We Are The Travellers

Sri Lanka:Towards a Brighter Future...?

2010-03-10T17:46:00.006+05:30

Recent Political Crisis in Sri Lanka has again raised the concerns of the foreign investors and business community on the future of the country and the risk factors associated with their business activities. Soon after the war ended the foreign investors gained fresh confident regarding the future of the Sri Lankan economy, and with the on going political struggle the confidence again seems to be downsizing.

There was a fresh hope among all parts of the society, not only among business community, regarding the future of the country. Many dreamed Sri Lanka as becoming a developed country. The war effected the Lankan economy enormously for the last three decades, which delayed the economic development compared to many countries. Recently one of the IMF senior officials had mentioned that Sri Lanka's economy would have been equal to that of Malaysia, had the country not come across the war.

Sri Lanka was one the richest country in Asia soon after it gained independence from British. Even the former Singapore prime minister promised his people to change his country like 'Ceylon'. Ironically, today we still dreaming a Sri Lanka like Singapore. It also has to be mentioned that we have abundance of natural resources, while Singapore was to depend every thing on Malaysia, even for the drinking water.

We always used to blame colonization and the war when we talk about our economy. Doubtlessly, these two factors contributed a lot. But they are not the sole reasons. There are more. Obviously it is the mismanagement of the economy. Sri Lankan political culture made it impossible for the independent management of the economy free from the politicians. Even the major economic institutions have been under political pressure and politicised through out the times. Therefore, the country was unable to witness a remarkable economic development. How ever, politicians have always used war as a tool to hide their corrupted policies from the eyes of people and to safeguard their vote banks.

Even today's world's rapidly emerging largest economies such as China, India, and Russia are fighting civil wars and still they manged to build their powerful economies. So truly is it war that effected the economy?

Of course war somewhat effected, but not as a whole.

However, after the war was won by the government and the LTTE was militarily defeated, numerous rooms opened for the country's economic development. Apart from investor confidences, the professionals who loved to work in home country, but had less hope with country's future, started to feel the new breadth of hope.... now they can work, earn, and look after their family from their own home country itself, which they love. This was obviously will reduce the brain drain for a larger degree, which was one of the significant problems country faced for its economic development in the past.

War effected Industries like tourism started boosting along with the peace in the country. People from all over the world got opportunity again to visit the south Asian nation, rich with its historical and natural heritage. Investors were looking at new business opportunities.

Even the grass root level agricultural society felt that it has a brighter future at least from here after.

However recent developments in lankan political arena are not convincing anyone. There are concerns on the true nature of the Sri Lankan democracy. Journalists are feeling under threat. Writers and political columnists select their words carefully and self censor their opinions. This is not the signs of a truly Democratic nation.

Sri Lanka seem to have to travel further to ensure its democracy and ensure that all dreams are not vanished.

Sri Lankan government has an unprecendent opportunity today to integrate all societies in the mainstream politics and to move towards the development. Soon after LTTE was defeated militarily , the whole world raised its eyebrows surprisingly. SL should be the only country that defeated civil rebel group militarily. Now the war is over. Despite the LTTE supporters who still believe in a separate state are campaigning and raising voices , it is doubtful to what extent they can achieve their mission with the given fact of local and international political realities. Because, there is a greater change in the power of equilibrium in international arena, especially power balance is moving towards the eastern powers such India, China, Russia and Iran from western powers, which is why any international pressure from Western countries is hardly making any effect in the local issues.

With keeping this political reality in mind, government has a greater opportunity to integrate all societies in the national politics and move towards a brighter future. Should the government play a wise roll, that ensure the equal rights and opportunity of all communities, even of all segments of Sinhalese society, the country definitely has a brighter future ahead. Any development efforts will be meaningless, had the government keeps rooms for any internal conflict. What ever the party wins in the election this is one of the important issues.

It is extremely important at a time government is seeking two third majority in parliament for the constitutional change, which will have a decisive impact on the at least next five decades history of the country.

This is the time to build the confidence in the hearts of every one , which will automatically develop the nation.

The General Election and The Constitutional Change...!

2010-02-28T22:55:00.002+05:30

Sri Lanka government has stepped into the upcoming general election, eyeing at winning two third majority seats in parliament, which will support the government to implement a new constitution. The political arena is witnessing unprecedently a large number of sports stars and cinema actors contesting in the up coming election.

