No one wants Kosovo ghost in Sri Lanka

By Manjari PEIRIS

APRC Chairman Professor Tissa Vitarana inaugurating a 2-day seminar titled “Conflict in Sri Lanka: Road ahead” said that with the haunting specter of Kosovo, none of us want to see that outcome in Sri Lanka. He said we have to work a solution to what is almost an intractable problem, avoiding possible pitfalls which awaits us.

This seminar which was organised by Centre for Security Analysis of Chennai, India, was chaired by Lalith Weeratunge, Secretary to the President.

Deeply aware

“As a colonised country we are deeply aware of the policies of divide and rule that were the basis of colonisation. We know that internationally there are moves to go back to similar types of controls of our economies.

This has become deeply evident in this context and we have to act with circumspection, at the same time with determination to achieve our goals,” the Minister said.

The Minister stated that there was a time that the conflict could have been resolved within a unitary state without anything more than decentralisation by solving the language problem. But today the problem has escalated to the point where the Tamil speaking people in this country no longer have confidence in the majority community meeting their needs and aspirations on their behalf.

In fact there is a desire to share power both at the centre and at the periphery to enable them to meet the needs of the Tamil speaking people. “I think we have to recognise this very clearly.”

Preventing separation

He pointed out that we have a Sinhala Buddhist majority who are afraid that the process of devolution could be utilised as a legal basis for affecting the separatist objectives.

The task within the APRC process has been to try to assuage the fears on both parties, to make people believe that devolution rather than facilitating separation would be the basis for preventing separation. It is really a process of trying to create the necessary understanding confidence, mutual respect that this situation demands that is the APRC process today.

The APRC has been meeting for a period of over 1 1/2 years on 71 occasions and 14 political parties have taken part. There has been mutual respect and understanding among all the political parties and have been working with team efforts and hopeful of a successful completion of our deliberations.

Reaching a consensus is the vital part of this process. The significant contribution of the President is very important.

The Minister reminisced of the National Alliance for Peace of which he functioned as the Convener where 147 organisations, trade unions, peace organisations, NGOs, religious organisations and the Mahanayake Thera of the Asgiriya Chapter participating.

The team had gone to Killinochchi in 1997 at the height of the battle and had met most of the LTTE leaders including Thamil Chelvam; there they had tried to achieve at least a laying down of arms.

Periodical change

The main point of them had been that having an agreement which the Government would not serve any purpose as governments periodically change thus the new government will not honour an agreement with the previous government. The Minister pointed out that this was the crux of their argument.

After the visit it was agreed that the prime task should be to reach a consensus which must include at least the UNP and the SLEP which form successful governments in the country.

UNP dropout

“I am sorry that the UNP who participated very actively in the process initially dropped out. But it is important that Ranil Wickremesinghe met with the President recently and an understanding must be reached whereby it was agreed that I should prepare a report on the areas of agreement and hand it over to Mr. Chocksy and start an official dialogue and give them the completed document to draw them into the process.

The discussions have now covered all pertinent to the problem. We have been trying to fashion out of our discussions an amendment to the present constitution without a 2/3 majority because the President was under immense international pressure and the charges were that the Government had shifted from a political solution to a military solution. The Government is having difficulty in trying to achieve this task without the necessary stability in the Government. This is the dimension we have to reckon with.”

Political solution

Late President J. R. Jayewardene came out with the 13th amendment to the Constitution and had a 5/6 majority in Parliament. When there was a Sinhala Buddhist backlash he gave into that. By large the situation has improved a lot from the days of J. R. Jayewardene because racists’ opinions were much prevalent during the period. The need for a political solution was not adequately appreciated. According to public opinion we are on a better wicket.

The Minister stated that he wished to give due credit to former President CBK for that period was committed to resolving this problem and the Sudu Nelum movement conducted islandwide helped to improve public opinion on this question. The reality of not having a stable Government without a clear majority in Parliament has to be remembered.

The process has to be taken forward. The solution for this problem is basically winning over the confidence of the Tamil people and restoring their recognition within one country.

The necessary structures will be established and the legal and administrative structure to ensure their needs and aspirations would be fulfilled. That is the task before us. The amendment of the 13th amendment is the first step in the process in restoring the confidence of the Tamil people.

What is happening in the East today is very harsh. The Government in trying to promote economic development in the two provinces is also very important. We have to ensure that adequate funding is made available to the Provincial Council members, which will result in the successful implementation of the 13th amendment. The process is not going to be limited to the implementation of the 13th amendment.

It has to come up with a new Constitution that eliminates the shortcomings of the 1978 Constitution. It will eliminate many of the shortcomings of the 17/19th Constitution because despite the 13th amendment made the way for devolution, on the other hand it has been a major factor that break down good governance in our country.

By making suitable amendments by Local Government Act, it would be possible to put that into effect. It will not only take power to the provincial level, but also to the level of Local Government. If you look at the national problem in Sri Lanka, we have diverse and mixed people living together.

In my view they should be empowered at village level so that even small groups of a particular community will be able to project to their needs without bowing through others. It is to this extent that we can do that, lasting peace can be established.

Poorly implemented

There are many reasons why the 13th amendment has been very poorly implemented. Besides the provincial lists there is concurrence and the powers in which adequate funds could not be made available to provincial councils.

Whenever foreign diplomats discuss and inquire about contributions that they should make available, I always request for funds for the development of the North and the East. Tangible benefits to those who have suffered immensely should come forward.

The 1978 Constitution paved the way for devolution in the structure out of good governance. The gap between the people and elector is very wide that the latter does not know the former.

We have to learn from the experience that Achae had gained by failing three ceasefires and finally succeeded the fourth one by conducing unofficial secret talks with the leaders for two years on the core issues and then going for open discussions.

The Government kept on pounding the rebels and weakening them militarily during this period and their strength had been reduced by 1/3 and at that point there were open public talks.

The Government acted sensibly and magnanimously and gave the rebels more than what they had dreamt was possible. While we approach this problem from all angels, we should act with wisdom and learn from the experience of other countries.