My appeal to the Sinhala and Tamil émigré communities is the following: Learn from the societies in which you live. Learn the civic virtues of freedom, tolerance, dialogue, pluralism, peaceful debate, equal rights, the separation of religion and the state. Build bridges between the communities in the Diasporas. Start with the intellectuals, the artists, the musicians, the poets, the academics, the youth. Draw up a blue print for a different, better Sri Lanka.
by Nilantha Ilangamuwa with Dayan Jayatillake
(October 07, Paris, Sri Lanka Guardian) "I was born and raised in an atmosphere that valued media freedom. That is also the reason that I am acutely aware of several facts. One is that the violent deaths/disappearances of journalists have been in the context of bitter civil wars in North and South, where some of them were seen by one side as partisans of the other side (eg. Richard)," Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka said in an exclusive interview with the Sri Lanka Guardian.
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka is Sri Lanka’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France and UNESCO, has shared his thoughts on current political trends and his political activities. The following is a full transcript of an interview with Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, conducted by Nilantha Ilangamuwa, on Friday, Oct. 07, 2011.
Dayan! You are in the political forefront for many years. You came to the limelight with the engagement in the one and only North Eastern Provincial Council that came to being following the Indo-Sri Lanka accord. Since then, you have climbed the ladder to the level of holding positions as emissary in important foreign missions for Sri Lanka.
1. Going back to the North-East Provincial council that ran under the cloud of controversy, conflict and threat from the LTTE. what was your experience in participating in the brief administration.
A: I am not sure that you are entirely accurate when you say I came to the limelight with the North East Provincial Council. A few days ago, speaking at the wrap-up campaign rally of the JVP for the Colombo Municipal Council and in a context of serious political challenge to that party, its leader Somawansa Amerasinghe referred to me by name. The Island report quotes him as saying “The party had seen conflicts, intraparty struggles and factions ...During the 1982-83 period came another plot led by Dayan Jayatilleka, but this too had been defeated." Now this refers to my politics in my mid-20s, three decades ago. I think I emerged as a personality or figure in the public or political sphere, years before the North East Provincial Council.
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| We must remember that there is a closer distance, linguistically and geographically, between Jaffna and the periphery of India than between Jaffna and Colombo. |
2. In a wider sense, does the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, in the current context, address the burgeoning Tamil demand for their decentralised governance of north and east? It is claimed, though 13th amendment is very wide ranging and if applied in the spirit of well intended accommodation and fairness, will go a long way to respond to the Tamil cry. Unfortunately, the govt dictate is so great that the very devolution objective under this arrangement is pathetically undermined. The Provincial Council administration in the Sinhala area too is in a bad state. It has become a electioneering mechanism than devolvement of power to the periphery. What is your view on this?
A: As a student and an admirer of both Aristotle and the Buddha, I advocate a Middle path in almost all matters. The most appropriate international example for Sri Lanka is Northern Ireland, where the Sinn Fein (which unlike the Tigers, was not militarily crushed) accepted on behalf the Catholic minority, the principle of devolution of power within a unitary state. If a settlement within a unitary state --well this side of federalism-- is good enough for Northern Ireland’s Catholics, it should be suitable for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. The 13th amendment may not be the best solution from an idealistic point of view, but we must not seek an ideal model but a feasible solution, and as the American expression goes, the best must not be the enemy of the good! I am firmly of the view that the 13th Amendment is the best possible compromise and more importantly, the only possible one. It was the product of the Indo-Lanka accord and as such India is invested in it. India therefore can act as a factor for not going too far as well as not sliding too far back. I am for mutually acceptable and agreed upon modifications or swaps, on the basis of the 13th amendment. This would entail a rearrangement of the concurrent list. As far as I am concerned that list should be the subject of negotiation, and can be the only real subject for negotiation. My stand on the 13th amendment is analogous to that of all moderate and responsible elements with regard to the 1967 borders and Middle East peace. There are extremists on both sides, who oppose the return to the 1967 borders with mutually agreed upon swaps, Some say those borders are insecure and others say they should not be the limit that should be respected. President Obama and all Israelis and Palestinians who stand for peace and coexistence, take the middle ground. I do the same with regard to peaceful Sinhala-Tamil political coexistence in one state, and that middle ground is the 13th amendment with mutually agreed upon revisions.
