A not so smart incident at smart library opening at AG’s Dept.

The Attorney General's Department yesterday made frantic efforts at pulling down a controversial plaque that was erected when the outgoing Attorney general Dappula de Livera and Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong declared open a 'Smart Library' on Wednesday within the Department - funded by the Chinese Government.

That the plaque was opened in front of the very eyes of the outgoing Attorney General on Wednesday and it took three days and tsunami-like backlash from several quarters to remove the plaque was the talking point yesterday, even within the Department.

The bone of contention was that it appeared that Mandarin, the official language of the People's Republic of China had crept into official language status in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Compounding the faux pas was the fact that while the plaque contained Mandarin, it had omitted the other official language of the country -Tamil. And in a Government Department given the responsibility to interpret the country's Constitution, no less.

The explanation given by the Department's spokesperson, who said that they were not sure who was responsible for making the plaque, further aggravated the issue.

She said that "once we were alerted" to the fact, they decided to remove the plaque and replace it with a new one containing the Tamil language as well. But the plaque was opened in front of all the senior officials of the Department. Even at the function some senior officials had been murmuring if Mandarin had already been made an official language, or if it was only replacing Tamil.

In the process, Mandarin has not become the fourth official language of the country, but there still remains three because Tamil has seemingly been dropped off the cliff to make way.

But the case was not just an isolated incident. Earlier in the week, MP Chanakiyan Rasamanikkam raised issue in a Twitter message that a name board had sprung up in the Port city in only Sinhala, English and Mandarin.

There was a similar board at the BMICH.

While Sri Lankan authorities kept silent on the matter, the proactive Chinese embassy quickly reacted saying the BMICH name board was temporary and will be rectified to adhere to the official languages of the Republic of Sri Lanka. MP M. Sumanthiran was soon to follow on this by saying in Parliament that while the Government opposes a (Tamil) 'Eelam', it is allowing a "Chi-lam" to be created.

Already, Mandarin name boards have sprung up in small shops and even night clubs catering to the growing Chinese population in the country, but what took the cake, or shall we say, the nian gao is when right in the midst of the controversial Port City Commission debate in Parliament, the country's outgoing Attorney General and the Chinese Ambassador opened the 'Smart Library' financed and supported by the Chinese Government in the premises of the Attorney General's Department - in Sinhala, English and Mandarin - with Tamil dropped.

Again, there was a deafening silence by the Government of Sri Lanka but this time round, there were no apologies from the Chinese embassy. Hopefully, all's well that ends well.