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Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy, Investment Promotion and Constitutional Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris addressed the Royal Commonwealth Society in London during his recent visit to the UK. Former Commonwealth Secretary General, Professor Emeka Anyaoku chaired the session while Lord Naseby proposed the vote of thanks.

We publish excerpts of the Minister's address.

The cessation of hostilities agreement was concluded between the Government of Ranil Wickremesinghe and the LTTE on the 22nd of February this year. So there is a great deal that is modest but useful which can be done immediately in the areas of community development, primary education, health care, sanitation, minor irrigation, all these things are possible. The donors will of course intensify and expand these programmes when the talks commence in Thailand and when substantial progress is made towards a permanent solution.

You will also agree with me, I am sure, that one of the reasons why this problem could not be sorted out for so long a period was the polarized political culture of the country. The division into two camps and the effort by the opposition to torpedo any useful initiative that may be embarked upon by the ruling party. I am not being partisan, I am not imputing blame exclusively to one side. The major political parties in Sri Lanka have resorted to this during the last 3 1/2 decades.

But today there is every indication of the emergence of a different political culture in Sri Lanka. A culture based, not upon confrontation, but upon consensus. Today it is the view of many people in Sri Lanka, the overwhelming majority of the public that the time has come to replace the adversarial confrontational political culture which has militated against the emergence of a pragmatic solution and to replace it with a consensual political culture.

The Government is therefore attempting a two-prong attack on the situation. As we prepare meticulously and systematically for the talks which are now to commence in Thailand, we are also trying to put in place in the South, certain constitutional and legal arrangements which will enable the conclusion that is reached at the talks in Thailand to receive legal expression in the Parliament and in the country through certain far reaching constitutional reform which are now contemplated.

It is the Prime Minister's view that every elected Member of Parliament should have the opportunity of contributing directly and vigorously to the decision making process. There has been this rigid division between Government and Opposition and that has inculcated and encouraged adversarial attitudes.

In place of that the Prime Minister wishes to establish a constitutional system which is founded upon the committee system that was the conspicuous characteristic of the Donoughmore Constitution which prevailed in our country during the period 1931 to 1948, just before we received the independence constitution the Soulbury Constitution from the British in 1948. The essence of this system is that Parliament divides itself into executive committees and the Chairmen of those executive committees function as the Board of Ministers.

This enables people with different political views coming from different political backgrounds, irrespective of divergences with regard to ethnicity, political conviction and political affiliation, to work together in the national interest and the experience of the Donoughmore constitution during that period 1931 to 1948, was on the whole satisfactory and encouraging.

It is therefore the endeavour of our Government to adapt that system, not to apply uncritically to the circumstances of contemporary society, but to use some degree of flexibility and resilience of mind to adapt that situation to suit the permutation and combination of circumstances that characterize the national condition of Sri Lanka at the present time.

As part of these reforms we are proposing that members of parliament should have the freedom to act in accordance with their conscience, without impediment or inhibition. The present Constitution of Sri Lanka contains a provision, which declares that if a member of parliament is expelled from the political party or group to which he belongs then he forfeits his seat in Parliament except in certain very rare situations.

We want to repeal that provision and enable members of parliament without fear, to express themselves in Parliament in the full knowledge that no penal consequences of any kind can attach to what they say and do on the floor of Parliament.

Third party

But we don't want to stop there. We want to attribute an equally constructive and vigorous role to civil society.

So these are complementary overlapping developments which in our view are critical because they will enable implementation of the decisions that will be made by the Government in consequence of the decisions that will take place with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the Kingdom of Thailand.

Many of you may be aware that there was in fact, a cessation of hostilities agreement, which was in force in Sri Lanka between the 8th of January and the 19th of April 1995. There were many reasons why it broke down. But one principal reason is that there was no third party who could be relied upon to iron out the differences that arose between the parties during that period.

We no longer Mr. Chairman, suffer from that disability. We have at our disposal the expertise of the Royal Norwegian Government. During the last couple of years they have brought to bear upon their assessment a very high degree of professionalism, perception and sensitivity from which we have all benefited very considerably. So that is the first difference.

The second difference is that unlike the previous administration, the government of Ranil Wickremesinghe, does not believe that there is any value in formulating the detailed constitutional structures prior to agreement being reached with the LTTE on the fundamentals of the proposed constitutional instrument.

Earlier the thrust of the effort was to have the new constitution enacted by Parliament. There was of course the fundamental problem that the Government did not have a two-third's majority, which was a mandatory constitutional requirement. But even if the Government did have a two-third's majority, there was the overwhelming practical problem which was indeed a insurmountable problem - that if you created these structures and if they receive the imprima stamp of Parliament, they would nevertheless not be capable of implementation in those parts of the country where there was a practical need for these structures.

We are proposing to go to Thailand to talk to the LTTE and to arrive at a consensus not with regard to all the minutiae of constitution making but at least in respect of the constitutional fundamentals about which it is our profound conviction that some degree of consensus is necessary.

Devolution

The third difference is that we are now looking very closely at structures of asymmetrical devolution of power. I think that is the way forward. That is the epitome of pragmatism to the very vexed and the convoluted situation that prevails in my country. The conviction earlier was that if you are moving towards the devolution of power, all the regional structures had to be invested with the identical and coeval degree of power.