3. You played an important role in 2009, to pass a resolution in favour of Sri Lanka in the UN’s Human Right’s Council. Following that, your service was not used by the government in the UN level. Since then, the pressures against Sri Lana has grown many folds in the international level. How long can Sri Lanka turn its back to the international outcry for an inquiry beyond the government appointed restricted LLRC role?
A: Sri Lanka will not, must not and cannot compromise on this issue. No country on this planet has submitted to such an inquiry into the conduct of a war by its armed forces, and just a few years after it has won a war. No country has allowed or will allow an international inquiry into its armed forces and the victorious closing stages of a war which liberated the vast majority of citizens from the scourge of decades of terrorism. Why should Sri Lanka submit itself to this unprecedented indignity? We have not invaded any other country or occupied any other country’s territory. Those who have, and have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, do not subject themselves to such inquiries, and they hypocritically want us to. However, Sri Lanka does face a very serious challenge in the international arena. That challenge must be handled reclaiming the moral high ground, not merely in our own eyes but the eyes of the world. This means reviving Sri Lanka’s ‘soft power’, not just relying on ‘hard power’ which of course we need. This means fashioning an attractive, successful, post-war order. Such a post-war Sri Lanka must strive for the elimination of discrimination and the establishment of greater ethnic equality. If we lose the moral high ground, we shall also lose global political space. Of course Sri Lanka has the support and sympathy of all those states which value national sovereignty, especially those of Asia.
4. If LLRC does not meet the standard expected by the international community, it is believed, the consequence for Sri Lanka will be serious. How can the LLRC go beyond its limited mandate and respond to the international outcry for a broadened outcome?
A: I cannot and should not comment on the LLRC report. I shall only say that we have had several successful post-conflict reports in the past, which contained an excellent analysis and policy recommendations, such as the Youth Commission (of which Prof GL Peiris was the driving force) following the insurgency of the late 1980s, and I am hopeful that the LLRC will meet those standards.
5. LLRC did not attract the real victims of the war in a transparent, fair and objective manner. With its limited engagement, how can it produce a fair report? Most of those persons whom gave evidence are close to the government or sympathisers of the government and some of them are extremists. The Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, the TNA and the international agencies who are critical of the government despite invitation did not participate. There are abundance of records of war crimes committed by both the government and the LTTE. The government forces have come under severe criticisms. And also when government takes a position that UN General Secretary’s advisory committee’s report is full of falsehood, do you envisage LLRC will go beyond the UN’s independent advisory report?
A: Why on earth should the LLRC go beyond the Darusman Report? As Sri Lanka’s oldest independent think-tank the MARGA Institute, one of Sri Lanka’s most respected senior intellectuals and ex-civil servants Godfrey Gunatilleka and a coordinated assessment by the country’s top three private sector federations have argued in great detail, the Darusman Report is fundamentally and fatally flawed. As for the international NGOs, they cannot condemn credibly, without having participated. If they had participated, they could have proved the veracity of their criticisms. As for the criticism about limited participation, that is not true because I read BBC reports of testimony by wives of LTTE fighters. In any case, many countries do not permit any kind of probe, leave alone one with wide participation. For example, liberal, democratic Spain , a member of NATO and the EU, does not permit any inquiry into the Civil war that ended 75 years ago, and the country’s most respected judge, Baltazar Garzon tried to re-open records, there was a case filed against him!
6. It is over two years since LTTE has been militarily defeated outright. The government was saying political resolution will be forthcoming only after the defeat of the LTTE and even the head of APRC Prof. Tissa Vitharane took a stance in that line. It appears the government is dragging its feet by not advocating its stand on this and even Prof. Tissa Vitharane’s APRC report is put aside without being dusted. What are the causes for the government’s inability to be pragmatic, transparent and assertive on its stance on this matter?
