The need to communicate coherently in Sri Lanka and abroad

Based on a talk given at the SF training centre in Kilinochchi – Part 1

A few weeks back I was asked to speak at a workshop arranged by the Kilinochchi Special Forces Commander on ‘Information Operations and Civil Affairs’. It seemed an excellent initiative, and the concept paper sketched out several areas  civilian administrators should also have thought of. Sadly they don’t, so it was left to the forces to think about

1. Communicating immediately and consistently with the community

2. Establishing and nurturing good relations with the media

3. Reinforcing support relationships with others

4. Describing and updating progress on the post-conflict peacebuilding effort

5. Gaining and maintaining a reputation as a trusted source of reliable information for the effected population

6. Implementing an information strategy that enhances operational credibility and effectiveness

I was deeply impressed by all this, for I have long argued that the remarkable achievements of this government are being nullified by its failure to put forward clearly its remarkable successes. I have also noted that the civilian branches that have, nationally and internationally, the responsibility of setting the record straight have failed miserably. That is why I feel strongly that it is time some of the efficiency which characterized the operations of the military through the conflict period, and beyond, were conveyed to those who have let down the country so badly.

When I talk of this government, I should make a distinction between achievements before the last General Election, and what happened afterwards. There is no doubt that, before government got a large majority in Parliament, its actions were much more effective.

Sri Lanka Rights Watch 77 – Youth perspectives on bringing government closer to the people

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First published - Daily News 24 Dec 2012

Last month I judged the semi-finals of the MTV Debating Competition. I don’t usually accept such invitations, given the time these engagements take, but the topic was whether the 13th Amendment should be abolished, and I thought I should get an idea of what young people were thinking.

To my surprise, both teams expressed the view that the 13th Amendment was a mess because it did not sufficiently empower people at the periphery. Those who did not want to abolish it granted that it needed amendment, to which the Proposition said that there was no point in amending it out of recognition, and that it made more sense to replace it altogether.

Of course the views expressed could not be taken as representative of the country as a whole, since the debate was in English, and it was two Colombo schools which were in the Semi=Final. But I remembered then the nationwide polls taken at the time I took over the Peace Secretariat in 2007, when the government had come to the realization that it had to deal with the Tigers militarily. Even polls taken by NGOs that had been in favour of the Peace Process initiated by the UNP government – as I had been, until I realized, very soon I should add, that this was not likely to lead to peace but to further confrontation and suffering as the Tigers used that period to build up their military strength – indicated that the vast majority of the people were in favour of getting rid of the Tigers. But they also advocated a peaceful political settlement with greater devolution.

I should add that the need for this is universally agreed, though as I have noted it is expressed as decentralization by many who urge getting rid of Provincial Councils as they now stand. My own view is that, if we go on discussing the matter in terms of Provincial Councils and emotive terms such as devolution and decentralization, we will lose sight of what is generally agreed, that we must develop mechanisms to ensure more power to the people, with greater accountability.

Using the armed forces productively and sensitively

The need to train productively and continuously

Having written for nine months about children, I thought of moving to another topic that seems to me equally important in the current context. It is also possibly of greater topical interest. And though I believe the care of children is of crucial significance, and that we must do better in this regard to promote development as well as equity in this country, I think the better deployment of the armed forces would also help us immeasurably to achieve these goals.

I say this because we are faced with a terrible crisis of administration in this country. I have been exploring elsewhere, and will continue to do so, how we can make our administration more responsive as well as more effective, but I think we also need for this purpose to look at best practices that can be replicated. In Sri Lanka we find that only amongst the armed forces.

Former Foreign Secretary Palikakkara, in talking at a recent Liberal Party seminar on political reform, mentioned – perhaps in defence of the recent obvious incompetence of his former Ministry – that if foreign policy is ailing, it’s no different to decay in governance generally. I think this is correct, and that all branches of the government suffer from inadequate training and insufficient attention to thinking and planning skills – as well as our failure to demand that reports be written and monitoring of activities be systematic.

I recently found – or had thrust in my place – two obvious examples of our failures with regard to training and planning. One of the new graduate trainees in the North said that government was wasting their time while not giving them enough to do, which another said they had not received adequate training, and were not properly briefed about what they should do.

