Good effort my dear professor and the team,
I am sure you are playing a violin on a deaf ears of two elephants! All of us Srilankans know what is good and bad, but the practice has been dodgy always.
It is mainly due to poor quality of our politicians since the independence. I can remember Mr Danapala and few wrote to us just before the war ended,asking not to celebrate the death of VP and the clan.
Did any of our Buddhists listen? Did our own president listen?
What we really need is a change than the changing the wrong doers!

Our politicians are well known for their thick skins and patronising attitudes. According to them nothing succeeds except dirty politics. Lying, Manipulating, Schemeing, Horse trading are some of the better things they do. The more experience they have the worse they become. The whole system stinks.

Well said. If this country is to prosper we need honest politicians willing to listen to the persons educated in many areas other than politics. That is how India has prospered.

I just want to thank all three of you for taking the high road, expressing your candid views and good judgement to bring civility and mutual respect to this nasty and ugly campign. As you indicated we must decipline ourselves as Sri Lankans to conduct our civi rights within the prevailing legal system in the Country. In my view, it is paramount that both candidates must issue statements to their respective campaign operators to utmostly respect the laws of the country. In morden Sri Lanka corruption is the number one drawback to acheiving economic prosperity. Next president, Rajapaksa or Fonseka must focus on eliminating corruption as their first priority.

Great and letter of good intentions. But, honestly do you think politicians who have ministers like Mervin Silva and their ilk on their side would even pause to consider. Even to think optimistically is being naive. The political landscape is a man eating jungle in Sri Lanka and to survive you have to be a beast too. Peace loving, honest human beings have no chance.

However, I applaud these three learned men. It encouraging to think that there are Sri Lankns who think sanely at the top. But, I am afraid I have to join the refrain of Dananjaya Bandara Dissanayake and say "Beeri Aliyinta veena vadanaya keranawa wage"

We need this kind interlectual ideology to go forward.Thank you and people really appreciate their effort at this time.Not only that please carefully analyse what they going to say and how important their request is.There is a real danger hidden inside the ashes.Please dont try to play with the fire!Listen to these gentlemens!

Dear Gentlemen,
Why don't you make it simple and tell us straight forward what you have to say. I read your artical for four times still it is not clear to me what your message is. To read it fiffth time is boring. Too many chefs spoil the soup. Please write one person at a time. Don't forget most of the readers are simple people and English is our third language.

Well said and I fully endorse the message sent by the three eminent professionals. Its very unlikely though that our politicians will pay any heed to this. It is therefore up to the voters to judge the performance the two candidates vis-a-vis the violence in their campaigns and vote accordingly. This is the only language they understand.

this is simply yet another innefectual excercise of thoery over practicality.

Is a letter from 3 people, however DISTINGUISHED they maybe, going to make any difference ?

An article done in good intent.However you can take a horse to water but never make it drink.So I think the good gentlemen have wasted their valuable time on these horses.The only people who will appreciate this letter will be readers like us the law abiding public.Frankly and personaly as a citizen I am disgusted about the whole scenario.

I guess, you yourself do not expect any positive response, hence the need to release it to media, Well,for us to know you all are around!

I welcome this noble initiative of these three distinguished and eminent gentlemen!

Let this be the first step and let us build a mass movement around these noble sentiments!

First we have to be optimists!

We need not bind ourselves to the elections!

Change will not come because of the elections!

Irrespective of the results of the elections the people-the ordinary people should be mobilized to have democracy, good governance, rule of law in our beautiful island.

Whoever wins the elections are prisoners of their own victory and they will traverse the same old path.

First we must be ready to lead a long and painful struggle. Let us not have any negative thoughts.

The problem is ours and the solution is also within us.

It is futile to blame others for our misfortune. We have to blame ourselves for being silent for so long!

We should have faith in the people and we will definitely succeed!

Instead of writing this (with support from media friends),you should have visited them in the form of a group to express your support, of course this time can be a record of three of you, to both MR and SF.Many educated lot and other special cateogaries have done this and doing this to obtain some high post as advicer,DG,Chairman,Ambasador,etc etc in the government administartion, when the new president get elected.Having known both are close to 50-50, you are wise to write this way and express some thing inorder to win both of their heart.Some engineers from IESL mainly from Govt.Service recently enjoyed this two visits too.Good luck for three of you and bad luck once again for sri lanka citizens

where were these so called "DISTINGUISHED" sinhalese during tamil civilans massacres?.they only speak for the sinhalese and not for tamils. Please read other Distinguished reports from HRW, AHRC.HK, Amnesty international, the Distinguished world panel on Srilanka.

