Ignoring each other's language cause of ethnic problem - Official Language commission chairman

Mohammed Naalir

COLOMBO: Official Language Commission Chairman Raja Collure observed that had there been proper interaction between Sinhalese and Tamils through knowledge of each others' language Sri Lanka would not be witnessing an ethnic problem today.

"The prime reason for the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is the language problem. If we were able to find a solution to this at the very outset there would have been no conflict today. Knowledge is the means which brings different communities under one umbrella," he said.

Addressing the media at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute Collure said there are only a limited number of translators available in Sri Lanka.

According to the survey conducted in 2000 there were only 166 translators throughout the country.

Out of them only 44 persons were able to translate Sinhala to Tamil while only 108 persons were able to translate Sinhala to English and a mere 14 persons who were Tamil-English translators .

"There was no use of formulating an official language policy if Tamil speaking people were unable to obtain their essential documents in Tamil. Sixty per cent of Tamil speaking people in the country live outside the North East. They comprise muslims, Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian origin plantation workers. They are facing huge inconveniences in obtaining their documents in Tamil", he said.

He further said the Sinhala Government officers in the North East too are facing the same problems as that of Tamil speaking people living outside the North East.

Addressing the media Professor Somaratne Balasooriya said 50 language translation centres will be established taking into account the ethnic proportion in a particular area.