It is unlikely to expect the split opposition will find a way to defeat the government which seems to be in a strong position. Therefore, besides the regime change, the present observation reveals that the government will win in the election with an over whelming majority, probably will implement a new constitution.

Anyhow, it is too early to predict anything regarding the election results, while still more than one month remaining to the polls. Anything might happen between this period. However, needless to mention this is one of the most crucial elections in the history of the country, since this election is the very first general election soon after defeating LTTE and peace was established in the war torn country.

There are concerns among the various parts of the society on the style or form of the new constitution, that the government is planning to implement, especially on the provisions which will deal with minority issues and the provisions that will provide the political solutions to the ethnic problem.

The international community will have a closer look at the general election and the constitutional provisions since the ethnic war has ended just recently and the government is promising a brighter future to all the communities within the united Sri Lanka.

New Constitutional provisions will reflect the true position of the president weather he is honest with his frequently made statements in public stages “there is no minority- majority difference in this country. Every one is the Children of a single mother”.

The country witnessed the three decade old cruel civil war that resulted in the loss of more than hundred thousand lives and thousands of people displaced internally and externally.

Besides the Fascist methodology imposed by LTTE that number of times attacked civilian targets, no-one can deny that the actions of previous governments is what caused Tamil youth to take weapons. This historical mistake should not be repeated again and again and no-one of the society is ready atleast to imagine another war in the country and the bitter experience of the war time. Thus, the constitution should ensure the equal rights and opportunities for all societies so that any rebel activities which will damage the peace and harmony of the country will be unable to carry forward on a justifiable ground.

It will take some time to bring people in the war effected areas to a normal life and to make them feel as they are the members of this country rather than feeling isolated.

This is time to put words into action. People are reluctant to believe mere words any more. They want some actions to believe the words of politicians. All political leaders both in ruling party and the oppositions have a greater responsibility on their shoulder to design an appropriate constitution to the country that will reflect the feelings of all the communities. This is the time we have to play a greater roll beyond our political differences.

It is definitely true that we will have to bear the sufferings for the next several years, should we make the historical misakes, previous governments made again for the sake of our own self interests and political benefits.

Face Book to Be Banned...?

2010-02-16T14:19:00.004+05:30

Telecommunication sector in Sri Lanka has shown tremendous growth in recent years. Despite the fact that Sri Lanka has high literacy rate, most of the population has not got access to Internet until recently. However, there is a recent growth in Internet usage along with the infrastructure development.

Internet usage was just under 0.5% during the year of 2000, and later in 2008 the rate became 3.7%, according to the statistics of United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

The development in ICT education, thanks to government endeavours and the contribution of private sector institutions, and the high competition among ISP companies has assured the Internet charges to cut down, so that at least some portion of the population to afford, but still has to come down for it to reach all citizens.

The last presidential election is the first ever election in Sri Lankan history, in which Internet propaganda played a major roll at least among the educated young generation. Banners of both candidates were hanging here and there over the Internet in the similar way the posters were hanging on in Sri Lankan streets.

Youth freely express their views on politics, elections and various other issues in Face Book, the most popular social network in Sri Lanka, they have less opportunities to do so in normal social order other wise. This provides opportunities to every citizen to take part in political debates, through which there are possibilities not only to ensure proper governance and democracy, but also to promote mutual discussions among different ethnic groups and to restore the peace among the societies in the past three decades old war- torn nation.

However, there are recent concerns among the masses in various levels that such freedom might be challenged shortly. There are unconfirmed news that claim that some of the websites such as Face Book and Twitter, are to be banned in order prevent misinformation to be spread. Government claims that misinformation those are endangering the national security are spreading among the masses through such online media and there fore, government is to think of 'regulate and control' such media.

Reporters Without Borders has already placed Sri Lanka as one of the countries “under surveillance” 'for using draconian measures to control freedom of expression online', with other countries such Australia, Bahrain, Belarus, Eritrea, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, The United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Zimbabwe”.

However, Anusha Pelpita, Director General of Sri Lanka's Telecom Regulatory Authority said to Lanka Business Online that the institution had not received any order to devise a law yet. "Monitoring websites is not in the TRC mandate. Even if we wanted to, it will take several months to bring in such legislation." She also said.

