[lg policy] Leveraging the Patriotic Diaspora to Secure Sustainable Peace in Sri Lanka
Harold Schiffman
hfsclpp at GMAIL.COM
Fri Dec 31 15:20:58 UTC 2010
Leveraging the Patriotic Diaspora to Secure Sustainable Peace in Sri Lanka
Posted on December 30th, 2010
SPUR (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc
Reg: A003 0777 M P.O. Box 4066, Mulgrave VIC 3170, Australia
Evidence to Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission 27 December
2010 Dr Dasarath Jayasuriya, PhD., M.Eng, B.Sc (Eng),
Grad.Dip.Bus.Mgt, M.I.Eng. Aust, CPEng President SPUR Australia
Good afternoon honourable members of the commission, ladies and gentlemen,
I thank the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) for
giving me an opportunity to present my views as an active member of
the Diaspora working to safeguard Sri Lanka’s unitary status, the
territorial integrity and the sovereignty for over 30 years. I
consider it to be a privilege to have this opportunity to submit my
view to the esteemed members of the Commission.
Let me state very clearly first up that all citizens of Sri Lanka have
equal rights, and the right to live anywhere in Sri Lanka in peace,
harmony and prosperity sans any ethnic divide or whether you belong to
the majority or a minority community. They should feel safe, and when
dealing with civil services, be free to converse in the language of
their choice and be heard, understood and responded to. As the
President so eloquently stated, we are all Sri Lankans first. However,
we respectfully acknowledge that Sri Lanka has a strong Buddhist,
Sinhala heritage as evidenced by numerous historical monuments,
manuscripts and the dominant culture. Buddhism continues to fashion
core values and underpin behaviour which promotes non violence,
tolerance and co-existence. Citizens should be free to practice the
religion of their choice without any fear of persecution. As these
principles are enshrined in Sri Lanka’s Constitution, they should be
put in to practice and be abided with a passion.
Preamble
I refer to the substantial submission made to the Commission by me on
behalf of SPUR on 17 October 2010. After introducing SPUR and
describing what we stand for, we addressed Terms of Reference Items
(i) to (v), except Item (iv) which refers to the ‘methodology whereby
restitution to any person affected by those events or their dependents
or to heirs, can be effected’.
With respect to Item (iv), we strongly believe that the Government
should establish by law, a statutory agency to locate, chase and
recover funds collected or extorted by the LTTE both within Sri Lanka
and overseas. We also urge the Government to facilitate class actions
on behalf of the victims of LTTE terror. The Government should secure
compensation for them by taking to court those hiding or living
overseas still advocating Eelam and/or parroting the virtues of the
LTTE. The TRO money that was frozen in Sri Lanka (and overseas) should
also be pooled to benefit victims. This money should be used to
compensate those affected by LTTE’s 30 years of terror, including the
innocent civilians whose villages were repeatedly invaded, the people
subject to systematic rape and massacre by the LTTE such as
Avarantulawa and Kokeliya in the North as well as Wilgamvehera in the
East. The surviving Sinhalese living in these villages are being left
in the wilderness, fending for themselves as the Government and the
NGO’s rush to service the Tamil dominated areas in the North and the
East. Civilians who survived the terror perpetrated by the LTTE from
these threatened villages need to be treated as national heroes as
they bore the brunt of Tiger brutality and provided the rest of the
country with a buffer. My point here is that they equally deserve to
reap the benefits and enjoy the dividends of peace. This is a must do
task to sustain communal harmony in clusters of villages dominated by
different ethnic communities, as we must not create fully serviced
Tamil villages and underdeveloped Sinhala villages cohabiting side by
side as this could lead to frustrations and communal tension.
SPUR and my credentials as an active member of the Diaspora
The Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR) is
a 16 year old human rights organisation with over 700 members
operating from Melbourne, Australia with sister organisations
throughout Australia in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, as well as
in New Zealand. We also provide the secretarial services to the World
Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka (WAPS), the alliance of 16 patriotic
organisations operating around the world. WAPS was responsible for
organising the landmark conference about securing peace in Sri Lanka
on 19 August 2004 in Oslo, Norway titled Road Map for Peace in Sri
Lanka. I have been personally involved in fighting the Diaspora battle
in Thailand in the early 80’s and as a member of OSLANU (led by Prof.
