Published in the Law & Society Trust Review, June 2002

SECURING LANGUAGE RIGHTS – KEY ELEMENT ON THE PEACE PROCESS

         by M.C.M. Iqbal

Introduction

It is heartening to note that the government is doing everything possible to win over the hearts and minds of the Tamils in an effort to lay the foundation for a lasting peace in our country.  It is quite obvious that peace is something the people in every part of the country have  been longing for. This has been confirmed by the   results of the parliamentary and local government elections conducted recently.  A few misguided persons  are however placing obstacles on the path of peace and national reconciliation. Fortunately such persons   do not seem to have any substantial support amongst the masses as could be seen  from the performance of their leaders at the recent local government elections.

Whilst a lot of effort is being exerted on  peace building activities one  important  issue, namely, ensuring that the language rights of the Tamils are not violated,  is not receiving adequate attention, inspite of the necessary laws and regulations needed for this purpose, being in place.   All that is required is to ensure that these laws and regulations are strictly adhered to by providing the necessary resources and political support  required  for this purpose.  The inadequate attention given to this aspect in spite of  the constitutional provisions being made, has been one of the bones of contention between successive governments and the Tamil speaking people during the past.  In fact it has been said that this was one of the root causes of the ethnic  problem in Sri Lanka

Implementation  Mechanisms

Since the 1978 Constitution made Sinhala and Tamil official languages it was thought by the framers of the Constitution that the language problem  had been settled once and for all.   But that was not to be.  The lack of will on the part of the politicians, the paucity of resources in the government institutions  and the necessary attitudinal changes in the bureaucracy, led to  the non-implementation of the  constitutional provisions ensuring  the  language rights of the Tamils.

The criticisms leveled  against the continuance of the violations of language rights    led to the appointment of the Official Languages Commission in 1991 to solicit complaints of violations; to  monitor and supervise compliance with provisions of the Constitutions;  to deal with those who violate the language rights of the Tamils; and, to ensure that  violations do not continue. .  In practice, it was found that this Commission could not effectively  play the  role as expected because the authority given to it,  to deal with violators are  not adequate. Violators who ignore its directives and give lame excuses for non-compliance  cannot  be taken to Court as provided for a Section 28(1) of the Official Languages Commission Act No. 18  of 1991, unless there is evidence that the violator concerned had willfully failed or neglected to use Tamil when he should have done so in any given instance.   Furthermore, in terms of Section 28(2) of the Act the Official Languages Commission has to obtain the sanction of the Attorney General to institute  such a case.  Such a sanction could never be obtained because errant officials  always find excuses for not ensuring  that language rights are not violated.  The usual excuse given is that officers competent in Tamil are not available or that there are no Tamil typists or typewriters.  Consequently this Commission continues to exist merely as  an embellishment and an impotent agent of the state as far as checking violation of language rights were concerned. 

Even though 24 years have passed since Tamil was made one of the national  languages  of Sri Lanka and 14 years have passed since it was made  an official language,  government  institutions are still not adequately equipped to have  dealings with the public in the respective official language of the people they deal with.  Mr. D.E.W.Gunasekera, the Chairman of the Official Languages Commission  is reported to have stated as follows at a seminar  on “The National Official Language Policy  and its Implementation.” (held on 30^th May, 2002, reported in the Daily News of 1^st June, 2002)   “Before 1956 there was no  civil servant in the public sector  who knew Sinhala. Therefore the Sinhala people had difficulties in corresponding with state institutions.  But the problem was solved  successfully (with the  enactment of the  Sinhala Only Act). The Tamil people face the same problem today. If the Tamil  citizens face difficulties when corresponding with state institutions because of his language the government is responsible for it.”  

Current situation

At  the  same seminar  the Chairman is reported to have pointed out that according to a recent census there are 14 police stations in  the Colombo city limits  but not a single police constable in any one of these police stations knows  Tamil for him to record a complaint in that language. This is a very sad state of affairs  indeed, especially because about 60% of the residents of the city are Tamil speaking people.

 In the circumstances it is no wonder that many name boards of government institutions, street names and often official correspondence  still continue to infringe on  the language rights of Tamils.  Last week for instance where there was a festival taking place in a well known. temple in Wellawatte. – the Temple of Hanuman - off Saranankara Mawatha, all approach roads to this temple had been blocked (quite rightly of course) with “No Entry” boards to prevent traffic congestion in that area.  However, all these “No Entry” Boards were in Sinhala only, insulting the Tamils who passed that way, indicative of the cussedness of those responsible for putting up such a board.  In this instance it needed hardly any intelligence to realize that  most of the people who were expected to attend this temple that week  were going to be Tamils.

Conclusion

It is therefore very necessary that at least at this stage the government should make a determined effort  to make amends and  to leave no  room for anyone to say at the forth coming  peace talks that action needs to be taken to ensure that the language rights of the Tamils are not violated.   Doing this before that  would be another move that could enhance the goodwill the government is trying  so hard to earn.     

Errant and non-cooperative  officials of the State  can easily frustrate all the efforts of the state to ensure that all the citizens of the country live happily without any discrimination especially with regard to their language rights.   The Government needs to be  cautious of  such public officers who could  sabotage its  efforts of the government to usher in peace. Any violations need to be swiftly and effectively   rectified and errant officials be made accountable for any breaches and taken to task to prevent repetition and act as a deterrant.  Let there be no discrimination in this regard  in the future so that  at least this aspect of the ethnic problem is settled once and for all.