{"id":107562,"date":"2020-10-13T23:52:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T05:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107562"},"modified":"2020-10-13T16:37:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T23:37:48","slug":"mp-s-to-study-the-foreign-laws-included-in-the-mcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/13\/mp-s-to-study-the-foreign-laws-included-in-the-mcc\/","title":{"rendered":"MP’ s to study the foreign laws included in the MCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sri Lanka Study Circle<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

This is a response to the\narticle by Shenali Waduge on MCC and relating it to the claim by a MP that the\nMCC will be signed but subject to Sri Lankan Law. Unfortunately, the statement\nfrom this MP has come AFTER the article showing how foreign laws will prevail\nafter signing MCC. It makes a mockery of the MPs statement.  [Daily Mirror\narticle The proposed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement will be\nsigned only after studying and subjecting it into Sri Lankan law, a government\nMP told Parliament .http:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/breaking_news\/MCC-will-only-be-signed-subject-to-SL-laws-Govt-MP\/108-197496<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public are alarmed  and they\nraise questions —<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1]  Excellent intelligent\nquestion,  by  Mr Sanjeeva Weerawansa was published. He asked the\nmost relevant question —  – Does anyone know what the Bim Saviya\nprogram is? They’re walking around my neighbourhood demanding copies of the\ntitle and survey plan to issue a new digitalized title. So do we now have a\ndigital land registry? If that’s already done why does MCC have $80M to build\none?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2] If you read the MCC you will find the answer. In\nthe pretext of  introducing e registration, which is already done;\nInternational  law and a foreign law are   coming into the\ncountry.    Sinhala name is  given to the law and is\nreferred to as \u2018 Bim Saviya\u2019 which is known internationally as the\n Torrens law or Title registration.   In USA the law is referred\nto as the Torrens law and many states have rejected the law.  USA\nrightfully believes that a country does not require to change the law to\nintroduce technology<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3] It is laughable that the Sinhala inappropriate name\n Bim Saviya is given to the Australian law. it is also  laughable\nthat the MCC uses this name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4] The main feature  of this\ndetrimental law is  ——It repeals the fundamental right to access court\nThat is if a land owner is affected by fraud or forgery, he cannot claim his\nland back.  – It is undeniable that this law  inherently and\nnecessarily includes a risk for all owners who will have no deeds in\nthe future.   Deeds are replaced with certificates.   Once\nan owner is registered by virtue of an illegal deed,  previous owner\u2019s\nrecord is deleted, that is the  history of ownership cannot be found.\n  How did the law makers eliminate deeds from the e register when the\nElectronic  Transaction Act states in section 23 deeds must be available\nfor owners for all land transactions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5] Alarming  news for owners —\n  Once  defrauded the  remedy is to obtain  financial\ncompensation from an Assurance Fund maintained by the Government  , \nCan the government compensate owners? Will the MCC give the funds ? Is this\neconomically viable ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6] The counter argument is that Bim\nsaviya is an old law? Yes, World Bank introduced the design says the MCC. \nThe government tried to introduce the law for  20 years and failed . \nIt is a failed law.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did it fail .  <\/em>Government\nOfficer in charge explains — —- Extract From Commissioner\nTitle   Performance Report of 2018https:\/\/www.parliament.lk\/uploads\/documents\/paperspresented\/performance-report-land-title-settlement-department-2018.pdf<\/a> \n–\u2018\u2019How far it is pragmatic to supervise and manage an island wide office\nsystem centrally to change the land law. Therefore an  urgency arises to\nre-evaluate the entire Bim Saviya program  as well as the viability of\nthis  law \u2018\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impossibility of the task  is\nalso given in the Samarasekera Report expert lawyers  Committee\nappointed by President Mahinda Rajapakse when the Bar Association pointed out\nthe detrimental effects of this law .  Refer —<\/em>Book- Title\nInsurance- By Hon  Justice A.R.B. Amerasinghe..  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

7]  Even the MCC says it is a\nfailed law They are aware that the  ownership rights of local\nlandowners cannot  be included into the  \u2018law-and \u2013order\u2019\n framework of  Australia..<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are recommending amendments\n.  MP’s  need to be aware of this – why should they request such\namendments?<\/sup> .<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can any one guess  the period\n  require  to implement this law it may take over a century\n? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annex 1-21 of MCC says for 20 years\nthe MCC will have only  5 million beneficiaries.    . \nGovernment says it needs over 100 years see Commissioner Title Report\n  of 2018 given above .   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure   MP\u2019s,\n most of them who are  lawyers will understand that an e register\ndoes not require a country to change the laws familiar to owners and\nlawyers.  Please refer the Samarasekera report and the amendments made by\nthe Bar Association  before accepting amendments recommended by MCC to\npush this law into our country. After MCC admitting it is failed law in Annex 1\n\u201331  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The e register like in any other\nnation only requires  simple laws for  the  identification\nof the owners before land transactions are executed in order to prevent\nfraud.  This has been already provided  under   the\nFinancial Transactions Reporting Act, No. 6 of 2006.\u201d  of  Sri\nLanka http:\/\/fiusrilanka.gov.lk\/docs\/ACTs\/FTRA\/Financial_Transactions_Reporting_Act_2006-6_(English).pdf<\/a>.  \nHope the MP\u2019s will propose the necessary laws <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka need to be cautious as\nover-reliance on funding agencies and their legal advice  have shocked\nnations –What happened Papua New Guinea?  A victim Kaputin\ncharged that the right to access court being withdrawn  was deliberately\nintroduced in PNG by the Australian colonial administration in order to protect\nforeigners’ land titles [ By John ugambwa*]http:\/\/www.paclii.org\/journals\/fJSPL\/vol05\/2.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened in Malaysia — Malaysia–Adorna\nProperties v Boonsom Boonyanit [2001] 1 MLJ 241.The <\/em> first\njudgment on this law country learnt the seriousness of this law.  Adorna\nProperties the company that registered the name with a forged land deed was\nawarded the land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wise word of Dr A.R.B\nAmerasinghe in his book \u2018 Title Insurance\u2019—-  \n\u2018\u2019 their  immediate object was the repeal of every law and the\nabolition of every institution which impede the easy transfer of land  as\nthey consider lands should be easily saleable as a watch. [ economist call this\naccess to land]   According to Hon Justice Amerasinghe  we\nrequire an acceptable law   for our society  as our assumption\nis that  land should be readily available for maximum use and not to be\nbought and sold as a watch\u2019\u2019 Just for a paltry $480m Sri Lanka’s Ministers\nshould not fall into this US trap and moreover put Sri Lanka & its citizens\ninto jeopardy <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Sri Lanka Study Circle <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sri Lanka Study Circle This is a response to the article by Shenali Waduge on MCC and relating it to the claim by a MP that the MCC will be signed but subject to Sri Lankan Law. Unfortunately, the statement from this MP has come AFTER the article showing how foreign laws will prevail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sri-lanka-study-circle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107562","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=107562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}