{"id":105698,"date":"2013-09-16T00:43:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-15T19:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=105698"},"modified":"2013-09-16T00:43:14","modified_gmt":"2013-09-15T19:13:14","slug":"how-can-we-become-a-credible-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can We Become A Credible Country?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0R.M.B Senanayake<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

R.M.B. Senanayake<\/p><\/div>\n

We have challenged the UN Human Rights Commissioner<\/a><\/span> about her\u00a0statement that those who met her have been questioned by the Security\u00a0Forces? Surely she made her statement on what was told to her by the\u00a0people themselves? The Government denies it and wants the UN High\u00a0Commissioner to give concrete evidence. Surely the world knows how\u00a0journalists have disappeared or have been killed for writing anything\u00a0which has displeased the powers that be. So the Government must do\u00a0more than asking the High Commissioner to give concrete cases which\u00a0would involve betraying the trust of the complainants when the\u00a0credibility of the Government is at low ebb. How has the Government\u2019s\u00a0credibility eroded?<\/p>\n

At the end of the war the Government first took up the position that\u00a0there were no civilian casualties but later modified its stand to say\u00a0a few thousands only were killed. It also took up the stand that the\u00a0Army was engaged in a humanitarian rescue mission to save the\u00a0civilians from the grip of the LTTE<\/a><\/span>. Each time the Government changes\u00a0its stand it loses credibility. Then there are the disappearances not\u00a0only of the Tamils but also of the Sinhalese journalists who have\u00a0migrated stating that they were under threat. There was the farce\u00a0created regarding Ekneligoda.<\/p>\n

We must become a predictable country with a credible\u00a0government if we want the world to take what we say seriously. If we\u00a0want the world to think of us well we must become a normal country\u00a0like other normal countries in the world.<\/p>\n

If we want to attract foreign capital, to attract\u00a0foreign investors and achieve growth we need to be a normal\u00a0predictable country where there are established procedures and where\u00a0the Rule of Law prevails and where the Security Forces are confined to\u00a0their role to defend the country against external enemies instead of\u00a0spying on our own citizens and seeking to intimidate them. The\u00a0Government has a big task before it and it involves changing the image\u00a0of the country across the world. \u00a0The UN Office must be receiving\u00a0complaints from citizens and from Human Rights organizations. The\u00a0Government must honestly find out what the world thinks of it and the\u00a0country not from the hurrah boys but from normal educated persons.\u00a0Usually, being predictable is what is expected of any normal country.\u00a0Our foreign embassies must be encouraged to report honestly how these\u00a0countries see us- as a normal democratic country where people are free\u00a0to go about their ordinary business or a country described in George\u00a0Orwell\u2019s 1984 where the people are spied upon, intimidated and\u00a0disappear. The spying is done largely on the Tamil citizens but also\u00a0on journalists and critics and members of the opposition. Can the\u00a0military involvement in civilian activities be justified in the North?\u00a0A distinction has to be drawn between the military engagement in
\ncivilian economic activity and military involvement in the social\u00a0activities of the community. The latter is based on the suspicion that
\nthe ex-LTTers and their sympathizers are still active and that their\u00a0activities need to be monitored. Yes but such intelligence gathering
\nhas to be done without intruding on civilian life just as the Secret\u00a0Services in other countries do.<\/p>\n

There is a difference between the right to self determination and the\u00a0right to secede. The right for Tamil people to decide their future
\ncannot be denied. But even the UN does not recognize any automatic\u00a0right to secede. That requires evidence of oppression by the State. It
\nis up to the Sinhala dominated State to show the world that there is\u00a0no such oppression and that the Tamil people enjoy the same rights as\u00a0the majority Sinhala Buddhists. Devolution of power to the Northern\u00a0Provincial Council will accomplish this objective provided we
\nco-operate with it instead of striking an antagonistic posture. The\u00a0Tamils have all to gain by being part of a larger entity like the Sri
\nLankan State. They have much in common with the Sinhalese and it is\u00a0the politicians which have muddied the waters since 1956.The 13th\u00a0Amendment<\/a><\/span> provides a framework for devolution and any changes will\u00a0have to be done with mutual consent. The right to secession is not\u00a0automatic and it is not recognized in the 13th Amendment or in the\u00a0Indo Lanka Pact<\/a><\/span>. India has said she is committed to the territorial\u00a0integrity of Sri Lanka. But if we go back on the Agreement then the\u00a0issue is once again open. The ruling party cannot and must not whip up\u00a0fears of secession and Eelam in order to win the support of the\u00a0Sinhalese. This has been done enough by selfish politicians in the\u00a0past and at least now they should give it up.<\/p>\n

The British framework of law and governance which prevailed for 150\u00a0years did provide such a framework and we could ensure that it
\ncontinues to be upheld. It is the attempts to convert the State into a\u00a0Sinhala Buddhist State enforcing Buddhist religious and ethical values\u00a0which are not universally accepted that has led to problems. In a\u00a0plural State this cannot be done without antagonizing the minorities.\u00a0If the UN were to accept the Tamil demand for secession the folly of\u00a0the present regime\u2019s massive investment would be apparent to the\u00a0majority Sinhalese. Now that we have invested so heavily the best\u00a0course of action is to attend to the remaining grievances of the Tamil\u00a0people like the demand for restoration of their private lands. They\u00a0allege that the Government wants to settle Sinhalese in the North to\u00a0make them a minority in the North. The Sinhala nationalists state that\u00a0there were Sinhalese in the North. Yes there were and I remember even\u00a0in 1960 there were Sinhalese bakers in Jaffna town. But these\u00a0Sinhalese settlements in the North were not the result of any action\u00a0by the State. It was the result of the operation of free market\u00a0forces. Probably the only action required by the State was to modify\u00a0the Thesawalaimi just as the government in the 1970s abolished \u201cfidei\u00a0commissum\u201d The opportunity was missed then and now any changes will\u00a0have to be done with the consent of the Tamil people. The British\u00a0recognized the private customary laws called the Thesawalamai<\/a><\/span>. There\u00a0are two other private customary laws recognized by the British- the\u00a0Kandyan Law<\/a><\/span> and the Muslim Law<\/a><\/span>. I think all three should be abolished\u00a0and all citizens should be brought under the same set of general law.\u00a0Then the law governing property transfers would be uniform as will the\u00a0family law governing all communities. The pope’s has invited all\u00a0States to defend religious freedom to create a “harmonious society\u201d.\u00a0The ICCPR is the best guidance and we should adhere to it.<\/p>\n

Another grievance of the Tamil people at least of those who have seen\u00a0the disappearance of their loved ones is the absence of any\u00a0information about them. They hold the government under an obligation\u00a0to disclose what happened to them. A Commission on Disappearances can\u00a0deal with this problem.<\/p>\n

It is important that the international economic and political elite\u00a0see the country as an understandable and predictable reality, which –
\ndespite its complexity – is similar to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":72222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Can We Become A Credible Country? - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Can We Become A Credible Country? - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-15T19:13:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-15T19:13:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/R.M.B-Senanayake.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"155\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"165\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/\",\"name\":\"How Can We Become A Credible Country? - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/R.M.B-Senanayake.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-15T19:13:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-15T19:13:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/how-can-we-become-a-credible-country\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/R.M.B-Senanayake.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/R.M.B-Senanayake.jpg\",\"width\":\"155\",\"height\":\"165\",\"caption\":\"R.M.B. 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