Interview Part 2
Interview Part 1
On behalf of the Asian Human Rights Commission, we are sharing with you the second part of the interview, with Basil Fernando, on the origins of the present political crisis, in Sri Lanka which is being traced to the manner in which the developments that took place in 1931 as a result of the recommendations of the Donoughmore Commission which, among other things recommended the granting of adult franchise to the citizens of Sri Lanka, which was still then a colony of the British Empire.
“…The political elites of the time, failed to use the periods between, 1931 to 1948, to prepare the ground for the establishment of Sri Lanka as a sovereign state when the independence was to be declared. The infant state of Sri Lanka, was created on the 4th of February 1948, but the infrastructure or the state apparatus was not developed for Sri Lanka to be able to exercise its sovereignty under viable state institutions operating within a framework of rule of law. The result was the development of a political culture wherein petty interest of individuals and groups flourish while the interest of a people as a whole was completely neglected.
In the second part of the interview the chaotic nature of this new political culture which relies on creating disturbances as the means of achieving any political end is being discussed. As every political faction relied on creating circumstances which made it difficult for any government to function, often governments resorted to declaring of emergencies or the use of anti-terrorism laws. The extreme violence that arose as a result of this, further weakened the state institutions and the rule of law. Violent conflicts such as those led by the JVP, and the LTTE, and ferocious reactions by the ruling governments against such movements made the Sri Lankan state virtually dysfunctional. These aspects are discussed in detail in this second part of the interview. …”
