Building blocks needed for building a "new" Sri Lankan nation
by Kalyananada Godage
With the penultimate phase of the conflict now drawing to a close, it is indeed gratifying to note that the President has gone on record as stating that this country belongs to all of us, whether we be Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays, Burghers, Parsis or Sindhis, all of whom have come to call this their home. This is indeed a most heartening statement coming as it does from the Executive Head of the government, who certainly has the power to see that this expectation does come true, namely that all minority ethnic groups in particular, come to feel that this is indeed their homeland as it is of the majority community.
Let us make them all feel proud to be Sri Lankans. The realization of this laudable goal would ensure for the President a permanent place in the history of our land, as a farseeing leader who ended the terrorist menace and brought peace to this land. The foremost issue we need to address at this critical juncture is the divisive polarization of the different communities who inhabit our country. The language policy of the country and the manner of its implementation is of particular import in this regard, which needs to be sensitively reformulated and boldly readdressed.
What are the building blocks that need to be in place to build a new nation of Sri Lankans? The 1972 Constitution took away Article 29 of the Soulbury Constitution; to my mind this was a dreadful mistake, we need to have Constitutional protection, not in the form spelled out in the present Constitution but in a more inalienable form. I recall how Minister/ Professor GL Peiris wanted to introduce legislation to ensure the equality of all citizens —- could that act not be reintroduced? The language policy of the country needs to be readdressed. Should not the Constitution recognize the reality of the existence of ethnic minorities and ensure that they be constitutionally brought into the decision-making process at the highest level? Yes this Constitution needs to be changed in the country’s interest and with it the electoral system which is a caricature of what it should be.
Building a new Sri Lankan Society.
Building a new Sri Lankan society would of course require not only values that would bond us closely, but equally importantly, it would require all our people to be in a position to communicate with each other? Once again the President has, with practical foresight, paved the way for such a transformation to begin by declaring this year as the year of English and IT. This is indeed a momentous decision. English is today THE Language of all facets of international relations. As it is no longer the language of the English people alone, and being now the widely accepted language of international communication, the President would be equipping our children in a meaningful and practical manner by making it possible to have English taught to all children, from the age of five upto the age of eight, after which they could be made to study in their mother tongue along with English.
Surely, we can find the teachers to teach English to little kids of five, six, seven and eight? The government could also make it a ‘fun thing’ by establishing language laboratories in all schools equipped with computers to enable children to play computer games and engage in practical learning exercises. I have no doubt that countries which have been helping us over the years in our development efforts would surely come in enthusiastically on a project like this, to help build a new Sri Lanka. If only our different ethnic groups could communicate with each other, as our own generation did as we had the good fortune of learning English, then our current differences would be better appreciated and to that extent be alleviated. We should ensure that all our people are uniformly endowed with this ability. Language has divided us and I am convinced that such measures will above all, act as the strongest bonds that would unite our people. Yes, the child to be taught in English in the first three years and thereafter for the child to study in the mother tongue whilst continuing with the study of English as a subject would ensure the rapid breakdown of the cleavages that exist at present among the different communities. The education system needs to be most decidedly re-vamped if we are to achieve the cherished goal of building a new Sri Lankan nation.
Of equal importance are values, social, religious and cultural, which inculcate discipline, tolerance and social cohesiveness. Newspapers have reported that students of a school in Balapitiya assaulted their Principal! I consider it to be a slap on the face of the nation. Is it not a damning indictment on our society? I believe religion though taught as a compulsory subject in schools has failed —- what is the purpose if the products of this education system hold nothing sacred? We have never heard of such horrible happening in our time. ! What we need most is a total transformation in our value systems if our society and our country are to be saved from the current spate of violence and lawlessness rapidly deteriorating into a state of anomie.
