its present description. What do you call a spot, harbouring for the past 12 years an illicit abattoir, slaughtering cattle, goats, pigs, fowl and that, too, in the vicinity of the Pradeshiya Sabha, Police Station and the Viharaya? (We are grateful to the TV station revealing this, and all other media personnel, who expose hidden horrors).

"The butchers were asked to go away, but they didn't. So what to do except wait until they find another place?" an official lamented. As the programme presenter pointed out, when a man is evicted in 24 hours from a house he is illegally occupying, why are butchers allowed to keep their illicit abattoirs, even after being caught? Surely there is something wrong with the law or its administrators.

Apart from powerful protectors of the trade, who rake in the bloody dividends, we hear the safest way to run an illicit slaughter house, without protest, is to dole out packets of meat periodically, laced with arrack. If the police do not enforce the law, who will? This being Mahiyangana dare we ask the Buddha Sasana Minister to go into action, even after 12 long years, to step the blood of the gruesomely slaughtered innocent soaking into its soil?

Halal food at star hotels: Guidelines for Muslims
This refers to an item in the Jungle Telegraph that appeared in The Sunday Times of August 22. The story was about the Hilton Hotel's pork-mixed dishes which were served to Muslims.

I would like to make some suggestions for Muslims to think about before having their meals outside. It is important for Muslims to understand the concept of Halal (permitted) when it comes to food. Meat of swine, animal or bird which uses its claws to grip the food, or meat of any animal which is not slaughtered according to the Islamic rites is not permitted for consumption (haram). One should make sure that his food does not contain any of the above. It is also important to know the ingredients used to prepare one’s meal. For example, a fish curry might contain oil extracted from any of the above. Any food or beverage containing alcohol is also prohibited. Even a vegetable dish could become haram if it is prepared using the kitchenware which was used to cook pork.

Most luxury hotels and fast food restaurants in Sri Lanka serve pork and other haram food. Even star class hotels do not have separate kitchens or kitchenware to prepare halal foods. According to Islamic teachings, if you are not certain that a particular food item is halal or haram, you should avoid it.

Nobody can be converted by force: A Buddhist’s experience
I was fortunate to do my secondary school studies at S. Thomas' College, a premier Anglican institution. Also for my advanced level studies I had the privilege of attending Aquinas University College, a Roman Catholic institute. To cap it all, I got the opportunity to complete an undergraduate course at Ein Shams University in Egypt, a country where the religion of the majority is Islam.

But right throughout this education process, nobody ever tried to convert me. In fact once, in order to avoid a special English class for non-Christians at STC, I sought permission from the warden to join the divinity class. But he, in spite of being an Anglican priest, turned down my request as he saw my motive.

Another incident I recall was at lower school at STC when our Sinhala and Buddhism teacher asked whether it was the Sinhala race or Buddhism which was more important. The teacher being none other than Arisen Ahubudu considered that the Sinhala race was more important and I was judged wrong when I chose Buddhism to be more important.

My mother was a Buddhist and my father a Marxist, but it was only my grandmother who influenced me on Buddhism. Her late husband Kuruwita Arachilage Peter Appuhamy was the one who laid the first brick of the Koth Kerella of Ruwanweli Maha Seya at Anuradhapura, when the excavation started in 1935 to bring it to the present state. (Dinamina 1935 Aug 21). It was a family tradition to go on annual pilgrimage to Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura. During school holidays, my grandmother took us grandchildren

to our temple at Imbulana. The Viharadhipathi, Ven. Ellawela Sri Siddhartha Anunayaka Thera of Malwatte Chapter, took pride in practising his English with us and never criticised us for attending an Anglican school.

We were also exposed to the Kadadara Patthini Devalaya where we got blessed by the sacred anklet. However, we were free to choose our own religion. We don't need legislation to stop conversions because nobody can be converted by force.

Even when the Union Jack was flying high in this island, the colonial masters could not convert the people by force. A classic example was Saradiel, the Robin Hood of Ceylon. He was finally caught and found guilty of murder and was to be hanged in Kandy. During his last days in prison, Rev. F.D. Waldock had visited him for the purpose of conversion. Saradiel had listened courteously to him when he expounded the tenets of Christianity, but stoutly refused to change his faith. He was a Buddhist and died a Buddhist. (The Real Ceylon- by C. Brooke Ellot. K.C. 1938.)

A person's faith is a personal thing like a person's love. Nobody else buys it, dictates to it or destroys it. Only the believer has access to the nectar of devotion.

Sri Lankans need not panic about religious conversions, and their religious leaders need not waste their time and energy enacting laws to protect the Buddhists. Nobody can convert anyone by force. The final say is ours, and if we do not want to get converted, that is it.

But if we want to get converted, no amount of laws will be able to stop us. As Ven. Thibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatte Chapter has correctly stated, "there are other ways to stop the Buddhists from being converted."

When will they stop killing?
Another human being was gunned down in broad daylight: "They" claim that it is the price for betrayal. How long are the slayings going to go on?

The forlorn look on the victim's innocent children's faces and the misery portrayed tell us, "Please, you have made us fatherless, do not make the others too suffer the same plight; stop the executions, leave us in peace". But do they intend listening? No, they will persist until all are devoured -- each and everyone who opposes them.

Just a hue and cry
Daily we read of and hear about gruesome murders, incidents of rape, thuggery, misappropriation, sex-scandals, etc. What's done? Only much publicity - and then everything is swept under the carpet!

It's sad and disgusting that there is no justice - anyone can do anything and get away! I wonder when we in Sri Lanka could all live in peace?

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