{"id":98890,"date":"2020-02-10T18:39:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T01:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=98890"},"modified":"2020-02-10T18:40:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T01:40:28","slug":"sri-lankas-land-rights-without-judicial-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/02\/10\/sri-lankas-land-rights-without-judicial-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s land rights \u2013without judicial power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Observations by the \u00a0MCC Public Opinion Committee<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

We refer to the well-researched article\u00a0 by \u00a0Shenali Waduge \u2018\u00a0\u00a0What happens when state land is privatized and farmers are given title deeds\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1]Why does the MCC require Sri Lanka to weaken the legal profession-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essence of the astonishing piece of\nlegislation called the  MCC is the conspicuous contravention  of\n the  rule of law <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

We are confident that the Hon President will look into this matter immediately.\u00a0 We are also confident that most Sri Lankans, including those living abroad, will volunteer to help without remuneration and invest their knowledge in the battle to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the property rights of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are discussing \u20131]section 6.8 which undermines the authority of the judiciary <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  \n2] Annex 1 \u2013page 31\u2014MCC endorses the law introduced in  1998 by  the\nGovernment  over night changing  the land law on the advice of the\nWorld Bank which excludes  judicial authority and vests power in the\nadministration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  \n3]  Annex 1 \u201334 \u2013Government delegates its authority to a Primary Agent\ncalled MCC Sri Lanka for 5 years to administer  the projects after\nexcluding the judicial authority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An erudite  member of our Judiciary had\n given a  warning against  interfering with the\nindependence of the judiciary, amid mounting concern over the new  plans\nafter independence  to overhaul Sri Lanka\u2019s  Judicial authority by\ndonors. Hon\nJustice Weeramantry in his book Equality and Freedom<\/strong> warns us of this\ntragic situation in which the judicial authority is being weakened and the\nestablished legal profession bent over backwards to please donors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  His warning is as follows — \u2018This is\nan abandonment of the theory of separation of power. The legislature thus\nbecomes the supreme instrument of State power and , corollary, a large area of\ntraditional court jurisdiction to pronounce on the constitutionality of\nlegislation may move out of the ambit of ordinary Judicial power.  With\nsafeguards, as under the Sri Lanka constitution legislature will not misuse\ntheir enormously enhanced powers. Without such safeguards the position can be\nperilous\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2]Government\nto cede  control over lands <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It mocks\nour  intelligence to see  news items such as \u2018\u2019 Government\nwill  give full control over government land to the recipients, so\nthat they could make use of it as they pleased, after repealing the right to\naccess the judiciary .   https:\/\/www.dailynews.lk\/2019\/03\/19\/local\/180699\/one-million-land-deeds-granted-three-years-gayantha<\/a>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process\nof privatisation according to the MCC  must take place before the\nAgreement is passed .  A  company known as  MCC  Sri\nLanka  Pvt Ltd  said to be the Primary agent of the Government will\nadminister the process   This  company and any  US employee\nand contractor who will enter our country   for 5 years shall not\nbe  responsible to the judiciary for the sins of  commissions and\nomissions, this includes fraud, damages, murder and rape.  . Alarmingly\nlegislation will be introduced to repeal all judicial powers to workout the\nrevolutionary changes to Sri Lanka\u2019s land rights .[ Torrens law and\ndigitalisation ]   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\npressure which the Sri Lanka government is faced with to accept the gift\n has come to appoint of interfering with traditional fair trial principles\nthrough specific enactments.  We are sure the Attorney General will not\naccept this. The legal professionals who have access to court today may not\nhave any access to court if foreign lawyers  are employed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When all\nother nations are protecting their land rights and resources relating to land\nwith stringent modern laws specially when entering into electronic systems , we\nare handing over lands to be used in any manner; that is the right to use ,\nright to fruits and right  to consume .  Even the Romans disallowed\nsuch powers over land to individuals they expressed in Latin Jus utendi ,\n Jus fruendi  and Jus abutendi  .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3] Do\nprosperous nations weaken the Judiciary to stabilise land rights <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  For\nexample ask the  government of UK or USA to privatise their Crown land\nwith a promise of a gift of 480 Million Dollars repealing the judicial powers;\nyou may be tried for treason<\/strong>. As Shenali points  out no sane\ndemocracy will consider  flittering away  our rights and the\n rights of the future generations  over land in this manner. \nPoliticians  who own land in  affluent countries  will know\nthat they cannot even  demolish  buildings,[ even if they  are\nover 100 years old] nor can they  introduce crops or add fertilizer to the\nsoil  without Government approval. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\naffluent countries that lure us with their funds and gifts to\nprivatise lands without any proper planning and economic survey  have\nnever resorted  complete privatization of land.    When\n they did they have ensured that  resources are protected for the\nfuture generations with stringent  laws to mange  the resources\n such as  petroleum  industrial minerals  dolomite,\nfeldspar, ball clay, kaolin, calcite, gemstones, mica, mineral sands, graphite,\nlimestone, phosphate rock, quartz, and silica sand. Sri Lanka has an array\nof gemstone deposits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4]MCC\ndumb  about the resources in the area of focus 10 land registries in 7\ndistricts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\nhas  all the   above said resources and in addition the Highland\nComplex in the country is known for its high-grade metamorphic land rich in\ngemstones. In 2011, Cairn Lanka Ltd., a subsidiary of Cairn India Ltd.,\ndiscovered potential gas reserve in a well on one of the blocks in the Mannar\nBasin in Sri Lanka. The Mannar Basin is divided into eight blocks. The combined\ncapacity of the eight blocks is estimated to be more than 1 billion bbl of oil.\nAround $2 billion\/yr is spent on petroleum imports. Experts believe that\nthe discovery of natural gas in the Mannar Basin will persuade the government\nto start issuing permits for oil and gas exploration in the near future. Recent\nreports state that Sri Lanka\u2019s gem and jewelry industry is heading towards\nbecoming a global gem trading zone in the coming years. The industry currently\nis hoping to earn $600 million this year. The amount of gem reserves in the\ncountry is likely to ensure that Sri Lanka\u2019s gem market reaches $ 1billion by\n2016. The two major graphite producers in the country are Bogala Graphite Lanka\nplc and Kahatagaha Graphite Lanka Ltd. The combined production capacity of the\ntwo companies amounted to about 11,000 t\/yr in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5]Measurement\nof success after privatization;  evaluate how much of lands had  been\nsold and mortgaged -The MCC  Annex 111\u201452  ? <\/strong>  Is\nthis our goal for our  precious lands; repeal all the laws, abolish the\ntraditional institutions and wish that land  should be easily saleable as\na watch [ Dicey , The Paradox of Land Law 21 L.Q.R [1905] 221]   The\ncorrect  evaluation process after privatization should be  how much\nof land has been cultivated . We might admit that what the people require is a\ngood and acceptable system of land ownership with  the assumption that\nland should be readily available for maximum benefit to the people. It is\ntherefore essential that  before privatization there needs to be an appraisal\nof  land information and the capacity to use the land .  The natural\nresources of our lands have to be determined and lands with valuable resources\nshould never be privatized  . The  land use planning and project\nmanagement need to commence immediately  Stronger institutions will be\nneeded for planning and implementing land use at all levels.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Observations by the \u00a0MCC Public Opinion Committee We refer to the well-researched article\u00a0 by \u00a0Shenali Waduge \u2018\u00a0\u00a0What happens when state land is privatized and farmers are given title deeds\u2019 1]Why does the MCC require Sri Lanka to weaken the legal profession- The essence of the astonishing piece of legislation called the  MCC is the conspicuous […]<\/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-98890","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\/98890","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=98890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}