I refer to the article in the Letters to the Editor column of The Sunday Times of June 29 titled ‘Teach them the value of human life’ by Dr. Mrs. Mareena T. Reffai. While I agree with Dr. Reffai on the major portion of her article, regrettably it looks at only one aspect of the problem. In today’s context, with Sri Lanka rated as one among the highest suicide record countries in the world, I think we have to look into this problem with a view to curbing this in every possible way and the only way to achieve results is to identify the vulnerable segments.
I have worked as a Counsellor for both government and non-government institutions and have experienced all sorts of suicide-related incidents. Out of many such incidents, one particular area I think that could be totally eradicated is, stopping a person inducing another person to end his/ her life. However this can only be done, if our country’s laws are changed to hold a party leading another to end his/ her life to be guilty of homicide.
A true story of such an incident that took place almost two years ago comes to my mind. I have slightly changed the story for obvious reasons.
The incident relates to a friendship between a young man and a girl. The two in their early twenties, were lost in a world of their own and were soon seen visiting hotels down south and attending late night parties.
However, as years went by, a few problems came between the couple, which is nothing but natural between lovers. However, the girl alleged by her friends to be a vicious type, bottled up her slow but rapidly building up temper and one day, over a minor dispute, decided to end the affair.
Obviously, the young man was taken by surprise at this sudden move and he tried other methods to patch up the dying love. The girl backed by her mother, in order to avoid any taint on her family, started spreading vicious stories among the boy’s friends and relatives, while the girl’s father tried everything possible to control the situation. The young man , who could not control his emotions, finally decided to end his life.
It is inspiring to note that Annual Awards are being presented to felicitate film personalities taking stock of their performances during the preceding years and judging the best performance in the various fields of cinematography.
However, it is disheartening that personalities like Tissa Nagodavithana, a film lover and one who has contributed much to the preservation of our films of yesteryear has been overlooked. The preservation of these old films is vital as it forms a part of history of our film industry to the present generation and the generations to follow. The old films not only help the older generation to refresh their past memories but also create an awareness in the younger generation of the history of our film industry and those who pioneered to mould it into its present form. I have been noticing with interest that in his archives of old films Nagodavithana seems to be preserving some of the most popular and older Sinhala and Hindi films. Personally I owe him a deep sense of gratitude for this magnanimous endeavour.
Hence in recognition of this worthy service to the film industry in the preservation of these old treasures of a bygone era, it is my humble view that it would be justifiable for the appropriate authorities to consider presenting him a fitting award for such services in keeping with the other awards.
I could recollect Gamini Fonseka, the popular film star and a man of many parts, having expressed his views in this regard during one of his interviews on the T.V recently. I presume he too would endorse my suggestion and do his utmost in consultation with the authorities concerned to implement same at least at the next Annual Festival of Awards.
With the deregulation of the Telecommunication sector, several private operators have entered the Telecommunications market providing basic Telecom and value-added services. Under these circumstances it is essential that in the interest of subscribers that the government keeps an eye on the standard of services provided by these private operators.
Recently I won a promotional offer from an Internet service- providing Company which gave me unlimited Internet access for a flat rate of Rs 1800 per month. After two months, the service deteriorated to such an extent that for two whole months I was unable to log in to their service because their access phone numbers were busy 99 percent of the time. Even on a couple of times I logged in, I was not able to down load anything from the web and the phone line was cut abruptly. Still they continued to send me the bills for the services which I was not able to use. When I declined to pay, they sent me a letter threatening legal action to recover the amount due.
In Sri Lanka, the Director General of Telecommunications of the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Authority has the regulatory power of issuing licenses for Telecommunication Services and monitoring the standard and quality of service provided. It is high time that these regulatory powers are exercised ..
There is little doubt that the socialist and labour friendly policies of pre- 1977 regimes have contributed to the current problem of unemployment and associate problems of terrorism.
The current labour laws are overprotecting the already employed and discourage employers from expanding their activities or introducing labour intensive technologies. When the country has a large number of unemployed hands and over 200,000 join the market every year we should adopt more practical approaches to solve the problem than think only of the next election. Also I firmly believe that without a plan to provide employment it would be very difficult to convert a terrorist to give up arms.
Only if you could give them the assurance of employment they could be coerced in to the mainstream and it would be a better idea than political packages for the LTTE.
My suggestion is to introduce an amendment act of labour and to establish an office associated to the BOI to approve industries and employment on different conditions to that of existing labour laws. This authority should approve employment of currently unemployed youth on’ the following conditions.
(a) Forming or joining labour unions should be allowed only after completion of 10 years of service.
(b) No recourse to labour tribunals on unfair dismissal.
(c) No rights for labour union action such as work to rule and work stoppages.
(d) No rights for compensation on discontinuation of service,.
(e) No entitlement for EPF or ETF but instead a 5% payment at the time of leaving the service irrespective of the number of years service.
(f) A total of 24 days leave for a year other than Saturday half days and Sundays.
If leave is required for poya or religious festivals, sick, casual or annual leave, such leave should be taken from the annual entitlement.
(g) Minimum salary of Rs. 2,500 a month for 9 hours a day work excluding lunch break.
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