We need, in the first place, to make the teaching profession an attractive, respected and noble one, drawing quality people into its fold. Aspiring teachers should, in the first instance, be tested for the required ‘aptitudes’ and, those seeking to enter the teaching profession only to obtain employment, should never be recruited as teachers. We need to effect a revolutionary change to save our society and our country. We need to make the teaching profession a noble one; it should be a Service that attracts the best human beings —- persons worthy of being entrusted with the task of moulding the minds of our children, persons able to inculcate values; persons who would be living examples to the students to take to the teaching profession. To make the profession attractive, the salaries of those who have been trained for at least two years and have been tested in every sense of the word, should be equal to that paid to an executive in the Public Service.
The Public Service.
The Public Service should be thoroughly professionalized if the efficiency expected of it is to be consistently maintained, equally important is the matter of putting the spine back of the Public Servant who has today become a servant of the politician. A professional public servant must be afforded the security necessary to enable him to give of his or her best. The Public Service Commission should be enthroned and made absolutely independent as was envisaged in the 17th Amendment. It was the first Srima Bandaranaike government, after the attempted Coup in the early 1960s, which took political control of the Public Service.
The 1972 Constitution sanctified this control and the Public Service became a ‘kept’ service after that; The micro minded politician would of course prefer this arrangement little realizing that having the independent and impartial advice of professional executives would be in his own interest, as most politicians nowadays are essentially men of rather poor calibre whose thinking is mostly centred round narrow notions of self love and self interest as the beginning and the end of human motive! A complete transformation of the Public Service is indeed of vital interest if we are to move meaningfully towards the objective of building a new Sri Lankan nation.
Reform of the Criminal Justice System.
As much as I was shocked to read of the brutal assault on the Principal of a school quite recently,I was also shocked to read of the conviction of a Magistrate on the charge of a felony! and of another Judge who is said to have embezzled and committed fraud and has been sentenced to 45 years in jail. What a disgrace for the once respected judiciary of our land. It is indeed time that we sat up and addressed the much delayed question of the reform of our Judicial System. Has our Criminal Justice System ensured the security of all citizens of this country? A survey commissioned some years ago by the Marga Institute, titled ‘A System Under Siege", indicated that the majority of those surveyed expressed the view that they had no confidence in our judicial system as it was not always fair or impartial.
Furthermore, they felt that it was susceptible to corruption, not easily accessible and hardly ever affordable, while at the same being far too slow. That was indeed quite an indictment! Although many years have gone by since that survey, I have reason to believe that the situation quite apart from improving, has deteriorated further. Although, a Presidential Commission on Law and Order was appointed by President Chandrika Kumaratunge and its report was officially submitted to her, the report has sadly, never seen the light of day! I am reliably informed that this report had advocated far reaching reforms to the entire Criminal Justice System which would amount to a complete revamping of the system and the substitution in its place of an alternative system that would :
1)Make the Criminal Justice System more responsive to the communities it serves.
2)Enable the Criminal Justice System to function as a coherent whole,ensuring greater co-ordination with the established structures of the component agencies while safeguarding the independence of the judiciary and the prosecution.
3)Strengthen the management of performance of the system in service delivery, by instituting reporting structures in consultation with the concerned agencies,with clear lines of responsibility.
4) Initiate reform of the Criminal Justice System and its law regime, ensuring thereby a co-ordinated approach of the agencies to meet the objective of law and order by gearing the process towards its clear legal function of getting at the truth, consistent with justice, by balancing the system in favour of the victim and the community.
Policing
Another imperative need is to change the concept of Policing; the emphasis must change from mere enforcement to community policing. The Police department has indeed an important role to play in the building of a Sri Lanka nation. Today most minorities in particular dread to visit a Police station, this situation must change. Sri Lanka needs to have a truly Sri Lankan Police Force. The government could consider even requiring all youth over the age of eighteen to undergo a period of three months Police training as apart of national service, just as some countries, including Singapore, require all youth to undergo military training as a part of national service. This would not only discipline our youth but also promote camaraderie and would also help the Police to maintain law and order more effectively.
