Promoting Language Rights, Right to Development
After
some depression about not achieving very much with regard to either
Reconciliation, or the Human Rights Action Plan, I was heartened by
several factors last week. In the four Divisional Secretariat meetings I
attended in the Wanni, it was clear that things were improving all the
time. Several problems were brought to my attention, but these were
largely practical problems, similar to those prevalent in other parts of
the country. The impact of inclement weather on agriculture, the need
for better roads for rural connectivity, and for better electricity
connections, shortages of teachers for essential subjects, are national
problems, not consequences of the conflict.
Community organizations
Senior Minister D E W Gunasekara |
Of course much more needs to be done for the people of the Wanni,
given what they suffered, and for the first time I felt sad that I
cannot contribute more to education, since the Ministry as it now stands
is incapable of increasing teacher supply or ensuring better
distribution. But, with regard to the other matters, there is much
appreciation of progress with regard to roads and electricity, and also
understanding that government paved the way through its support for
agriculture for abundant harvests in the last few years, even though
this year floods have caused problems.
I should note here the appreciation amongst officials and community
organizations of the Japanese Peace Project, which has done much for
small scale irrigation works in the last few years. A meeting at the
Japanese Embassy later in the week confirmed my view of the intelligence
and sympathy of their approach. Equally the Indian Housing Project has
generated much confidence that things are getting better, though
government must do more to publicize both that and the other large scale
housing support provided by the military and other agencies, in
particular the Swiss, who also work relatively quietly.
Two other factors were particularly pleasing. One was the widespread
appreciation of the police, and I cannot stress enough how the new
approach developed by the present Inspector General has strengthened
community relations. In one Division I felt that more could be done, but
that Division was in general slow to move – despite the efforts of one
or two of the new graduate trainees to introduce better systems. In all
the others, the enthusiasm of the officials and community organizations
for police support, and the commitment of the police officers, was
fantastic.
Governmental policies
In one place the OIC was building a Community Centre for the people
to watch television since that area had not yet got electricity – an
initiative that reminded me of the account former IGP Rudra Rajasingham
has written of Osmund de Silva’s commitment, as the first Sri Lankan IGP
promoted to the position from within the force, to community welfare.
As his wife Ena de Silva has noted, he realized that people also
needed occupation and entertainment – and the understanding the police
and the communities I spoke to evinced of alcoholism suggested that they
knew this had to be treated not as a crime but as a social problem. The
second pleasing factor was that in some Divisions the arrangements for
regular consultation that I had tried to put in place were working well,
with systematic recording of problems and efforts to either solve them
or put in place a plan and timeframe for improving matters.
I had tried earlier to get the Ministry of Public Administration to
provide guidance as to simple principles of administration and
accountability but, though this had not succeeded, it is clear that
bright young public officials can engender effective systems by
themselves.
All this was heartening, but in Jaffna itself it is clear that much
more needs to be done. There too the police are doing very well, but the
main concerns the people expressed were emotional rather than practical.
In particular, many were deeply concerned about the failure of
government to function in Tamil.
Sinhala classes
This is something about which government really must do better. I
think those who raised the problem appreciated our discussion, and the
fact that the self-centred governmental policies of the past had been
changed. But we must accept that nothing practical was done for years
about the constitutional change of 1987 that made Tamil also an official
language. And, though the Kumaratunga government set in place
enlightened policies about language learning in schools, and though the
present government, through the seminal contribution of Senior Minister
D E W Gunasekara, made bilingualism compulsory for government officials
if they are to be promoted, clearly much more needs to be done to
develop competencies as well as change attitudes. The present Minister
is obviously deeply idealistic, but having had no previous
administrative experience he simply does not know to work round the
system, and overcome the fact that he does not have command of ample
resources. In order to enforce the language rights the Constitution now
upholds, you need practical measures as well as policy pronouncements.
The people of Jaffna, and even more the people in the Wanni,
expressed a desire to learn Sinhala, but there are no teachers. We must
therefore develop volunteer teaching, but this should be accompanied by
a parallel commitment on the part of the Sinhalese to learn Tamil.
Fortunately both the police and the forces have enough men and women
willing to conduct spoken Sinhala classes while also learning spoken
Tamil themselves. But there is need of some official encouragement to
make this happen on the required scale.
In the long term however we need more and better teacher training. I
have submitted several proposals in this regard, that involve the
services of the non-profit sector, but there has been a deafening
silence from the different authorities I have addressed. Sadly those
without any ideas themselves are unwilling to consider the ideas of
those who think outside the box. But unless we move swiftly, we will
continue to suffer from resentments, that can so easily be overcome. |