It is commendable for you three gentlemen to even care to make this effort.Most people have given up speaking about good manners and good behaviour as we have gone so far down the road of lies,corruption,violence,hooliganism etc.,that Human Values seem like an alien concept in Sri Lanka.Given that the cruelty of Velupillai and the war is behind us it is an opportune time for our leaders of all communities to openly declare their faith in upholding Truth and good Behaviour just for starters.To see the Hooliganism that is practised in the Parliament is soul destroying.Your message must be taken to the younger generation by people like yourselves through every organisation that has survived the ravages of our Disgusting Presidential System.If we do not educate our youth now, from this very time, in the not too distant future our Motherland will earn the dubious honour of the title"SOMALIA OF SOUTH ASIA".Our leaders are taking us in that direction like an "express goods train without breaks".There is an enormous responsibility that has been placed on People of Good-Will, Teachers,Parents and Clergy to demand of our unruly and vulgar politicians to depart politics and make way for decent and capable people to enter the House of the People's Representatives.Let us hold Poojas every month in every Temple, Kovil and Church and pray to our gods that this will be the last Presidential Election Sri Lanka will have.Every President has disapponited the people and dragged our collective standard of behaviour to the gutters.Our children need leaders who they cam look up to and say"Yes ,that's the kind of person I would one day aspire to emulate and to lead our country to prosperity with dignity for all who make up our multi racial community'
As living divinity itself proclaims:
Education without Character;
Commerce without Morality;
Politics without Principles;
Science without Humanity;
Reliogion without Love;
Administration without Justice;
Knowledge without Application;
Patriotism without Sacrifice;
Are not only Useless; but positively Dangerous.

Elections in Democratic countries always revolve around spin , especially from the Opposition about issues that are seldom addressed when they come to power. In undiplomatic terms they all lie.This is evident even in Western Countries like America. Canada and Australia.

Flouting the the Law, Jobs for the Boys and abusing the privileges in Government, again is not an exclusive to Srilanka.What is different is the degree to which these malpractices take place among rich and poor countries.

I am sure the learned writers of this article are not oblivious to these facts,being the well educated eminent people they are.

I totally agree with first para about the country being rescued from the misery and suffering from three decades of terrorism.But to get the two main protagonists to make the election and the resulting government, squeaky clean is a bit ambitious.

What these eminent people have to do is point out clearly to the elite in Colombo what the two choices the Srilankans have at this Election.As an observer from outside the choices are crystal clear. On one hand there is a President who has rid the country of Terrorism and expressed real time solutions to move the country forward.

The Opposition on the other hand is led by a novice and backed by two major political forces who have been worst enemies since Adam's time.Then you have a recalcitrant Tamil political faction who openly acted as the agents of the just defeated Terror group. and an ex Chief Justice who is contradicting the statements of the Contender he is backing as well as his own judgments that he made while serving on the Bench.To me these are nothing but an opportunistic bunch who are driven by their own selfish agendas.

The Opposition has not come out with even one single policy statement that points to future development of the country.

I have no interest in Srilanka whatsoever as I have no family there. All my children and us live comfortable lives abroad. But I am still indebted to my parents and my Motherland for giving me the opportunity to be where I am.

I also have great empathy for the poor Srilankans who have no choice but to live there for many generations going forward.

All I hope for is a stable country with good infrastructure,good climate for investment, jobs and peace and security for the poor citizens.

Welcoming this initiative of these respectable persons I suggest that they should engage with the wider civil society to involve them as well. Otherwise what they say will be as blowing into the ears of the deaf elephant.

There is one important plea missing - the honorable gentlemen could have requested the candidate who has the power, authority and ability to act now and demonstrate his bonafides by casting aside known, thugs, drug traffickers and foulmouthed vermins if any are among his coterie of supporters and set an example.

These gentleman who do not fear the white-van now chose
to write in keeping with their guilty conscience all
these 4 yrs. re election following "good" governance?

The choice is simple to all english-reading Voters
for sure. The request is good as throwing water on a
ducks back.

