Geneva: Local 'electric chair' better?

Fortunately, for all those who fear retribution for the murder, mass brutality, political repression, racism and abuse of power that they may have perpetrated or, presided over, the path of redemption that our country has now set foot on avoids the pitfalls of sweeping judiciary prosecution.

If judicial prosecution had been the intention, then, ironically, the international judiciary process would have been infinitely better for those likely to be caught in the net for large scale human rights violations, including murder. Why? Because, the United Nations and other multilateral institutions abandoned the death sentence long ago. Thus, if there had been an 'international probe', as it was feared by some 'patriots' and their patrons, then, those found guilty would have escaped the death sentence and the electric chair.

Sri Lanka, however, is not in line with global civilization, and the death sentence yet prevails here, even though execution has not occurred in recent decades - much to the disappointment of many citizens, judging by the recent hue and cry. Thus, the country's resort to a 'domestic mechanism' actually opens up the possibility of the death sentence for anyone who might be prosecuted for these crimes.

The degree of ignorance prevailing in the country is such that when one political leader - someone anticipating possible prosecution - begins worrying about the (non-existent) international electric chair, there are many patriots who share in this fear for their hero. And both they, and their hero, now celebrate the resort to a purely domestic mechanism notwithstanding the risk of the electric chair ever present under current Sri Lankan law! Their simplistic patriotism ignores the realities of legal backwardness and the local fetishism of death.

Indeed, this tangle of institutional actualities and ignorance of international legal culture and of local legal provisions all indicate the morass from which we must now extricate ourselves. The current government has won, in Geneva, a reprieve of sorts for Sri Lanka from the international strictures to which the country had been committed during the previous regime.

Those who care only about their heroes and not the fabric of our civilisation, may now scramble for legal reform to exempt their political heroes from the local death sentence that many in Sri Lanka want revived. Such scramblers should be reassured. Anyone reading the provisions of the UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka, will be aware that, leave aside death sentencing, there is the likelihood of very few on either side of the bloody internal war being actually subjected to direct criminal prosecution for human rights violations. The UNHRC Resolution provides for an elaborate process of mediation, confession, forgiveness and reconciliation in place of straightforward judicial prosecution so that the transition from war to peace builds human relationships and societal harmony as against a socially divisive process of retribution.

Indeed, the answers to many of the problems in the complex tangle we are now escaping from, lie in the provisions of the UNHRC Resolution. Geneva 'encourages' us not to remain mired in old laws and procedures but to reform the legal system, the judiciary and even the Constitution in our search for solutions. Why we had to wait for 'encouragement' from an external body can only be explained by our previous set of leaders who first dealt with the UN, and, by their duplicity, got us entangled.

Nevertheless, thus 'encouraged', our new government plans to innovate with new institutions and mechanisms that will enable us to disentangle ourselves from this web of ignorance, obscurantism and childish pre-occupation with electric chairs. Indeed, if we can only focus on our problems honestly and acknowledge them as 'problems', then all we need to do - Geneva notwithstanding - is to be as creative as we want to be in finding the best solutions that would be appreciated by all on this beautiful island of ours.

In a sense, the UNHRC Resolution should be seen as a national compact adopted by most sections of the Sri Lankan nation that has, then, been endorsed by, first, those countries joining Sri Lanka in proposing the Resolution and then, by the UN Council as a whole. That is, the Resolution becomes a Sri Lankan commitment to ourselves taken before the eyes of the global community and with the promise of world's nations to support us in the implementation. All our friends in the international community - that same 'international community' derided by the previous regime - from Japan and China in the East, to India and Pakistan in our own region, and to Russia, Europe and the United States in the West, have wholeheartedly supported us in our final resolve to put things right in our country.

Most sections of Sri Lankan society voted for a political change in January and August this year that will bring honest and intelligent action for peace and justice as against the duplicity, racism and injustice during the previous regime. Now all sections of society need to rally round the government and parliament and support and participate in this process of setting things right.

Inter-ethnic dialogue needs to be facilitated both at the political as well as the citizens' levels to enable justice and equality for all ethnic groups and an appreciation of our cultural richness. Professional bodies and experts - local and foreign - need to contribute their ideas and skills to design and implement new structures for judicial probes and social reconciliation. Trade unions, civic action groups, scholars, artistes, the media and religious leaders will need to facilitate the myriad activities that will take place in this process of national redemption, and systemic repair. The business community should give public support to this national process that will bring about the social cohesion and stability so necessary for good business. The Constitutional reform program must necessarily be as transparent and inclusive as possible.

Let the Sri Lankan process of post-war recovery and peaceful settlement be an example to the world as a product of our Dharma Dveepa.