Participating in PSC, a national responsibility – Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara

BY Uditha Kumarasinghe

More humane than doctrinaire, Vasu, the leftist firebrand always defended the cause of the have-nots. His chequered political career was punctuated by anti-establishment struggles, stints in prisons and thundering speeches on political platforms. National Languages and Social Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara in an interview with the Sunday Observer said leaving the past behind, we should look forward and call upon all political parties to participate in the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) as our basic civic and national responsibility is to ensure unity among all communities. We must present our viewpoints, arguments and proposals to the Committee. If we shirk our duty, it means that we are not accountable to the people.

The Minister stressed the need to ensure greater regional unity among the South Asian countries to safeguard their sovereignty.

The South Asians must not permit any divisive tendencies or rivalry among themselves which pave the way for the imperialist forces to take advantage. The problems in our region are needed to be resolved by understanding, discussions and mutual negotiations. If we fail to do so, there will be external penetration by evil forces to grab the resources here by putting us one against the other. China and India have realised this. Therefore, they have now begun to understand more closely their mutual needs without being driven by the evil forces of imperialism to suspect and manipulate against each other.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q:Tamil diaspora, other LTTE lobbyists and their overseas fund raising agents and South India’s pro-LTTE extremists advocate nothing but Eelam. Will the majority Sinhalese ever believe that devolving police and land powers will cure all ethnic ills and make Sri Lanka a model democracy?

A: No. I think the large majority of the Sinhalese believe that we need to unite this country which means that three major communities should live together on an agreed basis of governance. That is what we have to work out. Provincial Councils which had been set up to achieve this are yet to fulfil it. Provincial Councils in the North and the East had not been functioning for a long time. The Eastern Provincial Council was set up recently and the Northern Provincial Council is yet to be established. I believe powers to be given to Provincial Councils and powers to be restricted to the Centre need to be discussed at length. We have set up a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to bring about proposals which will help unite the nation.

Q:What prevents the UNP and the TNA apart from others from taking part in the PSC proceedings as they could be held accountable to their sins of omission and commission that led to the present crisis?

A: Well, they have contributed in no small measure like any other party to the present difficult situation.

Let us look forward and call upon all sections of the society and all political parties to participate in the PSC as their basic civic and national responsibility is to ensure unity among all communities. We must present our viewpoints, arguments and proposals to the Committee.

Whoever follows them have to be assured well that we have our own viewpoints and proposals and we will place them before this Committee which is the converging point for them.

Q:Proponents of the 1978 Constitution defend it as more suitable for a developing country when Executive President could make bold decisions in the larger interest of the country. Your views?

A: There can be bold decisions, but the larger interest or the people’s interests do not always fall in line with bold decisions. It will become an individual decision. Despite being elected by the people, an individual is subject to the influence and prejudices which are near and around him. The fact is that the decisions of such an elected person are not anything better than the collective decision of the Parliament. There is the collective character in the decisions of the people’s representatives while the President remains above the influence and the pressure of the Parliament.

Q:Divide and rule, devolution of power, regional autonomy, R 2P and military intervention have become instruments for violating developing countries’ sovereignty and exploiting its resources. How do you view this scenario?

A: This is a dangerous phenomenon one could witness in the international domain led by the US and other imperialist powers targeting resources and geopolitical needs in all countries. All forms of destabilization are created and then interventions are made to grab the resources and achieve their geopolitical targets. We are aware of it. The South Asians must not permit any divisive tendencies or rivalry among themselves which paves the way for the imperialist forces to take advantage. We should have a greater regional unity among the South Asian countries to safeguard and consolidate the sovereignty of the entire South Asia. If we form ourselves into blocs then it is not easy for the perpetrators to penetrate them.

Q: In the context of regional economic and political cooperation, SAARC is far lagging behind ASEAN, Shanghai Cooperation organisation and South American and perhaps, African regional cooperation. Trade or investment deals are yet to be heard. How would you explain this situation?

A: This can be explained by the political rivalry between Pakistan and India on the one hand and the conditions in Afghanistan on the other. Then we find the problems between India and our own country. These political and border problems and other political issues have clouded the real issues relating to economic, social and the security cooperation which we need very much.

We have our own internal bickerings ignoring the larger interests of our region. Some of them are historical while some others are created by the disunity.

There are problems between Bangladesh and India regarding river water distribution and river-flooding. These are problems within our region which we need to resolve by mutual understanding and discussions and negotiations. If we fail to do this there will be external penetration by evil forces which will grab the resources here by putting us one against the other. China and India have realised this. Therefore, they have now begun to understand their mutual interests. We need to promote more trade and investment among the countries in the region and outside. Within the region, we have a huge market which we have explored. We need a larger socio-economic plan for production and services. I am sure we are going to be better off and our living standards will rise in due course. But the political problems remain as thorns in the flesh. Firstly, we need to unite our own countries and resolve our disputes. In countries such as India, Hindu-Muslim differences need to be resolved. Pakistan-India understandings will have to be improved. I believe they have begin to realise that we are at one another or against each other while the external forces make a prey out the entire region.