Christy Weeramanthri) in the mid 80’s and later as an executive
committee member and President of SPUR in Australia.
We spearheaded the fight against separatism and malicious spreading
of rumours, lies, innuendo and misinformation about Sri Lanka during
the period when Sri Lanka was held to ransom by the Tamil Tiger
terrorists. We are now actively involved in executing a strategy to
work with fellow Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora to secure the hard won
peace in perpetuity.
We stand unwaveringly for protecting the territorial integrity, the
unitary state and the sovereignty of Sri Lanka. We are also committed
to helping members of the armed forces adversely affected and injured
by the war as well as affected civilians who lived in the threatened
villages.
The focus of this address and the international community
My address to the Commission distributed today specifically address
the Terms of References given to the Commission (see Annexure). Due to
time constraints, I wish to focus now on the role of the Diaspora in
securing sustainable peace, especially measures which need to be taken
to prevent any recurrence of LTTE type terror in the future.
There was one critical factor that stood between Sri Lanka where it
is today, with its hopes and aspirations for a bright future, and the
bleak and toxic despondency dominated by terror, fear and the real
possibility of National disintegration.
This critical success factor was President Rajapaksa’s strong will,
on behalf of Sri Lanka, to stand up to the international community.
His unwavering belief that it was time, time to eradicate terrorism
and liberate the Nation from the clutches of Prabhakaran, the despotic
and manic terrorist who had taken the citizens hostage. The
President’s passionate belief that no one; and I repeat no one should
or could stand between achieving the liberation outcome applied
primarily to the so called international community which was convinced
that terrorism could not be eradicated from Sri Lanka and only
appeasing Prabhakaran’s lust for blood would secure peace.
International support was crucial for Prabhakaran sustaining
terrorism. It was the life-blood fuelling the terrorist engine. The
international community influencing Sri Lanka is made up of many
entities including:
* Countries that consider themselves as the bastions of democracy
and global morality. They include USA, UK, Germany, Canada, Japan and
the EU as a collective body
* Unconditionally supportive countries such as China who believe
sustainable development to be the panacea for durable peace
* Impotent countries in the global context such as Norway and
South Africa which crave for recognition as influential members
fashioning global politics and the developing world’s social and
political construct
* Global agencies such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth,
ASEAN and SARC
* The emigrant Diaspora with a Sri Lankan heritage permanently
resident in countries such as Canada, UK, Australia, France and some
Scandinavian countries
* The Sri Lankan workers temporarily resident in countries such as
Italy, Korea and the Middle East
* Sri Lankan’s violating the law either working illegally or
knowingly overstaying visas
* Those seeking refuge in countries in the EU, Canada and Australia; and
* Students following courses overseas with the intent of seeking
residency or going back to Sri Lanka.
Let me now briefly refer to the pressures exerted by some of the above
actors and the drivers fuelling their actions.
International pressures and the actors
Many of the Nations preaching the virtues of democracy to Sri Lanka
are either fuelled by domestic politics (India), the votes carried by
the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora (eg. UK, Australia and Canada) or
affected by the fear of a small nation punching well above its weight
setting an example to other developing nations. The latter is
especially the case with USA. The Sri Lankan polity lead by President
Rajapaksa, ably supported by the Defence Secretary, the armed forces
and a unified cabinet, has demonstrated how indigenous solutions can
deliver sustainable social, environmental and economic outcomes, in
spite of powerful global opposition.
The Americans have no shame. Led by the Secretary of Stat and the High
Commissioner to Sri Lanka, it continues to preach the virtues of Human
Rights, good governance and transparency to Sri Lanka. Their hypocrisy
has no bound as evidenced by many documents exposed to the world by
the WickieLeaks saga, the 9 -11 of the Internet. A number of released
emails demonstrate the intent of USA to interfere in the internal
affairs of countries not assenting to their views. Sri Lanka is one of
the countries that had drawn America’s disproportionate attention.
