Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister – Your response to Citizen’s Questions
Posted on August 13th, 2020
CITIZEN BANDA
The President of Sri Lanka has handpicked & appointed a first time National List nominee as Justice Minister who was not a politician, never a Member of Parliament and not a public figure except to serve as a lawyer to clients and regular speech maker following Presidential elections. The appointment was given amidst much controversy and appeals not to do so. The onus certainly is on the appointee to make good of the appointment by serving the nation’s interest first, rather than the parochial interests of one’s own religion and co – religionists. The President’s vision and platform to rally citizens has been based on the theme One Law One Country. The citizens would like the Justice Minister to make clear his position on the following & the citizens are asked to watch the Justice Minister deliver on the wishes of the People based on the Vision of H.E the President Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse.
A. One Law One Country means the enactment of a Uniform Civil Code and nullification of all separate legal systems & personal laws
B. Official Language of Sri Lanka being Sinhala & Tamil means NO ARABIC SCHOOLS/MADRASSAS operating in Sri Lanka.
C. Equality before the Law means:
· Strict adherence to Article 12 of the Constitution
Article 12 of the Constitution lays down the general rule of equality that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law and that no citizen shall be discriminated against on grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of birth or any of such grounds
· No separate food labeling for one ethnic group – that ethnic group cannot demand all companies to pay to a private company to have anything exported with a label that does not belong to the State. The private company can pay to the companies exporting & have labels placed on items sent to countries where that ethnic group demands such labels. It is unfair to force other ethnic groups to pay for labels to the wishes of one ethnic group.
· No Shariah courts or laws in Sri Lanka– there is only ONE LAW for ALL CITIZENS
· No separate marriage laws & no polygamy– if Sinhalese & Tamils can have only 1 legal spouse, that same law should apply to Muslims as multiple wives means multiple children to whom the State must spend for free education and this violates the law of equality to all.
· No separate helmet laws– if police require all to wear helmets it is applicable to all & punitive measures must be adhered to sans political involvement
· No proliferation of Mosques and Madrassas in Sri Lanka
· The total no of places of worship of any given religion should be in proportion to its percentage of adherents in the country. If there are 10% Muslims in the country then the percentage of Mosques must be within 10% vis a vis the total number of places of worship
· No building of Mosques within Buddhist citadels such as Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Mahiyangane, Mahanuwara, Dambulla etc.
· No use of Loudspeakers at Mosques for purpose of Azan
· No strategic use of natural Birth to subvert the dominance of the majority community by increasing the population of Muslims over and above the national average
· No opposition to enactment of the Animal Welfare Bill and similar legislation on the ground that Muslim countries do not protect animals nor prevent animal abuse through legislation nor punish offenders that commit acts of cruelty to animals
· Ban on Animal Sacrifice and ritual killing of animals in places of worship
D. The citizens wish to have a Public Statement by Justice Minister on the following:
· Open inquiry into how under a previous Justice Minister who was a Muslim an excessive number of students from one ethnic community entered Law College
· Assurance that no interference or influence will be made to release or dilute the charges against a Muslim lawyer arrested & held under PTA in connection with the Easter Sunday Mass murder that constituted a crime against humanity
· Any Hate Speech legislation must cover religious texts that call upon one religion to target another religion & vilify their followers as infidels or Kaffirs
· Action on suicide terrorism as an increasing number of global terrorist acts are by Islamic suicide terrorists
· Action against terrorists under terrorism laws
· Action against separatism under 6thamendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka
August 14th, 2020 at 12:23 pm
Politicians mustn’t influence the judges or put pressure on them. When ever I met the politicians I asked them why can’t our judiciary act like ones in UK where the courts in UK doesn’t drag cases for decades. Also the courts must act swiftly on politicians and their agents who forcibly occupying innocent people’s home using false deeds, even get the banks to give these rouges loans using these false deeds.
I had my court case for 2 decades and my parents could not live in their own home because they could not evict the lodger and my parents died without ever entering their home. Our court system is at fault and also civil servants are transferred left right and centre forcing them to rent their homes. This is our balu and para culture that the politicians are not willing to tackle, because the politicians are only there to make money but not to serve the people who elected them.