However, it does not guarantee that such initiatives will not be taken by the government in reviewing at recent experiences at Sri Lanka. China might provide its assistance in case government takes such an initiative.

On the day of last presidential election, some websites such as Lanka e-News, Lanka News Web, infolanka and Sri Lanka Guardian were temporarily blocked just before the presidential election official results were announced. Several international organizations including 'Reporters without Boarders' condemned the move of the government noting that free flow of news and information is significant against massive fraud during an election.

Thus, the government has already taken initiative of censorship in the Internet and anyone can expect it will continue in future as well. Therefore, It can not be ignored the news claiming that government might take some measures to filter some of the Internet contents, particularly, Face Book, thousands of people interact daily.

Most people welcome the move of the regime to ban some pornographic sites sometimes earlier. However, banning sites with political motives will do nothing to the society but evil. media freedom, especially online freedom in our time is foremost necessity for the existence of democracy.

'Were it left to me to decide weather we should have government without newspapers or news papers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter' Thomas Jefferson said in 1787.

People have started to feel the breadth of freedom after the end of war as well as they are enjoying the freedom of expression with the modern technology. Censorship might make people to feel as if they have loosed their freedom again. It will damage the image of the regime in the eyes of locals as well as international community. Masses will never accept a Chinese style regime change.

Government may take several actions in case misinformation are spreading around. For instance, it might have some media establishments that answers the questions of the people. Online media, especially political oriented site should be allowed to function freely without censorship or controls so that government will able be accountable to general public.

Other wise, It will only help selfish politicians to make use of the opportunity for fulfilling their personal interest in the name of national security.

France: Will Niqab Be Banned?

2010-02-15T01:26:00.005+05:30

One of the burning issues in France is the proposed law that supposed to ban women from wearing niqab (Face veils) in public places. The law bans all kind of religious identity from disclosing in public places , regardless of religious background, especially face veil, some muslim and some other religious women are wearing.

The proposed law claims that such kind of 'religious symbols' are contradicting with the country's century old secular tradition. It is expected to be discussed in parliment soon after the regional government elections in march.

Last year France banned all religious symbols that might catch the attention, from using them in schools and public institutions. Women who veil the face will be able to be fined upto 750£ in case the proposed law is approved by the parliament. Only veils that can be seen in France is the one that uncover the eyes, the mostly observable veils in middle eastern counties. . Almost it is impossible to see the Afgan style veils in France that covers whole face. According to recent statistics, only 1900 women wear niqab, which is an insignificant number to introduce a law.

Economist magazine had written recently that France is showing less tolerance with religions due to its bitter experience of struggle with religious leadership in France. When Swiss banned building the 'Minaraths', Nicholos Sarcozy, French President welcomed the move and requested all religious sects to keep their religious identity privately. He had also mentioned sometimes ago that 'hijab' is the symbol of slavery on women. In his words,

"niqab is not welcome in French because, it is contrary to our values and contrary to the ideals we have of a woman's dignity."

Commenting on Sarcozy's statement, Hesham Hasabullah, a writer in Chicaco Tribune said:

"that is very interesting because, there are many billboards in France and elsewhere around the world with scantily-clad women used as props for product advertisements. How is this not also "contrary to the ideals...of a woman's dignity"?

The voices are raising claiming that the niqab or face veil is not religious identity but it is a social aspect. Some human rights activists claim that such imposing regulation will mean denying the rights of women, who want to wear it. It is meaningless to keep wearing niqab in private, since Muslim women do not wear niqab in homes, they wear it only when they go outside.

In my opinion, Face veil is not part of Islamic religious duty, thus I do not think it is necessary. Vast majority of the Islamic religious scholars have similar kind of opinion, while some others claim it is a must do duty.

However, such contradictions can not justify in any circumstances to deny the right of women whom want to veil their face. I have seen many women who wear it willingly, without the pressure from others. Thus face veil will nothing to do with the dignity of women, and their rights should be safeguarded, should they are willing do so.