There is also evidence of America influencing the workings of
international agencies such as UN. We need to question the actions of
Ban Ki Moon who is seeking a renewal of his appointment. Is he the
cats-paw prosecuting US agenda within UN?
Many hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians including women and
children have been killed by the invading forces led by America. Many
Afghan civilians continue to be killed by the American and the allied
forces on a daily basis. These civilian deaths have been considered as
regretful but necessary collateral damage. As emails exposed by
WickieLeaks demonstrated, sometimes they even treat their so called
allies with contempt and ridicule. America has a history of giving
their so called friendly nations the “Karapincha” treatment, used and
abused as long as they tow the line but discarded once America’s
objectives are served. This is evidenced by the predicaments faced by
the Shah of Iran, President Marcos many Latin American leaders and
President Noriega of Panama. This is sadly the fate laying in waiting
for the current President of Afganistan, President Khazai. We should
not be surprised by America’s conduct and should stand forthright,
unflinching for what we believe in without compromising to adopt
foreign models that have been imposed as solutions to the non-exiting
ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. We had a terrorist problem and the
President has dealt with it forcefully and ended it effectively. The
Diaspora has to now work collectively to secure its sustainability.
The behaviour of the United Kingdom and the EU is governed by the
large expatriate Tamil Diaspora living and most importantly, voting in
their countries. This too was partly exposed by WickieLeaks where the
former UK Foreign Secretary Milliband shamelessly perused the Tamil
vote, alas to no avail. After raping and pillaging the nation for more
than 150 years, the British under Gordon Brown continued to treat Sri
Lanka as their colony. The withdrawal of the GSP+ facility is EU’s
response to Sri Lanka bucking the trend without playing to the whims
and fancies of the EU. They all collectively want to teach Sri Lanka a
lesson, as it has not followed tradition and displayed the typical
behaviour of a developing nation, happy to be puppeteered by the so
called benevolent beacons of democracy. After all, they have forgotten
that we have always bucked the tradition and challenged the
convention, Murali being the most recent example.
Norwegians always wanted to be seen as movers and shakers when it
came to setting the global political agenda. They have made peace
brokering an art and a Trojan horse to pursue their surreptitious
agenda to secure natural resources. They are yet to succeed in any of
their peace ventures having failed miserably in Sudan and
spectacularly in the Middle East (the Israel-Palestinian Oslo Accord).
Their efforts to interfere in Nepal were rejected and in Sri Lanka,
with the death of Prabhakaran, they lost all influence. It was Erik
Solheim who described Prabhakara as a military genius and the war
prosecuted by this megalomaniac against the people of Sri Lanka, as a
war that could not be won. They will continue to support anti-Sri
Lankan elements; especially the NGOs in the guise of supporting
democracy and freedom with the belief that changes to the worse in Sri
Lanka’s status quo would once again propel them into the global
limelight. We need to watch the conduct of Norway as they continue to
provide a stage for the Eelamist to pursue their destructive
ambitions.
The duplicity, hypocrisy and the inconsistency shown by Ban Ki Moon,
the Secretary General of the UN is breadth taking. I am puzzled by the
disproportionate attention paid to a small peaceful country like Sri
Lanka. Ban is influenced by the Tamil Diaspora, the media and the
NGO’s funded by Tamil Tigers. He seems to be stuck in a time warp
around 19 May 2009, incapable of extricating himself from the innuendo
and lies parroted by some of the Tamil Diaspora who overtly supported
the LTTE. The panel established to advice him is stacked with members
who have a history of being anti Sri Lankan. Repeated emails sent by
me to the United Nations and the panel members seeking their Terms of
Reference have not yielded a brass razoo. Deathly silence has greeted
every attempt to seek more information. So much so, for transparency.
There are more pressing issues impacting global peace that requires
Ban Ki Moons urgent attention. These include:
* The Ivory Coast crisis where the incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo
is refusing to leave the Presidential palace having lost the elections
to his rival Alassane Ouattara. The country is on the brink of civil
war
* Somalian war lords controlling vast swaths of land and the
thriving piracy affecting global shipping
* Impotent UN response to North Korea’s brinkmanship tactics
* The Israeli’s continuing to build illegal settler homes (108
built on 24 December 2010) threatening Middle Eastern peace
* The Iranian nuclear ambitions and the resulting power struggle
in the Middle East
* The Haitian debacle with deaths due to cholera reaching 2500.
