{"id":104144,"date":"2020-07-01T17:11:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T00:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104144"},"modified":"2020-07-01T17:11:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T00:11:10","slug":"mcc-sri-lanka-only-english-no-sinhala-tamil-in-e-land-registrar-violation-of-language-provision-in-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/01\/mcc-sri-lanka-only-english-no-sinhala-tamil-in-e-land-registrar-violation-of-language-provision-in-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"MCC Sri Lanka: ONLY ENGLISH (no Sinhala\/Tamil) in E-Land Registrar violation of LANGUAGE provision in Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That MCC has undergone various stages of approval or observation\nprior to finalizing the document certainly questions how far our own are\ninterested to view a bilateral document and appraise it considering the\nadvantages and disadvantages to the Country & the People. While MCC has\nchosen to plug itself to foreign programs already commenced with foreign\nfunding, MCC has also started ventures before signing the Compact. One such is\nthe e-registrar, electronic scanning of deeds and cadastral mapping all being\ndone by US firms or private parties selected by the US embassy. How many of our own associated with this project even those in the\nAG\u2019s department as well as the members of the Bar Association have saw fit to\nquestion the LANGUAGE COMPONENT and why everything is being done ONLY IN\nENGLISH in a country where over 75% are NOT ENGLISH LITERATE?<\/strong>  Why should the nation\u2019s ROOTS held in the current DEED system have\nto be put into a FOREIGN-OWNED\/CONTROLLED ENGLISH ONLY e-land registry omitting\nSinhala & Tamil language rights?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare a few problems in this scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly,\nall our land records \u2013 some 200,000 books in 45 land registries covering deeds\nof millions of people are in either Sinhala or Tamil ONLY. Even the handful of\ndeeds written in English are next translated into Sinhala or Tamil and entered.\nThe entries are ONLY in Sinhala or Tamil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ex: the 4th<\/sup>column\nhas the former owners details which becomes relevant for any legal cases. With\nthe new title registration system in e-land registrar ONLY the present owners\nor rather only ONE SINGLE owner\u2019s details are included and this issue arises\nfor deeds that are co-ownership etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly,\nthis foreign imposed e-registrar is designed in English with details to be\nentered in English and anyone accessing it must be able to read &\nunderstand English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirdly,\nif the private parties who are handling the e-registrar are entering in\nEnglish, it essentially means they have to translate to English what is in\nSinhala & Tamil. Who is doing this translation, is it signed off by a\nsworn-translator of the Government? If not, how credible and valid are these\ntranslations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourthly,\nhow many in Sri Lanka are NOT English literate and have NO access to computer\nor internet to see the status quo of their land records?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, how are these\nforeign\/private parties translating the Nindagam\/Devalagam and Ola Leaf entries\ninto this e-land registry? This is the most frightening aspect of this\nENGLISH-ONLY FOREIGN CONTROLLED E-LAND REGISTRY!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rural\/Urban Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • eight out of ten Sri Lankans (82%) live in rural areas<\/li>
  • almost 31.8% of the labour force work in agriculture (over 2million)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Digital literacy in Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • digital literacy (38.7%) \u2013 ability to use a computer, laptop,\ntablet, or smartphone without assistance.<\/li>
    • Rural \u2013 digital literacy rate is 36.4%<\/li>
    • Estate sectors \u2013 digital literacy rate is 16.4%<\/li>
    • Only 21% of rural households had a desktop computer or a laptop<\/li>
    • Only 5.1% of households in the estate sector had a desktop\ncomputer or a laptop<\/li>
    • almost 40% in urban areas had a desktop computer or a laptop<\/li>
    • Even in Western province only 33.4% households have a desktop\ncomputer or a laptop<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      English in Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • English literacy (22%)<\/li>
      • 2% of learners have Sinhala as their medium of study, 25% Tamil<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        The\nstatistics does not look too good. Can 2million farmers know English enough to\nbrowse their entry in the e-land registrar from time to time even and see if\nany hanky panky has happened? How many of these 2million people can even afford\nto pay someone to look up their details and what a tedious and unfair task this\nis? Isn\u2019t this woe relevant to many other non-English speaking players\nproviding key source of income to our GDP like estate workers and garment\nworkers as well as fishermen etc?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Didn\u2019t\nthe policy makers and even the Bar Association see this violation staring at\nthem. As people who \u2018know the law\u2019 do we need to remind them of the\nconstitutional provisions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Article 12 and Article 18.\nArticle 18 of the Sri Lankan Constitution declares Sinhala and Tamil to be\nNational Languages of the country while adding that English will be a linking\nlanguage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Article 12 of the Constitution\nguarantees that no personal shall be discriminated based on language.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The\nBar Association of Sri Lanka cannot be sitting on this important factor. No\nforeign funding can jeopardize or marginalize our People and violate the\ncountry\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        It is unfortunate that the\nofficials who met the President yesterday (30 Jun) did not bring up this\nEnglish only factor when discussing the e-land registry fraud. It certainly\nquestions with what public interest every public official is actually working!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        It is not the speed of entering\ninto e-land registrar that should matter but CORRECTLY entering into registrar.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The\ne-land registry cannot be controlled by or under the patronage of any private\nor foreign party. It must be handled and owned by Sri Lanka and the relevant\nministry with our own IT experts trained to handle such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        That\nthe e-land registry is under foreign control is a dangerous aspect for Sri\nLanka\u2019s land records and land history given that the ownership details of the\npast is being subtly erased while translated from Sinhala\/Tamil to English\nexpecting the majority of non-speaking English\/non-computer literate\/non-owning\ncomputer\/laptop populace to be comfortable in accepting this alien system\nsimply because it comes with some foreign funding. This is a constitutional and\nfundamental rights violation of the common Sinhala\/Tamil populace who make up\nthe majority of the 20million populace and who contribute to the GDP toiling\nhard to do so. Expecting them to adjust to a foreign language disregarding\nSinhala and Tamil is legally flawed and fundamentally wrong and this must be\nimmediately taken up and solved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The\nonly way to do so, is for the Government of Sri Lanka & the Bar Association\nto step in and take ownership of the e-land registrar from the current\nforeign\/private parties handling it and STOP foreign\/private parties accessing\nSri Lanka\u2019s land registrars and wrongly translating and entering into their\nsystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The\nSri Lanka Bar Association must demand to see all of the entries so far placed\nin the e-land registry and give its seal of approval publicly as the 700,000\ntitle registration holders whose entries may be in the e-land registry already\nshould not have wrong details inserted into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Bottom\nline is no country\u2019s e-land registry where the majority do not speak English\ncan be in English violating the fundamental rights of the Sinhalese & Tamil\nspeaking populace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        This\nhas to be immediately corrected and properly corrected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Shenali D Waduge That MCC has undergone various stages of approval or observation prior to finalizing the document certainly questions how far our own are interested to view a bilateral document and appraise it considering the advantages and disadvantages to the Country & the People. While MCC has chosen to plug itself to foreign programs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}