According to Chapter IV of the constitution of Democratic Socialist
Republic of Sri Lanka, Sinhala and Tamil are the Official Languages.
They are also called national languages. English is the link language.
Failure on the part of government institutions to comply with the
constitutional provisions, Cabinet directives and Public Administration
circulars relating the official languages have caused immense
inconvenience and hardship to the members of the public who are not
conversant with Sinhala and this amounts to the denial of the Tamil
speaking citizens their fundamental right.
Public services are the focus of implementation of Language Policy.
According to provisional estimate the total number of employees in
government institutions is about 1.3 million. The Tamil speaking state
employees is only 8.31 percent which is very much below their population
26 percent in the country. 61 percent of the Tamil speaking people are
Tamils, Muslims and Tamils of recent Indian origin are living in the
Sinhalese area outside North East.
In terms of the language policy, it is a requirement that all name
boards, sign boards, direction boards, instruction displays etc in all
government and semi-government offices should be in all three languages.
But only about 40 percent of the government offices carry name boards in
all three languages. In every government institution almost all the
specified forms are available in one language only.
It was found that no establishment had requested funds from the
national budget or from the institutional budget for matters pertaining
to the implementation of the language policy.
The Bilingual Divisional Secretaries Divisions which have been
directed to use both official languages as languages of administration,
have so far failed to provide a satisfactory service to those speaking
the Tamil language. Mere direction that both Sinhala and Tamil languages
should be used as languages of administration of a given Divisional
Secretariat area is useless unless facilities for its implementation are
provided. This unsatisfactory situation needs to be rectified. In the
light of the above, the following overall conclusions can be arrived at
regarding the state of affairs prevailing at present with regard to the
implementation of the language policy.
a. The degree of awareness among all categories of public servants,
corporation employees is very poor.
b. The awareness of the language rights among the concerned sections
of the general public is extremely poor and some are not even concerned
with their rights.
c. Many government/semi-government establishments do not even possess
the minimum resources to fulfill the needs for the implementation of the
language policy.
However, due to various reasons certain obstacles have arisen in
implementing the language policy. Hence the necessity of setting up
monitoring units in every government institution has arisen to implement
the constitutional and legal requirements in a satisfactory manner.
The Official Languages Commission (OLC) was created in 1991 to
supervise and monitor the implementation of the official language policy
and to engage in activities connected with its promotion:
(i) The internal component which relates to the state employees
serving the respective institutions
(ii) The external component which relates to the members to the
public who interact with respective government institutions.
Over 20 years planned and sustained efforts have not been made for
the successful implementation of the language policy. This necessities
the drawing up a comprehensive project plan based on the present
realities and the problems that have to be surmounted. Such a plan
should stipulate a time-frame and clearly lay down stages and the
infrastructure facilities required.
The overall power of monitoring and supervisions of the
implementation of the language policy is with the Ministry of National
Languages and Social Integration and the Official Languages Commission
as provided by the Constitution and the Official Languages Commission
Act No. 18 of 1991.
M I M Mohideen
The news item that the President was out for a walk at Independence
Square on Christmas day, makes one wonder why the President selected
Independence Square to take this stroll.
While the day indicated the religious freedom of spirituality to
Christians all over the world and specially to those in Sri Lanka,
Independence Square is the symbolic landmark of freedom to the nation
from foreign rule . It was only appropriate to enjoy such experience
strolling in it’s surroundings, with the reminding greatness of the day
- the celebrations and enjoyment of the birth of Jesus Christ, the
blessed child who brought peace and love to many a people and made
Christianity the religion to many in the world.
In a similar spirit of love and compassion reaching out from the
children of our country. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has reached out to
appreciate the children population of Sri Lanka with love and
compassion. No wonder that the President is welcomed by children
wherever his presence is seen.
Seeing the President at Independence square, the children and parents
who had come to Temple Trees to enjoy the day with their little ones
would have been really happy to see the President of our country being
among them just as another citizen, enjoying the freedom and the fresh
air of our country. The children, whom the President cherishes so much
had the opportunity to mingle and move freely with him. The walk also
enabled the President to meet some of his old political colleagues.
Let it be a reminder to others too that the President is not an SLFP
or UPLF President.
Sinnarasa Tambumuthu - Kotahena
From time to time, I have noticed that there are some changes in our
school text books.
When the necessity arises, authorities change the syllabus, and
introduce a new syllabus. That should be done. I would like to point out
that there are no any changes in the A/L General English book yet. Same
types of lessons can be seen from the introduction to the end.
On the other hand, there is a vast difference between the A/L General
English question paper and the text book lessons. I hope the authorities
will take necessary steps on this matter.
S. Hettige
Kuliyapitiya
The government pensioners thank the President for granting them a Rs
1,000 pension increase and Rs 1,000 elders’ allowance per month. I think
this is the first time that the government pensioners are getting an
increase of Rs 2,000 per month.
However the pensioners request the Co-operatives and Internal Trade
Minister to see that the traders do not make capital out of the
situation to jack up prices of food and other goods as they always do
whenever there is an increase.
V K B Ramanayake- Maharagama
|
