Some UNHRC members on a witch-hunt - Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara
By Uditha Kumarasinghe
A committed socialist, Vasu’s chequered political career has been
punctuated by his frequent worker struggles. With his life-long
commitment to the socialist utopia, he has reposed his faith in
parliamentary democracy. Mellow and mature, National Languages and
Social Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara today shoulders a
national responsibility towards social integration.
The Minister in an interview with the Sunday Observer said that the
UNHRC is very selective about the members whose guilt is focused on a
selective basis.
He said it is not his defence that we have a right to violate human
rights or commit crimes or violate the international laws because
somebody else is doing it.
We believe wherever it happens it is no defence for us to commit or
repeat the same. The UNHRC must, however apply the same yardstick to all
countries in an equal way which otherwise would be interpreted as
prejudiced on the part of the UNHRC.
The UNHRC is not expected to carry on with vendettas and it is for
them to bring up the issues backed by facts that the Governments
concerned could address them. That is really the job of the UNHRC. But
now we get the impression that the UNHRC is on a witch-hunt.
Socialism is in the future and not in the past, he said. Socialism is
yet to emerge in the future in its pristine form. Actually the socialism
which was full of ‘debilities and deformities’ is getting purified.
We are now gradually becoming democratic socialist States of the
future. It is only socialism that can save the future of humanity.
Therefore there is only one future and that is the socialist future. In
fact, what we are trying to do with the UPFA Government is to develop a
social democratic program within the UPFA.
We call upon all other leftist parties who want to see a socialist
future to join us to promote social democratic programs with the UPFA as
opposed to the right-wing neo-liberal program of the UNP.
Excerpts of the interview:
Q: How far has your Ministry progressed in resolving any problems
affecting the Tamil community? Could you elaborate on this?
A: The responsibility of our Ministry is to bring about cordial
relations between all communities such as Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and
others.
We have promoted the idea of inter-community relations by our
numerous programs such as the language societies, cultural festivals,
youth camps, mixed youth camps, celebration of different religious and
community events and teaching languages to public officers.
These activities together with the implementation of the language
policy of requiring Sinhala and Tamil to be used in all state affairs
has to some degree given the Tamil and Muslim communities a kind of
expectation that the Government is actively involved in promoting
solidarity between the communities.
Racist propaganda by whatever parties does not bear fruit as it fails
to create mass disturbances since the mood of the people is more
favourable to harmonious relations between the communities.
Q: Mounting losses in the public sector and corporations are
attributed to frauds, impunity, disregard for financial procedures and
non-accountability. Your comments?
A: The Auditor General is responsible to audit all the Government
departments and the semi-Government bodies. He brings these audit
queries which are answered or unanswered and sufficiently explained, to
Committees. One is the Public Accounts Committee and the other is COPE
which looks into the semi-State bodies or corporations.
These two bodies go into all specific matters raised by the Auditor
General and we ask the responsible officers in departments and
corporations to explain and when they fail to explain, we report them to
Parliament. The Parliament in turn brings them to the attention of the
respective Ministers and it is the Ministers who should take action
against those held responsible for fraud, waste or corruption.
The Bribery Commission is also active today. There is the question
time in Parliament where you could have oral answers or written answers
to questions raised by the Members of Parliament. These are all
deterrents in addition to public and social media which exposes
corruption, waste and fraud inevitably present in any Government
administration.
As was recently reported even in private organisations fraud and
corruption is prevalent and some of the big companies have become
bankrupt or crashed on account of corruption even in the United States
of America.
This is a part of the phenomenon of the present economy and it has
become exacerbated due to the neo-liberal attitude towards the world
economy.
The Government is subjected to scrutiny by the people and the media
whether those responsible for frauds or mismanagement have been brought
to book. These can be checked and curtailed. Public interest litigation
is a very important aspect where anybody in the interest of public
affairs could complain to court that there was corruption, or fraud
which deprived the State coffers of large amounts of money as I have
done in two cases-the Insurance Corporation case and the Marine Company
case where there was the privatization of oil bunkering by the last
Government. In both cases, the persons responsible were taken to task.
Then the privatisation done on that corrupt, fraudulent agreements have
been annulled.
