Responsible civil society must respond to national issues

•  Is our civil society defending the reputation of Sri Lanka?

Every individual is a part of civil society. Some will be prepared to, and indeed end up in jail as a result of their endeavours to create a better society. However, individual voices, important as they are, can never have the impact of large pools of collective voices.

In Sri Lanka, which is primarily a private sector-owned economy, the voice that will be heard is with the collection of chambers of commerce and trade associations. If they remain silent, it means that this most important sector is not making a contribution to protect the long term economic interests of Sri Lanka.

The damaging allegations

The overseas Tamil diaspora is succeeding with their lobbying. The influential international community has been persuaded to continually make a series of allegations spiced with innuendo. This is undoubtedly tarnishing the image of Sri Lanka. This could in time affect the economic prospects of the country.

The allegations revolve around two major issues, war crimes and reconciliation rehabilitation and resettlement in the post war scenario.

Civil society is silent

Our major components of civil society remain silent on both issues. They are sort of spectators, at what is perhaps perceived as a tag wrestling match between UN agencies and the Rajapaksas.

Whether one likes the Rajapaksas or the UPFA is quite irrelevant in the context of the current scenario. What is at stake is the image of Sri Lanka. Civil society must challenge the distortions and put forward with gusto the correct picture.

War crimes

In every war there will be civilian casualties. Nobody can deny that. It becomes a crime only where civilians are targeted in areas away from the area of war.

In many ways Sri Lanka has the characteristics of a small community. Every somebody knows all the other somebodies. Nothing can be hidden, rumours will surface. If the Army targeted civilians outside the areas of conflict, we would have known through one grapevine or the other. There would have been some titbits of information circulating. But there were none. There can be no truth in this story.

Civil society must add their weight and tell the world that we do not believe that civilians were targeted during the conflict

Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Resettlement

The other area drawing a lot of flack is the three Rs. Much has been done but once again civil society is silent.

Where what has been done is good, civil society must state this loud and clear. This is the primary need of the hour. Where certain aspects need improvement, in an equal voice the suggestions for improvement must be stated.

Australians are complimentary on progress on 3 Rs

A team of Australian politicians visited Sri Lanka recently. Australians are not cuddly koala bears. They are known to express their views in a robust manner. They held a press conference on their return .The full report is available at http://www.juliebishop.com.au.

I will now quote selectively from this report to give the flavour of what they said:

A perspective: “We have to remember that Sri Lanka is emerging from a bloody conflict, a 30-year civil war. The LTTE was in fact a proscribed organisation in a number of places around the world.”

Reconciliation: “There is clearly a long way to go but we were heartened by the steps that have been taken.”

Resettlement: “Hundreds of thousands of people had been displaced during the war. The majority of them have been returned to their homes.” “We in fact saw a number of housing projects underway.”

Rehabilitation: “On the question of the rehabilitation of former LTTEers, the former combatants, there is a rehabilitation process underway.” “We have seen evidence of the steps being taken to rehabilitate people.”

Reconstruction: “We were struck by the amount of reconstruction work that is going on. Billions of rupees have been invested in major infrastructure projects.” “Much of the north has never had electricity and now a majority of the north has electricity.” “What was also heartening was the reconstruction work being carried on in schools.”

Human rights of MPs: “When we spoke to the Tamil parliamentary leader and asked him of instances of violations of human rights, of physical abuse, of intimidation, harassment against Tamil MPs, he didn’t cite any examples.”

Conclusion: “The Sri Lankan Government is not perfect but it is making inroads into the challenges facing the country and should be encouraged to do so.”

Way forward

It was a 30-year war with a murderous LTTE that had no qualms about killing civilians with their suicide bombers. To then embark on reconciliation, rehabilitation and resettlement is arguably magnanimous!

It is indisputable that a lot has been done in relation to reconciliation, rehabilitation and resettlement.

The chambers and trade associations that should be the voice of the private sector civil society must wake up from their slumber and tell the world in ringing tones what has been done. They should be the Brasso that removes the tarnish on our image.

They should also identify ways and means by which they can support the Government’s efforts in respect of reconciliation, rehabilitation and resettlement.

If the chambers show a greater concern for national issues, they will have a credible voice that could also be expressed on other issues. They will be better placed to dialogue with relevant authorities to develop processes to address other issues of concern in the country.

(The writer has a Master of Arts Degree from Cambridge University, UK, and the AMP of Harvard Business School USA. He counts over 40 years of board experience having served as a Director of several companies in Sri Lanka and abroad. He was a Director on the main Board at Reckitt Benckiser PLC, UK, where he worked most of his career and at the time of his retirement was Global Director – Pharmaceuticals. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of Investment and Sri Lanka Telecom Limited and was a Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Finance. Currently, he serves as Chairman of Hemas Holdings PLC and First Capital PLC.)