“The niqab is a cultural practice of several parts of the Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia. Personally, I am against Muslim women here in America or in other parts of the West wearing the niqab, on the basis of the fact that the face veil is not part of our culture. In fact, there must be a way to strike a balance between fidelity to the Qur'an principle of modesty and fidelity to the cultural norms of our people. Many Muslim women have struck this balance here in America quite well, wearing hijab with a distinctively American twist.

Yet, should we ban the face veil altogether? Who am I to say to a Muslim sister, "You cannot wear the niqab," even if I personally do not like or agree with it? If a woman wants to be covered completely except for her eyes, by what authority do I - or my society and government - deny that woman her personal choice?”

Hesham has also mentioned (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com).

There are religious Muslims in France who welcome the move of the government. According to them niqab is not part of the religion and wearing it will alienate Muslims from the main stream French society.

However, finally it is the individual choice of women weather to wear it or not to wear it, thus law banning the dress code or welcoming such move will be completely contradicting with the rights of women . This is against to the secular principles on which France has been established such as democracy, equality, and justice.

There are dangers that other European countries also might attempt to follow the Franch style. It will not appropriate to impose the pre-established value sets to impose on a group of people who are having a different sets of values, that is doubtlessly contradicting with all the established and accepted democratic principles.

This is the time, the dialogue between civilizations is given much more importance; Europe needs immigration from Asia and Africa, especially from Muslim countries to full fill the shortage of workforce due to its ageing population. Therefore, France needs a rapid policy change, so that it can respect the ethnic and cultural diversity, and can manage its increasingly becoming multicultural society on equal grounds despite the fact that they are religious or secular.

Should it fail to do so and can show only less tolerance towards the other cultures, it is better to restrict immigration like China and Japan. But, France has less possibilities to make such choices due to its demographical facts.

Madol Duwa (මඩෝල් දුව)- A Sinhalese Kids Novel

2010-02-12T21:58:00.008+05:30

Madol Duwa is one of the great novels I have ever read. Though a kids novel by nature, it is appropriate for any one to have a great time by reading it. Written by all time celebrated novelist Martin Wickramasinghe, it is one of the nonequivalent adventure novels published in Sri Lanka.

I read the novel just few months ago, though it is more than sixty two years since it was published. It was a time I was reading a lot in Sinhala to improve my language ability in Sinhala, the mother tongue of majority people of Sri Lanka. In addition to language skills, as a linguistically and culturally different person from the ethnic Sinhalese, I gained a great insight regarding the Sinhalese culture from such readings.

In this article, I thought of share some few words on Madol Duwa.

Novel was published in 1947 by Martin Wickramasinghe, the Father of Sinhalese novel literature. Later in 1976, the novelist passed away, the novel was filmed by James Pieris, a leading Sri Lankan Film director, as a television drama, which succeeded commercially.

The location, where the story occurs is Madol Duwa island and Koggala, where the author was born, in the southern part of Sri Lanka.

Summery of the Story

Upali and Jinna, two young boys are the heroes of this story. After Upali lost his mother, his father re-marries. His step mother is hurting him, hence he unlike to stay at home, goes here and there inside the village with other boys and play always, that most of the time hurt and disturb others. After observing this fact his father sends him to a boarding school far away from the village. He stays there at the head master's house. But, he do not like both School and head master. He dropped the school and ran home without informing the head master.

His father punish him for his action. He starts his earlier activities again. This time he faced a trouble and fears that he might be handed over to the police. Therefore, he himself with his friend and the servant at his home, Jinna, ran from home.

Both went to a longer distance away from their village and work for a farmer for their income.

This is the moment when both of them aware that there is an Island of jungle beside the village. No one was residing there because there were some myth folk talks that there were ghost in the island. Both went inside the island and involve in the agriculture with the help of the farmer they worked for, by disregarding all the myths.

The reason for all the folk talks is the often seen lights in the distance inside the deep jungle. Both of the youngsters observe the lights and follow. Finally they discover some illegal action take place inside the jungle and those are the ones, who make afraid the people to hide their unlawful activities. Both of the boys make a full-stop to a problem that prevailed for a long time.

During this time another one called 'punchi mahaththaya' joins with them and helps in their agricultural activities.

This is the time Upali receives a message that his father has become ill. He goes home as soon as possible. He helps his step mother and brother after his father's funerals. Before he returned to madol Duwa island, he settles all the legal requirements in order to cultivate in the government lands.

