The Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella has today said that the government has decided to postpone Bills pertaining to the amendments to Penal code and code of Criminal Proceedings to ban hate speech, placed on the Order Paper.
Lakshman Kiriella
“The final decision on the matter would be made later” Kiriella told Parliament.
The Bills seek to introduce a new provision (Section 291C) to the Penal Code, No. 11 of 1887 and to amend the Criminal Procedure Code Act, No. 15 of 1979.
Related posts;
TNA Calls Govt. To Withdraw Penal Code Amendment Bill Regarding Hate Speech
Civil Society Urges Govt. To Withdraw Bills Criminalizing Hate Speech
Two Petitions Filed Against Bills Criminalizing Hate Speech
Dr. Rajasingham Narendran / December 17, 2015
Would the cases filed in the Supreme Court proceed? They should to enable us to learn what the SC thinks about the objections raised. In the mean time, why does not the government study these objections and make the necessary changes. We need laws in tune with what UK has . Nagananda (Kodifuwakku ) has given details of the UK laws elsewhere in CT as a comment. I hope Mr. Sumanthiran takes note.
We need laws that meet international standards and our special requirements dictated by our recent history, at the earliest.
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran
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AVB / December 17, 2015
Isn’t all this a joke!!! In a country where “physical abuse” ( which may even leads to death), in front of 100s of people in daylight, in front of camera, in front of police.. can’t be proven in courts or drag 10-15 years… Now we are arguing about having proper laws to punish “verbal abuses” .. What ever the laws we have, does it make any difference unless we improve ethical & moral values of the people ?
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Vetmahadeva / December 17, 2015
No Final Decision On Bills Criminalizing Hate Speech: Kiriella
In human life anybody will(can) hate somebody, it is just the tolerance that matters.
As lawmakers What has to be asserted is “the hate” as a propaganda tool and using it for threatening and terrorising, one or the other; even this is very difficult as it drags into human rights issues.
An uphill task!
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Mallaiyuran / December 17, 2015
Don’t celebrate too much CT. They know to come and thrust it through the choking throat. They will interpret anything written on CT as racism against the purity Aryan Sinhala Buddhists.
Tamils saw this for 65 years. If wanted The Sinhala Intellectuals’ Royal government will go ahead and do it through the amendment of constitution.
Let’s wait and see.
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Mallaiyuran / December 17, 2015
BBS has entered into a ministry.(I am not pitting for Rishad- talking only about the ministry compound) I wonder what part of the law is missing for that organization not banned so far? The Diaspora organization which are accepted by accepted as functioning democratically has been banned as they are talking about separation, which is a terrorism only under 6th amendment.
Invited Virathu Thero into the country. This would have given opening to arrest any Tamil elected member who is voicing against the Buddha statures germinate overnight and infest the North and East with frequent surprise.
Will they pass a bill talking against implementing the 13A? That was amendment passed by Junius Richard’s government. (Again it is not my proposal that 13A is solution). Will they pass talking against the implementation of the UNHRC resolution which is co-sponsored by the New Royal Government?
Circumventing everything to prevent Tamils talking about their grievances? Is this another attempt to like using the UNSC resolution 1373 to ban the Diaspora Tamils? What the constitutional council and all other independent councils did so far? Arresting Pillaiyan for reviving the LTTE and keeping him in prison for ever?
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Amarasiri / December 17, 2015
The Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella
Let the due process happen.
There should be a citizens’ petition to the supreme Court stating that the state is NOT protecting as per the Constitution, as given by the examples of 1958, 1983 and 2014, and since the state was unable to do so, a Crime Law against Hate speech is needed to protect the Citizens..
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nimal fernando / December 18, 2015
I don’t think people still get it!
This joker BBS Gnasara should be treated for the joker he is.
His speech didn’t kill anybody. The instruction to the police and the army (who were there to protect the people) to look the other way is what killed. The tacit approval of the government is what caused the mayhem. It’s not this joker who is responsible but the government of the day.
This is what happened in 83 as well; the tacit approval of JR’s government.
If these jokers have the tacit approval of the government all the legislation in the world can’t do a thing.
The simple question people should ask is, will this joker be able to do what he did in Matugama today? The simple answer is no; the government won’t allow it.
Passing legislation – of this type – is to avoid government’s responsibility.
Like Ronald Regan’s “balanced budget,” Maitripala/Ranil “35 ministers,” ………………
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / December 18, 2015
It did kill one person , injured many and destroyed many properties.
Dr.RN
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nimal fernando / December 19, 2015
“It did kill one person , injured many and destroyed many properties.”
Dr.Rajasingham,
That is true. But would any “hate speech” legislation would have prevented it, if Ganasara had the tacit approval of the powers that be?
