Reconciliation in the context of Channel 4 allegations
Prof Rajiva Wijesinha MP
Continued from yesterday
This government continued to be in favour with Western countries that
have recently discovered a commitment to human rights, and more
startlingly continued to be supported by even Tamils in Colombo, who
were more concerned about class than race. That only changed with the
attacks on Tamils in Colombo too in 1983. But previously the violence
unleashed on less privileged Tamils, in 1977 in a few areas, and then in
many more in 1981, had laid the groundwork for the deep emotions we see
in so many expatriates.
Restoring confidence
I understand and sympathize then with those who left our shores, not
only for economic reasons in the seventies, but for the disgusting
attacks on Tamils in the early eighties, the burning of the Jaffna
Public Library in 1981, the systematic assaults of July 1983. Those have
not been repeated, but we must appreciate why, in the confrontational
approach those brutalities engendered, tensions continued. I believe
that ensuring that our security forces are multi-ethnic is vital for
restoring confidence, and government should fast forward programmes
towards this end.
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Prof Rajiva Wijesinha MP |
I should note that the police continued to recruit from all
communities at all levels, and at the height of the war 700 odd officers
passed out from the Training School at Kallady in the East. However,
applications were few, given fear of the LTTE. Fortunately this changed
after the LTTE in Sri Lanka was destroyed, and a few thousand applied,
and a couple of batches of several hundred each have now been trained,
and appointed, in particular to stations in the North.
Educational opportunities
The same applied to the public sector, and we believe there will be
greater interest now that the threats that confronted so many bright
youngsters in the past have been eliminated. But we need to enhance
educational opportunities for youngsters, especially in areas from which
there was never much recruitment to the public sector, given the neglect
of education in those areas, the Wanni and many parts of the East. I am
delighted that the present Government Agent for Kilinochchi is the first
person from that area to have risen to such a high position in the
public service, and her appointment to that area, after strenuous
service in Batticaloa when that district was recovering after it was
fully liberated from the LTTE in 2007, was suitable recognition of her
dedication to the country in difficult circumstances. I can only hope
then that efforts to resurrect the LTTE abroad, and to continue to argue
for separatism, will not blight the ready willingness of youngsters in
Sri Lanka, from the North as well as the East, to take their proper role
in the government sector.
Engine of growth
However, we need also to recognize that the orthodoxies of the
sixties and seventies, when statist socialism reduced the size of the
pie - so that everyone’s share, if increasingly equal, was decreasing in
actual content, as John Rawls so tellingly put it in his ‘Theory of
Justice’ - have given way to an almost universal understanding that the
engine of growth and development needs to be the private sector. Though
the excesses and the insensitivities of the crony capitalism that was
the alternative, in much of Asia, to statist socialism in the seventies
must be avoided, and we must continue with and develop the services that
ensure equality of opportunity, education and health and infrastructure
and utilities, we need also to ensure much more initiative, much more
investment, much more support for entrepreneurship.
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The makeshift Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was damaged in the
attack in which two people died. |
In this regard, I would like to mention an initiative undertaken with
part of my decentralized budget. I have a particular concern for the
former combatants, who were so brutally abused, but who have within a
short period seemed to adjust, into the bright and energetic youngsters
they would have been if not forced into combat by the LTTE. I had wanted
to start a Primary English Training programme for the girls but. by the
time I got my funds, all the girls had been released. The Commissioner
General requested instead that some of the funds be used for a training
programme in psycho-social care, with some of the former combatants
being trained to use such skills in the Wanni area. That programme,
conducted by a body based in London, including expatriate Sri Lankans,
was concluded successfully, and sufficient funding has now been secured
for a follow up. But I also wanted some skills training, and we decided
therefore on an entrepreneurship development programme.
An eye-opener
This was an eye-opener. Over a hundred former combatants applied, and
thirty were selected, and proved extremely enterprising. You can see
some details of the event, including the very heartening thank you
speeches, on the Reconciliation Website, www.peaceinsrilanka.org - the
very first articles on the home page, for which you have to scroll all
the way down, since that was what I used first when I revived this
website. But what also impressed me was the conceptualization skills.
Asked to suggest areas in which enterprises could be set up, two groups
chose agri-business, the two others construction.
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One of the hospitals at Mullaivaikkal relatively intact in
spite of the allegations of shelling. |
This fits in well with what government has been planning, to make a
much better and productive place of the Wanni, neglected for so long by
successive Central governments, by the much more advanced entrepreneurs
and educationists of Jaffna, and most shamefully by the LTTE who
prospered there and did not permit modernization, advanced education or
better services despite the funds pouring in from 2002 onward. The area
is incredibly fertile and, with the irrigation schemes now being
developed, it will provide abundant harvests. Indeed, even at the height
of the war, the paddy harvest was excellent, and government actually
purchased stocks from the area for distribution to the displaced, even
though we knew that the LTTE would commandeer much of the payment.