There could not be any nuances or gradations. There could not be any distinctions of any kind because the argument went there would then be some unease or suspicion on the part of the majority community because of their perception that there was some form of fundamentally disparate treatment that was being meted out to the Northern and the Eastern provinces.

We do not believe that this is an acceptable point of departure. The conviction of the present Government is that the degree of devolved power must be connected with the needs of those areas, the reality of the ground situation. Therefore greater devolution is called for in the North and the East for practical reasons.

We do not think that the Government in power should resist ampler devolution to those regions simply because the other parts of the country are not demanding and indeed would not like those structures in the areas that are inhabited by the majority community. So there was a significant shift of thinking, a paradigm shift, with regard to the nature of devolution of power, the degree of devolved power and the conceptual scheme for devolution that ought to be embodied in the new constitution that is in the process of being prepared.

We also believe that civil society has to be very actively involved in this process. For this reason the present Government is spending as much time on work around the process as work on the process.

A few days ago the principal Buddhist Prelates representing the four major sects, the Nikayas as they are called, all in unison made a very emphatic endorsement of the Government's approach to the peace process during a tour, which they undertook to Japan.

A couple of years ago it was not merely improbable or unlikely but it was indeed inconceivable that the highest echelons of the Buddhist clergy would endorse with this degree of enthusiasm for the peace process which the Government had embarked upon. It has happened because of the time, energy and the effort which the Government has invested in talking to people who have a different point of view, trying to allay their fears and apprehensions, answering their questions and trying to persuade them that this is the only way forward for our troubled country.

De-proscription

The other issues which are being addressed at this time are firstly the issue of de-proscription and secondly the preparation of the agenda for talks in Thailand. The LTTE has demanded de-proscription as a threshold condition for the commencement of talks. The argument of the LTTE has been that this is a matter of human dignity and self-respect.

The Government has now announced that they are prepared to de-proscribe the LTTE as an internal matter but only in the context of a definite date that is set for the talks. Now there are three points that are important in this connection. The first is that the de-proscription of the LTTE within Sri Lanka has no impact whatsoever on the military capability of the defence forces of the country to protect the territorial integrity, the sovereignty and the independence of Sri Lanka.

There is no connection between these two things at all. De-proscription does not mean that the military capability of the armed forces will be diminished or diluted in any way. Secondly, of course, the de-proscription is being done on the assumption that the talks will begin shortly and that they will move forward smoothly. That there will be bona fides and there will be genuine commitment to the pursuit of a political solution and it is in the context of that expectation that de-proscription would be agreed to by the Government in power in Sri Lanka.

Thirdly, the point needs to be made that the de-proscription within the country has no connection whatsoever with the action which has been taken by other Governments, including the Government of the United Kingdom, to proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

That action on the part of Sri Lanka does not in any way mean or imply that these countries, the US, the UK and India, will lift the ban in their own jurisdiction. On the issue of the preparation of the agenda, the LTTE has indicated that they would like the interim administration of the North and the East to be taken up early. There are some statements attributed to leaders of the LTTE which suggest that they would like that topic to be the only topic, the exclusive topic to be taken up at the talks which are planned in the near future. The Government has responded to that as well.

The Government has indicated that we would like a range of core issues to be accommodated in the agenda, because we do not believe that these matters can be meaningfully and productively addressed ad hoc or piece meal. They are inextricably intertwined. So the other issues which are broader in scope have also to find a place on the agenda.

Talks

But this is in no way irreconciliably opposed to the position of the LTTE. It is possible to find a modus vivendi in order to move forward. The response of the Government has been that although many other issues have to find a place on the agenda, it is nevertheless possible and indeed desirable to identify those issues which are entitled to priority and in respect of which rapid progress should be made as the talks begin in Thailand.

It is also the Government's view that the interim administration can be a very useful instrument for the rapid economic development of these areas particularly in a situation where the donor community's enthusiastic about placing at our disposal very substantial pecuniary resources to secure the amelioration of conditions of the people living in those regions. We have also emphasized that in our minds that there is no dichotomy between the human rights dimension and the conflict resolution dimension.

Sri Lanka's principal strength is that we have friends today. The fear in the minds of the Sinhala people is what will happen if this effort fails. Nobody is telling us not to attempt this, not the Buddhist clergy, not those who have been traditionally opposed to the process. Nobody is telling us to take our hands off and not to proceed with this in any manner. The question that is being asked is a different question. Have you given sufficient thought to the contingency of failure? Would we be defenceless and vulnerable if these talks breakdown? Now that is the fear that is being articulated. Now that fear is greatly allayed, it is greatly extenuated by the postures of some of the most powerful countries, which have had the most cordial relations with Sri Lanka.

India is coming into Trincomalee area. There is a substantial and significant physical presence because the oil tank farm is being leased to an Indian oil company, Indian Oil Corporation and this means that there is going to be a very visible Indian presence in the Trincomalee region, which is important for strategic, commercial and other reasons.

The United States has recently entered into an agreement with Sri Lanka, modest in scope but it is a starting point and it is symptomatic of a much closer relation between the two countries than has been the case for a very long period of time. So these, Mr. Chairman, are among the reasons why I said at the beginning of this talk that there are good and sufficient reasons.

Of course, there is no guarantee of success, there is no certainty but we have every reason to believe that given commitment, dedication, thorough preparation understanding on all sides, certain degree of flexibility and compromise, we can achieve our objectives.

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