Now Madol Duwa island becomes a famous place.

Number of both foreign and local tourists visit Madol Duwa island today. It has become a famous tourist hub.

I am not sure weather the story is a true or imagination. There are possibilities for the story to be true. The book has been translated into both Tamil and English languages.

It is novelist's narrating ability with simple, natural, and realism, is the cause of the success of this novel.

Any literate has a capability to integrate the feelings of the reader with the society that it is speaking about. This novel is also not an exemption. Especially, it connects the reader with feelings and traditions of the society.

Wickramasinghe's creations gained a greater attention, since his creations emphasised the local culture, while the local culture was being given secondary importance under the British Rule.

The reader can observe the simpleness and reality in not only in Madol Duwa, but also in any of Wickramisnghe's novels such as Gamperaliya and Kaliyugaya.

In conclusion, after I read the novel, I did not feel like I read a kids novel, which is the remarkable aspect to be mentioned. Although Madol Duwa was basically a kids novel, it has been written in a way so that any one can read and enjoy. Thousands of kids of our country have enjoyed the novel by reading and watching Madol Duwa as novel and drama. Surely It is still to be enjoyed by the forth coming generations.

World Poverty: Most Aggressive Humanitarian Crisis...

2010-02-08T20:32:00.009+05:30

It is saddest and most of the times forgettable fact that every day 25000 people die due to hunger or hunger related diseases, which means one death occur per every three and half seconds due hunger and related diseases. Most of them are children from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

These saddest incidents take place on the earth not due to lack of resources to satisfy their needs, but due to the fact that they have lack of income to buy foods. Hunger is the most dangerous disease on the earth that has caused largest number of human deaths than any other diseases.

United Nations World Food Program states this fact as follows:

There are 1.02 billion undernourished people in the world today. That means one in nearly six people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Hunger and malnutrition are in fact the number one risk to the health worldwide — greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined". (http://www.wfp.org/hunger)

Natural disasters, poverty, lack of agricultural infra Structures and civil wars are the major causes of hunger deaths in recent times according to World Food Programme. In addition to that the colonization over the centuries, a huge portion of resources acquired by empirical powers from the third world nations, actions of developed nations and the MNEs with the sole self interest, corruption in the state management and internal conflicts are the major causes of the hunger related problems in these nations.

Apart from hunger deaths, indirect hunger is also dominating the world, especially, almost half of the world population earn less than just 2.5$ of income.

Deseases, problems in the body and mental growth, which reduces efficiency and productivty and work capacity, are the other impacts that poverty creates. In addition to students who discontinue their studeis mid-way due financial inability to continue, it is also noted that the acheivement of those who continue education at the financial burden is greatly effected by poverty and related problems.

The income inequality and the impact of which is not only a dilemma between third world and first world countries, but also it is a problems inside among the country's population itself, even in developed nations. This kind of imbalance has created a situation of 'untouchability' based on the economic prosperity and dignity.

It is nearly impossible for average people to come out of this social dilemma, which will definitely lead to a class struggle and might disturb the world peace in future. This situation should be compared with the class struggles in developed nations where 'poors' are earning much more than that of in developing nations and are enjoying much quality life standard.

It should be assured that basic needs of every individual is satisfied and there is a distribution system that ensure the equity and justice alike. It is not possible to introduce an economic system by using only market mechanism as well as by using only central planning system.

Poor nations should be allowed to design appropriate policy measures that ensure the justice and equity. Widely sited problem is, rich nations are forcing the poor nations to adopt policies that satisfy the needs of the rich nations. Doubtlessly, this is a moral crime against all established democratic principles and humanity.

Measures Taken to Eradicate Poverty

United Nations has taken poverty eradication as an important goal in its millennium Development Goal. The goal states that poverty should be eradicated by the year of 2015. However, it still not sure weather it will be possible to reach which goal within the above mentioned time frame work.

Hundreds of NGOs and UN affiliated organizations such as UNICEF and World Food Programme have aggressively engaged in poverty eradication programs. Still poverty remains as an unsolvable problem, which may be due to number of reasons.

