Sri Lanka’s police have given scant regard to a basic right of a Tamil journalist in Jaffna and have issued summons to him in Sinhala, a language he is not proficient in.
In a summon dated July 12, 2017, issued at 9.39 am, Jaffna based journalist has been summoned to be present at the Organized Crime Division Colombo over a media event he covered of Northern Provincial Council Member M.K. Sivajilingam.
The summon has been issued under the seal of the OIC of the Achchuveli police.
An observer pointed out that it was highly unethical for the police to issue such summons in the Sinhala language to a person who is not proficient in the language. He noted that as the Tamil language is considered an official language in the country, this summon should have been issued to the journalist in Tamil, so he can clearly understand what it said.
Champa / July 17, 2017
You Tamil terrorists beleive ‘Ven’ in Ven Gnanasara stand for ‘venereal disease carrying’. But it is not true our Ven Maha Gnanasara does not sleep either adult or minor. Only the christian priests abuse people, not monks.
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Tamil from the north / July 17, 2017
Champa, goon Gnanasara is a hooligan, thug, hoodlum, child molester, rapist, murderer, thief, crook, IRC, pig, etc. Are you happy now?
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Champa / July 17, 2017
Why are you calling Maha Gnanasara a pig? It is like me calling Lord shiva a pig. why are tamils uncivilised?
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Jamis Banda / July 18, 2017
Sinhala-Buddhists can rejoice – The Next Buddha has already arrived.
Gotama Buddha predicted the coming of next Maitreya Buddha but however the Sinhala-Buddhists always wanted a violent Barbaric Buddha as depicted in the Mahavamsa instead of a peaceful Maitreya Buddha as mentioned in the Tripitika. Instead of Maitreya Buddha, Gnanasara Buddha has arrived.
We have a very good news for the Sinhala-Buddhists, the Buddha that they dreamed of (always wanted), the Buddha as portrayed in the Mahavamsa, the true Sinhala-Buddhist Buddha, the Barbaric Buddha who can terrorize the non-Buddhists has already arrived in the form of GALAGODA ATTE GNANASARA better known as LABBASARA.
Saadu! Saadu! Saadu!
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John / July 21, 2017
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John / July 22, 2017
CT, how come you didn’t edited out Marakkala Muslim Jamis Banda???
Who’s Gotama??? It’s Gauthama!!! It’s time to close down terrorist breeding Madrasas.
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Al-faqurlah / July 18, 2017
Champa your dragging of Shiva here is unwarranted. Several Muslims like Jehan and Ralli Ameen have called Gnanssara a pig and you did not raise objection to it, nor said that it is like you calling Allah a pig. Why is this double standard.
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Champa / July 18, 2017
I didnt call Allah a pig, because it is obvious.
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Tamil from the north / July 18, 2017
Champa, you and your Gnanasara are retarded scumbag pieces of s*&t. Also what makes you think I am a Hindu? Gnanasara is lower than dog sh*t. So you and he can go screw off.
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Champa / July 18, 2017
Bogus Champa planted by Rajapaksa Clan
It seems Rajapaksa clan can’t live without me. Wherever I go they come after me.
I am beginning to think they are scared of me! What a pleasure. I feel so important.
They seem to think as I am against them, they are unable to come back to power without me! Wow! Great!
I will definitely in the vanguard in 2020 to defeat them and make sure they will never come back to power.
I shall see you all face to face in 2020, who knows may be I will contest, too. I make everybody forget there were Rajapaksas.
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Champa / July 18, 2017
Bogus Champa planted by Rajapaksa Clan
It seems Rajapaksa clan can’t live without me. Wherever I go they come after me.
I am beginning to think they are scared of me!!!
What a pleasure. I feel so important.
They seem to think as I am against them, they are unable to come back to power without me! Wow! Great!
I will definitely in the vanguard in 2020 to defeat them and make sure they will never come back to power.
I shall see them all face to face in 2020, who knows may be I will contest, too. I will make everybody forget there were Rajapaksas.
I didn’t write much against them because of WW. Anyway, I am glad I got an opportunity to write more against them now.
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Wimal / July 23, 2017
Paduwa
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DeepCut / July 22, 2017
After all demala, if not for venerable Gnanasara you would be eating muslim pigshit.
You are worse than toddy class Phew !! the slaves of tobacco farming industry. smell a mile.
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Champa / July 18, 2017
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Punchi Point / July 18, 2017
The very fact the Reginald Cooray is the Governor of the Northern Province should be an indication as to how and why the language policies will never be implemented as the law requires. People like Laksiri Fernando while being so politically correct and presenting a wish for a fair and just society is actually the biggest problem we have, because when you remove the «the fair and just society wishing» mask from these people, what you get is their underlying supremacist ideology. Let it be their problem.
