{"id":111278,"date":"2021-02-02T16:25:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T23:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111278"},"modified":"2021-02-02T16:26:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T23:26:19","slug":"to-hon-ali-sabry-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/02\/to-hon-ali-sabry-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"TO HON ALI SABRY PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

RANJITH SOYSA.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Dear Hon\nAli Sabry, the Minister of Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am\naddressing this note to you as I believe that you are man of the world with a\nroad map for the Nation. I have listened to your pre-election speeches\ndelivered in Australia and read your orations in Sri Lanka which outlined your\nvision for the country and the nation. And, I still believe that you have a lot\nto contribute to the Nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am\nrather puzzled with two recent propositions made by you which fly in the face\nof the picture of you, I had in my mind. Still. I have implicit trust in you as\nI am of the view that which I discuss below will receive your close scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grasping the\nNettle, I may point out that your proposal to \u2018amend the Antiquities Ordinance,\nrepealing the provisions therein preventing the courts from releasing persons\ncharged with or accused of related offences on bail\u201d (article in the Island by\nK Tiranagama) reminds me of the attempts of some to hunt with the hounds and\nrun with the hare. As you no doubt agree the Antiquities are part of our living\nhistory which we have to protect and handover to our future generations. As a\nsmall country we have been cheated by a number of invaders who pillaged our\ninvaluable treasures of historical value and stole many others which are now stored\nin prestigious museums of the West. Your efforts to tackle the prison\ncongestion by tinkering with the Antiquities Ordinance is not acceptable to a\nnation which is at the receiving end of systematic robbery of her artifacts by\nthe colonial powers and at present, by the greedy and the well-planned destructive\nforces, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the\nHon Minister, you should consider looking elsewhere, if your objective is to\nreduce the prison congestion. If at all, you should introduce stringent\nmeasures to the Antiquities Ordinance to deter persons from robbing the\nnation\u2019s history. We hear that yearly over 750 complaints are received annually\nby the police and the dept of Archaeology. about vandalism directed at our\nantiquities. If you do implement your misdirected proposal the such vandals\nwill have a field day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsecond proposal which is equally or more damaging is included in the gazette\nnotification no 2208\/13 -2020 issued on council of legal education dated\n30.12.21\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

which\nsays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Part I :\nSec. (I) – GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI\nLANKA – 30.12.2020 5A (d) the Special Entrance Examination shall be held during\na specified month as determined by the Council, of the year preceding the year\nof entry to the Sri Lanka Law College. (2) immediately after rule 28 thereof,\nby the insertion of the following new rule:- 28A. (1) All courses conducted\nat the Sri Lanka Law College shall be conducted in the English Medium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should the law be taught only in English vitiating the Official\nLanguage Act? As you no doubt agree law affects everybody in Sri Lanka and the\nopportunity should be made available to average Sri Lankan to understand and to\nact according to the law. Once the education is provided in English only as per\nthe proposal the whole legal machinery including the hearing of court cases to\nwill be conducted in English only. You may remember how the ordinary villager\nSilindu in the well know novel Village in the Jungle had to face the justice\nwhen he had to look up and accept the judgement against him delivered in\nEnglish, a language which he did not comprehend! There will be many more\nSilindus in Sri Lanka who will have to come to the courts and suffer in\nsilence  to the dictates in English if\nthe proposed scheme comes into operation.  The law had been taught in Sinhala language\nfor more than 25 years and is not a subject to be used internationally except\nwith regard to special occasions which can be handled even by using official\ntranslators as in the case of  eminent\ninternational leaders who are not conversant in English. You are only\nattempting to turn the clock back to colonial period. Please reconsider and\nrevert to the existing system in providing legal education as per the Official\nLanguage Act <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RANJITH\nSOYSA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RANJITH SOYSA. Dear Hon Ali Sabry, the Minister of Justice. I am addressing this note to you as I believe that you are man of the world with a road map for the Nation. I have listened to your pre-election speeches delivered in Australia and read your orations in Sri Lanka which outlined your vision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ranjith-soysa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111278","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=111278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}