The level of Contribution of the rich nation is not Sufficient: The first world countries have a moral responsibility towards the poor countries to help them to escape from the vicious circle of poverty. However, the level of contribution gained from rich nations are not sufficient. Contrastingly, the support rich nations providing is associated with selfish missions in the region, specifically mentioning, it is a well known secret that most of the aids provided to African Continent is targeting at the minerals belonged to Africa.
Such kind of assistance are negatively effect the countries instead of supporting them.

Wastage of Resources: Most of the world's wealth is spent on luxury and unnecessary consumer products while half of the world population is earning just below three dollars per day. Some portions of the wealth spent on consumer items and the heavy advertisement campaigns be saved, it will be enough to take out the poors at least from the hunger deaths.

Inefficient Utilization of Resources: poor governance and inefficient management of resources in the poverty affected countries is also remaining as a major barrier of eradicating poverty. On the other hand, some voices are rising recently weather the resources are used efficiently in the hands of NGOs as well.
Plans that do not looks root causes of the problems: The plans to abolish the poverty does not address the problems of imperialistic behaviours of rich nations or the fears profit oriented nature of multinational organizations. Therefore, plans do not meet the in depth requirements of the problem and therefore eradicating poverty still remains as a nightmare.

world hunger/ poverty is the undeniable truth and unforgettable reality that is not given due importance in the main stream medias. Poverty is one of the largest problems that world has come across today. Of course, it is not possible to eradicate poverty all of a sudden, but needs a long term solution to solve the root causes of the problem.

Eradicating poverty should be the priority in the list of international conferences and in the minds of who ever loves humanity, justice and equity. At least, when we we spend one extra dollar, if we can remind the most part of the people who live in absolute poverty, we can satisfy that we still have the humanity in our mind.

Majorities Voted Against Minorities...?

2010-02-06T00:41:00.005+05:30

Debates and contradictions on the recently concluded Sri Lanka presidential election has not yet finished. while so called election malpractices and election frauds are hot topics in the political debates on one side, there are debates on the message on the other hand that the message, election results reveal to the country and the world.

Election results clearly reveals that minorities, Muslims and Tamils, had wished a political change in the country, and has less faith in incumbent president Mahinda Rajapashe's rule. Therefore, the president who has been selected by overwhelming Sinhalese majority votes from the south has a huge responsibility on his shoulders to understand this fact and act accordingly, so that minorities can believe him and also hope to enjoy a "brighter future" that he promised in his election campaigns.

It clearly shows that president has understood this responsibility when he himself has declared soon after final election result was announced officially, that he is not only the president of the people who voted him, but also for those who have not voted him.

Unfortunately, some voices are raising claiming that Sinhalese have proved in the finished election that Sinhalese alone can select a president without any support of minorities. They also claim that the election results has taught a tough lesson as well to the minorities.

Truly speaking, anyone cannot claim that Sinhalese voted against minority. True reason why president won the election and Fonseka, his rival and former army commander was defeated, is heavily relies on the Fonseka's failure to carry out his campaign to the grass root levels of Sinhalese society.

It is also a reason that president had won the hearts of the Sinhalese people in most of the villages and had a great support even before the presidential election. The poll results of provincial council election clearly revealed this fact. The Nationalistic view that had been constructed after LTTE was defeated militarily, and development initiatives that president was carrying forward was sufficient for him to taste the fruit of an easy victory over the former army commander.

It is less clear that even without the election frauds and malpractices that is said to be taken place during the election process, weather Fonseka would have won the election.

Mahinda had already made a "Believable change" that Fonseka promised in his election campaigns. Especially, Mahinda should be credited for making a safe environment in which people can move freely in public places without the fear of terrorism and bomb blasts that took place through out the last three decades old civil war. People especially from down south did not want a change in addition to this. Thanks to nationalist feeling that was being created, Fonseka was unable to break this barrier and go forward.

Fonseka was able to capture the hearts of Sinhalese elite society especially youth, westernized urban communities and the minorities. However, according to the election result, majority of the villagers backed the president. Another reason why Sinhalese voted Mahinda was due to inability of Fonseka's campaign to touch the feelings of the villagers. Clearly speaking his campaign did not reflect the feelings of the rural community.

Should Fonseka had emphasised the economic burden that villagers are encountering and had used rigid nationalists in his campaign targeting the rural areas, he would have easily filled his vote banks, I suppose. Anti corruption campaigns and collapsing of family ruling were much more luxurious for them.

