The Political Column

19th September 1999

CBK pushes Equality Bill

By our Political Correspondent

The Equal Opportunities Bill aimed at minimising racial, religious and sexual discrimination ran into a storm, when it was taken up for descussion by ministers on Wednesday.

Several ministers were of the opinion that it was not the correct time to present such a bill in parliament though they agreed it could reap benefits in the long run. Some of the ministers were of the opinion this bill would give rise to other problems. For instance, they pointed out there were Buddhist schools, Christian schools and so many other institutions which have exclusive rights for their own communities.

But the President had different ideas. "What are we doing. Time has lapsed. We have not implemented the package; nor have we ended the war," she lamented.

The President said Tamils and Muslims were justified when they said nothing concrete had been done to resolve the present crisis in the country. "They know I am broad-minded, but when I tried to do something, some obstacles cropped up. Why should we be scared if we have taken the right step. We have a duty by the people to solve this problem. It is the trust of the people and we have to honour that trust," the President said emphatically.

"Look at the sufferings of the Tamils in Colombo? They cannot freely walk around the city. After we set up a committee to go into their grievances and sorted out matters, things have come under control, but still it is not enough. When a police officer at a check-point uses offensive language, the Tamils get offended. Sometimes when they see Tamil women, they call them 'Demaliyo.' That is enough for the Tamils to get offended and to hate us.

"When I was in France, I had gone through these sufferings. They asked us to fill up forms furnishing personal and family details. These things have been properly designed to humiliate non-nationals. When they asked who my father was, I told them he was a labourer and the mother was a housewife. I know what I underwent in France, I cannot be a party to humiliate anybody in this country, whether it be Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslims," the President said.

"Look at the Muslims, they are unable to gain admission to any good school in Sri Lanka. Muslim ministers say they want separate and exclusive schools for Muslims. Although I have not accommodated this request, it is not unfair for them to make this request so long as we do not change our policies. Ananda College, Nalanda College, Visakha Vidyalaya, S. Thomas' College and Ladies College have been rated as the best schools in the city. Admissions to these schools are restricted to their own communities. At the same time, Zahira College has also restricted its admission. Although the 20 percent rule is there, that is not implemented," the President said, trying to convince the cabinet of the urgent need to present the Equal Opportunities Bill in parliament.

When the President spoke of Zahira College, Minister M.H.M. Ashraff intervened. He said that since the President had spoken about Zahira College, he would like to put the record straight.

He said, "It is wrong to say that there are no non-Muslims at Zahira. It is equally wrong to compare Zahira with the good schools in Colombo. No good student wants to join Zahira College. Even the children of the Board of Governors do not go to Zahira. The GCE O/L results are very poor there. Hardly anyone had entered the University during the past ten years. Even if a few had entered the University, it has to be taken as an exception. I have gone into this question and I was told that most of the children who attend Zahira College sleep during school hours because they come from poor Muslim families in Maligawatte and elsewhere in Colombo."

At this stage, Education Minister Richard Pathirana requested Mr. Ashraff to hand over Zahira College to the government and pledged he would raise it to the level of Royal. Mr. Ashraff said he was in total agreement with the Minister. He said if Dr. Badi-ud-din Mahmud's request had not been vetoed by an order of the Privy Council, today Zahira would have been another Royal College.

Thereafter, Mr. Ashraff switched on to national integration. He said it would never come unless the people understand both Sinhala and Tamil languages.

Elaborating on national integration, Mr. Ashraff said the government should resort to resources within its reach. "We don't have a two thirds majority to put the package through, but with the existing power we had during the past five years the younger generation could have been made bi-lingual. We have miserably failed in that, also. Sinhala had been the official language for the past 40 years, but most of the Tamil schools do not have Sinhala teachers. Tamil has been the official language for the past ten years, but almost all the Sinhala schools do not have Tamil teachers. We have an official language department. We have laid down rules in the Establishment Code and other government regulations that every government letter should go with a Tamil translation. But none of these requirements has been met.

"On September 14, I presided over the district coordinating committee meeting in Ampara and I received a letter from the Irrigation Department on its centenary celebration, but the letter was only in Sinhala. It is a shame to look at signboards because Tamil is wrongly spelt including on the main signboard of parliament. Get somebody who knows Tamil or employ Tamil speaking people for these duties.

"Under these circumstances, are we going to perpetuate this wrong any longer?" he asked.

Minister Ashraff then suggested that the government should immediately start teaching Sinhala and Tamil in all schools throughout the island.

The President responded immediately and said: "Yes, we have to do it immediately." Minister Pathirana also agreed.

Thereafter, the cabinet decided to make Sinhala and Tamil languages compulsory in all schools throughout the island.

But when the President said Minister Richard Pathirana had not acted according to her directive to appoint 200 Tamil teachers to schools, Minister Pathirana blew a fuse.

He roared, "I have asked for a Treasury allocation for this, but they refused. I am not a communal-minded man. The portfolio which is assigned to me is not of any worth for me. I am prepared to leave this at anytime."

The President listened patiently. Mr. Pathirana then said. "I respect my nationality and religion more than anything and it is not a big thing to be a minister." The President at this stage said the minister could go on shouting and she could shout louder than him, but there was no purpose in doing so.

Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, however, opposed the Equal Opportunities Bill. He said, "we are in a critical juncture. If you introduce it now, it will upset the whole equilibrium. Do not forget that elections are round the corner. It would be a big problem as far as the timing is concerned," he said.

