Team News Riveting
Desperate to increase its footprints in India’s neighbouring country Sri Lanka, China had been engraving its official language in plaques and sign boards in the Island Nation.
Ironically, the message in Mandarin—the official language of China—replaces Tamil language that flared up widespread protest in the social media in Sri Lanka.
In the latest move, the plaque at the Chinese gifted Smart Library of Attorney General’s (AG) Department missed Tamil description despite it being the national language of Sri Lanka. Instead, the plague carried the message in Mandarin. The centre was inaugurated by Attorney General Dappula de Livera by unveiling the plaque that was scripted in Sinhala, English and the Chinese language. China’s Ambassador was also present.
After facing sharp criticism in the social media platform, the AG office removed the plaque. The office however did not respond to the queries of local media.
Tamil Progressive Alliance Leader and Opposition parliamentarian Mano Ganesan stated in a tweet, the Chinese are “violating language law.” He said the failure to include the Tamil words was a violation of the official language act.
Commenting on the issue, State Minister of National Heritage, Performing Arts and Rural Arts Promotion, Vidura Wickramanayka said that omitting Tamil in the plaque violated the official language policy in Sri Lanka. “As a country we should not allow such things to happen. We talk about co-existence. An inquiry in this regard has to be carried out. This language policy should apply alike throughout the country.
Last week, Batticaloa Parliamentarian from Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Shanakiyan Rasamanickam shared on Twitter an image of a sign board of the ‘Central Park’ coming up at the China-backed Colombo Port City, with text in Sinhala, English and Mandarin, and said: “Tamil text is missing, that’s alright! Soon Sinhala will be missing too. Hope Sri Lankans wake up at least then.”
The Chinese government decides what goes on name boards in Sri Lanka. This really indicates how little control the government has over the situation, he tweeted. Rasamanickam also vehemently opposed the recently passed law governing the Port City and said the country had become “Chi-Lanka”.
