10.2.2008
By K T Rajasingham
JVP
Will be Democratic and Support Public and Private Economic
Development
The
J V P Leader Somawansa Amerasinghe expressed the view
that they will establish a democracy where everyone would
have equal rights. He added “as I told you few days
back we will have a political system that we are building
at the moment. It is to establish an economy based on
both state and private sector. And both sectors will be
encouraged by the government and all the support will
be given by the government.
That is our economic policy. Continuing the discussion
JVP Leader Somawansa Amerasinghe stated that a number
acts needed to be put together and done simultaneously.
What
are those?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: No, no, I cannot say number one is this,
number 2 is this, and number 3 is this, no, all these
are to happen simultaneously. There are no wars. There
are no great wars to say one and two, two and three, three
and four and all that. So these must be done simultaneously.
Since it is a big process, this is going to be an important
process and that should not be stopped half way. OK? Demilitarization,
rebuilding the two provinces can process and the government
can supply the funds. If necessary, reduce the funds that
are being used in the other provinces. So, we must, as
soon as possible, bring the two provinces to the same
standard that people in other provinces are in at the
moment.And I must mention: this is the first time; a political
party is going to have this opportunity. I have announced
it yesterday, and if a member of a family is killed or
injured or handicapped, whether they are Tamils, Sinhalese
or Muslims, they must be compensated without any consideration
about their ethnic origin or any other differences.
K.T.Rajasingham:
Compensated for what? Any member of the family is killed
or injured or handicapped in the conflict?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Any member of the family killed, or injured
or handicapped in the conflict yes, exactly. We include
in this case the families of members of the LTTE also.
If the family members were not supporting the terrorist
organization then they are also entitled for compensation.
That condition is there.
K.T.Rajasingham:
How can you know that some member of the family is killed?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:That can be checked and can be ascertained.
No problem. There are ways to do that. Even when some
people vote there are ways even to check to whom they
have voted or whether they have not voted. There are ways.
K.T.Rajasingham:
You know even today if someone is killed in the North,
the death certificate is never given to the families.
Stating that so and so had been shot and killed and he
is killed. Death certificates were not given to those
families or to their next of kin up to now. Government
has not made any such arrangements. We don’t have
a list of those innocent civilians who were killed in
this protracted bloody conflict
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Mr. Rajasingham, can you remember in 1988-89
period?
K.T.Rajasingham:I
know the same thing happened to your people also and not
only during that period even earlier, during the JVP’s
struggle for a change even in 1971.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:In this area and in other provinces also the
same thing happened. What we say is that we should not
repeat the same mistake. You must somehow; there are ways
to find out what has happened. They must all be issued
with the death certificates. When that is done, it is
possible to find out which family members are killed and
also property destroyed in this conflict and must be compensated.
Is
there any reason not to compensate? No. We are going to
not to find how to compensate them. We look into this
and find a way to pay them. That must be the position.
Now
the Government is looking for reason not to pay the people.
That is the practice now. About this compensation, for
the first time we have to announce the right way of doing
it.
Then
there must be a commission or organization as you said
to defeat communalism in this country to address their
grievances or any discrimination, to report about discrimination
and to get it remedied.
Then,
this is for the first time; we are reporting to hold a
census not only of the people, but also of the properties.
Because there are allegations now, the terrorist are occupying
some of the land that belongs to the other communities.
K.T.Rajasingham:Yes,
Muslims?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Muslims and vice versa. And they will be using
Sinhalese and Tamil’s properties; otherwise we won’t
be able to hear something like this. There are complaints.
It is a problem so it must be solved. This can be done
within one or two years and we should not take centuries.
If a Government is determined to do all these things,
it can do this within a very short period. Then we are
going to reach that point where democracy is restored.
K.T.Rajasingham:And
what about National Reconciliation?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:I am getting to it, of course.
K.T.Rajasingham:
National reconciliation and National Integration to find
out the root cause of all these problems.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Yes, national integration and reconciliation
and we proposed something like a Truth Commission as well.
K.T.Rajasingham:That
is what I said national reconciliation is like a Truth
Commission.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Exactly, yes
K.T.Rajasingham:Then
we can go into this and find the root cause of all these
problems.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Exactly, exactly. Otherwise there will be
repetition and then we can have elections.
K.T.Rajasingham:
what about the changes of the constitution?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Wait..wait let us start a discussion, start
the dialogue how to amend the constitution or to enact
a new constitution. I have mentioned about demilitarization
including handing over law and order problems, withdrawal
of arm forces as I mentioned earlier. For us JVP, we will
give our solution.
We
need to decentralize the administration if needed up to
the village level even go, may be by road by road.
K.T.Rajasingham:
What form of Government you are proposing?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Just now I told you, our final aim is this,
Sri Lanka must be a democratic country, multi-ethnic,
multi-cultural, multi-religious society in which everybody
has equal opportunity, equality before the law and all
other needed factors. And our principles for devolution
or centralization it will be based on a democratic bureaucracy
not on autocracy.
K.T.Rajasingham:
You have not told yet of the form of Government?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:The JVP will of course interested in abolishing
the present system of executive presidency, interested
in restoring parliamentary democracy. Parliament is supreme
and maybe, soon there will be a dialogue or discussions
on how to establish a more suitable parliament.
K.T.Rajasingham:
The party should be having some idea about the form of
Government and how to devolve power, and devolve power
on village. But there should be..
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:No…no it is not devolution of power
it is decentralization of power.
