By Methmalie Dissanayake
Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader and Parliamentarian Udaya Prabhath Gammanpila yesterday (13) said, both the PHU and National Freedom Front (NFF) would not support any politician that obtains support from Western Province Governor Azath Salley and Minister Rishad Bathiudeen to form a Government at future Elections.
He made this remark during a Media Briefing.
Gammanpila said, “After analyzing the information we have received, we found that two politicians have direct links with the spread of extremism in the country. They are Salley and Bathiudeen. We have enough evidence to prove that. But nothing has been done about them so far. Therefore, we decided that even if our most favorite politician gets the support from these two to form a Government at future Elections, we will never support him.”
Gammanpila added that they had provided several guidelines which would help to eradicate religious extremism in the country.
“First, we should change the current electoral system. It is because of this a system that politicians have to depend on parties which have extremist ideas. What we propose is allocating 15 bonus seats at a General Election to the party which gains the majority of votes islandwide.
In that way, stable Governments can be established. The second proposal is banning clothing like the Burqa immediately even after the Emergency Regulations. If someone wears a facemask in public places, that person should take a medical report with him/her at all times. Establishing a common marriage and divorce law is the third proposal.
One nation, one law: it is as simple as that. The fourth one is approving and monitoring syllabuses in Madrasa (Islamic colleges) schools. The intelligence forces should also monitor the teachings in these schools. The fifth one is private universities which teach religious ideologies, should in turn be directly monitored by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The sixth proposal is that the Media should not be allowed to spread religious extremism. Let us look at Zakir Naik’s Peace Television. Both India and Bangladesh banned this TV channel over spreading extremism, but Sri Lanka waited to do that until the Easter Sunday carnage. That should not happen in the future. The seventh proposal is monitoring the non-Government organizations (NGOs) by the NGO Secretariat.
Also, the NGOs should publicize their accounts, so, the people would be able to see as to how they received their funds and how they spent them. All illegal immigrants must be deported immediately. That is our eighth proposal. We should identify from which countries these illegal immigrants arrive in Sri Lanka the most. Then we should cancel the on arrival visa facility for such countries.”
He added that “We should officially inform the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that we are not liable to take refugees into our country. Especially refugees like Rohingya. They come with a hatred of Buddhists in Myanmar. Such people can be easily manipulated against the Buddhists in Sri Lanka.
“Currently, President’s Counsel Manohara de Silva and several other lawyers are preparing two draft legislation covering the above proposals. We hope to present them to Parliament as soon as possible. Then we can identify who genuinely loves the country and who does not.”