Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwara.
I request all my Sinhala and Tamil readers both at home and abroad, particularly the Sinhala people to read very carefully the following letter at the end of this note, addressed to President Rajapaksa by one of the most versatile and veteran young journalist Shenali D Waduge as it focuses and highlights on the fundamental rights of both these communities living in this country, as this is the only piece of land we have to live, totaling to 25,332 sq miles only, on this planet.
This letter by Senali, in my opinion is of very special relevance particularly Ato all those 6.9 million Sinhala voters who elected him in Nov 2019 and gave him a 2/3 majority government in May 2020 with so much of hope and great expectations but now disgusted and left in dire desperations for the folly they made in electing him.
Thereafter I also want them to support my open call for Island wide agitation against Ali Sabry being kept as the Minister of Justice in this predominantly Buddhist country any more for the reasons I have listed below.
1 He is a diehard Muslim who openly espouse the Muslim cause.
2 He is only a personal friend of the President brought to Parliament through the infamous so-called National list (Back Door List) and not a representative of the people as he is not an elected man by the people and therefore is a person not answerable or under obligation to the people either. He is only answerable to the President who selected him as Justice Minister. His appointment as the Minister of Justice therefore is a blatant violation of the democratic rights of the Sinhala majority who elected GR as the President with hope in high heaven. It is also a gross discrimination against the Sinhala Buddhists and a also a betrayal of the trust the Sinhalese Buddhists who had elected him to power with so much of hopes and great expectations to retrieve and protect their lost rights for the past 510 years since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505.
3 He has been openly agitating for Muslim communal rights throughout, with impunity under Presidential cover. Therefore the nation is caught in a big trap as he can always make laws in favour of his community that discriminate against the Sinhalese again under Presidential protection. He also has openly protested against the Appointment of Rev Galaboda Atte Gnanasara as the Chairman of the One Country and One Law Commission” and even threatened to resign from his post and later reconciled after the President returned from India and changed his stance after he discussed the subject under closed doors with the President. Only God knows what the President has promised to him But the President’s statement made to media obviously indicate the Appointment of Galaboda Atte is only political rhetoric as Ali Sabry himself has openly disclosed to the media.
The common notion in the country is that the President had agreed to cut the wings of the Thera as the president’s press statement indicated. Obviously for the President Ali Sabry is more important than Galabodatte Thera or any other Thera or Sinhala Buddhist Lawyer for that matter. Because it is obvious that the President has some deeper personal obligation to Ali Sabry for undisclosed reasons, but know to the whole country as he was supposed to be President’s private lawyer a factor that should never be taken in to account in appointing him as a Cabinet Ministers and more particularly as the Minister of Justice in this Sinhala Buddhist country. The general public ask as to why he ignored the eminent Sinhala Buddhist Constitutional Lawyer Manohara de Silva who played a major role in the Viyathmanga, the dynamo that fired the Presidents Election campaign. Just like appointing the firebrand Rev Gnanasaara with steel chains in his legs the President has appointed Manohara De Silva to the so-called Advisory Committee on the new Constitution making as an ordinary member with wings cut perhaps
The general public who new Manohara De Silva as an eminent Constitutional Lawyer, also being a Sinhala Buddhist who is highly connected and known to the leading Buddhist clergy in this country, including Asgiriya and Malwatta expected him to be appointed as the Chairman of this Committee.as he is exceptionally qualified to hole that responsibility. However finally he was dumped in to an il-constituted advisory Committee on Constitution making whose report submitting date have already expired passed longtime time ago. According to reliable internal information coming from inside this Committee Report will also finally end up in archives or a dustbin as mere political rhetoric, I repeat
The fate of the Gnanasara Committee Report
As Ali Sabry has already declared this report will have to be technically approved by the Minister of Justice, the question that is raised in many a circle is what justice Sinhala Buddhists can expect from an extremist Muslim Minister of Justice casting aspersions on this Committee even before it had its first sitting, humiliating the President as well, who has appointed this Committee with so much of publicity. Whatever Gnanasara Thera writes finally, it will have no impact as All mighty Alla will sit on it as long as Ali Sabry remains as the Minister of Justice. So what justice the Sinhala Buddhists in this country can ever expect from a Government under Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
As Sonali has very analytically explained in her article Ali Sabry is obviously, an anti -Sinhala and anti- Tamil man, by his discriminatory open pro Muslim policies.
His open support not only for polygamy for Muslims but even his support for Burqua shows that he is first a Muslim, second a Muslim and thirdly also a Muslim
Therefore, the appointment of a Muslim as the justice minister was a first-class political blunder GR has made.
What I more is he is a super Minister and not an ordinary man others in the Cabi nut
The President has made one of the biggest mistakes by appointing him as the Minister of justice. In my view he is committing political suicide by keeping him in the Cabinet. I am lost to understand what his chief advisor is doing when things are happening like this.
Even when Rev Galabaada atte was appointed as Chairman of this Commission Ali Sabry protested openly. But He won the battel to cut Galabodaatte’s wings successfully and cleverly and prevail over GR. What more proof is needed to prove how powerful Ali Sabry is in the inner Cabinet of GR?