Unfortunate truth is that these requests will never be honoured. It is sad to see that OUR GLORIOUS VICTORY could not be capitalised at all and our so called leaders have been unable to get along together even for a month after executing a JOINT EFFORT.

This looks like what we deserve!

It is a sad state for Sri Lanka with these two candidates. These two fellas should be facing an international court for war crimes and not a presidential election. Sri Lanka has deteriorated to an unprecedented level within the last 30 years and the country can be only compared to Zimbabwe. Apart from electing a president the country also needs to look at the religious leaders who are preaching ahimsa etc. These religious leaders and the buddhist chauvanists are
reasons for the downfall of this country to become a pariah state. If the tamil people vote for any of these two candidates, it will be a folly and they will suffer for a long time. These two candidates did all what they can to annihilate an entire district of tamils but due to the actions of the diaspora tamils and international organisations the holocaust was averted. These two shameless candidates are now going behind the tamils for their votes.

Thankyou.
Same requests that all right minded and intelligent middle class,lower middle class and the poor village Tamils,singhalese and muslims have wanted and shouted and screamed for their children and for a peacefull Sri Lanka for years.
we are tired of reading analysts reports and letters by emininent lawyers and like minded Sri Lankans whose children and themselves do not know or experienced the greed and thirst of our crooks
because they have ether joined them at parties and cocktails or turned a deaf ear and a blind eye all these years.
Now we are faced with more lies by the contenders for this election.
Election commisioner - set the rules and make the Politicians and their cohorts follow them or else throw them in prison without bail.
Only way to 'clean' out the rot.

I am personally confused as what the 3 Lankans should have told in simple terms is to conduct a decent election. One could ask the gentlemen these 2 questions:

i. You gentlemen in your sixties/seventies didn't you know that it is not possible to conduct an election in Lanka in the manner you suggest, even if the candidates wanted it that way? One could think of Rip van Winkle in this instance.

ii. Since its well-known that party politics have ruined Lanka in many ways, without publicly showing off , would not it be better if you take the initiative to promote another "Donoughmore type of" constitution silently, while educating our politicians on discourses of old respectable and decent politicians(in the House and in the L.C.of the past) like Dr C.W.W. Kannangara,Mr S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike, Dr Colvin R.de Silva, Mr A. Ratnayake, Sir D.B.Jayatilaka, Mr E.W.Perera and Sir Arthur de Silva who had a reputation for maintaining a high standard of speech in the Legislature? They, while respecting the Speaker, met the arguments of opposing MPs in a respectable manner. A House of Parliament in chaos and a political platform with Bellings Gate language will create more violence amongst the masses; our children will not have good examples to follow.

How well distinguished these gentlemen are, when they comment quite late and too late. There were enough distinguished men in Sri lankan history and they did the same as the three above but only when the fire starting to catch their own home ( some instances, even now, help the arsonist). Until then someone else's house far away land, not realizing the same fire going to destroy their own home.
I have more respect for a poor, not so educated farmer with wisdom to live and let live.

This is a good comment made by these three Gentlemen.What I feel is first of all whoever come to power should carefully select the candidates of theirs to run the country.They should not paveway for Hooligans and thugs at any cost.We are a developing country and now without the war Sri Lanka has a very good good chance to come out of Third world catagory.For this the Engine of the country has to form with Educated People who has a vision.
As a Sri Lankan I urge to be more careful in selecting Top Posts.It should be with all communities.This is the only way to develop a country like ours.

These three gentlemen opened their eyes too late!!!! What were they doing when thousands of civilians were massacred in the so called safe zone, thousands were bulldozed alive in their bunkers. Several thousands were driven from village to village for more than two years by aerial bombardment, shelling, multi barrel launchers, attack from the sea and air. When hospitals, shcools, churches were bombed with people inside!!!

When everyday people were abducted and turned up corpses in the heart of Colomb, Jaffna, Batti and tricomalee,these gentlemen were not concerned because the victims were Tamils!!!!!!!

Now they are concerned when the two criminals are competing with each other!!!!

I did not know to laugh or cry when I read the paragraph below:
"We know that this means that some of your supporters may have to be restrained, or even ejected (especially those who like violence, lying, breaking the law, dealing with drugs, bad governance, ignoring democratic norms etc.) but we do not feel we need new laws, various proclamations, or foreign monitors to ensure this"

Don't blame the supporters, these two are blood thirsty animals!!! The supporters are given the impetus by these two!!!Are you thinking that these two guys will turn into SAINTS in a weeks time in order for you to say that ".....or foreign monitors to ensure this"

They have no option but to remain DEMONS for the rest of their lives as they have to commit more and more crimes to hide the crimes they have committed all this time!!!! This is the reality!!!

