Open letter to the President of Sri Lanka

By Geneva Group of concerned Sri Lankans

(September 01, Geneva, Sri Lanka Guardian) We are a group of concerned Sri Lankans of all ethnic origins and religious beliefs in Switzerland. We have read the “Open letter to the President of Sri Lanka” in the Sunday Island of 23 August 2009 and we consider that it highlights a dangerous drift towards the total break down of law and order in our country. We wish to identify ourselves with the views expressed in this letter. Your personal intervention in recent cases involving police misconduct encourages us to think that you yourself are concerned about the state of law enforcement in our country. Since a law-based society, with respect for human rights, is the foundation for peace and development, we trust that the restoration of the rule of law will receive your urgent attention.

As pointed out in the Open Letter referred to, the assault on the rule of law began long ago. The trend accelerated during the years of military conflict when extreme measures were adopted for security reasons. This culture of devaluing the law has become entrenched and, unless the leadership of Sri Lanka is totally committed to reversing this, it will be futile to think about rebuilding our country and advancing the lives of our citizens for generations to come.

We have asked ourselves the question how other Asian countries, far less endowed than our country at the time of their independence, became more prosperous than us- Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea to mention a few random examples? We blame the legacies of our colonial past. We blame our ethnic problem. But which Asian country does not have a colonial legacy? Which country does not have an ethnic problem? Every nation is made up of races, tribes, religious communities and identity-seeking groups of all kinds.

When we look at the history of the prosperous countries of Asia, we see that governments in all of them were able to create, in collaboration with civil society and the business sector, a set of efficient institutions that implemented laws and regulations transparently and thus enabled extraordinary economic growth. These strong institutions also provided to their pluralistic societies a common frame of reference of values of justice, equality before the law and economic advancement for all, which held their societies together.

In Sri Lanka, we have conspicuously failed in building effective institutions that can help to move the country forward. With every change of government, our nascent institutions have been weakened and debased through political meddling. This has been an unfortunate trend since we became an independent country.

The end of the military conflict is of immense relief to our country and we are grateful for your unwavering commitment to that goal. We have now been presented with an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild our country’s institutional and legal foundations, in order to ensure that we shall never again suffer the trauma of the past three decades. We urge you to take advantage of the political capital you have amassed to accomplish this task so that we can look forward to a hopeful future for all Sri Lankans.

-Sri Lanka Guardian