No need for interim council when efforts to crush terrorism are on

The proposed Interim Council for the Northern province will not be the ideal solution to end the national problem at a time the military is engaging in an operation to crush the LTTE, Foreign Affairs Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Parliamentarian, Vijitha Herath said.

He said the decision to implement the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, which was brought without the consensus of the people during the late President J. R. Jayewardene, would be a failure soon.

"The Government should defeat terrorism militarily and defeat the LTTE ideology at this juncture, where we are going ahead successfully capturing the LTTE held areas", he said.

Herath said that the JVP was a patriotic independent political party which takes the side of the Government when it was taking wise decisions and protests when it was going in the wrong directions. "These are not double standards", he said.

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

Q: The Government has accepted the APRC proposals to resolve the national problem. What do you have to say?

A: Actually the Committee cannot be called as APRC. The main opposition party the UNP, the JVP, and the TNA did not attend their meetings. It is the Government committee where all its political parties and the minority parties took part. So the proposals do not represent the collective views of all the parties of this country. What we know is that the Committee came out with the proposal to implement the 13th Amendment of the Constitution. The JVP's opinion is that the 13th Amendment is not the solution for this. From the beginning our opinion was that the provincial council system is not the solution for this country. In 1987 former President J. R. Jayewardene and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed that agreement with out the consensus of the people of this country. Our opinion is that a political solution is needed to end this problem but the provincial councils system is not the practical solution for it.

Q: But under these proposals an interim council will be set up in the Northern Province. Does the JVP oppose the forming of this council?

A: The reality is that a war to crush terrorism is going on. In such a situation how can we implement an interim council there. The LTTE continuously attack the civilians. The other fact is who is going to be the in-charge of the Council, who are the members of that and who will carry out the duties of the council freely when a severe fighting is going on. The JVP thinks that this is utter nonsense.

Q: But the JVP cannot deny the fact that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government has fulfilled JVP's three demands including the abolition of the Ceasefire Agreement. How reasonable is it for the JVP to oppose the APRC proposals at this crucial juncture, when the country needs peace?

A: No. Those are not the demands of the JVP to the Government but very important proposals that the Government can do. Those are good for the future of the country and not for the JVP. Some media has called these as JVPs' demands but they are proposals that we made on behalf of the country and our people and the future generation. The country needs peace and no doubt about that. Yes this is a crucial juncture but the JVP does not want to be in a hurry to support an idea which is not feasible now for the reason I mentioned earlier.

Q: What is the JVP's stand to bring peace while meeting the grievances of the Tamils?

A: We strongly believe that first of all the Government should defeat the LTTE militarily and also ideologically to prevent the LTTE's propaganda and various activities internationally. We need to give a clear picture about the LTTE to the international community. Secondly we should guarantee equal rights to all the communities which means that the people in Kilinochchi and Hambantota are enjoying equal share of resources. We have to decentralise the administration. We can do it and most of the Tamil people are demanding their rights and they are not for a separate state. Only the LTTE is suffering from the mania of a separate state.

In 1956 with the Sinhala only policy this problem was created. The three languages Sinhala, Tamil and English should be made national languages.

When the Tamil becomes the national language they will get the feeling that Tamils are also part of this country. Therefore the language policy should be implemented as soon as possible.

Therefore the JVP believes that when their rights are guaranteed, when they can enjoy the resources equally and with the implementation of their language as a national language this problem can be solved but the LTTE should be defeated before all.

Q: Do you think that the UNP and the SLFP have failed to guide the country in the right direction?

A: Yes. They have done many mistakes and the root causes for all the evils that we are facing today are the repercussions of their short-sighted political decisions to be in power. Particularly the UNP should be responsible for creating various problems of this country and the SLFP too cannot get away from the blame. Some irresponsible leaders of both parties did wrong without considering the future of this country.

Both parties are to be blamed and are responsible for present situation of the country. That is why we want the Government to take wise decisions at least now.

Q: Are you satisfied with the progress achieved under Mahinda Chinthana which made the JVP to support the Government?

