Image of leaders not on cutouts but remain in the hearts of the people

5 August 2015 06:30 pm - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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By Bingun Menaka Gamage
Sarvodaya leader Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne is an eminent social worker and a keen observer with a political vision of his own. During his long career as a social worker and a social reformist he has closely associated with political leaders of this country. In this interview, Dr. Ariyaratne expresses his candid views on the current political situation in the country.

Q : What do think about the ongoing struggle for political power in the country?
There is no democracy in this country today. It is extinct following a process of gradual erosion. Democracy means a system of governance based on the sovereignty of the people. It does not boil down to going to polls every five years!

Q : Your political vision is something with a difference – something of your own?
Looking back on our distant past, the head of our village was Gamini. We were under the rule of Kings. But if the King failed to follow the Dasa Raja Dharma or the ten-fold principles of governance, people got together and dethroned the King. Coming back to present day politics. Democracy has been misconstrued as the political party system because of the British tradition we inherited.

Political parties are not a must for the functioning of democracy. What is required for the effective functioning of democracy is the active participation of the people. What is being obtained today is Representative Democracy. Sovereignty of the people should be directly vested in the people themselves. I experimented this in about 15,000 villages across the country. Officials from the World Bank visit these villages as observers. Direct democracy is in operation in these villages.

Q : Is this not decentralization of power in a sense?
Prof. G.L.Peiris was amazed on hearing about the democracy in operation in the 15,000 villages and remarked that it was not a case of decentralization of power, but a case of releasing power for an upward movement!

Q : But Prof. Peiris has not upheld this view since then?
When you are in the thick of politics, you tend to forget theories and principles!

Q : What is the role of the Central Government in the context of self-governing village units?
Law enforcement and administration of justice should be handled by institutions set up by the Central Government.

Q : What is going to become of institutions such as Provincial Councils and Urban Councils?
Take for example an area accounting for 400 families. Heads of these families can meet to deliberate on topical issues. They can, for instance, identify the parties responsible for contaminating their drinking water. If there is a wine store in the area, they can decide whether it is necessary for the people.

Q : How is it that Nalin de Silva opposed your being appointed as a member of the Constitutional Council branding you as an anti-Sinhala person although you speak so highly about indigenous values and systems?
I have never met Nalin de Silva face to face. Can he claim to have done some good amounting to a minute fraction of what I have done for the country? I am working for the entire country. When I visit Jaffna, people there go down on their knees to worship me. Tigers call on me unarmed. People like Nalin de Silva are responsible for reducing the country to the present sorry state!

The people are the judges! They have to judge whether the candidates are decent enough to welcome home as their guests or are educated and intelligent enough to speak on a national issue

Q : What is your opinion about the civil war that had to be prosecuted, as a person who had occasion to watch the LTTE at close quarters?
People resort to violent means when they are deprived of their basic rights and when the law of the country fails to restore these rights to them. Their disaffection with the establishment would reach a point of no return. Finally, violence was ended with the use of violence. But I don’t condone violence!

Q : Have you met LTTE leaders?
I visited Jaffna thrice when the LTTE was holding sway over the North. Once Karikalan invited me to his headquarters and gave me a warm welcome. He wanted me to wait there for a meeting with Prabhakaran. But I turned down the request..

Q : You did not want to intercede to bring about a settlement to the national issue?
On that occasion, Prabhakaran gave a message to be conveyed to the government. I handed a recording of it to President D.B. Wijetunga. The President told me that he hoped to secure my services as a mediator to hold negotiations with the LTTE after the Southern PC elections. But the government lost both the PC elections and the general Parliamentary elections that followed.

Q : There is an allegation that the successive governments exploited the war for their own gain. Is there a basis for this allegation?
No Head of State exploited the war. If the war was exploited, the culprits could be none other than those who ended it!

Q : How can you make such a serious allegation?
People in the North had in their possession gold weighing tons. What happened to this massive stock of gold? I don’t wish to say anything more than that.

Q : A large section of the SLFP is now putting up a massive effort to secure the former President’s comeback to Parliament. How do you view this effort?
Every component thing in this world is subject to three states: Anitya (impermanence), Dukkha (Suffering) and Anatma (soullessness or the absence of a permanent entity). The former President may be seeking a comeback to political power because he maybe a believer in just the opposites of these three states. Those past the age of sixty should retire giving way to the younger generation. They should take to a religious life and engage in activity such as meditation and listening to Dhamma sermons.

