However, it creates an opportunity for us to reflect on the broader questions of rule of law and governance in our country and in our city.

Recent events clearly show that the public has little confidence in the police as the state agency responsible for the enforcement of the rule of law. In the past when a motor accident occurred the public permitted the police to conduct investigations and take appropriate action. Today, often, the bystanders take the law into their own hands and dispense street justice to those that they perceive were at fault. The reaction of the employees of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation to the recent incident that Minister Mervyn de Silva created can also be explained along similar lines. At the time of this writing only one person in Mr. de Silva's party had been taken into police custody. This has further reinforced the public perception that the rule of law no longer prevails in this country.

Such incidents taken in the context of recent Supreme Court interventions on a variety of issues ranging from school admission to the question of one-way traffic on Peradeniya Road and Gopallawa Mawatha in Kandy raise a more fundamental issue of constitutional governance. We are supposed to have three branches of government; legislature, executive and the judiciary. The main function of the legislature is to make law and exercise oversight over the executive. The executive must govern the country in accordance with the rule of law. The main job of the judiciary is the administration of justice and act as the final arbiter in disputes between the state and civil society.

In our view increasingly the above system of governance that is so essential for a civilized and progressive society to function is rapidly disintegrating in this country. Parliamentarians pay little or no attention to law making. Every member in the government party wants to be a minister and play a role in the executive because that is where resources are available and patronage politics could be practiced. Even opposition MPs fail to effectively exercise their oversight functions. They also love to get a slice of the decentralized budget to facilitate patronage politics.

The job of the executive is to govern the country. The public perception is that it fails to do a good job of it. Hence the cheering that we hear when the takes on the job of the executive and gives judgments on school admissions and the like which clearly are functions of the executive. The fact that an unelected branch of government is making such decisions in a democracy is lost on the public that is plainly sick and tired of the shenanigans of their elected officials. As a polity that is committed to democracy we must reflect more deeply on these developments.

Coming back to Kandy it would be interesting to review the performance of the councilors past and present in terms of adherence to the rule of law. If this city is administered with reasonable respect, let alone strict adherence, to the rule of law we won't see unauthorized buildings sprouting in all parts of the town and the suburbs. Neither would we see illegal parking that contributes to traffic congestion. Pavements will be clear of unauthorized vendors. Misuse of KMC financial resources would be unheard of. Kandy citizens would never have to pay a bribe to get something done in the KMC. Some water consumers would not be allowed to run massive unpaid water bills that are in effect a tax on those who pay their bills on time. Rents from KMC buildings leased out to private parties would be collected on due dates. Councilors would not only avoid allocating to themselves and their close relatives municipal shops but also return the shops that they have got in that manner in the past. This list can go
on.

The point we make is simple. It would be nice for the municipal councilors of all parties to get serious about their passion to stick to the rule of law. If that happens the Kandy citizens would believe that their elected representatives are sincere about the rule of law and good governance. Just now their pretension to adherence to the rule of law is mostly political expediency and utter hypocrisy.

An Open letter to His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka Your Excellency:
Kandy Traffic Chaos Please intervene before a bomb goes off!

Kandy can be a target of future LTTE terrorist attacks. As you are aware, these attacks could result in heavy casualties. I am writing to you in earnest as a professional well versed in the management of the injured for the last 28 years.

One of the biggest problems one faces in Kandy city is the traffic chaos and road indiscipline. One has to wait for hours and burn liters of fuel on clogged, narrow roadways. On an average weekday, it may take minimum 45 minutes to travel from one end of this small city to another. Day workers, schoolchildren, and car drivers waste hours on the road to travel a mere 4 to 5km of road, and face untold hardship. There is no road discipline at all. Jay walking and jay crossing have become routine. Though many people use the multi-million rupee subway, a few scamper across obstructing free flaw of traffic. 3-wheel drivers and school van drivers violate all road rules and rule the roads. Big busses, both CTB and private, travel at a snail pace, and stop in the middle of the road without signaling, as and when they please, halting traffic behind them.

