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| Sunday, 26 January 2003 |
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Norway emphasizes importance of promoting Official Language Act By Chamikara Weerasinghe Norwegian diplomats have urged the Sri Lankan Government to give importance to the implementation of Sri Lanka's Official Language Act of 1987, which identifies Sinhala and Tamil as the country's official languages, and English as a link language, to superficially deal with the ethnic question. Diplomatic sources said that they had emphasized the importance of promoting the Official Language Act to Minister of Justice, Law Reforms and National Integration, W.J.M Lokubandara , as it can play a vital role in the peace process, although it appears that it has been ignored since its enactment in 1987, in terms of getting it into play by way of commitment to create a conducive background for its pragmatic existence. Jon Westborg, Ambassador for Norway in Sri Lanka, had promised at the meeting, to support the National Integration Program Unit(NIPU) of the Ministry of Justice, with funds and their expertise in their efforts to promote the Tamil Language Education Programs islandwide. NIPU Director Dr. T.Sundari Kariyawasam commenting on their programs said they have already started Tamil language Training Programmes for Buddhist monks , police personnel and schoolteachers on the advice of Justice Minister Lokubandara. "The programmes are funded by the Norwegian Government, and they are envisioned to promote bilingual competency of the public, thus paving the way for peaceful interplay between different ethnic divides," she said. As of now, The Norwegian Government funds around Rs. 1.2 million every four months to fund these projects, according to the NIPU Director. Meanwhile the police department has taken steps to recruit police personnel from the country's North and Eastern Provinces to train them in both spoken and written skills in Tamil and Sinhala languages, under NIPU programmes. SSP Nihal Rodrigo of the Kalutara Police School said that they have already trained the first group of 100 police personnel who have been appointed to do their duties in police stations in areas where Tamil is widely spoken. Senior police sources said that steps are now being considered to appoint police personnel with bilingual competency to every police station in the country, so as to enable them to record complaints made by Tamil people in their own language. NIPU sources said that 75 per cent of the funds they get from the Royal Norwegian Government are being used to promote the Tamil Language Training Programmes. |
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