“Many more places should be named as national heritage”

Parliamentarian Jayantha Samaraweera was appointed the Chair to the Parliamentary Caucus for functioning towards safeguarding national heritage as proposed by Sisira Jayakody and seconded by Weerasumana Weerasinghe.

The name of Sisira Jayakody as the Deputy Chair was proposed by Gamini Waleboda and was seconded by Wimal Weerawansa whilst Udaya Gammanpila proposed the name of Prof. Channa Jayasumana, seconded by Upul Mahendra Rajapaksha.

Addressing those present, the Chair mentioned that the existing national heritage is not being preserved properly and there are still many places in the country that should be named as national heritage and their non-preservation has become a national problem. As a result, he stated that all the members of the Caucus are waiting to come together and prepare a formal programme for this.

The Deputy Chair of the Caucus, State Minister Sisira Jayakody stated that not only physical places are considered as national heritage and that generational knowledge, medicine, various forms of mysticism, etc, should also be considered and protected as national heritage.

Deputy Chair Prof. Channa Jayasumana stated that it is said that there are about 600 unexplored inscriptions found in the North and East. He pointed out that after Professor Senarath Paranavithana, Professor Mendis Rohanadeera made a great effort to understand these inscriptions, but there is still a lot left.

The importance of properly preserving national heritage sites and developing them as tourist attractions was also discussed. It was emphasized that national heritage belongs to all nations and national heritage is a source of pride in all nations for their motherland. Apart from that, it was also expressed that there should be a special division of the police which operates on the instructions of the Director General of Archeology to deal with national heritage.

The Members of Parliament stated that it would be appropriate to appoint a sub-committee to deal with endangered and threatened national heritage. Such places exist in the North as well as in the South. Seeking international support and assistance from foreign scholars for the preservation of national heritage was also taken into discussion.

It was also decided to prepare a programme with a specific time frame for conducting the activities of the forum in a formal manner and to appoint several sub-committees to facilitate the activities of the Caucus.

State Ministers Sisira Jayakody, Dr. Seetha Arambepola, Members of Parliament Wimal Weerawansa, Dr. Sarath Weerasekera, A. L. M. Athaullah, Rohini Kumari Wijerathna, Udaya Gammanpila, Jagath Kumara Sumithraarachchi, Upul Mahendra Rajapaksha, Prof. Channa Jayasumana, Gamini Waleboda, Weerasumana Weerasinghe and the Secretary General of Parliament Kushani Rohanadeera were present at the meeting.

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