More startlingly, when we were considering, at the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Justice, the report of the Judges’ Training Institute, which the Minister said was much improved, we found no mention at all of basic training courses for new entrants to the judiciary. In the Committee was one of the brightest of the new Parliamentarians, Mr Janaka Bandara, who had been a magistrate himself, and he described to us the inadequacies of the training he had received when he took up a judicial appointment.

The exception to this sorry state of affairs regarding training is the military, and in particular the army, which has continuous training as well as entrenched accountability mechanisms. This I think explains why they have been about the most functional unit in government over the last decade. Given the enormous talent we do have in several places, better training, as well as the allocation of clearcut responsibilities as we have in the army, will surely make good people perform better in all official agencies, and enable at least some work to be got out of those who are not so good. 

Sri Lanka Rights Watch 76 – Principles for Educational Progress

Daily News 7 Jan 2013

At a regional consultation last week on educational assistance, I was immensely struck by the assertion of one participant that programmes should aim at ‘making the classroom more joyful’. Sadly, that is not seen by many educational administrators or trainers as important. The result is that teachers do not focus on this sufficiently, even though doing this would also help to make teaching an enjoyable vocation for practitioners, and not just a job.

I was the more conscious of this for recently I read a critique of a description I had written some time back of members of the Hela school who had made learning at S. Thomas’ such a joy. Arisen Ahubudu for Sinhala, and his great friends Mr Coperahewa and Jinadasa for Art and Science respectively, had hugely enjoyed their work, and we had hugely enjoyed both their teaching and the performances in which they engaged. In the process we had also learned a lot. Perhaps I had not made this clear, but I had the impression that the critique was based on the assumption, not uncommon in Sri Lanka, that I had been rude in describing the additional input of these memorable masters.

The absence of such teachers in many schools, or the failure to encourage them to use their social gifts effectively, is perhaps what leads to a situation in which ‘school-based education is often perceived as irrelevant’, as the position paper for the consultation put it. Of course there are other factors, such as the tuition culture which seems almost sanctified now, and the fact that many teachers in schools give tuition and expect their own pupils to attend their classes. But underlying this is the assumption that education is a top down process, and not a partnership, in which teachers and students work together towards a common goal.

That word was a key element in the discussion we had. The organization that had brought us together has innovative vocational training programmes in Sri Lanka and India and Nepal, which ensures multiple ownership of its activities. On the job internships are an essential part of the training, and we were privileged to meet four products of their programmes, 3 urban Muslim girls and 1 boy from a rural background, who were all now gainfully employed – two beauticians, one tailor and one in the retail trade, for which it is now increasingly being realized, training in soft skills and in particular customer relations is essential. Incidentally, in a context in which businesses are finding rapid turnovers in staff in some areas in the North, it would make much sense to introduce this type of training programme that develops appropriate attitudes as well as skills.

Sri Lanka Rights Watch 75 – Guarding against Gender Based Violence

I was privileged, at the end of November, to attend a workshop arranged by a group of women’s organizations looking into Gender Based Violence and related issues. It is chaired by the head of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, which I found had been assisting with police training. This is extremely helpful because, given the revitalized role of the police in community support, and in particular the enhanced role of their Women and Children’s Desks,  assisting their officers in a better understanding of the assistance they can provide is invaluable.

In this regard I noted that I wished the section of the UN that is supposed to look after Human Rights was also similarly active. It seems rather to see its role as the lead agency in persecuting us about war crimes. Though the very helpful young lady who attended noted that it had assisted with police training, this was with regard to a programme I had initiated four years ago when I was Secretary to the Ministry of Human Rights. That had indeed been successful, largely I think because of the energies of the British Consultant in training through role play, who had also provided the initial draft of a manual which was finally published a couple of years later.

But there had been no follow up, and I was appalled to find that the office had not even contacted the head of the Police Women and Children’s Bureau. All incumbents of the post I have had to work with, since I was appointed to convene the Task Force to expedite action on the National Human Rights Action Plan, have been extremely positive and helpful. It was disappointing to find that the UN agency that should be working with them had ignored them, whereas a much smaller UN agency had been so helpful.