A: There could be security concerns on the side of the government. There is also a trust deficit: the Sinhalese, not just the government, do not trust a party or political formation, that tailed behind the separatist terrorist Tigers and still refuses to criticise the LTTE for anything—not even for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi! There is also the problem that the TNA does not officially and ambiguously accept the 13th amendment as the basis of a settlement. President Rajapaksa’s position has been ‘13 plus’, and his sincerity or otherwise can be tested only if the Tamil side is willing to accept 13A as the basis for negotiations. Wikileaks reveals that the TNA told the US Embassy that it was not for the 13th amendment and wished to start afresh. If this is the case, no wonder the government and the Sinhalese are cautious as to where power-sharing might lead, and what the TNA might do if it enjoyed some measure of power under an arrangement that it is not loyal to and satisfied with. After all, we do have the Vardarajahperumal experience.
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| As a student and an admirer of both Aristotle and the Buddha, I advocate a Middle path in almost all matters. |
A: As you know the apex award for journalism instituted by the media industry in Sri Lanka, is named after my father. I was born and raised in an atmosphere that valued media freedom. That is also the reason that I am acutely aware of several facts. One is that the violent deaths/disappearances of journalists have been in the context of bitter civil wars in North and South, where some of them were seen by one side as partisans of the other side (eg. Richard). The last disappearance, which was really sad, was in the immediate aftermath of the war and, going by the arguments in the dissident press and websites, was not unrelated to the war and its dark side. I disagree that this reflects the normal state of media freedom in Sri Lanka. That is the second observation I have. I was a boy when the ‘liberal’ UNP administration of Dudley Senanayake banned the transport of the widely read, CP-linked ATHTHA newspaper, in the state railways! I grew up in a situation in which Madam Bandaranaike’s government enjoyed a virtual monopoly, having taken over Lake House, shut down the SUN group and sealed the ATHTHA, heavily censored the Daily Mirror and with no other radio station than the SLBC which too it brought under the heavy political control of Ridgeway Tillekaratne. JR Jayewardene’s government took over the TIMES group, forced the sophisticated tabloid FOCUS to shut down, and never permitted private radio or TV. It even took over Shan Wickremasinghe’s ITN! My father, Mervyn de Silva was sacked successively under Sirimavo Bandaranaike and JR Jayewardene’s administrations. Today, with a proliferation of private media, print and electronic, as well as social media, I see a far greater degree of systemic or structural pluralism in the media than at any time before. Of course one must always resist encroachments and fight for greater media freedom.
8. On war crimes! Minister DEW Gunasekara claimed that LTTE’s Yogaratnam Yogi and Balakumar were killed in the battle front. But there are eye witness accounts that they together with LTTE’s Lawrence Thilagar, Puthuvai Tathinathurai and many others surrendered to the military in Vanni and scanned and take away in a buses. As a representative of the government would you shed light to the fates of those surrendered in the battlefront.
A: I haven’t the faintest idea of what happened, any more than I have the faintest idea of what happened to Sri Lankan armed forces captives in Tiger custody. I do know that the leading French magazine Le Point, quoted an LTTE woman cadre in an April-May 2000 interview, to the effect that the blood was drained from captive Sri Lankan soldiers into the LTTE blood banks, and then they were finished off.
9. A personal question. You are holding an important position as Ambassador for Sri Lanka in Paris. Paris is one of the important capital where you have to face challenges against Sri Lanka from many fronts. Whilst this is the pressurising situation, how do you get the time to write insight articles regularly for Sri Lankan media outside the country.
A: The very first memory I am conscious of, is of me in my blue play-pen, my maternal grandmother smilingly observing me while I look up at my father, sitting at the dining table, wearing a white vest and tan trousers, briskly tapping the keys of his typewriter. So I guess it is a formative part of me and will always remain so. This is reinforced by my vocation as a political scientist. When I have an idea to express or an analysis to make, I am restless until I have done so. I have always believed in the value of ideas, and ‘the battle of ideas’ as Jose Marti and Fidel Castro have called it.
