Rationale for Government’s choice of cooperation over confrontation

In contrast to intolerance in governance and towards others who are deemed to be outsiders that is increasingly being manifested in the world, Sri Lanka is taking a different path. It is adopting an inclusive approach to all communities that is in the national interest and is winning international support. The country’s recent conduct at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a case in point. Rather than forcing a vote that would have been divisive and that would have pitted Sri Lanka against the Western countries promoting the resolution, the government opted for cooperation over confrontation. By doing so it signaled to the international community that the country isn’t taking sides internationally and prefers engagement and dialogue to confrontation and defiance.

This choice is consistent with an evolving domestic policy of inclusion. There was a time when governments in Sri Lanka treated those from some minority communities as aliens. This began at the dawn of Independence with the disenfranchisement of the Tamils of recent Indian origin in 1948. Such early policy decisions set the country on a path of mistrust between communities. 

By contrast, the vision articulated by the present government in regard to the ethnic conflict is that every Sri Lankan citizen is equal.

These are still early days for the government and this vision has still to be realized in practice. The absence of Tamil and Muslim representation in the Cabinet and in key national initiatives such as the Clean Task Force need to be addressed. The slow pace of progress on devolution of power further distances minority communities from meaningful participation in governance.

The government is now planning to apply the principle of equality and non-discrimination to the LGBTIQ community, which is also a minority community that suffers from prejudice and discriminatory laws.

The most recent UNHRC resolution lists out a long list of actions that the government needs to take. These include finding missing persons or the truth about what happened to them, release of those held in detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the repeal of the PTA, return of land, demilitarization of the north and east and restoration of the devolution of power by holding the long postponed provincial council elections. The UNHRC resolution also continues with the “Sri Lanka Accountability Project” which the government objected to just as previous governments have.

Ever since the war ended bloodily on the military battlefields, the concern of successive Sri Lankan governments has been the demand, emanating in the main from the victim Tamil community, for accountability. 

This meant an international demand for foreign judges, as in previous resolutions by the UN Human Rights Council or for action by the International Criminal Court. But this time around, the Sri Lankan government appears to have been able to convince the international community of its sincerity in taking the reconciliation process forward through domestic and national processes. 

Its consistency of approach appears to have convinced the international community during the UNHRC deliberations. If the government acts now, it will not only restore the country’s credibility abroad, but rebuild unity at home through its inclusive approach. (www.colombotelegraph.com)

(The writer is the Executive Director at National Peace Council of Sri Lanka)