Ceylon Today Editorial

TREAT EX-LTTE CADRES AS NORMAL CITIZENS

05 January 2017

Due to unforeseeable circumstances, this year started off with a series of protests around the country. As the first of January dawned, paving the path to a brand new year, several groups were getting ready to protest against the government. Thus, three days into the New Year, the country faced another protest, even before the previous one ended.

A group of rehabilitated LTTE cadres thus engaged in a protest opposite the Civil Defence Camp in Iranamadu, Kilinochchi recently. The protestors demanded that the government quickened the process of providing job opportunities at the Civil Defence Department or any other government institution.

The rehabilitated LTTE cadres had claimed that several years have passed since they were taken into custody by the government, rehabilitated and reintegrated into society, but they have not been provided with permanent jobs, despite many promises.

Further grievances were how various government officials, mostly politicians came and promised, during the period that they were in rehabilitation, that they would be provided with either self-employment or other jobs, but now it is difficult for them even to obtain a Grama Niladhari Certificate.

The protestors said that both, government and private banks have refused to grant them loans, and the government has also deprived them of the allowance being paid to the disabled.

This problem is not specific to the rehabilitated LTTE cadres for it is public knowledge that politicians promise job opportunities right before an election, only to conveniently forget about it afterwards. These false promises and elections go hand in hand when it comes to our politicians and is probably something that would not never change.

The problem lies within the system where the populace still falls for these lies, despite historical proof of contradiction. Many a politician has made this very same false promise and almost all the time never delivered them.

The current government, especially Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe boasts of providing one million jobs to the youth of the country – a promise that has remained constant for a long time. It is not easy to deliver on such promises when the government is bombarded with so many other problems. But the least they can do is wait, without making blanket statements to get political mileage and act upon the promises once the time is right.

As the promises are out there, it is high time the government delivered on them. If what the government boasts about is correct and its stance on rehabilitating former terrorists is true to the cause, then these individuals should be given immediate jobs at government institutions. If the rehabilitated LTTE cadres are qualified enough and trained appropriately, there should not be any delays in them being provided with job opportunities in the public sector.

There is one more thing that should change. This concerns not just the government but the entire country. We, as a nation, should change our perspective on these individuals. Even now, there are individuals who tend to look at rehabilitated LTTE cadres in a crooked fashion. Our stereotypes still perceive them as the former terrorists they once were forced into war or not.

This has to change. Therefore, rehabilitation must go both ways. The ex-cadre members have to wash out memories of their gruesome training, the bloodshed, the military depersonalization they had to undergo in order to become a normal citizen of a society. This is not a smooth process and takes years to successfully achieve. But the society he or she enters, never goes through this process.

We, as a society, are riddled with stereotypes and rarely do we change. Once a rehabilitated fighter re-enters society he or she is faced with numerous issues due to this, made obvious by the grievances called forth by the protestors of being ill-treated.

This has to change. If our collective mindset does not change, if our perceptions do not change, then we cannot move forward as a country. Simply put, we would be alienating a certain sector of our own citizens due to their past, based on our ill informed opinions and stereotypes. This cannot be allowed to happen. The government has a major role in changing this situation. And one must also remember, that a good example of this segregation politics played a major hand in the last Presidential election. Segregation never works.

Daily News Editorial

BIA expansion

05 January 2017

The resurfacing of the sole runway at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA, IATA code CMB) which begins tomorrow was a long overdue measure. It was last repaired in 1986, exactly 30 years ago and in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) safety regulations, would have been safe for airliners only for one more year.

This measure will result in a temporary loss of revenue for Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited and SriLankan Airlines, in the form of flights and ground handling services for the period of closure – flights will take off and land only from 4.30 p.m. to 8.00 a.m. until April 6. However, we are told that many reputed airlines are literally waiting in the wings to start flights to Colombo once the runway overlay is complete. One prime example is Silk Air of Singapore, which will fly to Colombo for the first time just two days after the project is completed (April 8). This will benefit the airport and the tourism industry in the long run.

This is just one part of the massive US$ 400 million expansion project planned for the BIA in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which has helped the BIA on many earlier occasions. BIA, which was designed for just 6 million passengers annually, is already bursting at the seams with more than 8.5 million passengers. The expansion project that includes new international and domestic terminals, with facilities for the Airbus A380, will double the capacity to 15 million passengers. Furthermore, the terminal, to be opened in 2020, would use solar energy and recycled water from a sewage plant for the flushing of toilets. The project would be developed based on the concept of (an) eco-airport with Japanese advanced technology and know-how.

This is essential in the light of increasing tourist numbers. Just a few years ago, two million tourists a year seemed to be an impossible target but Sri Lanka will be able to surpass that number this year. The new target is four million arrivals per year. There should be more airline seats into Colombo to make this goal a reality. There are two ways in which this can happen – increased frequencies by existing operators (SriLankan, Emirates, Jet etc.) and new flights by all-new/resumed operators (Silk Air, Gulf Air etc.).

