FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-121-2009
May 27, 2009
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
SRI LANKA: A few tests to measure the love for the country
Mahinda Rajapakse, the president of Sri Lanka in his now famous speech to parliament stated that now there are only two kinds of Sri Lankans in the country; those who love the country and those who don’t. Perhaps it may be a good time to set out criterion for judging the difference. On the basis the work of the AHRC in Sri Lanka for over a decade and on the basis of successful attempts by other countries to make it possible for people to love each other, we suggest a few important tests. Our suggestions are not an exhaustive treatment on this issue. However, we believe that our suggestions relate to some fundamental issues without which citizens cannot live without hatred and distrust of each other. Our suggestions are as follows:
The establishment of an effective system of corruption control with adequate mandate and resources To be corrupt is to steal from the people. By corruption many citizens are deprived of services that they deserve as some citizens and others are treated in a favourable fashion. Money and resources that are meant for the development and improvement of the nation goes to private individuals and their families. That is being most unkind and unloving to the people of the country. Many countries in the world have already established what can be termed as very successful models of corruption control. Of course no system is perfect. The difference between a good model and a bad model is that the latter is just a farce and created to fail. The Sri Lankan Commission on Bribery and Corruption is one such very bad system. The models such as that of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission against Corruption, and even Singapore’s system to control corruption are acknowledged as relatively good systems. There are competent people in Sri Lanka that could design an effective model and implement it, if the government asked them to do so. What is required is only the political will. If there is no political will to achieve this most important and most elementary measure it simply means that there is no political will at all to love the people.
Provide adequate funding for the administration of justice The country has been reduced to a very lawless position because the system of affective investigations into crime, prosecution of crimes and the judicial functions are today at their lowest ebb. Volumes have been written on this matter and we do not need to go into the problem here. There is no controversy surrounding the identification of the problem but there are many mysteries which remain unresolved as to why the problem is not being addressed at all. Among the many causes of this problem the most important is inadequate funding into policing, accompanied by the absence of motivation on the part of the higher ranking officers to make the police work as they should. The police hierarchy constantly complains that due to the lack of resources and politicization, which means people who are outside the system giving commands, makes their job an impossible task.
Similar complaints are also made regarding the country’s prosecution system and the judicial system. Recent experience shows how providing necessary resources to the military was able to improve military performance. The systems of the administration of justice are vital to the nation at all times. Now the period of tension is over enormous problems are to be dealt with and there must be adequate investment in the same institutions that do the job of the administration of justice.
It is a well established notion, almost from the origins of human kind, that where there is no basic justice there will also be no love. To establish an environment in which citizens can act towards each other with love, the system of justice needs to have sufficient funding for its work. If those who represent the state do not have the political will to provide funding to have functioning institutions of justice they cannot genuinely claim that they love their country or the people.
The people should have possibilities to talk to each other It is again a commonly established principle from the time that humans came into being that they could be human only to the extent that they communicate with each other. Thus, every form of restriction on the people’s capacity to talk to each other is an act that prevents them loving each other. In the modern world methodologies of speech are many. Various forms of writing and the dissemination of such writings and even manifold forms of visual communication are part of the achievement of human kind. If there are no restrictions on communications people can reach each other and understand one another more effectively than ever. Thus every form of censorship whether direct or indirect is a barrier to human contact and a denial of information. If the censorship is so restrictive as to silence the people then there can be no question of love of the country or of the people. If those who represent the state do not have the political will not to interfere with the people’s right to talk and communicate with each other that is an indication that they are obstructing the people from loving each other.
Removing the obstacles created by the Sri Lankan constitution for functional rule of law and democracy – Modern political systems work through political parties. If the political parties of Sri Lanka love the people the first and foremost step they should take is to follow by consensual actions a step to remove several aspects of the Sri Lankan constitution which all political parties, at some time or another, have agreed to be extremely defective.
It is a common opinion that the 1978 Constitution introduced the worst aspects of common law and civil law (French), traditions and discarded the best parts of these traditions. The concept of the head of the state which the first president introduced merely to suit himself, is a constitutional monstrosity. The head of the state should function with the overall framework of the relationships to the parliament and the judiciary and the rest of the executive.
A monolithic system of complete executive power destroys any nation. That is the type of cruelty that is so deep and brought about by law that destroys the supremacy of the law and paves the way for arbitrary forms of governance. Such a situation is unkind, cruel and unloving towards the country and its people. Thus, in introducing an approach to love the country and its people these legally enforced cruelties and arbitrariness should be removed.
Ensure free and fair elections Elections in Sri Lanka have become a time when people hate each other and tear each other apart. No election is complete without several murders, many injuries, arson and many other such things. While Sri Lanka’s neighbour, India has managed to have free and fair elections, which even the defeated parties acknowledge to be so, Sri Lanka has lost that ever since the 1977 election when the police were given a holiday for some weeks until the countrymen, in almost all parts of the country, went on a violent spree against each other.
That has continued and today nobody honestly believes that any election can be held without such violence. If there is going to be love for the country and love of the people for each other this needs to be brought to an end. An effective system of an election commissioner backed by reforms in the police system as suggested above, can achieve this within a very short time.
All the capacities are readily available in the country to achieve this. We have capable people, we have most systems in place and we have the talent necessary to introduce the most modern aspects for such an election. All that we need is political will. And loving the country and the people is nothing other than an act of political will. If an atmosphere for free and fair elections is established peace in the country will follow in short order. So once again loving means being willing and taking action; let us hope that our politicians will prove capable of doing this.
Democratization as a solution to the problem of minorities There is much talk about the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the constitution being the solution to the conflict between the majority and the minorities, which has been the bedeviling problem in Sri Lankan politics since independence.
However, the 13th Amendment to the constitution cannot in anyway be effectively implemented without addressing the four issues we have mentioned above. If the 17thAmendment to the Constitution is treated just as a piece of paper that has no value what reason is there to believe that the 13th Amendment will be treated any better?
Without a proper system of corruption control the implementation of the 13th Amendment will only breed further opportunities for corruption. The absence of proper administration of justice has already lead the people who have been living in the safer zones of the south to live in a lawless situation. The north and the east do not have any of the infrastructures that are needed for good governance, rule of law and democracy.
Thus, finding ways to improve relationships between all the people require immediate solutions which are mentioned above. For people to love each other the state must provide the environment in which the people can resolve their differences amicably and through normally functioning institutions. If the rulers love the country and its people and want to create the environment in which people can live in harmony and friendship with each other these problems must be addressed urgently.
We hope that the declared perspective of the country’s president will be implemented by taking the inescapable steps that are mentioned above.
