Thread: Asian postmaster banning customers who can't speak English

Asian postmaster takes immigration stand by banning customers who can't speak EnglishBy Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:20 PM on 18th March 2009

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An Asian postmaster has provoked the ire of race equality campaigners by banning customers from his branch who cannot speak English.
Deva Kumarasiri claims all immigrants in Britain should learn the language so they can communicate properly with others here and embrace British culture.
'If you come to Britain you have got to speak English,' said the father-of-two, who moved here himself 18 years ago.
'I am from a different country but when I came here I became British. My job is to give a service. I cannot give a service if they cannot tell me what they want.'
Mr Kumarasiri, 40, said he had banned about half a dozen customers from Sneinton Boulevard Post Office in Nottingham.
'Some of them say, "You are not British,"' he said. 'I keep telling them, "Don't come here or I am not going to help you."
Mind your language: Sri Lankan-born postmaster Deva Kumarasiri has refused to serve customers who can't speak English
'One of the Asian ladies said, "You have a different language, why can you not speak that?"
'I said "When I am in Britain I speak English."'

Race equality campaigners today dismissed his stance as unrealistic and said it was wrong to deny people the post office's services just because they cannot speak English.
Afzal Sadiq, chief executive of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Racial Equality Council, said: 'You are denying somebody a service that is there for everybody. In an ideal world these people would speak English ... but learning to speak English is going to take time.'
But Mr Kumarasiri, who is also a Liberal Democrat councillor on Gedling Borough Council, said adjusting to a new country meant adjusting your language too.
'Ethnic minorities came to this country to change their lives. They have to take pride in the country where they live. It shows that they care,' he said.

Banned customers who have returned to his post office with interpreters have been served.
Mr Kumarasiri, of Carlton, Nottingham is campaigning for people of all races to feel proud about being British and has started a website, www.britishnessforever.co.uk.
He said: 'This is about unity among the people in this country who are proud to live here, whether they are Asian, black or white.
'Ninety-five per cent of people are proud to be British but they are scared to show it.
'It is being put into people's heads that you cannot say things to upset the minorities.
'The white person cannot stand up and say anything because they automatically become a racist.'
Mr Kumarasiri, who helped raise thousands of pounds after the tsunami hit his native Sri Lanka, said people there were proud to be associated with Britain because of the country's former days as part of the British Empire.
'Still we have the pride that Britain left behind,' he said. 'The laws are still there, the schools are still there. The kids have courtesy. They have discipline.
'Here all that is gone. Let's bring back all this.'


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... l?ITO=1490

God Bless him, he is right!