Newspaper headlines that took me back in time

The Sunday Times of August 5 had three interesting headlines on the front page.

I will start with the mystery over the Sigiriya cable car project as I was directly involved with a Pidurutalagala cable car project. This was referred to the University of Moratuwa and Vice Chancellor, Professor Wille Mendis wished that I should handle it. The proposal (perhaps mysterious even then) was for a dismantled old cable car from a European country to be installed at Pidurutalagala.

Dismantled cable cars of Europe perhaps of doubtful safety are best left in Europe and not sent to countries like Sri Lanka. My suggestion was to make a roadway using the Army. Fortunately this was accepted and the road was done at a virtually negligible cost by our Army Engineers, when compared to the cost of the“Dismantled European Cable Way.”

Now I will go to the main headline “EU Extends LTTE ban for 6 months.” I was a delegate to the UNESCO General conference held in 1983 in Paris. The head of our team was Minister Nissanka Wijeratne and his able Deputy was Esmond Wickremasinghe. Both wanted me to attend the Paris conference. A few years back both of them virtually dragged me to the UNESCO Conference in Yugoslavia. I was not interested in going there as I had been to Yugoslavia in 1970 and drove right through the country in my Morris Oxford car, with my wife and two children. But I must admit that I went to Paris with pleasure. This was after the so-called Kalu Juliya of 1983 and a Sinhala person had been killed by the LTTE in Paris.

At the conference, I made a small intervention, as they call it, which took only a few minutes. But a sad and long comment on my brief intervention by a neighbouring “friendly state” made me to ask for more time. I was given a reasonable time and I spoke about our history and about terrorists. Most of the delegates listened intently and the official photographer took a picture of me including the delegates from Switzerland who were seated next to me. Many delegates later thanked me at the end of my talk and said they learned a lot about ancient Sri Lanka.

But an English- speaking delegate much older than I came up to me and said, “Professor do not call them terrorists, they are militants.” I explained later who a terrorist is and who a militant is. That is a long story which cannot be reproduced here. I used three names Loku Singho, Appu Singho, two rich men in a village and Podi Singho, a very poor man in the same village. I only had to explain the words Loku, Appu and Podi as the word Signor was known to them. So much for terrorist and militants. Perhaps the bombs blasted in the western countries now are also by militants and not terrorists. As I am now over 83 years,the person who spoke to me must be in heaven or hell as he would certainly be over 95 or even more if he was still on this Earth.

The next news also on the front page is “20 acre multimodal transport hub in Pettah.” Some details are on page 2 but not the cost.

Though politicians hate the newspapers that publish the truth, imagine what the whole world would be if not for the news hunters who take great risks to their life and limb.

Mattala is the third item that drew my attention. The whole world is running at a loss, our whole country is running at a loss. Even Japan with all its wealth has expenditure higher than income. Only China appears to be having a surplus. But that also cannot go on indefinitely. So let Mattala and Hambantota be kept with us and let the people bear the cost until we can find efficient local people who can make ends meet in time.

Going back two years to 2016, The Sunday Times of September 4, 2016 had the front page news item “Beira project: S’pore firm may get huge contract sans tender.” Everybody had seen this but not the details on page 21 which went on to say what is shocking in a country where the President gets only Rs. 90,000 per month. The Head of the Project Team was to be paid Rs. 319,950 per day and his deputy Rs. 283,049 per day. The total contract was supposed to be Rs. 54 Million which must be peanuts for the persons who squander public funds.

Former Premier Dudley Senanayake had only Rs. 500 in his bank account when he died. He drove his own Triumph Herald car costing Rs. 12,000. But now we are in Sri Lanka - the Land of Mysteries. We are getting more mysterious by the hour and by the minute. Let us learn to get things done with our own means and our own skills, without going a-begging. Let people and politicians THINK and we will not be mysterious or poor any more.