Last week rampaging mobs lynched 45 people accused of spreading
cholera
* The disintegration of Sudan and the forthcoming referendum
granting independence to the South
* More than 30,000 dead in the Mexican drug war over the last
three years with 12,456 deaths this year
* WikiLeakes disclosing that India systematically tortured
civilians in Kashmir
* Refusal of EU to recognise the existence of an independent
Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
* Attempts by some of the developed countries to kill the Kyoto
Protocol (the words of Huang Huikang, the special Chinese
representative on Climate Change)
* and …………………………………..
Ban, instead of focusing on more important and contemporary issues
listed above, continues to pursue Sri Lanka for violating human rights
when all what it did was to liberate the Tamil civilians from the
clutches of a terrorist.
Some of the militant Tamil Diaspora in countries such as Australia,
UK, USA and Canada still yearn for the illusive and racist Thamil
Eelam and pursue and promote violence as the means of achieving it.
They continue to exaggerate the civilian deaths from the Government’s
liberating efforts during the final war, concocting stories to
discredit the Government portraying the Sinhalese as racists and the
Government, racially biased. They lobby politicians with
fabricated stories of torture and discrimination whilst enjoying the
perks of living overseas in comfort. The collection of funds for
nefarious activities continues unabated. They continue to pursue
venomously, political and societal leaders promoting harmony amongst
ethnic communities in Sri Lanka and development for all. The recent
fiasco involving the President and sabotaging his scheduled speech at
Oxford University is one such example. They also ostracize members of
the moderate Tamil community promoting infrastructure development and
social initiatives that would contribute to healing and social
coherence.
Since of recent, a minority of Sinhalese Diaspora in countries such as
Australia have begun to denigrate Sri Lanka spreading rumours and
blatant lies to further their bankrupt political views. Disguising
themselves as democrats, these members of the so called ‘third force’
are doing immense harm by describing the political climate in Sri
Lanka as non-democratic lacking freedom of expression. They are joined
by the criminal few who are willing to run the country down with
fabricated stories of persecution with the intent of securing
permanent residency as refugees. Then there are other violators of
law who have overstayed their visas awaiting blanket amnesty. All of
these rouge elements benefit by running Sri Lanka down. These members
of the Diaspora should be treated differently to others who are
abiding the laws of the country that they are residents of. In a
nutshell, it’s a misnomer to believe that the Diaspora is a
homogeneous entity and thus, appealing to the Diaspora as a collective
to help restore Sri Lanka’s integrity and its rightful place in global
polity will yield naught.
Leveraging the patriotic Diaspora
The Diaspora domicile in many countries is willing to help secure
sustainable peace provided they have the Government doing its part to
assist worthy initiatives These include:
* Appointing capable, competent and adequately resourced career
diplomats to occupy key High Commissions and Embassies around the
world, especially where the Tamil Diaspora are actively prosecuting
separation. Significant advances have been made but more could be done
to hold diplomats accountable.
* Nurturing the patriotic Diaspora and co-opting them by the
Government and the respective overseas missions to counter the
separatist’s overseas agenda
* Encouraging the Diaspora to work as a non-racial “one
homogeneous entity” with empathy and desire to support Sri Lanka and
its people mostly in need
* Establishing communication lines capable of responding quickly
to misinformation and promoting successful integration and development
initiatives
* Identifying segments of the Diaspora community and the drivers
influencing their behaviour and treating them on merit. There are
mushroom patriots who have popped up recently claiming fame for
fighting the expatriate war against the LTTE. They launch web sites,
write books praising the Government and its leadership, entertain
Government Ministers and play the audience seeking fame and favour.
The Government should carefully analyse their role and activities
prior to 19 May 2009 and the last Presidential election as most of
these ‘new patriots’ were missing when action was required to
safeguard the integrity and reputation of Sri Lanka.