Sri Lanka Rights Watch 74 – Eastern Muslim problems

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I think it was Aristotle who noted that the roots of injustice lay in treating similar things as dissimilar, and different things in the same way. In line with this dictum we should recognize that the issues which trouble people in different parts of the country are different, and solutions should be specific to the problems under consideration. But, conversely, there are also some common problems, and these should be addressed in a consistent manner. Unfortunately we all tend to look on problems that affect us as particularly serious, and this can lead to injustice.

Thus over the last few years there has been much concern about those who were displaced in the North. Given the gravity of the problem, the indignation of the international community was understandable, though their failure to have addressed this issue when Tamils were being driven along by the LTTE to be used as hostages, as highlighted by Kath Noble recently, raises issues about their actual motivation subsequently. So does the fact that previously they by and large neglected the Muslims driven from their homes in the North. When the issue was raised, it was by hucksters such as Gareth Evans who used their suffering to claim that Sri Lanka was ripe for the implementation of his R2P doctrine. In asserting that ethnic cleansing had taken place in Sri Lanka, he – or rather his sidekick Alan Keenan, for poor Gareth confessed that he had no idea what he had meant by using the phrase about Sri Lanka – implied that this was by government, only to admit that they were in fact talking about what the LTTE had done to the Muslims in 1990.

But in trying to deal with the enormity of what had occurred then, we have neglected the abuse of the Muslims of the East, which the LTTE had been steadily engaging in even before 1990. I was therefore startled, which is a reflection of my ignorance, by the assertions of Muslim leaders in Kattankudy about 65,000 persons deprived of their lands, for whom no remedial action had been taken. They noted that whole villages had been erased from the map, and that they were now confined to a tiny area – which was practically bursting at the seams, as was clear from the dumping of garbage which the Kattankudy Urban Council is engaged in, with no regard for health or safety or the inevitable destruction of water resources that such squalor will result in.

Participants at the meeting were also particularly indignant that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission had ignored their plight. I wondered about this, given the thorough job the LLRC had done but, in looking next day at the Action Plan, I realized that the despair of the citizens of Kattankudy was understandable. The sole recommendation noted in this regard was to ‘Appoint a special committee to examine durable solutions and formulate a comprehensive State policy on the issue (of Muslim IDPs displaced from the North) after extensive consultations with the IDPs and the host communities’.

Ideas for Constitutional Reform 10 – Ensuring greater coherence about legislation

I referred earlier to the need to strengthen Committees of Parliament so that they can provide better inputs into legislation, but recent experience indicates that there is much more that should be done to ensure better legislation for the country. I have realized now that we are perhaps the weakest country with regard to formal procedures, amongst those that can claim to have strong democratic traditions. This may well lead to the erosion of democracy that we simplistically diagnose in terms of people, without due attention to the processes that are so vital for democracy.

This danger is obvious if we consider the current common belief that problems with regard to the Chief Justice arose when the initial Supreme Court judgment on the Divineguma Bill was delivered. When the Parliamentary Group met that day, I suggested that this judgment, following on several previous bills of great importance having failed to get through Parliament in the previous two years, indicated that we needed to be more careful about legislation.

This suggestion was repudiated, on the grounds that the Supreme Court was biased, and even the Attorney General under whose aegis the Bill had been drawn up had found, being now on the Supreme Court, that it needed amendment. Given the different areas of responsibility in the Attorney General’s Department, this did not strike me as evidence of inconsistency, and I am happy to say that now Members of the Cabinet have declared that the Supreme Court had suggested some sensible amendments that government should have introduced from the start.

I believe this vindicates my position, that government has been far too careless about legislation recently. This is not always because of haste, given that indeed one crucial measure has had to be dropped for the moment because of delays at the Legal Draughtsman’s Department. I refer to the attempt of the Ministry of Higher Education to encourage private and non-profit tertiary education, something this country urgently needs if our youngsters are to benefit from the economic opportunities our infrastructural development programmes have created.

Sri Lanka Rights Watch 73 – Legal clarity with regard to empowerment

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One of the main problems we have had with regard to devolution is the failure of our law makers to draft legislation properly. The 13th Amendment is a case in point, since it is full of confusion about how power should be exercised.

