Rata Viruvo to protect Lankan expats in dire straits - Minister Dilan Perera

Foreign Employment and Welfare Minister Dilan Perera is sharp-witted and outspoken but all the same buoyant. Come what may he sticks to his principles even if they are favoured by a few.

The Minister told the Sunday Observer that some members of the TNA and some extremist elements in the South are working together behind the screen to create problems once again.

There is a combination between the two elements. The actions of the extremists in the South ultimately help their counterparts in the North.

The Minister said the LTTE only killed moderate politicians of the UNP, SLFP and the TULF. Not even a single politician was touched by the LTTE belonging to the extremist elements in the South.

Eelamists and separatists should not be permitted to make use of the genuine problems of the Tamil speaking people once again to start off an another separatist movement. LTTE Leader Prabhakaran made use the genuine grievances of the Tamil people to poison the mindset of the youth and push them towards to take arms and kill their own Tamil leaders as well.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: The lack of an organised body for the migrant workers has resulted in their being treated as a marginalised lot since their voice is not heard or responded. Is there anything constructive devised by your Ministry to address this social anomaly?

A: At present there is a body to address this issue. We have decided to set up an organisation called Rata Viruvo made up of families of these migrant workers all over the country. Each Divisional Secretary division will have a Rata Viruvo organisation.

At the moment we have covered almost 70 percent of the divisional secretaries with Rata Viruvo organisations.

I introduced this concept of Rata Viruvo when I took over as Minister. These migrant workers who bring in the biggest amount of foreign exchange are today in the forefront in making Sri Lanka the economic hub of Asia. It is nothing but right for us to address the core issues of these migrant workers.

One core issue was to have an organisation of these migrant workers’ families and the Rata Viruvo organisation has now been set up in all the divisional secretariat divisions.

The Colombo district association was formed on Thursday. We are hoping to have the national convention of Rata Viruvo organisation on December 18 which falls on the International Migration Day.

Q: Very often we hear incidents of beating, killing, burning and torturing Sri Lanka’s expatriate workers in the Middle East, but the allegation is that there is no adequate response by the Sri Lankan missions. Would you explain this?

A: This allegation was right about an year ago but not at present. Except for one or two officials the majority of the welfare and labour officers and even the Ambassadors and High Commissioners are now really working hard to address these issues.

In fact, one lacuna was to bring all these people together and talk to them about their progress in dealing with these matters.

I managed to speak to the ILO and the IOM and summon all the ambassadors and welfare officers of countries where there are Sri Lankan expatriate workers. We had a three day workshop in Amman in Jordan to ascertain their problems.

We also advised the officials that they should not only handle the welfare of the workers, but promote more employment opportunities not in the housemaid category but mostly in the skilled and semi skilled categories so that the problems can be minimised.

It is only about five percent of workers face problems in those countries. But even five or one percent problem areas will be big for us.

Our Ministry is not there to boast about our achievements. I think we are now quite happy compared to what it was earlier and also the way our missions are handling these situations.

My Ministry through the Foreign Employment Bureau looks after 700 to 800 people daily in the safe houses all over the world coordinated by our missions abroad. It was over 1,000 when I took over.

Now I have managed to bring it down to 800. We swiftly get down most of the workers who come to the missions with their problems. Our Ministry and the missions in those countries help our dear brothers and sisters who have to face difficulties.

Q: Ministers, officials and missions too had gone to secure the release of Rizana from the death penalty. But nothing has happened so far. Would you explain the actual position?

A: The media must be very careful in tackling this issue. There was an instance last year where a certain electronic media institution which is owned by a brother of a Government politician came out with a news item which is absolutely false on Rizana.

That news created havoc in the country when the Opposition and the Government MPs staged a demonstration opposite Saudi Embassy. It created a lot of problems between the two countries.

The media must realise that in Rizana’s issue we must respect the Law of Saudi Arabia-Sharia Law. So we have to respect the Sharia Law and their culture as the Saudi authorities are respecting our law and culture.

The relationship between Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia is excellent. In fact Rizana has been convicted by the lower court and the higher court. Under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, my Ministry, External Affairs Ministry, our Ambassador in Saudi Arabia with all EU ambassadors and the US Ambassador in Saudi Arabia have managed to start a dialogue to secure a pardon for her.

When President Rajapaksa visited Kuwait for an international conference recently, he spoke to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Rizana’s parents were also provided the opportunity to meet the parents of the dead child looked after by Rizana. Sharia Law required the consent of the parents of the dead child to get a pardon.

We have been trying our best to get the consent of the parents. That is the vital ingredient to get a pardon under the Sharia Law.