He was treated with kid gloves by the government. If the state had the will/desire/intention, there was long standing criminal legislation in place to prosecute him for the criminal acts he committed prior to the Mathugama incident. Instead of criminal prosecution there was some state sanctioned arbitration process between him and the Muslim shop owners whose shops he damaged.
In a country like Sri Lanka, the intent of the powers-that-be/government/state is more important than any legislation.
To each his own. I feel in a place like SL which is few centuries behind in the evolutionary process, laws of this nature, that can be open to “wide” interpretation, should be formulated keeping the lowest common denominator well in sight. We can’t appeal to the “higher nature” of man; not in SL. Not yet. At the present time, people might have all the good intentions when formulating legislation – of this nature – but sometime in the future, a government like the last government would “interpret” the same legislation to persecute opponents/enemies.
One can have all the fancy legislation one wants, but the “proof of the pudding” depends on the place where it is enacted. In the 1970s, Nigeria copied and enacted the American constitution word for word, thinking they would end up like America! It’s true; I am not kidding. Such is life.
In science we always check if the assumptions we make at the lowest level, at the core, are valid. But in evaluating the “Sri Lankan human condition” we come in at the topmost layer and take off from there. To me, at the core, this Ganasara dude is doing nothing but avoiding a honest day’s work. He is making use of Buddhism, Sinhalese-ness, “patriotism” …….. to that end. He is shrewd (it comes naturally and subconsciously) enough to keep people focused on the topmost layer with his activity. If he wasn’t a Buddhist priest, what would he be doing – like millions of other honest SL workers – to make a living? Not only he is avoiding work but get respect for that as well! Who said Lankans aren’t imaginative and industrious? Don’t get me wrong, I too live on my wits, like all of us do, in the “human condition” we are all stuck in. But only that, I am good and successful at it, to have the luxury of honesty to admit it. :) Life has not been devised by morality: it wants deception, it lives on deception.
I, who can barely spell, let alone write – thank God for spell-checkers – come here and read writings of immensely erudite writers/commentators – whose skills I can only dream of – appealing to the higher nature of man, while I am always thinking of nothing but the basest nature of man. I am left thinking, am I mad or are they mad? And my mind hark back to that well-known upcountry gentleman of yore, Mr Udurawana; the answer he is supposed to have given in an army interview. After some ludicrous answers, when asked by the interviewer “Are you mad, or am I mad?” He is supposed to have said “Both, respectively.” I don’t know where the “respectively” part came from, but that’s how the yarn goes. I suppose, that’s the question and also the answer, in a nutshell, to the zany “Lankan condition” we are all privileged to be stuck in.
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Nirmala N / December 18, 2015
This comment is for my darling Rajash.
Rajash
Be careful. Hate speech law may affect our hate campaign work. Before the act is passed hit hard on our enemies. They should be marginalised. You know what I mean?
Once they are gone, we don’t have to make any hate comments.
I want to influence Mahinda to revise his Mahinda Chinthane to make it much broader. I may produce a draft. I need your help to polish it up. One aspect will be to strengthen the process of hate speech. It is freedom of speech. BBS will back us.
Let us discuss it over the G & T and fried turkey dish on the Christmas day. We must become the undisputed Lion Kings – Rajas.
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K.A Sumanasekera / December 18, 2015
While these eminent persons bodies are desperately trying to help Thamil National Alliance and BBS Gnanissara to preserve their right to carry on delivering hate speeches, it is left to MP Ms Hirunickers from Colombo Elite Electorate to discuss and educate our inhabitants about more serious legal issues like rights of women when it comes marriage and sex.
Apparently our Sinhala dalits who are forced to follow Common Law have to wait till 18 to to tie the knot and get laid.
But Muslim men have another set of laws which seem more liberal, according to Ms Hirunickers.
Thhaliswalamai, which I believe relates to the Vellala TNA and others have another set of rules, which Ms Hirunickers hasn’t explained.
But Ms H wants all of these rolled in to one, which is the Common Law which our Sinhala Dalits in particular are forced to follow.
I take my hat off to Ms Hirunockers on this…
Wonder whether Mr Kiriella who has a lot of Dalits in his Electorate take cue from Ms Hirunickers and do something about it too.
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vis8 / December 21, 2015
Yahapalanaya cannot handle criticism… this is the end of free speech…. Everything a Sinhalese says to protect his country is labeled ‘hate speech’… lol. Those who swallowed yahapalana election ‘promises’ are still hell bent to protect these stooges of the West…
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mohamad sarook / December 22, 2015
no amendment for hate speech which create communal violence even in parliament (example recent even against to a Muslim MP)then no vote for anybody.
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