The minister is also of the view that all other discriminatory measures have to be removed, if this bill is to be introduced. While admitting there are good features in the bill, he questioned the validity of the Thesavalamai Law in this context. "The Thesavalamai law restricts the buying of land in Jaffna, but there is no such laws applicable in these areas. Anybody can buy land in Colombo and in the South. So there would be a conflict in the law, if we allow the Equal Opportunities Bill to be presented without ironing out these differences. There are so many examples that we can bring in to substantiate this argument," he said.

Mr. Wickremanayake said that on those grounds he would oppose the bill as it needed a lot of public discussions.

Minister Batty Weerakoon said if it was going to be a good piece of legislation aimed at building ethnic integration, it was good. But he said he had his reservations about what would happen to educational institutions.

Later, the President appointed a nine-member ministerial committee headed by her to go into the matter The other members of the committee are Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Mahinda Rajapakse, Richard Pathirana, D.P. Wickremasinghe, Alavi Moulana, G.L. Peiris, John Seneviratne and Batty Weerakoon.

At the cabinet meeting, the President also rasied queries about loans given by the state banks. The President said she had full knowledge of what was going on in state banks and alleged that the PA government had given twice the amount of loans than the UNP, and she alleged that most of the businessmen who swindled the banks during the UNP regime had once again taken loans through the influence of some ministers.

The President said it was disastrous and she knew who these ministers were. "These businessmen are trying to embezzle the state banks once again. Some ministers have been personally involved in these matters and used their influence to obtain these loans. I have already interdicted 13 officials who are responsible for this kind of activity. I am now trying to identify who these businessmen are."

The President said she would hold an inquiry into the matter and punish those responsible for this kind of crime. When one minister rose to his feet to explain the position, the President retorted angrily and prevented him from speaking.

Minister Ashraff left the cabinet meeting nearly half an hour before it ended. He was a happy man, since the government accepted in principle his suggestion to introduce Sinhala in Tamil Schools and Tamil in Sinhala schools. He thought it was a great victory and felt that he had achieved a breakthrough in his effort to bring about unity among the Sinhalese, Tamils and the Muslims. Mr. Ashraff's National Unity Alliance has also been mooted for the same purpose.

However, Mr. Ashraff's political moves had not received much favour in the Eastern province. It appears that there is an organised campaign against him specially in the Digavapi area.

A leaflet had been distributed in the hamlets around Digavapi Chaitya alleging that the majority of the Buddhist monks in the area had been bribed. It also says the Sinhalese in the area should not have any dealings with the Muslims. On September 14 at a ceremony held in the Digavapi area, Mr. Ashraff came out strongly against a campaign purported to have been launched by the Sinhala Weeravidanaya.

He said if the Sinhala Weerawidanaya wanted the Sinhala people only to confine to themselves, it meant that the Muslims and the Tamils should interact with them and the Muslims and the Tamils should look after their own affairs as separate communities. "If this is the position of the Sinhala Weeravidanaya, then our country would have three divisions," he said. This was worse than what Prabhakaran had demanded, he said. He also said Ven. Gangodavila Soma Thera had described him as a leader of the Jihad. Minister Ashraff said he was the first to condemn this kind of development in the Muslim community.

He also reminded the people how the Eastern province was given to the LTTE on a platter under the Indo-Lanka agreement and said the LTTE did everything to upset the civil administration there. "And what did the so-called Muslims do? They ran away to Colombo. Out of frustration, quite a few Muslims joined hands with the Tamil militants. But it was the SLMC which showed them the democratic path and brought them back to the mainstream of politics and it was the SLMC which prevented cessation of this country," he said.

In the meantime, it is learnt that Ven. Soma Thera has visited Digavapi Maha Chaitya recently with the former Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army, Major General Lucky Algama, the chief priest of Budangala Vihare and former Minister P. Dayaratne who is the president of the Digavapi development society.

It appears now that there is going to be a long-drawn out political battle between Mr. Ashraff and Mr. P. Dayaratne.

In another development last week, we saw the SLFP President and Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike suspending Anuradhapura district parliamentarian Janak Mahendra Adhikari for allegedly assaulting a high officer in the Ceylon Electricity Board in Kekirawa.

Mr. Adhikari heard about his suspension from the party when he was holidaying at a Salt Corporation bungalow in Hambantota. By this time, the Kekirawa Magistrate had issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Adhikari.

On hearing that he has been suspended from the party, he immediately contacted UNP MP and his long-standing friend Anura Bandaranaike. He requested Mr. Bandaranaike to talk to the Prime Minister to lift the suspension. He explained to Mr. Bandaranaike the problems he was facing in the area and the harassment he had to undergo at the hands of the present provincial council administration.

Mr. Bandaranaike who was sympathetic towards Mr. Adhikari took his case to the Prime Minister. But she refused to lift his suspension saying that party discipline was more important than anything. Ms. Bandarnaike said others should learn how to run a party and she was not going to lift the suspension on Mr. Adhikari.

The other eventful matter of the week was the appointment of Attorney-General Sarath Silva as the 13th Chief Justice of Independent Sri Lanka. The President under the provisions of the constitution appointed Mr. Silva who has behind him a distinguished legal career. Before being appointed as Attorney-General, Mr. Silva was a judge of the Supreme Court, President of the Court of Appeal and a judge of the Court of Appeal.

He first joined the Attorney-General's Department in late 1960s and rose to the position of Deputy Solicitor-General before being appointed to the Court of Appeal. A postgraduate from the Brussells university, he has done research work on human rights law and constitutional law. Mr. Silva is 55 years and received his early education at Trinity College and later at the Law College. During recent times, Mr. Silva was embroiled in a controversy over a case filed by a former chairman of the Organisation of Professional Associations against his wife and over the Lenin Ratnayake affair.

Chief Justice Silva has, however, rejected this allegation and the President has moved eventually to appoint him as the 13th Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.

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