The William Gopallawa Mawatha, which was designed and maintained as a thoroughfare in the past has become a parking lot for big private busses. Three-wheeler drivers have forcibly acquired all available parking spaces in the city. A world class multi-story car park was built by the Municipality at a great cost. Parking is available there for a very nominal fee but it remains grossly under-utilized. Many drivers park their vehicles right in front of the designated car park on “No Parking” zones and go unpunished.

The major roads, such as William Gopallawa, and road leading to the hospital are full of massive pot holes.

If a bomb goes off anywhere in Kandy, I hate to imagine what the road chaos would be like. The hospital accesses will be completely clogged, and many could die on their way to the hospital, in traffic jams. It is a well established fact that most lives can be saved in the first hour (Golden Hour) after an accident. In Kandy most of this hour will be lost in traffic jams. Why are we waiting for this disaster to happen? Why can't we do something before such a disaster happens?

Instead of trying to find a scapegoat for all this chaos, I, as a law abiding, taxpaying citizen of this lovely city, who attends to the injuries and woes of most of the city's accident victims, forward the following suggestions to the perusal of Your Excellency, the 1st citizen of the country, who has all the power to implement them. Your direct involvement may hurt a very few, but will benefit tens of thousands of your citizens.

1. Go back to the previous one way traffic arrangement on Peradeniya Road and Gopallawa Mawatha with immediate effect, but with some modifications. One way traffic system is seen to be very effective and efficient in most of the cities of the world and is very effective and appreciated by the majority in Colombo. So why not in Kandy?

2. Develop the connecting roads as a matter of urgency; make them wide and pot-hole free. Mark lanes on them. Limit narrower connecting roads for lighter vehicles only.

3. Restrict buses, lorries, containers, tractors and other heavy vehicles to the inner (left hand) lane only.

4.Restrict vehicular parking to places where the road is wide only.

5. Restrict inner-city parking only to the car park. Establish a 3-wheeler chain to operate from the car park to shopping areas. Prohibit private buses from parking by the side of the main highways.

6. Ensure free and open access to the Kandy General Hospital. Today the Monday and Friday Pola has encroached some of the access roads to the hospital. A wholesale banana market has encroached the blind corner of one of the access roads near the Bogambara Prison. Three wheelers, cars and trucks are parked haphazardly on the hospital access roads blocking traffic. The situation is so bad that traffic jams on the hospital access rods start as early as 6.30 a.m. on weekdays.

7. Don't allow parking along the Dalada Veediya in the evening. If one has a rule of no parking; this must be active 24 hours a day. Having arbitrary exceptions pave way for confusion and disarray.

8. We MUST have an alternate emergency access to the Hospital present. If there is a major disaster, all the roads will clog and traffic will come to a standstill. One road that I can identify as a possible emergency route is the pola road which skirts the Bogambara Stadium. But at present, there is a pola is allowed right on the middle of the road on the two busiest days of the week. The city administration must final another location for the pola.

9. Last, but not the least, PLEASE repair/carpet the road leading to the Kandy Hospital. The police have designated it as a no parking zone but the rule is violated with impunity. It is evident that buildings have been constructed on this road without keeping the required distance between buildings and the road in complete violation of regulations. New structures are coming up in the same manner.

In conclusion I want to stress again the inadequate access to the Kandy hospital is a disaster in the making. The hospital road must be cleared and improved as a top priority.
Your Excellency: you have the power and the capacity to fix this problem and make Kandy a safer and more pleasant place to live in. Therefore I appeal to you, honorable sir, to intervene immediately, and help us in Kandy to live in a safer city.

Sincerely Yours
Dr G S Edirisinghe
Senior Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon

If you will think that the picture on your right is a tea estate “Line” built in the 19th century you are mistaken. It is the “pavilion” of the Peradeniya University track and field athletic facility. It also serves the field hockey playing field. The locker rooms, toilets and showers in this structure are such a disgrace that we are embarrassed to publish the pictures that we have of them. Soon the campus will celebrate its 60th anniversary. One hopes that the University would be able to build a decent facility at least by the 60th year of its existence.