The shock of the Easter bombings has prompted a crop of individual Parliamentarians’ legislative proposals to the House that seemingly attempt to address some of the cultural and social dynamics that cause ethnic and religious conflict.
SLFP General Secretary and UPFA MP Dayasiri Jayasekara has submitted three Private Member’s Motions, one of which seeks to enforce the teaching of ‘Sinhalese history’ in Muslim madrasas.
MP Jayasekara presenting three new Private Member’s Motions has proposed to ban the naming of political parties according to ethnicities or religions, to convert all schools in Sri Lanka into mixed schools with no classification according to religions or ethnicities and, to bring all the Madrasa schools and Arabic schools under the purview of the Education Ministry with immediate effect.
MP Jayasekara further proposes that the names of existing political parties which denote ethnicities or religions must be changed, taking into consideration the situation that has arisen in Sri Lanka at present.
“Action must be taken to gradually convert all schools in Sri Lanka into mixed schools, to avoid granting permission to establish schools as Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or Catholic schools in future and admit students to schools according to a certain percentage allocated for ethnic groups,” MP Jayasekara said in his second motion.
In his third motion, Jayasekara also proposes that Sinhalese history should be taught as a subject in the Madrasa schools.
UNP MP S. M. Marikkar, in his Private Member’s Motion, has proposed imposing capital punishment on terrorists and those who are connected to terrorist organizations and confiscation of all of their property when such activities are proved in a court of law.
Both UNP MP Prof. Ashu Marasinghe and UPFA MP Thilanga Sumathipala, presenting two separate Private Member’s Motions, have proposed acquiring the “Batticaloa Campus Private Limited”, which has caused controversy, to the Government. MP Sumathipala proposes to transform it to a State Defence University while Prof Marasinghe proposes to name it as “University of Batticaloa”.
The above Private Members’ Motions have been included in the Order Book of Parliament by an Addendum published last Friday. They will be moved in Parliament at a future date.