A respected lady who once held office with integrity wrote to me and stated that she "strongly feel examples must be set by the very top leaders in Government and the private sector; they must profess sincerity, honesty and integrity, those with poor track records must never be nominated for high office and leaders must set the tone for good governance and institutional honesty and stability...and this should be reflected in a world-class education system which is accessible to all children; that is how countries like Singapore prospered"
In conclusion, I can do no better than quote from a recent statement put out by a group of eminent citizens of our country, invited to a brain storming session by the Marga Institute, "Managing the future that is emerging requires a profound transformation of our politics and a full commitment to the core human values of a just society. The challenges we face transcend the narrow partisan agendas of gaining or retaining political power". Let us dedicate ourselves to this worthy cause.
11 Comments
Food for thought.
Yes teachers & public servants should not become businessmen /women. Today the society had become too consumerised and selfishness is the key word in every ones attitude.
Cohesiveness in the society starting from the smallest unit family is no more. The religious values should be inculcated first at home then at school. Then only the society as a whole could develop. What about the political leaders and their corruption? who 's going to reverse all these negative effects on our society?
"With the penultimate phase of the conflict now drawing to a close, it is indeed gratifying to note that the President has gone on record as stating that this country belongs to all of us, whether we be Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays, Burghers, Parsis or Sindhis, all of whom have come to call this their home..... "
I would like to ask Kalyananda Godage what official action President took against his army commander or his brothers when they made statements which were directly in contradiction to what Godage claims in "record ". One language two nations and two languages one nation by Colvin was in a better record than the Presidents one above.
The best records should be engraved in the countrie's consitution and best implementation should be its full practice. In 1947/ 1948 the Sinhalese leaders convinced the minority leaders in parliament the country is for all and came out with unitary state constitution but at the same time denied upcountry Tamils & others their voting rights.
But with out any terrorism from any minority groups how the countries constitution were changed in 1956,1972,1978 using the majoritarian rule to consolidate the position of the majority Sinhala Buddhists at the expense of the minorities during these periods and up to 1983 under these constitutions the law and order were executed in many ways and one of it was to send the Tamils from the NE provinces back to their home lands from Colombo and rest of the south.
When all these happened LTTE or other Tamil youth groupd were not taken up the armed struggle seriously.
There were no foreign direct involvement. Yet the majoritarian rule and the state terror continued and war broke out. For the fortune of the Southern leaders and particualalry for Mahinda regime Bush regime's fight against terror and Indias closeness to US helped take military upperhand with no respect for human rights and with outany offer of political solution through UN or other International or regional Institutions.
Without creative destruction of current unitary constitution how can Godage advocate for "Building blocks needed for building a "new" Sri Lankan nation "
Perhaps only conclusion I can draw is the "new " Srilankan Nation Godage means is a replacement of British empire's Ceylon with Sinhala Buddhist Empire's Srilanka because the whole of the Island is under the Sinhala army like how British brought the whole of the Islands three Kingdoms under the british Army. Godage is echoing what Sarath Fonseka honestly told with out mincing his words.
This war is a FATAL BLOW to TAMIL COMMUNALISM on the Island. It is about time too. Now we can CRUSH the TERRORISTS and force these Tamil nationalists who are HELL BENT on Division to embrace the Reality of Sri Lanka as a Multicultural and Integrated Island or they can LEAVE....
Who is trying to fool whom here. The army commander has gone on record with his Sinhala ethnocentric comments to a Canadian paper. President said anything or did anything about these comments. And this author is talking about bridge building .............
By the time the war is over, there won't be any tamil left!! As such the President need not worry about the Tamils!! What was he doing when he brother openly said that "any thing outside the safety zone is a legitimate target" ie including hospitals, schools etc. He deliberately bombed the "safety zone" The President knows very well that a minimum of 100 Tamils are killed every day ie. including children, babies, old, young, men, women. and several hundred injured daily. Is he waiting for all the times to die, before embracing them as "brothers and sisters". What has he done regarding the "white van" terror, abductions, extra judicial killings, rape, torture, disappearance out side the war zone!! Again he is waiting for the Tamils to be wiped out!! That is the truth!!