In Srilanka, the political correct is occupied with making a fair and just society only on the basis of ethnic justice, they do not bother with what other societies are occupied with namely, alleviation of poverty, supplying health care to everyone, a just and fair distribution of resources, etc. As long as an official document or a traffic ticket is written Tamil, everything else is perfectly okay. It doesn’t matter that half the country cannot afford to eat more than one proper meal, and a good many can’t afford even that, and soon for good many of us it wouldn’t matter which language the summons are written in, because literacy rate too will decrease. In this case, it doesn’t seem to matter that the summons are actually to question a journalist, what matters is that the document is not in Tamil!! Fair and Just includes free media and free speech too.
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Tamil / July 22, 2017
Let’s please not alienate the few Sinhalese who will stand up for Tamils.
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Punchi Point / July 18, 2017
For the sake of sanity please understand that a poor third world country like Sri Lanka, cannot use resources to implement the language policies, even if the will is there. The implementation of the two national language costs at least 3 times the resources compared to using one language. The implementation of these policies require enormous amount of administration and coordination at all levels. Even then it is not possible to get perfect results. Tamil will always come second, and it is natural that Tamil nationalists feel hurt and even angry. The problem lies in that, language has been connected to an exaggerated national feeling, in both Tamils and Sinhalese, more so in Tamils than in Sinhalese. This is the case in India too. Only Tamils protest and make trouble in language questions, not only in regards to Hindi, but also in regards to Sanskrit. There they are both anti-Sanskrit and anti-Hindi, claiming that there is no place for anything else than Tamil in Tamilnadu! Even a dead language, but a language which makes a good part of the basis of Tamil culture, is a threat to them.
Back to us – why continue something which can never be achieved? We must choose one language. We can choose Tamil for all I care. Just so that the country can move forward, without discussing this nonsense language issue for another century to come. Sinhalese can learn Tamil, it will only be an added resource considering that it is a language which is spoken by 100+ million people. If we can learn English why not Tamil? The other option is to make a separate Tamil state.
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Richard Kaz / July 18, 2017
The anti-Tamil racism on this thread is absolutely shocking and confirms that the country is still bitterly divided along ethnic lines. I guess that is the curse of the Tamils of Sri Lanka, to be born in this naturally beautiful country full of hate-filled people.
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shankar / July 18, 2017
punchi point
“For the sake of sanity please understand that a poor third world country like Sri Lanka, cannot use resources to implement the language policies,”
point well made punchi point,but how does it have money for duty free vehicles after vehicles,largest number of ministers in the world,ports ,stadiums,cultural centers and airports,highways that are not being used except by buffaloes,airlines gulping billions and billions of rupees,bond scams in billions …………..etc etc the list can go on and on but no money to implement the official language policy,ha ha
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Rusdi / July 18, 2017
What is worse, ETISALAT, DOES NOT SEND BILLS TO ITS CUSTOMERS FOR YEARS, NOR SENDS A REMINDER THE LEAST, BUT GETS THEIR LAWYERS TO SEND LETTER OF DEMAND IN COMPLETE SINHALA even to foreigners and demand to make the full payment immidietly, a formula of thuggery is going on even among private local firms, Mahindra brothers were a bit softer with SINHALA only
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Punchi Point / July 18, 2017
Mr. Shankar,
You totally missed the point, and you show clearly how Tamils mix-up things and the twisted reality you live in.
The point you missed is – things will get implemented as they should be, if we didn’t have the corruption you mention.
How you mix up things is – building roads and developing new ports is not part of corruption, but a necessity. Although Tamils like you might not know, since you are too busy with relatively insignificant things like language issues, and at the same time wanting to get the Sinhalese to pay for your fun, Colombo port is one of the busiest in the world and we can earn some more foreign currency if we had other ports to take off some of the traffic and get new traffic. That’s the idea behind developing new ports. Though when building new ports and other projects politicians think its their own private line to an additional income to fill their pockets. In a society where corruption rules, and the difference between the rich and the poor is so big as in Srilanka, you cannot expect them to implement anything let alone the two language policies. By the way Sivapragasam Sivamohan and Sivaghanam Shritharan, both MPs from TNA also got caught recently for selling car permits, each robbing the state for about Rs. 30 million. So you can say ha ha ha to that too.
Contd..
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Punchi Point / July 18, 2017
Contd …
Implementing language policies is not easy practically in addition to the enormous costs. Canada with a population of 33 million, with about 25% French speaking and 75% English speaking, which size-wise is comparable to SriLanka, uses an estimated 2.5 billion dollars implementing their two language policies. Hidden/unobservable costs of reduced productivity, additional costs of printing in two languages and language-policy costs in privatized and crown cooperations companies are excluded from that estimate. So the actual cost is good many billions more than the 2.5 billion dollars. And yet Canada is not able to fulfill more than ca.85% of what its language policies require, as many bilingual positions are occupied by only officers proficient in one language.
Srilanka is so poor that we have trouble finding paper to print things in one language, let alone 2 languages. In the 1990’s we had to use the same paper twice, i.e paper which had been used for some purpose and no longer needed was crossed over and the blank side used. Instead of writing A4 sheets, we had use small slips even for important matters. That’s how bad it is here.
