13th amendment:

'Ideal platform for all to board train of peace'

Implementing the 13th Amendment fully giving powers to Tamils to look after their own affairs will end the national problem, said Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Dr. Sarath Amunugama while commending President Mahinda Rajapaksa's willingness to get the support of the majority of political parties.

Minister Amunugama told the 'Sunday Observer' that the Tamil groups, which wanted power more than the 13th Amendment have come forward to support the government to resolve the national problem on a compromised situation today.

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

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* Need to find a solution to bring the separatists, federalists and extreme anti-devolutionists to a common platform.

* If the LTTE is defeated militarily TNA will strongly support implementing the 13th Amendment.

* Mahinda Rajapaksa government is 100 percent against terrorism.

* India's support is vital in resolving the national problem and defeating terrorism.

* Less professionals in politics and present Chief Ministers are utter converts, who only want perks.

* It is absolute and total rubbish to say that the country is internationally isolated.

* Last year direct foreign investment was over US $ 700 million.

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Q: Why does the government want to implement the 13th Amendment and devolve power to the Provincial Councils?

A: Well. The 13th Amendment is already a part of our existing Constitution. After the 13th Amendment, there had been Constitutional Amendments which became part and parcel of the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

Though it is 20 years since this Amendment, the full provisions of that have not been enforced yet. One of the requirements of the devolution process was that the solution had to be acceptable by all the communities of Sri Lanka.

This is the formula that has been used by India and the international community. Few weeks ago the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the British Prime Minister Gorden Brown issued a joint statement where they had referred to a solution which is acceptable by all the communities in the country.

So what is the solution that is acceptable to all the communities ? That is the question. On one side there are the separatists, then there are the federalists and there are the extreme anti-devolutionists in our political spectrum.

But as a responsible government, we have to find a solution in between these different views.

The platform which we all can agree is the provisions regarding the Provincial Councils and the powers that are vested to those Provincial Councils in terms of what already exists in our Constitution.

I think the real contribution made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa is that he has been able to get a whole range or a spectrum of political parties to agree to this formula. In the past, we know that some of the parties opposed it vehemently. But today he has been able to get these parties including the SLFP, the MEP and the JHU to one side which are not supportive of the 13th Amendment.

And also the Tamil groups that wanted power more than the 13th Amendment could give them have come to an agreement on a compromise situation today. Those who wanted more power than the 13th Amendment could give include not only the Tamil groups, Muslim groups, LSSP, CP and at that time Mahajana party, despite what ever their different histories have come to a common agreement.

And I think it is a tremendous advance and a great achievement by the Rajapaksa government.

Q: But some political parties like the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have opposed it. Will it be a success without their support?

A: As far as the TNA is concerned, there is no reason for them to oppose this. Now they may be afraid of the LTTE. The TNA was the main Tamil party, what was then called the Democratic Tamil Group under the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) that strongly supported the Indo-Lanka agreement and the 13th Amendment. Because they supported it, their leaders including A. Amirthalingam, were killed by the LTTE.

So there is no way for the TNA to say that they are not for this. It may be a great slur on the name of A. Amirthalingam their leader who even sacrificed his life. So, the TNA is not supporting this is purely out of sheer fear.

If the TNA is a free agent, they will definitely support it as they have done in the past. So, we do not have to worry about the TNA. If the LTTE is defeated militarily, without doubt the TNA will change its thinking and support this very strongly. Now, they are afraid because they cannot contest and they cannot show their democratic face as now they are completely dominated by the fear of the LTTE.

The UNP will also support this because this is their brain opposed child.

Then the JVP. The JVP is a more complex case because they opposed it at that time, they opposed the Indian intervention, Finally under former President R. Premadasa, owing to the JVPs' protests, we lost the goodwill of India and we also lost the chances of defeating the LTTE militarily as President Premadasa just to win the goodwill of the JVP decided to get rid of the Indian Peace Keeping Force.

Otherwise, within a few months we would have eliminated the LTTE because nobody can really fight with the Indian Army.

For a month or two the LTTE could fight with them but no body can say that the LTTE would emerge victorious against the Indian army, which is one of the biggest armies in the world. Because the stupid JVP opposed the Indian intervention, the chances of eliminating terrorism 29 years ago were lost.

So, I do not think that the JVP is a reliable guide to the ethnic situation because they have messed up completely. We do not worry about them and what they think about at this stage.

But the JVP is also facing a dilemma. Having opposed the Provincial Council system, they have contested in all the Provincial Council elections. Their strength in the country is because they came through Provincial Councils.

