SL Armed Forces driven by humanitarian spirit - Part III :

‘Togetherness, absolutely essential’

Text of the address delivered by Minister of External Affairs Professor G. L. Peiris, at the Defence Seminar held on August 8

However important and relevant economic considerations may be, it would be quite futile to imagine that it is the sole cause of terrorism in the world today. University professors, engineers, doctors, lawyers, all these people have become terrorists in different parts of the world, not through economic deprivation, but the causes in those cases have to be sought elsewhere. That is why a sense of togetherness and inclusivity in the body politic is absolutely essential to ensure that our country never goes through the travails and tribulations that afflicted us during the last quarter of a century.

This is why President Mahinda Rajapaksa has a very firm and logical view on this matter. When he met ten members of the British Parliamentary delegation recently and when he addressed the newspaper editors, President Rajapaksa did not mince his words. He said that attempts in the past to resolve problems connected with the political process failed, because they came from the top leadership of the government. What he wishes to do in order to ensure implementation on the ground is something basically different, that is to consult with the people at large, so that thoughts, insights and perceptions emanate from all sections of society in an inclusive dialogue rather than the government imposing its will or trying to do so. It is the latter approach that has failed during the last decade. What you require is a spirit of inclusivity.

Parliamentary Select Committee

The instrument for achieving that inclusivity of approach, indisputably, is a Parliamentary Select Committee in the Sri Lankan constitutional and legal context. We have to ask what are the reforms that are necessary, but those must be reforms that are acceptable to a wide swath of the Sri Lankan community embracing different ethnicities, religions and cultures.

What I am about to say is important. This is one of the reasons why we genuinely and profoundly regret the attempts to internationalize this situation, whether in New York, in Geneva or elsewhere. Those who try to do this forget a very important consideration. Once you do that, you are putting unnecessary obstacles in the path of moderate forces in this country. Today we hear statements from extreme groups, "Why are we worried about a domestic process, the international community will give us more. So let us appeal to the international community to get directly involved in these situations to put pressure on the government of Sri Lanka". To impose their will on the Sri Lankan government, that is the way to get the maximum. That is to denigrate a local process but at the end of the day there can be no doubt that the future of this land, the constitution that is appropriate for this country, the legal system that we desire, these are all matters in respect of which decisions will be made within Sri Lanka and nowhere else.

It is absolutely inconceivable, given the circumstances and the history of the Sri Lankan situation, that the international community would ever want or be able to impose a solution on us. That is for the elected government of this country. The pity of it all is that those who internationalize this or who want to internationalize this put us on agendas which encourage the hope in extreme quarters that this is the route to follow. And this means the only viable solution that is available will simply be forgotten about or relegated to the background. That is not in the national interest. This is our major reservation about attempts to internationalize issues relating to the Sri Lankan situation.

Human resources

I will conclude with a few remarks. The effort of the government and indeed the people of Sri Lanka today is to ensure that we learn from history. This is a land bountifully endowed by nature in every possible way. And among our principal strengths is the uniquely high calibre of the human resources of our country. We owe it to our people to ensure that these resources are fully exploited in the future without the pain that we had to endure for the last thirty years. The government of Sri Lanka under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is very sharply focused on prioritising our objectives and also identifying a trajectory that will carry us forward towards the accomplishment of these objectives.

We consider three things to be fundamentally important.

One is the spirit of togetherness, which is essential. We are focusing very sharply on language. I am speaking to you now, not as the country's Foreign Minister but as an educationist, somebody who has spent 26 years of my life educating two generations of Sri Lankans within the universities of this country and also somebody who has had some experience of teaching abroad. Language has a great deal to do with our problems: because language resulted in the creation of artificial barriers, the stratification and the compartmentalization of our society.

If you have young people in the Sinhala community not able to converse with their counterparts in the Tamil community, neither side able to speak to each other, because the Sinhalese don't know Tamil and the Tamils don't know Sinhala and neither group is really comfortable with the use of the English language. It was different when I was an undergraduate student in the University of Peradeniya and in the University of Colombo. We made friendships on the basis of shared values and interests. And we were not overly conscious of ethnic identity.

Public officials

Today that is no longer the case because of the difficulty in communication. In order to address that, President Rajapaksa embarked upon what I consider to be a very exciting and timely initiative which we describe as the trilingual capability initiative. On that occasion he invited the former President of India, Shri Abdul Kalam to come to this country, because Abdul Kalam had taken an interest in these issues throughout his career. So in December last year President Rajapaksa inaugurated this very exciting initiative. It is also the effort of the government of Sri Lanka to ensure that public officials serving in the Northern part of Sri Lanka have a working knowledge of the Tamil language, so that they can relate better to the people who inhabit that part of the island. So language is very important.

The second issue is land. Land is very important in our country. It has deep roots in the pride and dignity of our people. The government of Sri Lanka is addressing these issues. The chapter on land is the longest and the most elaborate chapter in the Report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.

Provincial elections

We must remember that it is not one community that is affected by this situation. All three communities suffered. And today we are engaged in a genuine effort to resolve these issues.

Finally, on the subject of Provincial elections in the Northern Province, we are not hesitant to confront issues, there is no need to run away from anything. What is the value of holding an election on the basis of electoral records prepared in 1981? It can be done, but it would be a sham. We do not propose to do that. During the conflict it was quite impossible to conduct a census in that part of the country, because public officials who dared to do that would obviously have been physically annihilated. But it is now being done. So you have to conduct a census, and on the basis of the census you have to prepare your electoral records.

There have been changes in the demography of these areas not in respect of one community but in respect of all communities. The election must be a fair, genuine election which gives the people of the area the opportunity to express themselves and choose their representatives without duress or coercion. As soon as those steps are completed, and they must be completed in order to enable a fair election, the elections to the Provincial Council of the Northern Province will be held.

I would like to conclude by telling you that, in my view, the information that was imparted today is of the greatest possible value in dispelling myths and enabling the truth to be seen and recognized for what it is. As soon as the text of these speeches are available, we will transmit the text to all our missions abroad.

We will also be sending the text to foreign missions in Colombo. What we wish to do is not to embroider, not to embellish, not to create artificial images but simply to share the truth relating to the role of the Armed Forces during the period of the conflict and their continuing salutary role in the post conflict situation. With those words I congratulate Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, and all those who have played their role in making this seminar possible.

Concluded