The losses incurred by the runway closure could have been mitigated if we had a second runway at the BIA. This has been discussed for decades, but political, logistical and environmental concerns have kept it on the drawing board. However, the Government should explore this possibility even now. Another option is to expand the Ratmalana Airport (IATA code RML) – again, there are similar considerations. Most cities, even in developing countries, are opting to have two or more airports as passenger numbers increase – Dubai, Manila and Bangkok have two, London has four and so does Moscow.

One may ask why Mattala (Hambantota Rajapaksa International Airport, IATA code HRI) does not come into this picture. Indeed, the authorities had requested airlines to use Mattala in the interim period and the response was a resounding ‘no’. It is easy to understand why – the Mattala Airport has a wrong runway orientation, there is no taxiway, bird strikes are possible and connectivity options to Colombo are still minimal. It is an airport built in the middle of nowhere. The money spent on Mattala, a staggering US$ 200 million, could have been spent on expanding Palaly into an international airport. Sri Lanka does need a second airport outside Colombo and Palaly is easily the most promising candidate, followed by Trincomalee.

Now that we are saddled with Mattala, the Government has opted for the next best option of making it viable again. In addition to enticing airlines to fly to Mattala, the authorities seek to promote it as Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) destination as well as a flight training centre. The idea is that Mattala will work as part of logistics chain linking the Hambantota Port and the proposed Hambantota Investment Zone. The extension of the expressway to Mattala and other road transport links will also lend more credibility to Mattala which can also be used as a domestic airport.

Sadly, very little attention has been paid to domestic flights in this country. Many developing countries that are much smaller than Sri Lanka have several domestic airlines offering inexpensive fares. That is a must to spur tourism, because many tourists do not have the time to spend 8-9 hours on the road. Moreover, many Sri Lankans will also opt to fly if the fares are reasonable enough. In neighbouring India, a one-way ticket from Chennai to Bengalaru (roughly the same distance from Colombo to Jaffna) costs around Sri Lankan Rs.10,000. If we have a few short-haul, sub-100 passenger aircraft a good domestic service can be launched after upgrading our airports. The authorities must give serious thought to this too to develop the country’s aviation sector which will receive an overall boost from the massive BIA development drive.

The Island Editorial

What’s in a date?

05 January 2017

Celebrities are prone to disturbances of all sorts which they have to learn to live with. They have to grin and bear it even when intrusions are made into their private affairs. This is the price they have to pay for being famous! Some of them are not spared even after they go the way of all flesh!

It was reported last year that a group of archaeologists who used ground-penetrating radar to scan Shakespeare’s grave traced his skeletal remains sans his skull which had once protected the most prized part of his anatomy. Some grave raiders had not given two hoots about the poetic admonition on the Bard’s tomb: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear to dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones/And cursed be he that moves my bones."

Now, researchers tell us that one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, Hamlet, has been dated wrongly and the error has been in plain sight all these centuries. Those who thought the play had been written in early 1601 while Elizabeth was still on the throne stand corrected. Some scholars who conducted a study on the play have pointed out that it was, in fact, completed two years later during the reign of James I. What’s in a date? A Shakespearean play, even if wrongly dated, remains as great!

Why on earth should anyone scan Shakespeare’s tomb or try to determine the dates of his peerless creations? His works are ageless; all one should do is to sit down and enjoy them. However, Prof. Gary Taylor, who, together with others, conducted the aforesaid study on Hamlet, has made a very interesting observation.

Shakespeare knew which side his bread was buttered; he used his genius to curry favour with the rulers of the day. Taylor has said the need to flatter the king would have been foremost on the Bard’s mind when he finished Hamlet ‘because one of James’s first acts was to appoint Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, as his own official players, allowing them to rename themselves the King’s Men’.

Drama was a very powerful medium in times of yore and, therefore, dramatists were a force to be reckoned with owing to their ability to shape public opinion and their iconoclastic tendencies. (One may recall what Earl of Oxford Edward de Vere says in Anonymous, a movie which shows the Bard in a bad light––"Words will prevail … not swords.") The King may have thought of rewarding the crème de la crème of the dramatists of the day so that he would have some peace of mind. His method worked; the Bard reciprocated. As for Hamlet, the inclusion of a regime change in Denmark following the demise of Claudius and Hamlet with Fortinbras being crowned was meant as a parallel to James’s ascension to throne after Elizabeth’s death, Taylor argues.

Thus, one learns that much as the Bard had greatness thrust upon him, he had a weakness for ingratiating himself with the rulers just like our popular artistes who, having benefited from the former regime, are dancing attendance on the current rulers. Our King’s Men have apparently taken a leaf out of Shakespeare’s book in insinuating themselves into the court of the reigning monarch. If only they had the ability to create plays like Hamlet! Their comedies make us weep and their tragedies are rib-ticklingly funny! They produce tele-dramas like films and flicks like soap operas.

That the Bard was blessed with business acumen is fairly well known. In 2013, a group of researchers from Aberystwyth University in Wales described Shakespeare as a ruthless businessman who grew wealthy by dealing in grain during a time of famine. They argued that one could not fully understand the Bard unless one studied his ‘often overlooked business savvy’. He has also been called a hoarder, moneylender and tax dodger. Going by claims made by Taylor et al anent Hamlet one may argue that studying the Bard’s political acumen is also a prerequisite for understanding him properly.