* Prosecuting those returning to Sri Lanka once deported from
countries for violating local law. Most of these rogue elements follow
considered strategy to denigrate Sri Lanka fabricating fanciful
stories to garner sympathy and refugee status. They should be held
accountable for their actions once they return to Sri Lanka according
to our law. Currently most get away free of any prosecution and thus
act with impunity when living overseas.
In summary, we believe that the government of President Rajapaksa has
more than adequate initiatives in place within Sri Lanka to prevent
the recurrence of LTTE type terror. We support the development centric
approach to securing sustainable peace and propose 15 additional
initiatives (including National Service for the youth) in our detailed
submission to the Commission dated 17 October 2010. However, we
strongly believe that the threat to sustainable peace will be driven
from overseas mainly with the energies of the remnant Tamil Diaspora
favouring the LTTE. These groups will be emboldened from time to time
by the actions of countries such as USA, UK and the EU and global
agencies such as the UN. The patriotic Diaspora, if mobilised, has the
capacity and the numbers to counter balance the treacherous behaviour
of a few. However, for the patriots to be effective the Government has
to strengthen the diplomatic effort and hold those occupying important
positions accountable.
Sri Lanka has a history of punching well above its weight. Our
hydraulic civilisations were second to none including the Egyptians.
We established the first National Park when the Buddha visited Sri
Lanka. We have been the first country to militarily defeat terrorism.
Its now time to draw a line in the sand and learn from history and
bury the past. The time is right to collectively fashion a glorious
economic, social and an environmental future for our nation.
The speech distributed today contains a summary of actions
recommended by SPUR to address specific Terms of References
established for the Commission. I thank the esteem members of the
Commission for allowing me time to present, a Diaspora view. I end
with a commitment to working tirelessly with our fellow Tamil Diaspora
members in Australia such as Dr Noel Nadesan to secure sustainable
peace for all Sri Lankans, so that they can live in peace, respecting
each others values and cultures in perpetuity.
I commend our recommendations to the Commission.
Thank you,
Dr Dasarath Jayasuriya
PRESIDENT SPUR
_______________________________________________________________________________________
ANNEXURE: Summary recommendations from the 17 October 2010 detailed
submission by SPUR
Terms of Reference (i) The facts and circumstances which led to the
failure of the ceasefire agreement and the sequence of events that
followed thereafter up to May 19, 2009
Reasons for the failure of the ceasefire agreement CFA include but
not limited to the following issues:
* The LTTE had no serious intent to abide by the 2002 Ceasefire
Agreement. They were only using the CFA to buy time to pursue the war
with vigour.
* Tamil political parties practiced race based politics even as
far back as 1923. As evidenced by the conduct of G.G Ponnambalam
(1931), their intent was not equal rights but of “equal representation
in the parliament” to secure a disproportionate % of power. Blaming
the 1956 Sinhala language policy and the 1983 riot for the LTTE’s
terrorism are false, and misleading.
* Tamil political parties such as the TNA to date, practice race
based politics. They are mainly puppeteered and influenced by the
Central Indian and the Tamil Nadu governments
* The Tamil Diaspora continued during the CFA to collect and/or
extort funds and organise purchasing arms and transporting them to Sri
Lanka for the LTTE
* The Tamil Diaspora sympathetic to the LTTE intimidated and
suppressed the democratic Tamil Diaspora that spoke in favour of
working for peace under the CFA
* The LTTE continued to attack Sinhalese civilians in the
threatened villages (eg Kebithigollewa), assassinated politicians (eg.
Foreign Minister Hon Kadirgamar), attacked the armed forces (killed
Gen Parami Kulatunga) and decimated the army intelligence (eg
assassination of Lt. Col. Muthalif and 26 other intelligence officers)
during the CFA
* The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was impotent and did not
want to hold the LTTE accountable for CFA violations fearing LTTE’s
withdrawal from the CFA
* Unethical conduct of the INGO’s, NGOs and some in the Catholic
Church such as Bishop Rayappu Joseph and their propensity to support
and at times shield the LTTE from their crimes. This is evidenced by
the coercive role played by Bishop Rayappu Joseph when the LTTE
hijacked the revered statue of Our Lady of Madhu
* Pandering to the LTTE by the UNF leadership and LTTE
sympathisers working closely with them such as Jayalath Jayawardena
* Ethnically cleansing the Sinhalese from the North and the East
by systematically attacking them and destroying their livelihood
evidenced by incidents at Awaranthulawa (North), Welgamvehera and
Mavilaru (East)
Terms of Reference Item (ii) Whether any person, group, or
institution, directly or indirectly bears responsibility in this
regard
We strongly believe that a number of entities either profited or
benefited politically and/or economically by implementing the CFA.