Q: Every now and then, we are told that large numbers of Sri Lankan housemaids are languishing in prisons, camps or in detention centres where they are tortured, raped or abused. What prevents prompt action being taken to rescue them and provide relief?

A: Prompt action has been taken to rescue these people. They are mostly either in safe houses of the embassies or in the welfare centres in those countries.

As far as I know, most of the welfare centres in those countries have satisfactory facilities to look after these people. The safe houses in our missions have only Sri Lankans.

We have been very active in this area to get them back to Sri Lanka as soon as possible. During the last three months, we got down about 400 people to Sri Lanka only from Saudi Arabia and about 500 from Kuwait. We are now seeking help from the IOM to get down those in Jordan.

These are the three main countries where there is comparatively a large number of housemaids in safe houses or welfare centres.

Other countries have a comparatively smaller number of housemaids. There is a procedure to be followed in getting them the exit visas and the necessary documents. Our welfare officers, labour officers, Ambassadors and High Commissioners are doing a satisfactory job.

Q: There is a spiraling increase of serious crime with no mechanism to check it. As a lawyer how do you assess the gravity of this problem and propose any solution?

A: I am one who believes the theory of prevention rather than cure. You can have so many laws, police stations and also increase the number of court houses. But the ideal way to tackle this issue is prevention rather than cure.

We must change the attitude of our people. When the so-called material development entered through the front door of our country, all the good values that we had vanished through the back door.

Our economic development is tremendous compared to most of other countries. Our unemployment has gone down while our per capita income has gone up. We are now a middle level income country.

There is a tremendous improvement of infrastructure development as well. To some of the crimes, sometimes family members are held responsible. This is an issue that has to be tackled. The Government is very strict in this area.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given strict orders to the Police and the legal authorities to take stern action against anybody committing a crime.

Recently a brother of the General Secretary of our party was arrested for assaulting a public officer. He is still in remand custody. Sometimes the Opposition portrays a wrong picture that Government Ministers’ sons and Government politicians are always involved.

That is not so. What about the incident where a certain Opposition member’s wife complained to the Police that she was assaulted by her husband? Could we say all the Opposition members are assaulting their wives? It is time we stop playing petty politics with these incidents. All should get together irrespective of party, creed, religion and caste to tackle this issue.

Q: Proponents of power devolution whether academics, professionals or political analysts have forgotten that devolution of power will end up in nothing short Eelam eventually. Would you like to comment on this?

A: I think this is a traditional and baseless argument. It is the other way about. Power devolution is the only way to stop Eelam. We must be very thankful to the President and salute our war heroes for completely annihilating the terrorists.

For us to win the battle, we must see that the children of the soldiers who lost their lives will not go to the battle field again within the next 20 to 25 years.

We must now see to the need that Eelamists and separatists will not make use of the genuine problems of the Tamil speaking people to start off another separatist movement. Devolution of power is the only way to address these core issues.

We must be very careful when dealing with this issue because some members of the TNA and some extremists in the South are working behind the screen to create problems again. Those who went to Supreme Court against Divineguma Bill are remnants of the LTTE elements.

This Bill was meant to address poverty alleviation and the problems of the people in the South, North and East as well.

Q: State security is the responsibility of any elected Government. Would you explain how some foreign and local elements are bold enough to press for the removal of security camps in the North?

A: Security camps in the North should be kept there because North is also a part of Sri Lanka.

The Army, Navy and Air Force personnel are stationed there to provide security. I don’t think any Western country or any super power has the right to tell us to remove these camps in the North and the East because the North and the East form part of our country.

How dare these Western countries tell us not to have camps in our own country when these Western countries themselves are having thousands of camps in other countries.

Q: As a lawyer how do you explain the delicate interplay between the executive, legislature and judiciary and the impact of any stand-off between them, on the society?

A: The President always want to have a very close relationship with judiciary. He has never intervened in the affairs of the judiciary.

Today I am surprised that the assault on the Secretary of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has led to an unpleasant situation. JSC secretary is a public official.

He was an ex-judicial officer and now he is a public officer. The President has the right to summon any public officer to talk about general things. As Finance Minister, the President had summoned the JSC Secretary to discuss the needs of the judges to be considered in the forthcoming budget.

What happened was that the JSC Secretary issued a press statement saying various things which is very wrong. We all condemn the assault on the JSC Secretary.

We are not only condemning it, but we want the IGP to apprehend the culprits as soon as possible. This attack on the JSC Secretary is only helping the Opposition to sling mud at the Government.

The Government will not do anything to tarnish its own image. The assault has only created problems for the Government. I am sure this attack has been done to make use of the situation to put the Government into difficulty.

It is wrong for the judiciary or any lawyer to point an accusing finger at the Government when this incident occurred.