A: The Government has made progress only in defeating terrorism under the Mahinda Chinthana. It is highly successful when compared to the former governments and their decisions to defeat the LTTE. But what we can tell is when we consider the economic development, the Government has failed. The Government does not have a vision or practical programs on how to develop the country and its economy. What we can say is that the Government has deviated from the Mahinda Chinthana, which really highlighted how to develop the country and the national economy. It is sad that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ignored and forgotten the Mahinda Chinthana policy now.

Q: Do you still believe in forming a national front to overcome the main issues?

A: Actually the JVP's main objective is to form a national front and to achieve our target a national policy including the economy, politics and culture should be prepared which cannot be changed with the change of governments. The policy should be totally Sri Lankan. The JVP has already initiated preparing the policy and we hope to re-build the country in the near future under this policy. In this country there is no good governance and especially the country lacks responsible politicians. The majority of them are corrupt and are violating the normal rules and regulations in society. Ordinary people of this country are desperately looking for good governing bodies in future. We believe that if we can build a national front like in India which was formed by Mahatma Gandhi it will be successful. We hope there is need of a such a body with the participation of all the communities and that is the ultimate objective of the JVP. We also think that it will be the future hope for the Sri Lankans.

To achieve this goal the JVP has to seek the support of all individuals even from politicians, various organisations and societies. Though there is no specific time frame for this national front to be formed, when considered the situation of the country we have to form that within a short period of time. Then we can solve many problems which we are facing today.

Q: The JVP insisted on the abolition of the executive presidency. Do you still want to do that?

A: Yes, it is obvious. The Executive Presidency is not feasible and also not suitable for us. We have very bad experiences in the past. The JVP's stand is that if we have a chance we must abolish it.

Q: Will it be the next demand of the JVP to support the government?

A: No. As I said earlier the JVP does not have demands as such. We have explained our opinion about the Executive Presidency from the beginning and even in the Mahinda Chinthana it is clearly mentioned. So it is not a new demand and we want the Government to consider our proposal.

Q: Once the JVP has claimed that the rapport with the Government is 'an unhappy marriage but does not want a divorce'. Why does the JVP want to continue its support to the Government and is it just for your survival?

A: We have submitted our proposals, 20 proposals including the abrogation of the CFA - before joining the Government to support them, even without taking any portfolio. But unfortunately the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government rejected them and got the support of the UNP Democratic Front. Therefore our link with the Government collapsed and I think we cannot do that now as the political situation has changed now. The JVP is an independent patriotic political party. What we do is for the country. And as the main opposition party we do not have an intention to topple the Government and disrupt the economic policies but as a responsible political party we think that our responsibility is to correct the Government when it goes wrong. Our duty is to be patriotic. And if we want we can survive with out supporting the Government.

Q: But the general view is that the JVP is misleading or fooling the people by having double standards where once you support and protect the Government and in another occasion protesting against the Government. What is your policy?

A: If the government is doing right we are supporting the Government and we have openly said that. We supported the emergency regulations as we want to defeat the LTTE. When the Government is taking vital steps we are with the Government for the benefit of the country. When the Government engages in corruption and things that destroy the sovereignty and integrity of the country we vehemently oppose them. The JVP hopes that is our duty. It does not mean that we have double standards and fooling people. People know what we are doing.

Q: Are you basically with the Government or not?

A: No we are not with the Government we are an independent political party with our own missions and objectives.

Q: Ignoring the pressure of the international community when solving internal issues is another demand by the JVP. What are your views about the international community and do you think that we do not want the support of our neighbours at least?

A: First we need to understand what the so-called international community is. Some people and some political parties think that the USA, UK, Japan and the EU are the international community. But the reality is they are not the real international community. There are other countries such as China, Russia and India. We have to clarify and understand what the international community is and the second is we have to have a good relationship with the other countries as well. As a developing country we can not be isolated and we want to learn a lot from them. We have to share their experiences as well. The JVPs view is that Sri Lanka does not need to live separately from the other countries but at the same time we cannot allow these countries to interfere in our own affairs unnecessarily. We have to identify our boundaries when dealing with the international community. Especially we want to highlight that the USA, UK and EU cannot interfere in our affairs.