So please be realistic. The rotten corrupt system has be changed from inside. There’s absolutely no point talking of language rights to politicians who do not care about anything, but filling their pockets. To change the system to the better, we as people must unite, without being segregated along ethnic lines. You must realize this is what the politicians want. They do not care. The more we are kept fighting about petty ethno-nationalistic issues, the more they are left alone to rob us. Lets develop the country first, and see how we can settle the ethnic question, or else there should be two states starting as soon as possible.
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Real Siva Sankaran Sharma / July 19, 2017
They can find money to print in English and for everything but not in Tamil an official language . Your arguments are silly and lame to justify Sinhalese only. Good no money then only language to be used in the north east and Nuwaraeliya district should be Tamil not Sinhalese. as more than 70% of the population in all these 9 districts speak Tamil. The city of Colombo Kandy and the north western coast , should use both languages as al large number of Tamil speakers live there. The rest of the country Sinhalese. Happy then you can save money. If not the country has to be separated. Trying to give lame excused stating no funds to implement Tamil language policy and employ officers who are bilingual or make every public servant living in the nine predominantly Tamil speaking districts and in Colombo , Kandy and the north western coasts bilingual but find large amounts of funds for everything else, including building Buddhist viharas, and Budda statues in the north and east and settling thousands of out of area Sinhalese and Muslims in the north and east. Whom are you trying to fool. If there is a will there is a way. Lots of money is spent on unnecessary things but not on nation building and reconciliation.. Send that 300000 occupying Sinhalese army who are occupying the north and east and creating a lot of problems there and encouraging Sinhalese racists and Muslim extremist to act against the indigenous Tamils , back to the barracks down south or disband them. They are not needed, a huge drain on finance. Once they leave the Tamils in these areas can rebuild their lives with far less hindrance from Sinhalese racists and Muslim extremis, as there is no Sinhalese armed forces to back these racists/extremists.
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Silva / July 19, 2017
This Police Summons in Sinhala Language in Tamil speaking Jaffna looks like a planned affair to discredit this government. I am sure this is done on purpose with a hidden agenda. Whoever is behind this knows very well that the media will blow this out of proportion and finally it will end up in UN making the government and their reconciliation process look like a big joke. As per the SL constitution, the person who received this has all the rights to take legal action against the police. Now that it is fully exposed, the government should look into this and take all the necessary steps so that such things will not happen even by mistake in the future.
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Real Siva Sankaran Sharma / July 19, 2017
It is not only Jaffna that is Tamil speaking there are eight other districts that are predominantly Tamil speaking and business should be conducted in these districts in Tamil. However in any part of the country a Sinhalese or Tamil speaking person should be able transact their business with the government police or local government in the language of their choice as both languages are official languages. All public servants and members of the police and armed services should be fluent in both languages to deal with the public. This should be made compulsory for promotions, salary increments and to be made a permanent member of staff. All forms and name boards anywhere in the country should be in both languages.
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John / July 22, 2017
CT, how come you didn’t edited out Marakkala Muslim Jamis Banda???
Who’s Gotama??? It’s Gauthama!!! It’s time to close down terrorist breeding Madrasas.
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Punchi Point / July 24, 2017
Kumar wrote: «Tamil language, the lingua franco of the Tamils ». LOL. Tamil is not the lingua franca of Tamils, but the native language of the Tamils. A lingua franca is a language that is taken up as a common language by speakers who have different native languages. When you do not even know what a lingua franca is how can you make statements like:
=> « superior language (Tamil) » !
=> « Sinhala is an unknown language (not known to many), somewhat similar to tribal languages. » !!
=> « …..good for nothing language (only spoken in some parts of Srilanka) » !!!?
Superiority of the Tamil language is NOT relevant to the discussion, what is relevant is that all that superiority of Tamil language is produced in Tamilnadu, and not in Srilanka/Eelam. Give me the name of one ancient Tamil document produced in Srilanka/Eelam? Give me one reference from any ancient Tamil document which mentions Tamil kingdoms in SriLanka/Eelam. If you can’t, then stop insulting the Sinhalese people and their language. Please note that when you insult the Sinhalese language you are insulting this island, because Sinhalese is the only language this island ever produced. In this respect Tamil is an alien language to this island, or anywhere else outside Tamilakam (Tamilnadu).
FYI, since you seem not know what a lingua franca is even, besides Sanskrit Sinhala is the oldest Indo-Aryan language, and besides Sanskrit it is the oldest Indo-Aryan literary language too. The oldest inscriptions found anywhere in the Indian subcontinent is in Sinhala Brahmi, found in Anuradhapura. Sinhala is the language the Dhammapada and all Buddhist commentaries were preserved in. It is the Dipabasa (=language of the island) too.
Here in your superior language itself ===> ஈழம் = சிங்கள தேசம் (Eelam = Sinhala country). https://tinyurl.com/y878vcch
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