The writers enthusiasm is representative of the views and aspiration of a substantial majority of Sinhala people who bear no ill-will whatsoever towards the Tamil people and yearn to see the day that we would be able to live in harmony and ensure that violence need not be resorted to in order to settle our differences even in the most dire of circumstances.Some would see this as a utopian dream that can never take root in Sri Lanka because of the deep and hurtful rift that has torn the communities asunder over some sixty years.The writers view that there must be a substantive and qualitative constitutional,administrative,judicial,cultural and spiritual change to create the environment for our peaceful co-existence is a truism.The Herculean task of bringing such changes about rests on the ability of the nation to find a leader who is strong enough,magnanimous enough and has the courage of his conviction to virtually single mindedly cause the formulation of the core values and to then set the changes in motion and manage them through to fruition within a relatively short time.If Mr Rajapakse is such a leader we shall see the amazing transformation of Sri Lanka to that democratic ideal state or as near a place of such ilk.If he fails to take this stand all of the good work he has done of late under the most extraordinary pressure that a leader of a small nation would ever face,will be simply assessed as a flash-in-the pan.The starting point of such change is getting the protagonists to the peace table again.There seems to be a substantially common line of thinking among us the Sinhalese that we have won the war and nothing else matters and we can now dictate the terms of our common existence.This is the wrong view,this is a dangerous trend.We will either swim together or sink together for another sixty years lock ,stock and barrel.May the Triple Gem and gods and deities of all Sri lankans guide and direct us to Truth and Righteousness, Love and Compassion for one another which is the only way to Peace.The simple first step to Peace may be for Sinahalese and Tamils to start speakingly kindly of one another.
"With the penultimate phase of the conflict now drawing to a close...".
The LTTE cannot be annihilated that easily! Only Sri Lankan Tamils who have observed LTTE very well and closely know how deeply they have rooted. They will remain a strong force untill Tamils are given sweeping autonomy as demanded in ISGA or a separate Tamil Ealam. May be the LTTE will not hold large territories until such time they think it is strategically worthwhile. They have the support of the majority of the Tamils. The support they enjoy from Tamils and their innovations and the technological and military skills they have shown in this 30 odd years of conflict should make clever people think that they cannot be simply ignored!
Sometimes it is difficult to fathom Mr Godage. To which side does he bat, is the oft-asked question? He is identified as a leading voice of the Sinhala supremacist lobby that ensures regular and generous space for him in the English dailies that also engineers the shutting off of views and responses from the Tamil academic and intellectual sections.
One sees an absence of Tamil views in the Lankan English dailies today. And yet Tamils are pleased with the propositions he makes here and are prepared to let bygones be bygones in the interest of national unity and future prosperity to all. Better still he should use his influences to get the Govt to
(1) not further delay the much heralded devolution of powers to the North and East, which the international community has also been pressing for. If the Govt is unable to overcome the senseless opposition of men like Wimal Weerawansa, the JHU and the Buddhist hierarchy to carry out this essential programme to unite the country, it is then a Sinhala problem. Very soon Jayalalith and Karunanidhi will bring down their enormous weight on the Sri Lankan issue and we might have to eat humble pie yielding to this. Sampanthan is in record in the floor of Parliamnet calling for “immediate devolution of powers within the (undivided) country” that also characteristically remains ignored. Now Rajpakse, India and the world recognize the TNA as the democratic voice of Lankan Tamils
(2) Carry out by deed, as opposed to meaningless words and assurances of Lankan leaders including the current one, immediate infra-structure development of the destroyed North-East (roads, rail, bridges, hospitals, schools, irrigation and water, electricity, enable private and public industrial and commercial ventures, enable agriculture and fishing. Note all of these also will go a long way to reduce the unemplyment problem
(3) restore private and farming land falsely taken over by the army under the guise of HSZ. The Supreme Court order to restore these and report to the SC remains either ignored or attended to lukewarm fashion
(4) Re-merge the North East that was in existence vide Govt fiat from 1987 until sections of the judiciary decided to play “politics” on pressure from the Sinhala supremacist lobby lead mostly by Weeransa/JVP, JHU et al
(5) Allow a future North East administration to carry out their own policies in Education
If Mr Godage wants to pull Sri Lanka from the edge of the cliff, to which this and previous Govts have taken the country to, the above could be some of the “starters”
ISS
There is NO point in trying to change the Ethno-Religious communities in Sri Lanka.
