The Hon. G.G. Ponnambalam

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I am glad to follow the speeches of the Hon. Nihal Galappaththi and before that, the Hon. M.K.M. Aslam. Both of them spoke very eloquently about the need to pursue a Sri Lankan identity void of ethnic identities. The Hon. Aslam went as far as to say that we should not have identities on the basis of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Up-country Tamils et cetera and that political parties also must not be based on those ethnic identities. Well, there is a reality, Sir, as to why political parties had to be formed on the basis of ethnic identities. That is because the identity of Sri Lankan, for the last 75 years, has been usurped to a point where it has come to mean Sinhala Buddhist and that reality, even President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in his Policy Statement, acknowledged. He said that there has been racism which discriminates in the name of the majority and therefore, all of that must be corrected. But, that correction cannot happen just by simply saying that we all must think in terms of being Sri Lankan. Seventy five years of that racism, discrimination and communalism have disadvantaged the Tamil people as well as the Muslim people and the Up-country Tamils to a point that we are forced to identify ourselves along those ethnic lines to get some sort of a force of argument to compel the Government of the day to try and correct its path.

¶ 02 Now, let me challenge the Government on this one test. I will give a concrete proposal and let us see whether the Government stands up to it. Sir, you would have heard that there is a disputed viharaya in Thyiddy in the Jaffna Peninsula. The name given to the Viharaya is Tissa Viharaya. That viharaya was built by the military. The original Tissa Viharaya has a particular plot of land and that land, nobody disputes. If the military had decided to build a Buddhist temple in the original land of the Tissa Viharaya, there would be no complaint at all. But instead, the military, under the guise of a high security zone, chose to illegally take over six acres of privately owned land and have built this temple. When the military decided to lay the foundation stone, we were informed and at the District Coordinating Committee meeting, this matter was brought up and that Committee unanimously took the position that it was an illegal act and that the construction must stop. That was at the very inception. But, despite that decision being taken by the District Coordinating Committee, the military, in the guise of a high security zone and preventing the owners from reaching that area, went on to build that viharaya. When we raised that issue in the previous Parliament, the then Deputy Minister of Defence called upon a Report from the Divisional Secretary of Valikamam North. Sir, I am tabling in Parliament that Report dated 22nd of May, 2023.

¶ 03 That Report very clearly states that the viharaya had been built on private land, that it had been built without any permission from the local authority and that despite the fact the military being told that it is an illegal construction, they went ahead and built it. So, I say, Sir, that if we are talking of a Sri Lankan identity, if we are genuine with regard to that, then this wrong must be corrected. That Report submitted to the Defence Ministry consisted of the plan of the original land of the Tissa Viharaya and it is still vacant because it is not on that land that the viharaya had been built. So, how can privately-owned land be disenfranchised from those people in this way in the name of religion? Lord Buddha would have never wanted an individual to be harmed; His entire policy, to my understanding, is that no harm must ever be done. Would His temple be built on privately-owned land of people who have no alternative land? So, this is an illegal act. I am telling you, Sir, there are so many viharayas in the North and the East; there are so many viharayas in Jaffna. But, are we complaining about those viharayas? Even in the height of the war, those viharayas were not damaged. The Tamil people are not racists; they are not anti-Buddhist. But, in the name of Buddhism, these illegalities are done. In the name of Buddhism, when people are being discriminated, when they are being disenfranchised and when the only land they own is being taken away from them, that is not being Sri Lankan and to talk against that is not being non-Sri Lankan, but that is what we have been told. So, let this Government take this as a test; let us see what they would do with this Tissa Viharaya which had been built, without any doubt, illegally. It had not got any permission, Sir, to be built. That is the test I wish to put to this Government.

¶ 04 Please do not take the Deputy Minister’s reply out of my time. I have only two minutes more. I wish to raise another matter.

¶ 05 The other matter is with regard to the registration of draftsmen for the year 2025. This matter was brought up last Friday at the District Coordinating Committee, but I want to bring it up here again. The Director of Northern Province Urban Development Authority has been written to by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Local Government of the Northern Province. The problem is, there was this Gazette Extraordinary No. 2235/54 of the Northern Province Urban Development Authority which basically stated that from 08.07.2021, the qualification for NVQ Level 5 is to be completed for Drafting Technology (Buildings). That means, unless you have passed NVQ Level 5, you cannot function as a draftsman. The Northern and the Eastern Provinces, certainly the Northern Province, did not have a course for this NVQ Level 5 examination. The course only started in 2023 and it lasts for two-and-a-half years. So, at the moment, since the Urban Development Authority is insisting that you need qualifications of NVQ Level 5, there are no draftsmen who could be registered. The first course started in 2023. We have asked that at least a two-and-a-half-year grace period be given so that the past practise could be followed, allowing these draftsmen who have already been registered to function till such time they get the qualification in that period. I urge the Government to look into this matter because it is extremely unfair. All these are draftsmen who had already been given licences and those licences have been revoked. They totally depend on the income which comes from that field of work. Therefore, I would urge the Government to look at this matter on a humanitarian basis and give that grace period, at least for the first batch, to complete that NVQ Level 5 examination. After that, of course, they can strictly implement that Gazette. Thank you.