We want to protect our sovereignty and integrity. The JVP believes that if we can have relationship on the basis of that we can have a good rapport with the international community. The Government should have confidence about our own resources and capabilities of our won people. We should not depend on other countries and we should harness our talents not to be dependent on the so-called international community while maintaining a good relationship with other countries.

Q: Do you think that the JVP can remain as the third force in the future and how genuine are you as a party in solving people's problems?

A: Yes, we are the third force in the country now and our target is to top all the political parties one day. Our objective is to come to power soon.

All those problems have arisen because of the bad economic policy. So we hope to introduce a well planned economic policy which will be the foundation to solve most of the problems that we are facing today. Even the national problem has arisen because of the bad economic policy where there is no equal distribution of resources to all the communities as I said earlier.

As a first step towards this the JVP intends to boost national production and the second is good governance. Today there is no disciplined political party and politicians. People are very well aware of the situation and they want a change. So the JVP is there to address peoples grievances.

Q: Are you confident that the JVP would be able to achieve your target in the next election?

A: Yes. We do not know that will happen in the next election or after but aim is that and we strongly believe that people will support us.

Q: Securing human rights has become a hot topic today. Last week the JVP again protested against the Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour. What do you have to say about the present situation of human rights in the country?

A: We must protect the human rights meanwhile other countries have the right to say to us to guarantee the human rights. But they can not interfere saying us to do this and that. Arbour actually threatened the Sri Lankan Government saying that if political or military leaders take action violating human rights they will be brought before the International Court.

The JVP feels that this is an indirect threat to the Government to stop going ahead with military actions. Arbour did not threatened the LTTE leader to stop violating human rights of Tamils and never asked Prabhakaran to stop the war. Her press release was biased and in favour of the LTTE. She used the concept 'Responsibility to protect', which was in the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. There are three categories in that concept and the first is the 'Responsibility to Prevent' the second is the Responsibility to Re-act and the third is to Responsibility to build. Now Arbour is doing the second step, the Responsibility to react.

And she is trying to stop some economic relationships between us and other countries. She tried to put economic blockades. The JVP thinks that this is an indirect way of threatening and interfering in our country using that concept. The JVP also thinks that this is the new method of imperialism. They are using HR to interfere in our affairs now.

Our explanation for this concept is the re-colonisation to plunder and it is not the responsibility to protect as the UN classified. The UN interfered in Sudan using the same method. So it is time to understand the objectives of the UN and Arbour. Sri Lankan people must understand that. There are some violations and the LTTE is doing the highest number of human rights violations against the people belong to all communities. The main responsibility lies on the Government and the Government should take some responsibility to bring down the HR violations. If this does not happen the so-called international community will come and try to interfere in our affairs. On the other hand in this war situation, the Government cannot stop HR violations completely but can reduce them to a certain extent.

Q: Norway was one of the JVPs' main headaches until the abrogation of the CFA. Do you think Japan will succeed Norway?

A: Actually the Norwegian government policy was a head ache but not the Norwegian people. If Japan try to succeed Norway it would be an unfortunate situation. We told Akashi not to behave like Solheim. If he behaves like Solheim we will definitely oppose him too.

The meeting with him was very important and we emphasised to him the Sri Lankan situation and told him as the Japan which is a unitary state, Sri Lanka needs to be a unitary state. He tried to re-start negotiations with the LTTE but he could not do that.

Q: Do you think that we have room to commence negotiations?

A: No. we do not think that there is room for it now. We know for sure that the LTTE's prime objective still is to have separate state Eelam. So we do not believe in negotiations any more.

Q: Did Akashi warned about stopping financial aid to Sri Lanka?

A: Yes, indirectly he said. But he did not use the word stop but he indirectly said that they had to stop some of donations and they are now considering that. We think he also tried to threaten us indirectly. We told him that we are not depending on their donations.

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Pic: Vipula Amarasinghe