Thanks Gentlemen. Did you behave as educated through Gentlemen??? Professor Aluvihare, I know how u charged even from the poorest people when they came to U for medicle treatment. and made money. You all are taking about sri anka but spent much of your time in other countries enjoying your life even with ladies??Talking nonsence.

mudiyanse amarekone
It was interesting that you named the "decent politicians", well if they were really decent we will not be seeing the "modern day decent politicians"
What we are seeing in the country is the original sins of the "decent politicians".
It was the choice of the people then and now. Respect the wishes of the ill-educated society.

Commendable Effort and deliveries. I Would like to suggest that this message should be in National Languages and also either telecast or broadcast or both to educate general public. Other vise we will go back to the period before the franchise very soon with this wild activities.

Commendable Effort and deliveries. I Would like to suggest that this message should be in National Languages and also either telecast or broadcast or both to educate general public. Other vise we will go back to the period before the franchise very soon with this wild activities.

All the remarks are valuable. It shows we need to have a disciplined country with a decent life style. I believe none of the present politicians can do this. Only hope is a well disciplined a gentlemen with a courage and focus.

These three gentlemen , could not even persuade or even include one Tamil or Muslim gentleman/lady to joint in their statement shows they are only talking or woried of Sinhala Srilanka.Do they feel of not know even a single gentleman or lady left in srilanka from minority community? Why they did not open their mouth /pen during the time Tamils were massercared, raped,looted, tortured,burned alive, properties were destroyed Upteen times druing the last 60 years or so.Now they feel both these War criminals are from Sinhala community and they are destroying The Sinhala Srilanka and its future.I am aware one or two of these 'Gentlemen' were advising during CBKs rule and were close to the ruling elite. Didn't these type of violence,murder, white van abductions happend during that time?

These three 'wise'gentlemen,
Were they just woken from sleep? As there were no violence,corruption, rape, poiltical and racial murder, thugry,lootings, vote riging lies, decets,and during the last few years war crimes and crime against humanity( ethinic clencing and genocide) you name it every wrong things had been happning in Srilanka for the last 60years or more.But these men did not even blink.Why now? because international actors have woken from their sleep.and pretending that they are trying to change things.So probably it is going to affect the majority communities in the eyes of these 'wise men'. These people have connections in the international community and probably knew a thing or two happning.Even during the previous regime these people were close to CBK.They are sheading tears for Sinhala Srilanka and crocodyl tears for minorities.

Out of the three of the writers one is a contender for the place of Ban ki Moon!!! Judging from the performance of Ban Ki Moon, Satish Nambiar and this article, we could judge what it takes to become the UN big wigs!!!No wonder people have started calling the UN "Useless Nation"

Why did not these Three (UN)distinguished Sri Lankans
write any letters when Lasantha W and other journalistes were killed ,maimed or jailed?

The incidents depicted in the channel 4 video,
or the children gunned down in Trincomalee.

The white flag story about the gunning down of surrendering LTTE cadres, their women and children. It seem to leave an uncomfortable bitter taste that bothered the conscience of the Sinhalese electorate.

The carnage unleashed on innocent Tamil civilians during the last few months before the end of the war.

Didn't they have any opnion on these events?

It appears they are only worried of election violence, lies, false promises, and election process only.

Distinguished individuals are talking about justice and decency among equals not for others.
I hope these individuals will reply to the comments with some conscience to show some decency. Not only the politician, religious leaders fail the people but also the distinguished individuals.

Yes, I fully endorse the sentiments expressed by these three eminent people. It is high time that like minded people should come together to educate the so-called leaders as well as the people who blindly follow them about human values. What is necessary is a leadership that understands the real difference between what is right and wrong. I hope, wish and pray that it will come sooner or later.

Hello Pandaravanian,
I am with you on this.No one should take these guys seriously.
One of them had considerable problems with the GMC and Ambassador Dhanapala WAS closely associated with serious human rights violators such as Chandrika and Dr.Percy.
I really wonder what prompted them to write this letter.
Cheers,
Siva.

