• මුල් පිටුව
  • අප ගැන
    • අපි කවුරුන්ද?
    • අපගේ ක්‍රියාවලිය
    • අප කණ්ඩායම
  • ඇගයුම් ක්‍රියාවලිය
    • අපගේ ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම්
    • නිවැරදි කිරීම් පිළිබඳ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය
  • බ්ලොග් සටහන්
  • පෙර විශ්ලේෂණ
  • සම්බන්ධ වන්න
  • E සි த

Claim

Udaya Gammanpila

United People's Freedom Alliance

[According to Article 7 of the constitution] Sri Lanka's national anthem is "Sri Lanka Maatha"… if anything other than the words of "Sri Lanka Maatha" contained in the third schedule is considered to be the national anthem, it would be a violation of the constitution.

Ada: 1 Jan 2020

False

Statement

[According to Article 7 of the constitution] Sri Lanka's national anthem is "Sri Lanka Maatha"… if anything other than the words of "Sri Lanka Maatha" contained in the third schedule is considered to be the national anthem, it would be a violation of the constitution.

Fact check

MP Gammanpila out of tune on national anthem

MP Udaya Gammanpila claims that treating the national anthem as existing in any language other than Sinhala is a violation of the constitution because Article 7 of the constitution gives the national anthem as “Sri Lanka Maatha” in Sinhala.

To check this claim, FactCheck consulted the constitution. The officially published versions of the constitution contain the name and words of the national anthem in two languages—Sinhala and Tamil. In Sinhala and English, it is given as “Sri Lanka Maatha”. In Tamil, it is given as “Sri Lanka Thaaye”. Therefore, to suggest the constitution gives the national anthem only as “Sri Lanka Maatha” is incorrect.

For this analysis we considered three facts with regard to the constitution: (1) In Sri Lanka, both Sinhala and Tamil have equal constitutional status as national and official languages. (2) The constitution is officially published in Sinhala, Tamil and English. (3) The constitution does not give primacy to any language or officially published version for its interpretation or use.

Based on these facts, if the MP's logic is correct, a person could equally well claim that only the Tamil version of the national anthem is constitutional—because the constitution has the national anthem as “Sri Lanka Thaaye” in Tamil, and Tamil is a national and official language in which the constitution is written. This renders the MP’s assertion logically untenable.

Therefore, we classify MP Gammanpila’s claim as FALSE.

NB: The need to interpret the constitution in one language rather than another could arise only if the substance of what is written differs, in different language texts. In that case, only the Supreme Court would have the constitutional jurisdiction to decide on the correct interpretation. However, in this case, both the Sinhala and Tamil versions of the national anthem have the same meaning and prescribe the very same tune.

*FactCheck's verdict is based on the most recent information that is publicly accessible. As with every fact check, if new information becomes available, FactCheck will revisit the assessment.

Sources

Parliament of Sri Lanka, Second Republican Constitution of Sri Lanka incorporating its 19 Amendments, Articles 7, 18, 19 and 125: available at:

https://www.parliament.lk/files/pdf/constitution/constitution-upto-19th.pdf (in English);

https://www.parliament.lk/files/pdf/constitution/constitution-upto-19th-si.pdf (in Sinhala);

https://www.parliament.lk/files/pdf/constitution/constitution-upto-19th-ta.pdf (in Tamil).

For the original article, please see:  

http://www.ada.lk/breaking_news/රාජ්%E2%80%8Dය-උත්සවයකදී-ජාතික-ගීතය-දෙමළ-භාෂාවෙන්-ගායනා-කිරීම-ව්%E2%80%8Dයවස්ථාව-උල්ලංඝණය-කිරීමක්/11-356263


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1 Comments

Chapman 1 year ago

Your interpretation is wrong."(2) The constitution is officially published in Sinhala, Tamil and English." Constitution is published ONLY in Sinhala and Tamil and merely a "translation" in English. Secondly, since the National Anthem is based on words sung to a tune, a legal argument can be made that "words" themselves constitute substance, in which case the Sinhala text shall prevail.

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