Therefore, it is clear that Fonseka's faults also have played a major roll in Mahinda's glorious victory over former army commander.

Mahinda's victory should be consedered as a gift for his patriotic nature, his closeness with the people, and for people believed he would develop the country's three decade war torn economy.

It would be baseless to consider that Majority people voted against minorities. Such opinions will only reflect their biased views on the issue, that viewing things wearing different colours of eye glasses.

Sinhalese enjoyed when LTTE was destroyed. (Even Muslims and majority of Tamils did the same thing). LTTE are the ones who opened the root for such enjoyment. Especially, by attacking public places and buses, LTTE killed number of innocent people. When they were militarily defeated and vanished from our land, not surprisingly people overjoyed.

By vanishing terrorism and made a safe country where people can enjoy the breath of freedom, Mahinda won the hearts of all the Sri Lankans indiscriminately. (Of course his defeat among some portions of the society is due to various other reasons).

He was considered as a king, some times as a God among some parts of the society. This respect is what gave the fruit of victory to Mahinda in recent presidential election.

The very important need of the country today is not proving that Sinhalese can select a president by themselves alone without the votes of minority. Rather, country needs a political culture that integrate all the societies together and creating a situation where all societies can feel that they have a "brighter future".

War has just finished and has not lasted even one year. Still people have wounds of the war. War memories are still in the deep hearts of the people. Majority of displaced people are still living in IDP camps.

The foremost necessity today is to make sure that minorities are integrated in mainstream politics and enjoying opportunities and rights equal to that of majority population are enjoying.

This is the time to put the words into action. The often quoted phrase by the president in public stages that “there is no minority and majority in this country” should be put into action. Election result clearly shows that people are not ready to believe the mere words, unless there are some actions to beleive those words.

By forgetting this political reality and the significants of present time in Sri Lankan political history, just claiming that Sinhalese alone can select a president will not bring anything to the country. The world history proves that what ever the actions taken for the well being of one society over the tombs of other societies' has not ever lasted and has not succeeded in long term. As Edward Zaid once mentioned, 'the history is more honest than your inner heart'.

May the "brighter future" belong to all societies.

Science, Illusions and Politics

2010-01-19T17:46:00.009+05:30

Science is believed to be a process of reaching a conclusion based on rational arguments that is gained through scientific methods such as researches, experiments and observations. Though it is a social science, bio-science and any other discipline, the rational means of reaching a conclusion is the basic of science.

It is hardly a truth that the conclusions derived from rational method of scientific researches such as observation and experiment, are always accurate and unbiased. In most of the time such experiments are biased due to various factors, such as pre-determined mind of scientists, and policies of the organization that the scientists are affiliated to. In case of lack of opportunities for the scientific researches, and experimental methods are unsuitable for a particular context, the conclusions derived from such experiments become meaningless and could become hardly reliable upon.

Though the Experimental and observation methods are appropriate for the fields such as chemistry and physics, it is hardly applicable to most of the sciences. Therefore, criticising the general definition that we provided above, one of the editorial of the “Journal of Theoretic” argues that the following definition is the exactly right definition for science.

“ The field of study which attempts to describe and understand the nature of the universe in whole or part." (Editorial, Journal of Theoratics, August- September Issue, 1999)

Due to the fact that the prevailing difficulties that rests with the general definition to apply in the practical world scenarios to make conclusions based on observation and experiments, this later definition is presented. However, it has to be kept in mind that this later definition is not a generally accepted definition.

With the given fact of the practical problems prevails in the scientific researches, the dangerous part is that there are plenty of opportunities for the mere assumptions and philosophies to be considered as scientific conclusions.

Such biased conclusions are normally questioned by later scientists, and in some instances even the so called basics of sciences are losing their positions. New theories and basics are introduced.

We refered earlier that the scientist’s own belieifs, emotions, policies and opinions of the organizations that they are affiliated to, are effecting any scientific research. Another factor that affects the ‘scientific truths’ that are spreading among the masses, is the political powers. In such instances, the real truth is given less importance than what the people in power actually consider important to meet their interests.