But as you know litigation is costly. So it is not everybody who can
do this. One must have time and resources. There should be an easier
mechanism of administrative tribunals such as Human Rights Commission
where one could make complaints about corruption and fraud in public
institutions. They can also get facts and figures from Auditor General’s
Department as well as from the COPE and COPA, the two Parliamentary
bodies. We need to introduce this mechanism soon.
Q: Sri Lankans visiting South India are apprehensive of physical
harassment at the hands of a few extremist elements. How do you view
these attacks on foreign nationals?
A: These attacks cannot be justified. As we all know, certain issues
give rise to tension in certain countries in relation to certain
communities and incidents that take place in other countries. In Tamil
Nadu, there is a feeling rightly or wrongly that Tamils have been
unjustly dealt with and they have been subjected to denial of human
rights. There is such perception in Tamil Nadu, but this is not among
the large numbers who are informed, but among some isolated pro-LTTE
small groups. Therefore they want to avenge the fact that the LTTE was
defeated and also they want to promote a revival of the LTTE. For this
reason, they are launching agitations and protests to focus on the
question of the Tamil people. But the fact remains that they refuse to
be informed of the actual state of affairs in the country in this
post-war period.
They would continue agitation based on their imaginations and
motivations. However, attacks on those who visit India from Sri Lanka
are only in Tamil Nadu and this must be prevented by the Indian
Government. Recently there had been no attacks. The pilgrims to
Velankani had been stopped and asked to return which should never have
happened. I believe the Indian Government and the Tamil Nadu State
Government will become more responsible in defending and protecting the
rights of the visitors to that country.
Q: Some social and political scientists have attributed the social
and political discontent largely to the 1972 and 1978 Constitutions. Is
there any truth in this?
A: Social discontent is not due to Constitutions. Basically it is due
to economic circumstances combined with the Governance and tensions that
prevail in society. Constitutions can contribute to either promoting
democracy and democratic governments or impeding democratic governance.
The 1972 Constitution promoted democratic governance while the 1978
Constitution was an erosion of democracy and democratic governance. So
the lack of democratic space could result in extra-legal and violent
actions by a section of the people.
The 1972 constitution cannot be said to have had any undemocratic
features while the 1978 Constitution has all that. If you ask me about
the 1983 July riots which were mainly directed against the Tamil
community I should say it was partly a result of the denial of General
Elections at the appropriate time. The referendum was rigged and the
tenure of Parliament was extended.
Then comes about the tension and the reduction of democratic space.
This resulted in political upheavals. Therefore, what happened in the
aftermath is due partly to the Constitution and reduced democratic
space.
Q: India’s former UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen has dismissed R2P as a
tool for neo-imperialist intervention. It has created chaos in Libya
after engineering a regime change. How do you assess the strength and
scope of R2P in the context of emerging, third world countries?
A: I entirely agree with Nirupam Sen and I fully endorse what he has
said. As we have seen its application or the intervention had brought
about no peace at all. It had only worsened the situation in each one of
these countries promoting racial hatred, bringing about further
dissension and then causing chaos and anarchy. This is the net results
of the intervention under the R2P. On the other hand R2P is arbitrary -
a big power tool to subjugate regimes which do not toe their line.
Q: Would it not be more judicious for the UNHRC to appreciate post
war mega development and help Sri Lanka to resolve any outstanding
problems than invoking the bogey of human rights or enacting the
notorious Channel 4 theatrics?
A: Yes. The UNHRC should discuss matters regarding the post war
situation in Sri Lanka in a rational and informed manner and take up
specific matters of concern which require remedying on the part of the
Sri Lankan Government. They speak of accountability in a very general
way. But they need to raise those matters specifically. I think that
would be a better way to deal with than make charges generally without
being supported by evidence.
Such cases can be taken up on a specified basis rather than making
blanket allegations that there had been extra-legal killings, war crimes
or individual killings which need to be supported with facts and figures
and evidence to put the Government on the job. The Government is willing
to look into matters if they are raised in that concrete way. But they
only have a video film which does not produce any evidence. At most it
is an incident or an event or a crime. There is nothing more to say
about it than that there had been a crime committed against ‘A’. When
left it at that, there is nothing more that you can do about it unless
you have some more evidence relating to the circumstances. Therefore,
the inference is that the ball is in the court of the Government to make
an investigation.
