Stone age laws and habits

It’s no secret that Sri Lanka dominated the social sector in the early 1900s with the best education and health indicators in Asia, far superior to Malaysia, Singapore or Korea. We talk about it all the time.

Where are we today? The whole of Asia has developed; India is galloping after introduced economic reforms in the 1990s (following in our footsteps where reforms came soon after the UNP’s sweeping parliamentary win in 1977) while Sri Lanka is still crawling and finding its feet in world markets.

Of course a typical excuse trotted out as a reason for not achieving development status is the conflict that has plagued this country for more than two decades. That however is not the only reason for our economic failures or keeping up with other developing nations. There are many and among them is the need to revise laws that impact on the public. Many of these laws are archaic and completely out of tune of present day needs. The courts thankfully have resorted to the practice of case law or using discretionary powers in some issues where the laws are considered ancient.

For example, in divorce cases by law the man gets custody of the children but courts use discretionary powers and case laws and custody is now a right of both parties.

Last week, a woman was stunned when she was purchasing a bottle of liquor at a Colombo supermarket only to be told by the cashier “Madam we don’t sell liquor to females.” The cashier, a female, was absolutely right and refused the sale under the provisions of another archaic law which bars the sale of liquor to women at licensed liquor outlets. Women, we are told, are also barred from selling or serving liquor. If women can’t buy, sell or serve liquor, can they drink it?

Is this law in tune with present day needs? There are female barkeepers (what about the law) in hotels; there are those who own taverns; there are waitresses who serve alcohol in hotels and women who drink. This freely happens in society today but no one can turn around and say “I’ didn’t know the law,” for ignorance of the law is no excuse if hauled up before a judge for committing an offence. The Excise Commissioner however has the discretion to allow waitresses selling liquor.

Archaic again: when buying liquor in bulk for weddings, a wedding card has to be presented as proof when making a purchase.

Invariably most of the archaic legislation affects the rights of women. Isn’t there a need to be more liberal given that women dominate Sri Lanka’s economy through garments and tea exports, and remittances from migrant workers in addition to not being discriminatory?

Some years ago, a motorcyclist discovered that by law learner riders must have an “experienced” rider by “your side”. How do you have an experienced rider “by your side” on a motorcycle unless that law was drafted when motorcycles had sidecars? Has that law changed? Most unlikely!

It’s not our intention to poke fun at Sri Lankan laws but just to show the absurdity of retaining legislation or not amending them to be in line with current trends and needs.

For example, people are expected to walk on pavements and not on areas designated for motorists. But how many roads in Sri Lanka have pavements? For that matter most of Colombo’s pavements in Pettah, Fort and other areas are crowded with shops, forcing people onto the road.

Thus by being far behind the times even in the effectiveness of Sri Lankan laws, this country will continue to be slow in development (nevertheless faster in ‘duping’ the laws … that’s what we are doing now instead of changing it) and take longer to catch up with the rest of the world.