10. Also, you are known to be a controversial figure. Despite facing hullabaloos, you are able to survive and re-emerge. How are you able to achieve this?
A: My late mother would have said it was due to her prayers or to my ‘guardian angel’! There could be other factors, such as developing an independent personality and perspective while balancing as a child, between two strong personalities such as Mervyn and Lakshmi de Silva, my parents. It could also be that I always subject my views and positions, my project at the time, to intellectual and ethical self-examination. I suppose it is to do with conviction and personality, formed by my parents and upbringing, my Jesuit (occasional) mentor Fr Vito Perniola, my reading, and the inspiration of the examples and teachings of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and above all, Jesus Christ.
11. What is your assessment of Sri Lanka aligning with countries that do not have basic values for democracy, freedom, good governance and human rights? What would be the situation if LLRC does not come out with a fair report better than the UN Secretary General’s advisory panel report at the next UN Human Rights Council’s sitting in March 2012?
A: The countries you are implicitly critical of are also countries that have no colonial past, and have not or do not invade and occupy other countries on false pretexts, or impose sanctions on them, or are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The countries that you implicitly approve of are responsible for all those crimes. Our critics include those countries that are responsible for the deaths by cruel violence, disease and starvation, of my forefathers in Ceylon and oppressed my grandfathers’ generation. The countries which are our allies did no such thing. Our allies are respectful of national independence, territorial unity and sovereignty, and thus we have a fundamental congruency of values. We must never forget that we are a part of Asia, Eurasia (chiefly Russia), and the global south. These are our main allies, neighbours, friends and family, and must always remain so. Our friendships and alliances globally must be like a set of concentric circles. All are welcome and must be reached out to, but the inner circles must be Asia, the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) and the BRICS. Next March at the LLRC we shall face a tough battle but I am confident that our new Ambassador/Permanent representative will, if left unimpeded, mobilise the solidarity and support of the majority. However, I am also firmly of the view that Sri Lanka must make tangible progress in ethno-political reconciliation before that time. It is decades overdue.
12. The Sri Lanka government is introducing sanctions to target the Tamil Diaspora. This includes, suspending and reviewing the dual nationality status, introducing visa’s for visitors, not issuing passports for Tamil asylum seekers and detaining and/or interrogating Tamils at the Colombo airport. Why these restrictions are introduced to target the minority and why Sri Lanka is not finding ways to incorporate broad-based policies to incorporate the Tamils in a wider way?
A: This may be a paranoid or overly negative, pessimistic and one-sided interpretation of things. It is difficult to believe this interpretation because the consular section of our Embassy in Paris is always overflowing with members of the Tamil Diaspora returning home for visits, and we certainly do not impose any embargoes on them! Of course with Tiger flags in abundance in demonstrations in the West, the Sri Lankan state would double its precautions against terrorism and other forms of subversion and de-stabilisation by peaceful methods, such as those described in the Vanity Fair article on Mr Rajaratnam.
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| Sri Lanka has the support and sympathy of all those states which value national sovereignty, especially those of Asia. |
A: If the Tamils of Sri Lanka are ‘subdued’ as you say, how could they have voted in the TNA and indeed how could the TNA have been allowed to contest? In liberal cosmopolitan Spain, a similar parliamentary party of Basque nationalism, Herri Batasuna, has been banned because of its links with armed separatism and refusal to condemn it. My appeal to the Sinhala and tamil émigré communities is the following: Learn from the societies in which you live. Learn the civic virtues of freedom, tolerance, dialogue, pluralism, peaceful debate, equal rights, the separation of religion and the state. Build bridges between the communities in the Diasporas. Start with the intellectuals, the artists, the musicians, the poets, the academics, the youth. Draw up a blue print for a different, better Sri Lanka. Be a bridge between your country of origin and the world. Forget the past, build the future. Reach out.
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