Q: Have not the UNHRC and UN Commissioner for Human Rights Navi
Pillay exceeded their mandate in trying to penalize Sri Lanka when human
lives and human rights are openly violated by some powerful countries?
A: Yes. The UNHRC is very selective about the members whose guilt is
focused on a selective basis. Well, it is not my defence that we have a
right to violate human rights or commit crimes or violate the
international laws because somebody else is doing it.
We believe wherever it happens there is no defence for us to commit
or repeat the same. But the UNHRC must apply the same yardstick to all
countries in an equal manner which otherwise would be interpreted as a
prejudiced action on the part of the UNHRC.
It is not expected of the UNHRC to carry on with vendettas and it is
for them to bring up the issues backed by facts in order that
governments can address them. That is really the job of the UNHRC. But
now one gets the impression that the UNHRC is on a witch-hunt.
Q: Education and Health are beset with problems affecting the
community life and much criticism has been levelled against these
Ministries. What is the solution for this from a socialist angle?
A: Those are two areas in which the Government spending has to be
increased. In both areas teachers and the health employees need to be
involved in a meaningful way to frame the policies and to oversee the
implementation of such policies that will be adopted. On the one hand,
we need to increase the spending on that. We also need to involve the
employees in formulating policies of those institutions in their own
advisory capacity. Their experience can be very enriching for the more
fruitful implementation of the policies.
They have their grievances. These are the two major areas of the
social service we rendered to the country. Social development that this
country had seen as its unique achievement includes free health and free
education. So as we go on expanding health and education we need more
inputs. On the other hand, a large number of schools is under the
Provincial Councils. Only a minority of schools come under the Central
Government. These are areas which have huge numbers of beneficiaries and
servers.
The problems are also very complex. There is a need to remedy the
major deficiencies which arise due to the inadequacies on the part of
administration. We need to involve the beneficiaries and the servers to
work out solutions.
Q: The Soviet Union and its Socialist Block collapsed in 1991. The
non-alignment is toothless today with some of its founding countries
either disintegrated or aligned with the capitalist block. As a
socialist do you see any prospects for socialism or will it die a
natural death?
A: In my view, socialism is in the future and not in the past. What
we have seen are only certain States which were run by those who had a
sympathy for the working class and the masses.
They were, however bureaucratic and didn’t permit the participation
of elected members of the workers or the masses in running their
governments. More mistakes had been made and such mistakes had been so
bad that the Soviet Union collapsed. So it is more due to the distortion
of the kind of regime that came into being than the philosophy of
socialism or the vision of socialism. Socialism is yet to emerge in the
future in its pristine form as we had.
Actually the socialism as you called it was full of debilities and
deformities and now they are getting it purified. We are now gradually
reaching towards democratic socialism. I think it is only socialism that
can save the future of humanity. If you look at the environmental
degradation, huge crisis in the financial sector, economic downturn
coming one after another and long periods of recession, there is no
alternative, but the destruction of humanity.
In this backdrop of perishing human race-continuing recessions, cut
backs, the kind of austerity posterity measures and the reduction of
social development will contribute to more poverty and starvation. Each
recession brings millions of people back into starvation. So the
environment plus the crisis of capitalism is the recipe for the
destruction of humanity. Therefore, there is only one future, that is
socialist future.
Q: The working class would have achieved more, had not the left split
into atoms and promoted their separate agendas? Your comments?
A: Certainly. I think if the working class and ordinary masses who
are farmers, self-employees and small-holders could have merged their
political groupings together to develop a social democratic formation
which could be acceptable to everybody without asking for the moon like
revolutionary socialism, we would have gone a long way. In fact, what we
are trying to do with the UPFA is to develop a social democratic program
within the UPFA.
We call upon all other leftist parties who want to see a socialist
future to join us to promote social democratic programs with the UPFA as
opposed to the right-wing neo-liberal program of the UNP.
Q: You have been a committed socialist upholding the dignity of the
working class and its inherent rights. Have you not groomed a successor
to carry forward your life-long mission?
A: No. History never permits such grooming in my understanding.
History has a way of calling upon the individuals selected for more than
one reason, to undertake the responsibilities from time to time. So
there is no question of anybody grooming. History selects individuals to
carry out the task of the time. |