Dear Fran,
I disagree with you on your generalization that the present day's poor standards are there because of the past members of the legislatures. Since 1965 as a High School student it was my hobby to read the proceedings of the National Congress, proceedings in the Senate from the time of Sir Gerard Wijekoon and the Hansard from the time of the Legislative Council from the time of Sir James Pieris -in the 1920s- 1948 and upto the time of 1977 in the House of Reps. Obviously, you had not read them, for otherwise you would never have made that impulsive comment. There were great speeches by many others like Mr T.B. Jayah,G.G. Ponnambalam Q.C., S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Q.C.and others ,well-recorded, but the points that I wanted to emphasize were the ills of party politics, the nature of the old 1931 Constitution sans parties, the Billings Gate atmosphere in our Parliament with no respect to the Speaker and other Members (which are not good examples to anybody.) Fran, even GGP and SJVC opposed eachother in debate, Mr E.W. Perera, Sir DBJ and Mr D.S. Senanayake faced much opposition on various issues , but they never ever disrespected a fellow politician. You missed the point; behaviour in the country among fellow citizens is one thing and having opposing views is another. Please read those debates and you will undoubtedly appreciate a good side of those great men who shaped our civilization in the best way possible, in their own thinking. Except for Mr DSS others were great orators too with great, precise, diction as well.
You and I will ,in a happy note, agree on one point: like you and me, those others were also not perfect, and never held identical views on all matters of politics!

The three gentlemen are talking sense but it is ineffective at this time. The country is going through an election that is more like a three pronged cock fight. The incumbent President who was hailed as a hero for having the guts to end terror is being dragged through the mud. For all the terror we experienced, now people are very soft on the issue that should be the prime factor to be considered in this election for the sake of the country.

The other two prongs are the commander who uses the support of two parties and says he is independent. So if the commander wins it is a case of who kills whom first. The commander can kill the UNP and JVP and become a dictator and then go on a destroying mission of vengeance. Who suffers? The country and the voting people. If not, the UNP and JVP together or after eliminating one of themselves, can join with pro LTTEs and Norwegians and sell the country. This is a sad but true state of affairs.

These gentlemen have soft pedaled the issues at hand and do not really make an effective impression. Writing is not enough, they should meet all the parties concerned and hit the nail on the head.

Boycotting the election campaigns of our politicians would be the solution for this kind of behavior. Living in a foreign country for many years but keeping my Sri Lankan citizenship, I see and hear mass gatherings of people in their election meetings. The best solution would to organize a non violent citizens groups against election violence. I am sure majority of the Sri Lankans are peace loving people. Although I NOT suggesting to refrain from voting , still confused for whom should the Sri Lankan people should vote.

Dear Mr Mudiyanse Amarekone

Thank you for your comment. I can not agree more with you the gentlemen ( not sure why you left out a few names from your first comment) you mentioned, were great orators, and interact among them very civilized manner which hardly seen today. I am only a few years behind you and we were in contemporary time to know this. But, were they statesmen, were they worked hard for ceylonese identity, or simply did the bigotry to deceive the people which lead to the present pathetic state. As far as I am concerned, words should be followed by deeds, vision combined with the philosophy for greater good.
In other words, they miserably failed the society. When these gentlemen were from a majority community it comes with greater responsibility . This may be impulsive, in your opinion, then what else can I say. Society which do not have insight into their failures will continue on the path of perdition.
Thank you again and I greatly appreciate your view. We both may agree to disagree but still dream for justice for persecuted,discriminated, outcasted and oppressed section of our society of all.

Guys, I have to tell you this - You three (however distinguished you may be) seem to have been "intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity. You have suffered a diahorrea of diction and a constipation of thought". I am puzzled why you didn't use plain and simple English, to make your point.

That being said, as far as I can make out, you seem more preoccupied with what your grand kids will think of the system, rather than with the moral morass that the country has descended to since 1977. In my humble opinion, the country has no moral compass (your appeal is predicated upon the existence of one); the people have no self esteem and it's just business as usual. And that my distinguished gentlemen, is not going to change anytime soon.

I might also add that the quality of English used in the local media leaves much to be desired. The national press and broadcast media don't appear to have any sense of proper usage, grammar or even spelling. Alas, we can thank the "swabhasa" generation for that.

Where were these good citizens when crime committed against their fellow Tamils brothers and sisters?