They continued the façade even when the LTTE violated conditions in it
with gay abandon. These organisations and individuals include but are
not limited to:
* The racists Tamil political parties, especially the TNA, the
political appendage of the LTTE
* Tamil Diaspora Organisations (too numerous to list names) such
as the Australian Federation of Tamil Associations and the Australian
Tamil Congress
* The Tamil rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) and other similar
shadow so called “welfare” organisations
* The Norwegian Government with their blatant bias towards the
LTTE and their puppeteering of the SLMM. Erik Solheim should take the
brunt of the blame as he orchestrated the strategy
* The indifference shown by USA, UK, EU and Japan (the co-chairs)
to LTTE’s blatant violations of the CFA
* The UNF, its leader Ranil Wickremasingha and prominent members
such as Jayalath Jayawardena
* The former UNF Government’s (2002 to 2004) Defence Minister
Tilak Marapana and the Defence Secretary Austin Fernando responsible
for the decimation of the military intelligence. They should be
prosecuted for manslaughter.
* INGO’s such as Amnesty International and Asian Human Rights
Watch who blamed the Government for not appeasing the LTTE and NGOs
such as the Centre for Policy Alternative (CPA) and the National Peace
Council (NPC) operating in Sri Lanka
* Sections of the Catholic Church who turned the other cheek when
the types of Bishop Rayappu Joseph blatantly sided with the LTTE, even
calling them as “our boys” whilst touring Australia
* Foreign governments in key countries such as Australia, Canada,
UK, EU etc. where elected governments did very little to stop LTTE
sympathisers raising funds to prosecute the war. Some like Australia
continue to give flimsy excuses for not banning the LTTE as a
terrorist organisation.
* President Kumaranatunga for her lack of leadership, complacency
and politicising a terrorist problem
Terms of Reference Item (iii) The lessons we would learn from those
events and their attendant concerns, to ensure that there will be no
recurrence.
* There should be no tolerance of terrorist acts or violence
against the State under any circumstances.
* The Government must take initiatives to transform each Province
to multi-ethnic as problems originated in mono-ethnic Provinces (eg
North) dominated by Tamils. These are susceptible to racial
intolerance, especially if manipulated by Indian influenced, racially
motivated parties such as the TNA.
* The diplomatic community should act quickly and threaten
terrorists (such as the LTTE) that they will unconditionally support
the Government to maintain law and order unless the former ceased the
violence
* Violence as the means of achieving political aspirations should
be condemned by the international community and institutions such as
the UN and the Commonwealth Secretariat
* NGO’s and INGO’s operating in Sri Lanka must be licensed, fully
transparent and be subject to financial/outcome audits with these
audit reports lodged in Parliament annually.
* All political parties must abide by Sri Lanka’s constitution and
pledge allegiance to protect its unitary status and sovereignty
* Bi-patrician apolitical solutions that protect National
integrity and sovereignty must be developed by the polity in Sri Lanka
to counter problems such as those created by the LTTE.
* Capable, competent and adequately resourced career diplomats
should occupy key High Commissions and Embassies around the world,
especially where the Tamil Diaspora are actively prosecuting
separation
* The patriotic Diaspora should be nurtured and co-opted by the
Government and the respective overseas missions to counter the
separatist agenda
* The Diaspora should be encouraged to work as non-racial “one
homogeneous entity” with empathy and desire to support Sri Lanka and
its people
We strongly believe that in addition to the above points, we should
create a just and free society with some critical features that are
unique to Sri Lanka to prevent the racially based terror that was
forced on it, recurring. A development centric approach is necessary
to secure sustainable peace.
