The Hon. Dilith Jayaweera
Hon. Dilith Jayaweera congratulated the new Speaker and urged him to act independently while preserving the dignity and traditions of Parliament. He proposed that professional titles such as “Doctor” and “Professor” be omitted when Members are formally addressed or called to speak in the Chamber, arguing that this would support egalitarian parliamentary practice and avoid social divisions.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 I extend my congratulations to our new Hon. Speaker. As stated earlier in this House, I pray you will be able to act very independently and protect the dignity of this House. I also wish that we will protect our long-held traditions.
¶ 02 Hon. Speaker, I wish to take this opportunity to make a proposal. Considering how this issue arose, its background and other matters: the titles such as “Doctor” and “Professor” before the names of our Hon. Members represent professions. You too are a medical doctor. I think if, in this Chamber, during formal invitations, we omit all such titles, it will be good for our egalitarian politics. Because this creates social division. Members here belong to different professions. A professor belongs in the university; a doctor belongs in the hospital. Therefore, as a proposal, when addressing each other in this House — especially when you invite Members to speak — let us omit those titles before names.
¶ 03 Thank you very much.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 December 2024 ·No. 1734685396083959 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/18033
Cite as: The Hon. Dilith Jayaweera. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 December 2024. No. 1734685396083959. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/18033