{"id":105574,"date":"2020-08-16T23:41:10","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T05:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105574"},"modified":"2020-08-16T16:20:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T23:20:32","slug":"how-the-16th-amendment-turned-the-official-language-policy-upside-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/16\/how-the-16th-amendment-turned-the-official-language-policy-upside-down\/","title":{"rendered":"How the 16th Amendment turned the Official Language Policy upside down"},"content":{"rendered":"

S. Akurugoda<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I refer to the two\narticles of Kalyananda Tiranagama, Executive Director, Lawyers for Human Rights\nand Development, under the titles Is\nSinhala the Official Language of Sri Lanka\u201d <\/em>and   How\nPremadasa turned the Official Language Policy upside down\u201d <\/em>appeared in The Island<\/em> dated 28th<\/sup> and 29th<\/sup>\nrespectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The articles quoting typical examples of the plight of the Sinhala people in\nthe North and the East are facing today, gave a detailed account analysing how the crafty Tamil and Muslim politicians\nin the North and East got the relevant Constitutional provisions changed to\nsuit them by extending the support to the power-hungry politicians in the South.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 As stated by Mr\nTiranagama, the people in our\ncountry, including the politicians and the political parties in the South may\nbelieve that Sinhala is the Official Language of Sri Lanka applicable\nthroughout the country. But the Tamil and Muslim politicians in the North and\nthe East know that it is not the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have seen several articles and\nheard many speeches expressing the harmful effects of 13th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup>\nAmendments to the Constitution and why those should be repealed or replaced.  Unfortunately people in our country,\nincluding most of the current politicians in the South, seem not aware of the\ncontents of the 16th<\/sup> Amendment or its repercussions which was\nintroduced in December 1988, just 2 days prior to the Precedential Election, when there were disappearances, abductions and\nkillings were the norms of the day during the infamous \u2018Bheesana\nSamaya\u2019 <\/em>in late 80s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we must be grateful to Mr\nTiranagama for educating the readers on this important subject and its impact\non the general public. https:\/\/island.lk\/is-sinhala-the-official-language-of-sri-lanka-i\/<\/em><\/a> \nand <\/em>https:\/\/island.lk\/how-premadasa-turned-the-official-language-policy-upside-down\/<\/em><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinhala remained the Official\nLanguage of Sri Lanka continuously for 32 years from 1956 to 1988.  Although Tamil was also made an official\nlanguage in 1987 under the 13th<\/sup> Amendment, it did not relegate the\nstatus given to Sinhala as the Official Language of the whole country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 As per the 16th<\/sup> Amendment made in\n1988, Sinhala language, in effect is no longer The Official Language or the\nlanguage of administration throughout Sri Lanka. It is only an Official\nLanguage in the sense that it is the language of administration in seven\nprovinces other than the Northern and Eastern Provinces where as Tamil can be\nthe language of administration throughout Sri Lanka in addition to its Official\nLanguage status, since there is no limitation imposed on its application as in\nthe case of Sinhala. Sinhala is no longer the language of administration\nthroughout Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 As stated in the article, this has resulted in\nthe denial of the rights of tens of thousands of Sinhala speaking people in the\nNorthern and Eastern Provinces in Sri Lanka from conducting communications with\nProvincial administrations and local authorities in their national language and\nplacing them in great difficulty, compelling them to transact their\ncommunications with public institutions in Tamil, a language they are not\nconversant with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The articles also state how the provisions of\nthe 16th<\/sup> Amendment paved the way for the creation of minority\nlinguistic ethnic units at the Divisional Secretariat level using languages\ndifferent from the language of administration in the province as the language\nof administration for such areas. The said articles reveal, sighting examples,\nhow racist politicians of ethnic and religious minority political parties have\nbargained and are continuing, step by step, to do so with the power-hungry\npolitical leaders in the South during election times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 As I\nremember, Dr. Colvin R de Silva, deputy leader of the LSSP who opposed the\nOfficial Languages Act in 1956 said that one language would result in two\ncountries.  What is really happening\ntoday is that two languages in one country are gradually paving the way for resulting\ntwo countries at the end. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S. Akurugoda I refer to the two articles of Kalyananda Tiranagama, Executive Director, Lawyers for Human Rights and Development, under the titles Is Sinhala the Official Language of Sri Lanka\u201d and   How Premadasa turned the Official Language Policy upside down\u201d appeared in The Island dated 28th and 29th respectively. The articles quoting typical examples […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-s-akurugoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105574","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=105574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}