Q : Was there a positive response from the political parties to the March 12 Declaration unveiled by the community of academics and intellectuals like you calling on the political parties, among other things, to grant nomination to only the educated and the cultured individuals?
All political parties claim that they nominated candidates in according to the March 12 Declaration. However, the people are the judges! They have to judge whether the candidates nominated by political parties are decent enough to welcome home as their guests or are educated and intelligent enough to speak on a national issue.

Q : Although you have shunned politics, many disciples of yours are active in politics?
It was I who taught most of them the art of speaking. And they took to wearing the national garb on my advice.
I would pull them up when I find that they have done some wrong. They would tell me: “Sir, please don’t say anything in public against me.”

Q You don’t believe in the political party system. How can the continuity of the present system of government be ensured in the absence of a political party system?
You can’t do away with the party system at one go. Let it be there for the time being. Let there be Constitutional provisions for setting up Grama Swarajya across the country for a start!

Q : In the context of present day politics, do you think that our idea of Grama Swarajya can become a reality?
Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe once asked for my help to introduce the Grama Swarajya. I think they included this proposal in their election manifesto.

Q Though you have said that you were not inclined to take to politics, you came forward to throw in your lot with the movement for yahapalanaya. Why?
I did not team up with any political alliance. I only extended my support to the movements led by Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhita Thera and Ven. Atureliye Ratana Thera.

Q : Your faith in their movements still remains unshaken?
I have my faith in the leaders of these movements. They both are honest.

Q Do you think that the government has been successful in the past seven months in delivering the goods?
There were obstructions to implementing the 100-day programme!

Q Did you object to being appointed as a member of the Constitutional Council?
I did not know about my being nominated as a member. Former Minister Sarath Amunugama whom I met yesterday assured me that they had no objection to my nomination. I told him that garbage heaps hesld no appeal for me. By the way, I have been a guest speaker at over 100 universities in the world.

People resort to violent means when they are deprived of their basic rights and when the law of the country fails to restore these rights to them. Their disaffection with the establishment would reach a point of no return. Finally, violence was ended with the use of violence. But I don’t condone violence!

Q Have you never received a political appointment?
President Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed me as a member of the Human Rights Commission. I functioned in this position without a salary for three years. Minister Iriyagolla appointed me as a school principal. Later he appointed me as an additional Secretary of the Ministry of Education. I declined to accept these appointments. If I joined the United Nations, I could have risen to the position of its Secretary General.

Q Some people have labelled you as a ‘NGO-karaya’?
Very unfair. There are three or four NGOs run by self-seekers. Some receive four-figure salaries. Of course, some of them do some good. Sarvodaya is a people’s movement. It is working towards the goal of achieving a culturally, economically and morally advanced world.

Q Development projects like ‘Divi Neguma’ were introduced with a view to bringing under government control the community-based movements that had come up under the aegis of NGOs. Do you think that this move was a success?
I have to go back to the past for the purpose of giving a meaningful answer to this question. I got an occasion to address the World Bank when Ronnie de Mel was the Finance Minister. During my address I criticized the economic policies being followed by the World Bank. A senior Vice President of the World Bank met me after the delivery of my address and pledged to extend a US $ 100 million grant to the Sarvodaya.

I obtained the grant with the intention of transferring it to the government for disbursement under our supervision. But what really happened was a far cry from what I originally planned.

Q What happened?
By the time we received the World Bank grant, Mr. Premadasa had assumed office as the Executive President. He sent for me and asked me to get ready to be sworn in as the Prime Minister. I declined the offer saying that I valued my independence more than the premiership. Perhaps, on the advice given by certain others, he went back on the understanding he reached with me.

He launched programmes by names other than Sarvodaya. His main programme Janasaviya later came to be known as Samurdhi. During Mahinda Rajapaksa it was re-named as Divi Neguma. But what came to be implemented by the successive governments was not the programme I proposed to the World Bank.

Q You once moved closely with former President Premadasa and later had to suffer a measure of stress due to strained relations with him?
True, he caused me some concern at the latter stage. But he was a leader who rendered a great service to the country.

Q Do you concede that January 8 marked a political change for the better?
Certainly. It was a change for the better in the collective psyche of the people in this country. It is a change that cannot be reversed. Mahinda Rajapaksa should have given way to change instead of blaming the Tamils for his defeat!

Q Could the proposed national government be a reality?
It depends on the leadership. It is not something impossible. The question is whether we have leaders capable of rising to the occasion. The sky-scraping cutouts that were a commonplace sight in the past showed how petty the image of some leaders of our country was. The image of leaders should remain in the hearts of people, not on cutouts!

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Image of leaders not on cutouts but remain in the hearts of the people

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