The most obvious example of this is in relation to what is termed the Concurrent List, where the Constitution says that, where there is conflict, the decision of the Central Government will prevail. This is not concurrence. When this is pointed out, the response is that the clause was taken from the Indian Constitution.

In India that provision did not matter much, since the States had had governments before the Centre did. State governments therefore had experience in passing legislation, and the Central government would not counter such legislation, unless there were potentially destructive consequences.

In Sri Lanka however, Provincial Councils were new, and Jayewardene compounded the problem by choosing good fighters to head the lists for the elections that were held. This was understandable, given the violence in the country at the time, but it put paid to constructive development in the Provinces, except in Wayamba, where the toughie chosen also happened to be an able and imaginative administrator.

Sri Lanka Rights Watch 72 – Functioning with precision in English

A wave of problems with regard to Human Rights has swept the country recently, most tragically the events at Welikada. The resolution to impeach the Chief Justice has made it clear our constitution has deficiencies with regard to ensuring the independence of the judiciary while also promoting accountability and transparency with regard to judicial decisions. Then we have had the internal UN report on the conduct of the UN in Sri Lanka during the war, and a spate of recommendations in Geneva that we thought had to be rejected.

Those who have read this column will realize that I have discussed these problems, and the dangers they present, and have also suggested remedies. I pointed this out to the President, but was duly crushed by his rejoinder, that since I functioned in English, necessarily I had little impact.

One of the pleasures of talking with him is that he listens, even when there is disagreement (though occasionally, when one argues too much, there is the firm injunction not to try to persuade him), and his rejoinders make a lot of sense. This is a characteristic he shares with the Secretary of Defence, who is even more definite about what cannot be done, but extraordinarily positive about most matters – as I found in my first formal dealings with him when I headed the Peace Secretariat, and he straight away allowed the A 9 northward from Omanthai to be open almost every day of the week, when the LTTE had previously not allowed the ICRC to facilitate this.

The President’s advice about the need for me to function more actively in Sinhala, and especially in Parliament, clearly makes sense. Given that my analyses are written in English, I cannot really expect them to have much impact on most decision makers. I am grateful therefore to those who do respond, to the letters I write in English after meetings of Divisional Secretariat Reconciliation Committee meetings. Health and Defence are always prompt, I should note, which confirms my view that institutions that observe the proprieties are also the most efficient. But recently I have been delighted to receive positive replies from the Ministry of Agriculture (though sadly not Irrigation, despite the many problems in that field drawn to my attention), and even the Ministry of Education has been helpful.

Ideas for Constitutional Reform 9 – Promoting consultation in Parliament

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I promised to return to the subject, since I did not spend much time on discussing Committees of Parliament. These should be extremely important, since they should be the principal forums in which Parliament discharges its two vital responsibilities, namely legislation and financial oversight.

In most Parliaments, important business is conducted through Committees, with plenary sessions reserved for the cut and thrust of debate, for discussion of broad policy issues, and for questions to keep government on its toes. The Sri Lankan Parliament does still have lively debates and discussions, though the function of questions has collapsed, since Ministers now postpone answers to difficult questions, and there are no sanctions against them when this happens. We tried, when the Committee to amend Standing Orders was sitting, to introduce a provision whereby the Speaker reports to the Head of the Executive any Ministers who are in dereliction of their duties. Unfortunately that Committee went the way of all Parliamentary Committees, into virtual oblivion.

Other Committees, I should note, do sit, though hardly any Ministers conduct meetings on a monthly basis as is expected. This would be difficult, given the number of Committees there are. I can also understand Ministers thinking these meetings not very useful, since they are largely concerned with the problems of individual Members of Parliament, who can also bring those problems up direct with the Minister or the Secretary, instead of using up time meant for general discussions. As I have suggested, Ministers should be required to set aside a time each week for Members to approach them about matters concerning their own interests, so the time of the Consultative Committee could be spent on general issues and policy matters. But since that rarely happens now, I can understand why Members who do not have individual issues to bring up do not attend, since it must be tedious for them to sit through the individual problems of others.