Most of their local level leaders are from the Provincial Councils and every day they are fighting for posts and various perks, threatening the administration. They are participating fully in the Provincial Councils, so it is hypocritical of them to say that they are not for devolution because they are enjoying the devolution of power.

Second thing is what ever they are saying now, under Rohana Wijeweera they went to the other extreme - supporting the self determination of the Tamil community including even the right to break away.

Do not forget that the original JVP of the 1970s broke away from the N. Shanmugadasan faction of the Communist party. Wijeweera is the youth leader of Shanmugadasan's China Communist Party and Shanmugadasan strongly believed in the Stalinist approach towards what is now called the minority issues or the nationality issues.

When they were with Shanmugadasan they believed in the sovereign rights of the minorities or the nationalities for what is called nationhood. Later, they had changed it and it was their original idea. And now of course they want to find some reason to oppose the government and oppose the National Solution.

Now they are taking, I would say, a very childish approach. What they are saying is we cannot have war and devolution at the same time. Who says so? The whole world is a complex thing, you have to move on different fronts.

During the second world war, when Hitler invaded Germany or the West, secret negotiations were going on. I do not think that we can take JVP's approach seriously.

Very soon they will also have to come into this or otherwise people will again say for the second time after 20 years they have queered the pitch and messed up the solution.

Q: Do you mean to say that the government should have secret negotiations with the LTTE at this moment?

A: No. Now we are having a war situation. We must be very clear. The government is 100 percent against terrorism. Under the Indo-Lanka agreement the LTTE were supposed to surrender weapons and enter the political mainstream. In other words they were to form a political party and contest elections but they did not do so.

What the LTTE is going to do as terrorists has to be met with force, But that does not mean that all the Tamils in Sri Lanka are LTTEers. They have their own rights. Sri Lanka is a country where we do not have first, second or third class citizens but all are equal citizens.

Tamils have all the equality that Sinhalese or the Muslims have. The Tamils need devolution and it is in a way trying to meet the aspirations of different communities and nothing mystical about it.

Q: Under the 13th Amendment do not think that the country will be divided into separate parts?

A: No, because under the present Constitution we have three lists - first is powers of the centre, second is powers vested in the provincial councils and third is the concurrent powers.

The responsibilities are clearly demarcated but the only problem is that in the Southern areas it was not fully utilised. For an example, education and health, in certain parts have been taken over by the Centre.

At that time, people did not object because it was the same political party at the Provincial Council and the government. It may be argued that some people in the Southern Provincial Council did not need them as they can directly deal with the Central government because it was the same political party.

But, the problems of the Tamils are different from the problems of the Sinhalese. Tamils wanted to have more and more responsibilities for themselves may be the Sinhalese did not want.

They can come to the Centre and get what they wanted but the Tamils say that they could not do so. We have to accept it. What they say is when it comes to education, health, and welfare give them rights to manage those by themselves. That does not mean that they are against the Centre and the unitary state, which means sharing responsibilities.

Q: Will they be given Police powers as well?

A: Under the 13th Amendment, if we go by the Constitution, a certain level of police powers have to be given to them. There will be a regional police but they will be under the supervision of the IGP.

He will have the authority to change the DIG for the Northern as well as the Eastern Province, similarly he has powers to change the DIG for the Southern Province. Then for inter-provincial crimes, where somebody commit a crime in the Northern Province and comes to the Central Province, the police have to integrate. He cannot get away scot free.

Then the IGP must take responsibility for the whole country.

Q: Does the Central government have any authority to control the financial aspects of the Provincial Councils and powers to control corruption?

A: Of course. The financial agreements have to be approved by the Ministry of Finance because the responsibility is taken by the whole country. Allocations will be given by the Central government to Provincial Councils through the Financial Commission. Even today the Financial Commission gives money to the Provincial Councils.

In addition, they are given powers for taxation. Why cannot think the other way round. Actually my feeling is that the Northern Provincial Council and the Eastern Provincial Council run better than some of the Provincial Councils in the South.

The Sinhalese people will be telling their Chief Ministers to follow those politicians in Jaffna or Batticaloa. For an example, I have no doubt that the devolved education in the Northern Province will be more better than the way that the Chief Ministers are handling it in the Southern areas.

I personally believe that they will do better and it will be a good example for other Provincial Councils. They will have less corruption and less waste. Now Provincial Councils are wasting money.

Q: You agreed that Provincial Councils have proved to be failures. Why does the government want to adopt such a failed concept now?