I would rather see that ALL such comunities are treated EQUALLY in front of the LAW. And the laws of the LAN apply equally to ALL. That is both the Criminal Law and the Civil Law.
The people should be able to communicate with eith Sinhala, Tamil or English. If there is a dispute then that should be handled in English so thay it is tranparent to ALL.
The so called Sri Lankan identity is nothing BUT respect for the LAW. And the Rule of Law should apply to ALL equally that is ALL that is required.
ANy deviation from this will create more problems than the problems it would solve.
KEEP IT SIMPLE THAT SHOULD BE THE GOAL. STATE IS JUST A MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE TO GOVERN THE COUNTRY.
The author seems to have taken great pains to say indirectly that there is no "good governance" is prevailing in the country. He has taken the trouble to highlight it.
He is speaking of the good-old days when ALL "Ceylonese' were studying in one class with English as the medium of instruction under "colonial" rule. We are to be reminded that the people who sowed "discontent" and divided the masses, for their selfish purposes of satisfying their own hunger for power to rule the masses, were these very same people who studied together.
Well, at that time ALL of us were treated equally as "subjects" of the "Master". When the "Master" left the scene one of the "subjects" replaced the "Master" without the consent of the other "subjects" which was resented by the "other subjects".
As said by sinhala_voice | March 31, 2009 09:28 PM
"The so called Sri Lankan identity is nothing BUT respect for the LAW. And the Rule of Law should apply to ALL equally that is ALL that is required.
ANy deviation from this will create more problems than the problems it would solve.
KEEP IT SIMPLE THAT SHOULD BE THE GOAL. STATE IS JUST A MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE TO GOVERN THE COUNTRY."
A simple solution for all the "ills" outlined by the author is to change the present "structure of Parliament".
Separate the powers of parliament and empower different set of 'peoples' representatives to administer each of those separated powers.
Now, one word, for those who are actually and sincerely interested in fostering a united country by supporting “devolution” as a means to achieve sustainable peace.
Please avoid thinking in terms of “devolution” and instead please try to think in terms of “sharing” of powers, rights, duties and responsibilities that cannot be taken back at any time by any government or individual by any method.
The best political solution would be to DILUTE the powers of all elected representatives by separating the powers of Parliament and empowering different sets of people’s representatives to administer the different sets of separated powers. It has to be devolution HORIZONTALLY where every set of representatives would be equal and NOT VERTICALLY where one set of representatives would be above the other which is the normal practice in this power-hungry world. It is because of “devolution” being done “vertically” that we have all the trouble in the power-hungry world.
So for sustainable peace it should not be “devolution” but “dilution of powers” or “sharing of powers” in such a way that no one - other than the common people - is superior. This system would eradicate injustice, discrimination, bribery and corruption and establish the “Rule of Law” and “Rule by ALL” for sustainable peace, tranquility and prosperity and a pleasant living with dignity and respect for all inhabitants in the country. Everyone must have “equal” powers, rights and most importantly duties and responsibilities.
Public Service? I have been in the public service for no less than 42 years and the present public service is nothing to write home about! The Government made a hypocritical blunder of appointing 40,000 graduates into the service. Those graduates would have been better off with a dole of 5000/= rather than spending money to reach the place of work and what not, occupying seats for no purpose and using up govt. resources. They could have spent their time with better prospects of using their University knowledge to something more productive.
But lo and behold! We have a situation on hand, no "amude" bearing peerson is worried about. Let's have it in black an white" only then we realize where we made our mistakes. We will be too late to realize!!!!