We need however to ensure that the inhabitants of the area benefit
from their labour, and not middlemen. To promote food processing and
added value products is essential, and we believe the youngsters there
can take on the challenge. But it would be helpful if they could be
provided with start up funds, and I hope some organizations abroad will
think of collecting funds for micro-credit schemes for the area.
With regard to construction, it must be obvious that, with the
rebuilding going on, there are great opportunities for workers as well
as suppliers. Unfortunately much of this now benefits people from
elsewhere, but it will not take much to build on the vocational training
systems already started, while also developing management and accounting
skills. In the short term, as well as in the long run, empowering the
people of the area to participate actively in development is the only
way of ensuring an equitable share of the prosperity the whole country
should be moving towards, now that the terrorist threat, which blighted
the Wanni in particular, has been removed.
Resettlement process
I believe government has done extremely well thus far in the
resettlement process, and in providing basic infrastructure, including
schools, roads, water and electricity and better communications. It has
also restored the local administration, led by extremely experienced
Government Agents, some of whom did a superb job even while they had to
work in areas controlled by the LTTE before 2009. The lady who ran
Mullaitivu and supervised the distribution of supplies till just a few
months before the conflict ended, is now in charge of Jaffna. One of her
greatest achievements, it should be noted, was in conducting the
national Ordinary Level Examination in December 2008, for the children
too of those the LTTE had forced into going along with them in their
retreat from the Western part of the Wanni. The LTTE asked that the
examination be boycotted, but the people did not give in and, after some
sporadic efforts at violent prevention, their will prevailed.
The gentleman who looked after Kilinochchi, and kept all services
going right upto the time our forces took over the town, with hardly any
civilian casualties, now heads the Secretariat in Mannar. The lady who
was in charge of Vavuniya right through the period of conflict and
displacement is still there, and ably developing new initiatives, while
as mentioned Kilinochchi is looked after by the first senior member of
the Administrative Service born and bred in that area. In Mullaitivu we
have someone who previously worked in Mannar during the conflict, with
first hand experience of the problems faces by the displaced.
Human resources
However, while appreciating the work of these senior officials, we
can do much better in developing human resources more comprehensively.
With regard to the public sector this is true not only of the North,
since the second and third layers of administrators nationwide, given
the decline in communication skills and decision making capacities, are
not as capable yet as the senior officials mentioned above. But we need
too to develop local community leaders, and mechanisms for ensuring that
the schools for instance have teachers as well as equipment, that in
addition to the main hospitals we have midwives and social workers and
child care officials to fill up the cadre positions that are now empty.
Proper training, better deployment and more efficient monitoring are
essential to ensure that all areas have proper access to services that
are essential.
And, while affirming that government is responsible for ensuring the
provision of such services, we need to develop private public
partnerships to facilitate more effective delivery, whilst also
developing simpler and more accessible structures of both responsibility
and accountability. In the ongoing negotiations with Tamil political
parties, we should also discuss the establishment of better structures
at all levels, so as to ensure empowerment of the people, on whose
behalf government functions. For too long now our debates have
concentrated on the balance of power between politicians from different
areas, whereas we should also be thinking of how power can be exercised
effectively, with transparency and accountability.
Accountability
For too long now, accountability has been to institutions dominated
by those who need to account. In place of the confrontational politics
of the last couple of decades, we need to develop structures that
enhance bipartisan approaches to monitoring and policy development, even
though decision making rests in the hands of those elected for the
purpose. We have made a start on this with the much more healthy
relationship between parties on the Standing Committees of Parliament,
as I can testify with regard to the Committees on Public Enterprises and
on Standing Orders on which I serve. We are also trying to strengthen
the role of the Consultative Committees, and it is good to see members
of all parties actively involved in at least some of these Committees
and the positive approaches of the Ministers concerned when problems are
raised.
I am pleased too that Government has now produced proposals with
regard to a Second Chamber based on equal representation for Districts
or Provinces. Though this is not a substitute for developing more
effective structures on the ground to ensure the empowerment of people
with regard to matters that affect them closely, it is also important to
ensure a stronger voice for the periphery at matters that will be
decided at the Centre. All parties agree that security matters,
including financial and food security, need to be entrusted to a Central
government, and it was a pity that previously there was no interest in
ensuring greater participation of other interests in decision making in
these areas. Active involvement of all segments of society in policy
issues and decisions is essential, and it is a welcome advance that this
too is now recognized on all sides.
Public awareness
It is also important to entrench rights as well as responsibilities
and to ensure public awareness of the basic principles on which
government and society should operate. At the Ministry of Disaster
Management and Human Rights, we developed a Human Rights Action Plan,
which was near finalization at the end of 2009. Unfortunately, with a
series of elections, this was held up and then, with the assumption that
Human Rights could be steered by the Foreign Ministry, some priorities
were forgotten.
