20A will help us govern the country better

The government has been given a mandate to remove the 19th Amendment which had caused many problems in governing the nation, Justice Minister and old boy of Kalutara Muslim Central College, M.U.M. Ali Sabry (PC) said at a felicitation ceremony at his alma mater on Sunday (6).

The felicitation ceremony was organised by the Kalutara Muslim community with the cooperation of old students and the principal and staff of Muslim Central College, Kalutara.

Minister Ali Sabry said, “We’ve not come to Parliament to speak and write books about Constitutional Amendments, we want to build up this country. We are bringing the 20th Amendment to the Constitution so that the President can create a conducive environment to work for the betterment of the country. Our President is an honest and hardworking President. He wants to build this country for the future generations.”

“The 19th Amendment saw the setting up of independent commissions, but what happened to the country afterwards? Although the Police Commission existed, the government was not able to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks, even when there were 98 intelligence reports about such attacks.”

“The Easter Sunday attacks caused much harm to our Catholic brothers and sisters for whom we as Muslims feel extremely sad. But later on, I’m sorry to say that every Muslim in the country was labelled as a ‘terrorist’ because of a few Muslims who committed this crime.”

Ali Sabry said because of the 19th Amendment the government was not able to remove the Police chief, who is one of the persons responsible for the Easter attacks, and we have to have an Acting Police Chief.

The Police are there to reduce crimes, but the crime rate in the country has increased. Minister Ali Sabry said Muslims and Tamils in the country should always try to work cooperatively with the majority Sinhalese. No country in the world had developed by moving away from the majority, he said.

The Minister said he had recently spoken with senior officeholders of the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama Organization on how to live cooperatively and peacefully with the Sinhalese.

(Source: Daily News)