Key features of our terror free Sri Lanka are listed in pages 16 and 17.
Terms of Reference Item (iv) The methodology by where restitution to
any person affected by those events or their dependents or to heirs,
can be effected
We do not wish to respond to this ToR in detail. However, we strongly
believe that the Government should establish by law, a statutory
agency to locate and recover funds collected or extorted by the LTTE
both within Sri Lanka and abroad. The finances should be audited
annually and reported (balancing money recovered and spent) to
Parliament.
Terms of Reference Item v.1 The institutional, administrative and
legislative measures which need to be taken to prevent any recurrence
of such concerns in the future
Sri Lanka is too small in area and population and too diverse to
justify a Federal type or any form of devolved (or decentralised)
governing arrangement. The cost of governance (ie. the political
overhead) far exceeds the benefits of running a decentralised State.
The level of professional competency required to run many tiers of
government is also not widely available leading to corruption and
inefficiency. Sri Lanka unfortunately is not blessed with an abundance
of clean, professional talent at this moment in time.
We would like to see a strong Central government with at least the
following key features defining it:
* The development unit to ideally be the District, where elected
District Development Councils (DDC) members identify development
priorities
* The dismantling of the expensive, unwieldy Provincial Council system
* The establishment of Provincial scale service delivery
organisations accountable to the Centre to cover essential services
such as agrarian production, medical services, food distribution,
education etc. These organisations should be funded proportionate to
the population in the Province and its development needs. The larger
the development needs, the bigger the funding.
* Strengthening of the Local Government governance in large to
medium urban centres with service delivery as the focus
* Utilise skills and competencies of the armed forces by
establishing development focused, legally constituted Government
Business Units (GBUs) in each Province to construct key
infrastructure.
The responsibility for developing policy and managing crown land and
the police (and law and order) should always rest with the Centre. The
delivery of the services (where appropriate) should be decentralised
to the adequately funded Provincial service centres, with priorities
set by elected DDC members. Consideration should be given to
establishing a second chamber of elected members (similar to a Senate)
to ensure checks and balances.
Further institutional, administrative and legislative measures
implemented to prevent the recurrence of the type of “dark days”
dominated by the LTTE, should reflect a number of key features (11 in
total) listed on pages 17 and 18 of our detailed submission.
Terms of Reference Item v.2 Promote further national unity and
reconciliation among all communities
We also advocate a development centric approach coupled with
multiethnic Provinces for securing sustainable peace. We list 15
initiatives (on page 19 of the detailed submission) to promote and
underpin national reconciliation.
This includes initiatives such as learning history compulsory to
promote harmony from early days at school (leveraging education) and
integration through sport.
Part of the reconciliation is educating the community about the
damage done by the LTTE to Sri Lanka and her people. The Government
should seek unconditional commitment from all ethnic communities
(including children) to protect the Nation from separation and future
disintegration.
The ability to deal in the Tamil language with Government
institutions in Districts where the majority of people speak Tamil can
still be a problem. The Government should introduce translation
facilities to even remotely situated institutions (through telephone)
to ensure equal treatment of all communities. This should equally
apply to Sinhalese people living in Tamil dominated areas such as
Jaffna. Although from a policy perspective, the Tamil language has an
equal status to Sinhala, the implementation of the policy is yet to be
fully realised. The link language should be English.
Compulsory National Service (NS) should be introduced for a 6 month
period prior to students entering University or leaving school. A
compliance certificate (CS) should be issued upon completion of the
term. This CS should be produced prior to securing employment,
entering the University or obtaining a passport for travel.
To simplify the administration, those under the age of 17 wanting to
travel overseas will be issued once off travel permits valid for the
duration of travel. Those over the age of 17 wanting to travel must
complete the 6 month NS term. During this period, youth from different
Provinces of the Island should be mixed, placed in teams and given
common tasks to achieve. Sri Lanka’s history should be taught and a
sense of pride of being a Sri Lankan instilled.
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/12/30/leveraging-the-patriotic-diaspora-to-secure-sustainable-peace-in-sri-lanka/
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