K.T.Rajasingham:
What unit you are going for a decentralization? There
should be a unit for decentralization; you can’t
simply say that you are going to decentralize? Decentralization
on what level?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:The thing is this; it can be at the level
of village committee, maybe pradeshiya saba, maybe other
administrative entities like that. We can’t come
to the final decision now at this moment. It must be discussed
later and it is the part of the dialogue process.
K.T.Rajasingham:
And then the form of Government it can be unitary, it
can federal all this things has to be discussed at that
time?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: No, we stand for a Unitary State.
K.T.Rajasingham:
Your stand is for a unitary form of Government?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: Exactly.
K.T.Rajasingham:
One thing you need to understand is that, since 1948 up
to 2008, even during the colonial days, the country is
having a unitary form of Government. The unitary form
of government has not solved any single problem that the
country faces up till now. So why do you want to insist
on unitary form of government again, and again and again?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: Please listen, when Japan was defeated, militarism
was defeated and democracy restored there. It is a typical
unitary state. I have been to their Ministry of Constitution
in Japan and in fact met with all the top officials and
when Mr. Yasushi Akashi came to Sri Lanka I showed him
how his constitution is written and how it is being practiced.
They have a very good system, very successful system since
it was established without any problem from the very day
their constitution was written and passed. It is working
so why not here? So why not study from them? So why not
learn from them?
K.T.Rajasingham:
But only one thing, we have a problem; in Japan we have
only one ethnic community, the Japanese? But Sri Lanka
is a multi-ethnic country and the ground realities are
different from that of Japan?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: Mr. Rajasingham, you must go to Japan.
K.T.Rajasingham:
I have been there.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: You must go to Japan and see the differences
they have. They have different islands and they have different
provinces also and Federalism is not going to solve the
differences between the communities.
K.T.Rajasingham:
Why do you talk about federalism? I never said anything
about it. Why can’t we devolve some other system
that is suitable for our country?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: No..no we are not going to follow the same
system. But we can learn from the unitary states and federal
states also. We can learn quiet a lot. That is how the
constitutions are being drafted based on the other constitutions
and you gather what is positive and you reject what is
negative.
K.T.Rajasingham:
Why can you people sit down and draft a constitution that
will serve the country’s need? Instead of giving
names such as unitary and federal.
I
still remember in 1971, when Dr. Colvin R. De Silva came
up with the basic constitution proposal that belonged
to the then ruling party, they were not prepared to accommodate
any other proposal to their basic proposals proposed by
the other political parties.
Dr.
Colvin R. De Silva said his proposal was based on autonomy
– based on indigenous values. The 1972 Constitution
– the so called Republican Constitution was the
only constitution which provided for its own repeal and
replacement. This enabled J R Jayewardene to come with
a new constitution of 1978.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: Ok, Mr.Rajasingham, now we have been saying
to all the successive government that if you need to have
a constitution and you say that you need to devolve power,
and if you need to have a federal system, OK, then draft
the constitution and go to the parliament and get a two
third majority, go to the people and get it passed in
the referendum. Then we will have to accept that if the
majority is with the constitution.
K.T.Rajasingham:
I am now talking about the JVP’s road map. We are
not talking about anything else?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: No Mr. Rajasingham, just now you wanted me
to comment on why JVP or and others sit together and draft
a constitution.
K.T.Rajasingham:
No I never said that.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Then what did you ask?
K.T.Rajasingham:
You said that in Japan how the unitary form of government
work successfully. I told you that in Japan they have
only one Japanese ethnicity. In Sri Lanka it is not that.
So in the last 60 years we are having a unitary form of
government and for the last 60 years we have not sort
out any problems.
Instead
of that, over the last 20 years, we are having an armed
conflict. That is the result of the unitary form of government.
So I was asking why JVP can’t come up with a system
of government that will suit our country. That is all
I was asking. I did not say anything else, I was only
asking this.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:The thing is that you can make your suggestions
to the JVP but JVP as a party, as an organization, must
respect its basic principles.
K.T.Rajasingham:
I am not going to say anything but I was only asking why
can’t you do that?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:We can’t do that because we don’t
see that it is the solution for this problem.
K.T.Rajasingham:
When you change or re-enact a constitution, you must come
up with a form of government? That is most important.
You should come up with a form of government, a democratic
or unitary that should suit the country?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:That is your suggestion.
K.T.Rajasingham:
No, I am only a journalist, I don’t give suggestion
to anybody. I am supposed only to ask questions.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:You see that one thing as a solution for the
problem. We see as a political party what we say is the
only correct solution for the problem of Sri Lanka.
K.T.Rajasingham:
Tell me your solution now.
Somawansa
Amerasinghe: I have already told you the solution. That
our country needs to be united and have decentralization
of administration and again a democratic country that
guarantees everybody’s right and should give equal
opportunities, and equality before the law.
So
our aim is, that the country, as a democratic country,
in which anybody can reside anywhere within the country
and live in any part of the country without any limit
or restriction, so it must be a democratic country and
it must have the characteristic of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural,
multi-religious, multi-lingual and we will create a society
in which all the communities live in harmony in a democratic
society.
K.T.Rajasingham:
What is your economic policy? Because we always talk about
the political side of it, but the country needs a basic
economic agenda in the constitution?
Somawansa
Amerasinghe:Now this is what I say, we are going to establish
a democracy in the country and as I told you few days
back about the political system that we are building at
the moment. It is to establish an economy based on both
state and private sector. And both sectors will be encouraged
by the government and all the support will be given by
the government so our economic policy will be that.
Courtesy - Asian Tribune