Someone might argue that the freedom of speech has been given predominant importance in western countries. Let’s assume that the press freedom is given a predominant importance; still it is not total freedom of speech, until you get the freedom to research whatever you want, and publish the results with associated evidence whatever it is. In this case, all people should be given equal opportunities and freedom for research. Again I would like stress the word ‘equal opportunities’ (Not only the freedom). A person who gives a rough look at the prevailing situation in the western countries may think that there is an absolute freedom existing in western countries. However, it might give a difference opinion when we go into depth to some extent.

An opinion cannot become truth just because it is popular and is more widely discussed in the mainstream Medias. A large media backbone and the political support is the foremost necessity of any opinion to become a most popular opinion among masses. Such supports are most of the time based on micro politics rather than the truth.

People are still slaves of mass medias and reluctant to come out of the illusions that are created by the mass medias, even in this era in which people have become rational thinkers, and even in the scientifically developed nations.

In these situations, illusions are created not in the name of religions, but in the name of science which promotes people to come out from illusions and to think in the more rational way.

The same situation was prevailing in the Mediaeval Europe. The Christian Church was attempting to keep masses from rational thinking by promoting illusions. However, such illusions were created in the name of the religion, not in the name of science, as it is today.

The humorous fact is that the same illusion is promoted today in the name of science.

In summary, any media propaganda, or the people in power cannot decide which one is right and which one is wrong. Rather the right and wrong should be decided based on the degree of authenticity of the evidence.

To the minimum extent, the Medias should readily accept that the opinions that is opposite to their official opinions as they have atleast some minimum scientific base. The most of Medias are propagating that the opposite opinions are baseless and irrational, whatever the evidents are presented in supporting their arguments. The reason behind this is that such mainstream medias are operating with the clear political motive.

This general fact is not limited to a particular science discipline, but prevails in each fields of science. This is why we mentioned earlier that the freedom of speech is not existed in west as it is claimed to be.

Let’s finish this discussion after focusing on a single example.

The theory of evolution, the philosophy proposed by Charles Darwin is foremost theory that should be primarily focused in this regard. As this theory provided a foundation to the materialistic ideologies, the theory gained a warm welcome from each materialistic camps despite their ideological differences.

Though it was proposed as a biological theory, as it claimed human as an animal, some scientists attempted to utilise it in social sciences as well. The outcomes as a result of which was implemented in the field of social sciences should be discussed separately.

Since the theory was satisfying the needs of the people who were in power, the theory gained a greater attention among the masses despite that several facts that Darwinism proposed were able to be questioned intellectually.

Most probably in all the countries in the world, Darwinism is taught in schools, colleges and universities as a sole theory that explains the origin of the species. We are taught that any theory that contradicts with the Darwinism is scientifically baseless and completely irrational. In other hand, we are informed nothing about the questions raised against theory of evolution by several prominent scholars in the world. Nothing is necessary other than this to understand that there is a hidden agenda behind this educational system.

Another fact is, none of the arguments presented by Charles Darwin two centuries ago, are not still able to be proved through experiments. The fossil records and various other evidence that were obtained after the death of Darwin are making theory of evolution meaningless. Let us discuss the intellectual arguments against Darwinism in another instance.

In summary, the fact is that the Darwinism is not a completely acceptable theory, and hence, several arguments are raised against it.

Darwinism is one of the finest facts that shows that Western Powers are accepting only the research that goes in accordance with their predetermined attitudes, weather it is true or not. This is a general fact in all the fields of science.

Western powers take following actions in order to vanish the free Researches.

01. Creating a social order that would create a negative image regarding the opposite opinions. Mainstream mass Medias and the educational system are the major utilized as major tools in this regard.

02. Completely banning the publications that put forward some contradicting opinions.

Needless to say, the first method is the most powerful, doubtlessly. By creating an image that they are foremost concerned with the freedom of speech, they also can act against the free researchers.

This intellectual imperialism, I would like to call it, is general phenomena to all the disciplines.

Should someday a situation arise, when all the ones are given equal opportunities in media and educational system despite their ideological backgrounds to promote their respective ideas, on that day we can say that true freedom of speech is existing in Western World.

In such a global world, where intellectual imperialism is existing, the science cannot give its true value to the society. The most of the ‘truths’, which we believe in our day to day life as scientific facts are based on mere assumptions that satisfy the people in power. But, the real fact is hiding themselves somewhere else.