However the matter was entrusted to the Attorney General, who steered
the principle through Cabinet last August, so that we were able to have
final consultations with civil society and the officials who formed the
steering committee. The final draft was then prepared by a special
consultant, and it is now before Cabinet. Perhaps even more importantly,
our Ministry was able in 2009 to get a draft of a Bill of Rights, as the
President had pledged in his 2005 manifesto. That too was put on hold
during the election period but, with the Action Plan recommending a
dedicated agency for Human Rights, I hope that the Bill too can be
finalized by that Agency and, after going before Cabinet, be entrenched
soon in the Constitution.
But, apart from fulfilling these pledges which our Ministry managed
to advance significantly even during the conflict period, it is also
imperative that Government puts in place better communication
strategies, in particular to convey information to, and respond to the
concerns of, those who are not intrinsically supportive of Government.
Much energy is expended on communicating with those who are appreciative
of what is being done, and this is important since no Government should
neglect those from whom it derives its strength. But it is more
important to communicate also with those who have doubts, and in this
area Government has much to do.
A good story to tell
Distinguished academics who have actually studied the situation on
the ground have told us that we have a good story to tell, but we have
not told it. After all, where else have nearly all the displaced been
resettled so soon? This includes not only the near 300,000 displaced
during the last few months of the conflict, but the larger numbers who
had previously been displaced, those in the East being largely resettled
within a year of displacement, those who had been displaced for upto two
decades being also able now to return home if they wish, including the
Muslims expelled from the North in 1990 by the LTTE.
The child soldiers who were finally rescued, after years of
ineffective efforts to stop this ghastly practice of the LTTE, were
given schooling in one of the best schools in Colombo. Orphans have been
looked after in established as well as newly constructed institutions,
as also by schools that have taken on the challenge successfully - in
which regard I should note that support for such schools would always be
welcome, along with support to educational institutions in the North
that would like to expand the services they provide, to take in more of
the Wanni too.
Infrastructure has been developed apace, and the East indeed has been
transformed in the last couple of years with communications having
opened the way to much more trade. More work in this regard remains to
be done in the North but, with the rebuilding of roads and the railway,
there will be greater exchange of persons as well as of goods. In this
regard support for increasing exchanges between young persons would also
be welcome.
Foreign journalists
I was pleased that one of the foreign journalists who interviewed me,
having begun with what seemed a hostile approach, said at the end that
there were many matters which were not known here. In one sense that is
understandable, because the media obviously prefers bad news to good,
since that is what people are interested in. But I believe it is also
our fault that we have not communicated better, not only to the media,
but also to all those who want a better Sri Lanka for all our people.
Now that the terror and violence in Sri Lanka is over, we need also
to overcome the suspicions that remain. In Australia I was pleased that
one member of a Sinhalese group that had worked hard against LTTE
propaganda told me, after I spoke there, that though he found it
difficult to trust Tamils, he realized the effort had to be made. I
spoke too to Tamils there, and was pleased that many of them had also
forgotten the suspicions of the past and wanted to work together for
development of the country as a whole. But I realize that getting over
their suspicions will also be difficult, and we in government need to
work concertedly to reassure them, to engage with those willing to move
forward. It is vital that those abroad, who can remember only the
distant past, will not endeavour to revive tensions, but will rather
visit the country and see what they can do to help, their people of
course, but through that the country as a whole.
Forced conscription
The people of Sri Lanka, all over the country, but in particular
those in the North, suffered from terrorism, from forced conscription of
children, from execution for dissent, from deprivation of services
including the food we sent up to them. We need to make clear, if only to
assuage the worries of those who watched with concern our overcoming of
terrorists, that we did our best throughout for the civilians who were
suffereing. It should be better known, for instance, that though the
ICRC recorded its appreciation of the support our navy extended with
regard to evacuation, that of the near 14,000 people brought down during
the conflict, only 4,500 were wounded. There were a couple of thousand
who were sick, while over 7,000 were described by the ICRC as
bystanders. If the claims the LTTE made as to injured were accurate, it
would seem that they did not send down some of the wounded for medical
assistance, but instead sent down their chosen bystanders to safety.
Grossly exaggerated
It is likely that they were in fact lying about the number of those
wounded, which would in turn mean that they had not just exaggerated,
but grossly exaggerated, the number of those dead. But, given the way
they treated the people of the Wanni, it is also possible that they
deprived them of medical assistance and instead sent down their cadres
to the relative safety of the south of Sri Lanka.
Such matters need to be carefully considered, with precise attention
to the statistics maintained by various agencies, international as well
as national. That will help in making clear the generally humane way in
which government operated, as is evident from the written appreciations
sent by the heads of both the UN and the ICRC.
We need to do this soon, so that those who are genuinely concerned
about the Tamil people in Sri Lanka will be able to understand what they
went through, and help to recompense them for what they suffered in a
militarized situation. But above all we need to make it clear that the
participation of all our citizens, including those now settled abroad,
will prove invaluable in the reconciliation, the rehabilitation and the
rebuilding that we need swiftly to achieve.
Concluded |