A: It depends on the people who are manning it. If you appointed all the people who have lost Parliamentary elections to the Provincial Councils and make them Governors and Chief Ministers, no wonder the PCs will be a failure.

There are no professionals now. Most of them are defeated candidates. Each of them are trying to become Parliamentarians using all their powers and they do not have concerns of serving the people. But definitely the Chief Minister of Jaffna or Batticaloa will have more concerns of serving their own people and will show better results.

Q: Are you confident that this would end the national problem?

A: I think so. Some actions have to be taken at least now. First, we have to push the anti terrorist activities vigorously. While we are against the terrorism, we have to safeguard the basic human rights of the Tamils.

All Tamils are not LTTEers as we all know. There are only 5000 to 6000 LTTEers. There may be sympathisers but they are not members of the LTTE.

So the government has win them over. Why cannot we allow them to have their own education, health and social welfare? So I firmly believe that this will help end the national problem by giving them power.

Q: What is the response of the International Community, especially the response from India, so far?

A: India has welcomed it. The key factor in this is India not because as some people in Sri Lanka think that India wants to interfere. India is forced to interfere on humanitarian grounds earlier.

In 1987 many people went to India because of the JVP attacks and military attacks and created a humanitarian problem in India. When they go like that it will be a problem for India, which has a population of over 60 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu.

India simply cannot ignore this but now very fortunately India has said that they welcome this. We are having a very good understanding about this now. Who cares for other countries like Norway and Japan?

We certainly want to have their good will and cooperation and we need them but they are not the decisive factor. The decisive factor is India.

Q: Once you have said that over 75 percent of the Provincial Councils budget is spent mainly to pay salaries. In such a situation how do you think that the provinces should be developed?

A: That is because most of the powers, which were in the Constitution, were not devolved in the Provincial Councils at that time. Legally they have power but they never used that power because the Chief Ministers were the junior members of the SLFP.

Senior members were the President and the Cabinet. So not a single SLFP Chief Minister could say 'boo to a goose'. They could never raise their voices because they were scared of the party apparatus.

Real devolution will come when somebody in the opposition or the North and East begin to claim all the powers under the law. The present Chief Ministers are utter converts.

They just kept their mouths shut and they did not ask for their powers. They only want perks. Even the public I must say in the Sinhala areas are fed up of these Chief Ministers and Minsters.

Q: One major claim is that the country is internationally isolated due to the policies of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. What would be your answer if someone said that the industrial sector is collapsed and no foreign investors are not coming to Sri Lanka?

A: That is absolute and total rubbish. Last year we had the highest direct foreign investment over US $ 700 million to Sri Lanka. Earlier it was US $ 500 million. Who is saying that there is no investment, Investors are coming and there is no problem.

Q: The government target is to maintain the economic growth at eight percent in 2008 while engaging in combating terrorism. What are the challenges that the government faces in achieving development targets?

A: Our main problem is the cost of oil, which is drawing away money that we should be spending on development. This money is hard earned money by women.

Sri Lankan men are lazy and our economy is mainly the money earned by women - US $ 2.4 billion earned by house maids abroad, US $ 2 billion. What men are doing is, they are joining the leftist parties, wearing red shirts and shouting how to divide the hard earned money of these women.

Over 50 percent of these people are receiving Samurdhi. Where in this world people who are doing nothing get free rice, sugar, dhall etc. at the end of the week? How can the country have a growth?.

Secondly, we should grow our own food and thirdly we should increase our productivity. People have to work more. If people cannot manage with their salaries what they have to do is find another job, instead of shouting to the government asking for salary increments. The government cannot increase the salaries so easily and then the prices will go up.

Q: There is a claim that there is tangible development process taking place in the East. What is your comment and what are your plans to develop the industrial sector in the North and East?

A: No. The government has lots of plans. An industrial zone will be set up soon in Trincomalee. Lots of companies have shown interest to invest in this area. The East is the bread basket of Sri Lanka for the best paddy. If the Eastern and Northern regions are developed properly the country's growth will rise to 10 percent.

Q: Do you think that 2008 will be a decisive year for the government - politically and economically?

A: Of course, it will be a very vital year to end the war, to achieve growth and to continue the democratisation process. Finally I must say all the parties should be together to achieve these. Look at the other countries like China, India and Vietnam which had much bigger conflicts and bloody battles. They all got together to develop their countries.

Q: Is there any plan to introduce the Criminal Defamation Act?

A: No. I do not think so. I personally think it is not necessary.