28th March 1999

• Then there were thugs, but now they rule
• Look again brother
• Execute justice and punish the offenders
• Lies, nothing but lies
• Cigarette, phone and wheel in hand
• Where are those richly illustrated reports?
• This is not a road
• Don't mix religious emotions and nationalism

Then there were thugs, but now they rule

To use a trite phrase, Sri Lanka is entering a new era, but sadly this is an era of thugs. Never in our history have thugs ruled this country. Earlier, thugs were there. But today they rule. The Wayamba polls strengthened their position and the rest of the Provincial elections could make them even emperors.

Thugs supported by politicians and the police now rule this country. Imagine six members of a family were killed and people feared to even inform the police. Recently a thug was killed in Kiribathgoda by other thugs and orders were even given on how to conduct the funeral.

Land grabbing also goes on unabated in this country. Can any person fight a land case in courts after the Hokandara murders. Recently in the Puttalam district a thug lost his property case in the courts, but he set fire to the property. The persons who got justice from the courts lost the property due to thuggery.

Can an ordinary citizen complain to the police as no one knows about police links with thugs. Recently a newspaper reported that the notorious Nawala Nihal was allegedly connected to a top cop. Imagine the plight of a person reporting about this thug to the police. Even the people at Hokandara had feared to report the case because this thug had alleged connections with the police.

Apart from these incidents of blatant thuggery, even the car park at a certain hospital is controlled by thugs.

Airport taxis are also controlled by thugs allegedly backed by politicians.

Voiceless person
Nawala

Look again brother

Listen to me
Have you heard of
Someone who is
Shot by your gun.
Give thought to it
now you will know
Indeed it was so
What has been
Gained by the victorious
Napoleon, Churchill,
Hitler and Mussolini
Poverty,
Hatred,
Deformity,
Look again
At the gun
Are you not aiming at
Killing a life
Like yours
Someone questions you, Don't you love
Yourself
The reply, 'yes'
Will issue forth
So rapidly as a
Gunshot wound
Then, Dear Brother
Think it to
Yourself

Rev. Ibbawala, Pannarama

Execute justice and punish the offenders

From the spate of letters that has been appearing for quite some time in the daily and weekly newspapers, it would appear that the most vociferous among them were about incidents of rape and gruesome murder. There was an islandwide outcry for the re-enforcement of the Death Penalty.

Death sentences imposed by a Court of Law were commuted to life imprisonment in 1977 under the J.R. Jayewardene regime and violence and crime have escalated in most alarming proportions since then. This country which had the sanctity and the noble reputation of being called a "Dharmadweepaya" for the past centuries has since been blemished in the wake of such horrendous, dastardly and shocking acts of gruesome murder and violence.

It is however, gratifying to note that even at this late hour, the President has announced that death sentences for murder and drug trafficking have been re-introduced and also that death sentences imposed by Courts on such counts will be carried out in future.

It should be admitted that the lowering of moral and spiritual standards in society consequent to the spread of the habitual use of narcotic drugs have been a contributory factor to the growing rate of crime. It is also learnt that a more stringent policy with regard to the grant of remission of sentences would be followed in future.

Throughout history, during the past two decades in particular, it was evident that a liberal policy of granting remissions to those convicted has been followed and Presidential pardons granted and some even elevated to high positions in society. This category of criminals set free had virtually become notorious figures of the underworld and become stooges of certain political parties. This liberal attitude towards criminals by the previous regime and interference with the law authorities by certain politicians had aggravated the erosion of both traditional and human values as well.

In this context, life sentences were no threat to these convicts for they had only provided them with a few years of free board and lodging at state expense and had further afforded them better opportunities of committing worse crimes after being released on a general amnesty.

The politicians too have a vital role to play. They should rise above politics and allow the appropriate authorities to execute justice and punish the offenders. Police officers, in particular, should add their strength and resources to the enforcement of the law without being stooges of politicians since society has to be protected from the criminal elements in democracy.

Don Sarath Abeyesekera,
Bandarawela

Lies, nothing but lies

Lie. Wishful, deliberate.
Nothing but lie.
Repeats and continues
Resolute and incessant
Big very big double nays
Huddled together, blended transmuted
Jettison yea, single and solitary
Emphatic and energetic
As if by magic, even if it's logic
It's same even to the lie
Vert and vituperative
Transgrified discoloured
First to grey
Then to white, milky white truth
Perpetual and immaculate!

- S.S. Selvanayagam

More Letters to the Editor

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