The billion-dollar question people in this country pause is, if GR cannot understand that much, how can he run this country
Under these gathering dark thunder storm clouds health either he should resign or GR should sack him. Earlier the better for the health of the President as well as Ai Sabry before the sky fall on their heads with thunder. GR will have to pay heavily for appointing an unknown unsuitable man to the cabinet and making him the most powerful minister in the Cabinet sitting on destiny of the Sinhala nation.
This Government was elected by Sinhala Buddhist as GR himself said at the Ruwanweli Se maluwa on his day of swearing in as the President of this Sinhala Buddhist country. But today it is run by people like Ali Sabry
I really don’t know how GR is going to pay the debt to those 6.9 M people who virtually died to elect him as the modern Dutugemunu to save the Sinhala nation, their bellowed motherland and the Buddha saasana with sky high expectations.
If Ali Sabry does not resign or GR doesn’t remove him, the day the masses will pull out both of them from their thrones and throw them on the road is not that far as Mao se tung once said. Isn’t it the responsibility of the 6.9 million Sinhala Buddhist to force GR to remove him before he makes this country, a fully pledge Mono Muslim State like Maldives Islands, Indonesia or Afghanistan, all former Buddhist countries?
President Rajapakse why is Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister promoting Polygamy against One Country One Law policy
Posted on March 1st, 2022
Sans political colours, the policy of One Country One Law was looked forward to being implemented without favour or bias by all citizens of Sri Lanka. This meant that in front of the law civil and criminal laws would be one & applicable to all. It was also accepted that while personal laws deriving from cultures/traditions could exist, these could not overrule the country’s national law applied to all whatever their ethnicity. In such a scenario, it is puzzling why the country’s justice minister should push for the continuance of polygamy camouflaging this quest with ‘amendments’. If there is a One Country One Law Policy there cannot be variance and in front of the law all must face the same law – marriage included.
Given that the Justice Minister is promoting polygamy, he may like to provide statistics as to how many (what percentage) of the less than 10% Muslims in Sri Lanka actually practice polygamy in its true format, to justify polygamy to the President & the Government. Can we have numbers please.
When questions are raised, the general response is that polygamy is part & parcel of Islam. Not so, polygamy existed far before Islam was founded but this practice was abandoned.
In Islam too, polygamy is NOT MANDATORY. In Islam monogamy is a must but polygamy is allowed in exceptional cases, the primary of which is during wars where casualties and orphans arise. Such a scenario is not applicable for Sri Lanka’s Muslims. There is no war, there are no casualties & there are no orphans from wars.
Thus, polygamy is not a general rule for all Muslims to follow and polygamy is not obligatory of any Muslims and Islam does not encourage or promote polygamy.
Thus, it is questionable why Sri Lanka’s justice minister supposed to be appearing for all ethnic and religions across Sri Lanka should be canvassing for only the religion he belongs to or rather to satisfy a miniature number of Muslim elite practicing polygamy probably not for the reasons Islam allows.
It is unfair by the majority ethnic Sinhalese & the Tamils to legally allow polygamy which means that the state is bound to look after the health & education etc of 4 or more spouses & their children while the state only allows Sinhalese & Tamils to legally have one spouse & those that marry multiple times are accused of bigamy & liable to land up in jail. There are plenty of examples of Sinhalese & Tamils charged with bigamy. Therefore, One Law for all must mean that any national law pertaining to the citizens of Sri Lanka must be applied to all with no exceptions.
The favorite automatic response for this is – what about the foremost place for Buddhism, while this is certainly given in the constitution & there is valid reason to continue this even in any new constitution, in terms of applying the law & Buddhists facing the law (whether laymen or clergy) there is no favouritism because they are Sinhalese or because they are Buddhists. Just count the numbers in prison!
There are many more arguments that addresses the issue of polygamy but these become irrelevant as the citizens of Sri Lanka were assured the policy of One Law One Country, which means that civil and criminal laws in Sri Lanka must be one & applicable to all & any laws existing from tradition/culture can exist but cannot take precedence or overrule the application of the national law.
It is prudent to remind all that One Country One Law did exist under the Sinhale kings & the personal laws for Tamils & Muslims were only permitted after the arrival of colonial invaders.
Thesavalami applicable to ONLY The Malabar inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna” (Malabars were from India) was only codified by the Dutch in 1707. Muslim personal laws did not exist pre-colonial rule.
India’s Supreme Court in February 2015 completely banned polygamy in India ruling that polygamy was not part of Muslim fundamental right. The logic was that the Indian Constitution is bound to protect the Muslim faith but not practices that only a handful practice. Only 5% Muslims of the 150m Muslims in India practiced polygamy. This is why Sri Lanka’s justice minister must produce statistics on how many Muslims practice polygamy to demand its continuance.
One Country One Law essentially means that a parallel justice, judicial system, parallel laws cannot prevail if citizens are to be treated equal and given equal rights. Therefore, demands for equal rights cannot include exclusive rights for a handful.
At a moral level if a man cannot bear to see his wife with another man, same applies to a woman who would not like to share her man with another woman.
At a financial level too – in times of economic hardships how can a man look after 4 wives & their children equally?
At a political level, polygamy will cause major demographic change where Sinhalese & Tamils are asked to practice planned parenting while Muslims are encouraged to bear more children.
There is also the issue of non-Muslims converting to Islam simply to keep 4 women legally!
One Country One Law must be applied – it clearly means there has to be one law for all – no parallel legal systems as per religious practices.
Shenali D Waduge