Q:Outside interference has aggravated domestic problems in most of the developing countries leading to bloodshed, dissension and separatism. How would you explain this with examples?

A: In Syria the rebels are supported by the US imperialism and other imperialist forces, while Russia, China and Iran are supportive of the Syrian regime. So was in Libya and Egypt. How it all came about is due to the moribund conditions of the regimes in such countries. The internal breeding of revolt was the starting point for the external aggression. Internal decadence and crisis that erupted are really the organic fact about those countries.

In both Libya and Iraq there was internal dissension which erupted as a result of the dictatorial nature and corrupt on the part of their regimes.

The external forces that promoted internal rebellion are now regretting very much that the current situation is beyond their control, because the forces that were unleashed continue to further change their regimes until they find a democratic regime installed in office.

There are warlords who are battling among themselves and also the people who suffer due to extortions. There is disorder descended on all those countries. These are historical phases that we are going through. When internal eruptions open the doors to all kinds of factional struggles, there follows a state of anarchy. Eventually the imperialists will decide as to who should govern these countries. They try to instal their own agents to govern these countries.

Ultimately chaos will create some new order again depending on the level of public consciousness and the balance of forces in those countries.

Q:How do you reconcile the contradiction where the urban middle class take the lead in national issues while the villagers are confined to localised issues such as protesting against the lack of water or other facilities for cultivation, repairs to roads or anicuts?

A:The middle class is somewhat comfortable economically and socially and better placed and as such their concerns about supremacy becomes a major issue for them.

Most of the Sinhala Buddhist middle class now believes that it need to become supreme in the country. A large number of members of the Sinhala middle class has become ultra nationalist to the detriment of the unity of the country.

They are socially and professionally well placed. The middle class has also the problem of competitiveness and rivalry in industries, services, production and other professional services.

Q:Don’t you think a code of ethics is more important for the politicians, particularly those in Local Bodies than media personnel who pose no threat to law and order?

A: A Code of ethics is not something like Penal Code. It is a code that one voluntarily complies with or one would respect on account of the status that one enjoys or the professional affiliations. There are codes of ethics for different professions or trades. If you abide by those ethics , it is purely your voluntary act. If you do not, then you get excluded from that community. That is how the punishment comes. Politicians too should have ethics that they should practise. I believe the ethics for politicians have its origins in Plato and Aristotle. According to them a politician must not be a person of property or one engaged in enterprise. He must not be a person who is bent on bringing up a family to provide them a more prosperous future but are fully dedicated to the cause of the society. We also have ethics. What we don’t have is the politicians who will observe these ethics. We need to have a kind of social attitude which does not recognise politicians who don’t adhere to a certain level of ethics and standards. This largely depends on the electoral system. Sometimes the people will vote for those who are not fit to be voted to power.

Politicians, leaders and representatives who have a greater regard for ethics in their personal conduct will be a better choice. Our problem is that the people also don’t have ethics. Therefore, they don’t look for the ethics of the politicians. The electoral system has been fine-tuned to allow this chain reaction of unethical people to elect unethical politicians.

Q:The virtual extinction of the old left with its veterans and their electoral strongholds is a great loss to the country specially during a national crisis. According to you what really went wrong? Ideological or political?

A: This is a question which needs an answer of one full volume. I can only briefly tell you that all things come into being and then decay and perish. That is the way with everything and there is also rebirth and regeneration.

There is not only the coming into being, decay and the perishing, there is also the regeneration.

So I always believe that the left would regenerate itself and ideologically and organizationally restored to its glorious times. That is a phenomenon that you will have to look out for in a global scale.

Q:As a socialist you always fought for the cause of the have-nots. Could you narrate any landmarks of your struggle that brought dividends to the poor?

A: Yes. Our trade union struggles have ensured trade union rights to those in Free Trade Zones where it was denied. Then the Left parties in general have fought for democratic rights of trade union formations, a right which is guaranteed now.

Then we have different labour laws that came to be passed including Labour Tribunals. Personally in my life, I was engaged in trade union struggles and certain demands and strikes had been won. I had given leadership to strike movements which had been repressed like the one in 1980.

Hence there are pluses and the minuses, achievements and defeats and advances and retreats in my life. I even served a prison term.

My own personal litigation on behalf of the people resulted in the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation being taken back by the Government, in addition to the Marine Company and the large area of the Colombo harbour premises which had been given away to John Keells without any payment too were taken back through public litigation. All these are matters on which I can look back with content.