The issue of Human Rights violations in our country, this time in the form of alleged war crimes, has been brought to the attention of the international community, solely because of intemperate statements made out of sheer hate by Gen Fonseka. This man who should be basking in the glory of his undoubted contribution to the wiping out of the LTTE, is suffering ignominy because his enemies are digging out heaps of dirt on him, but that is not the issue; we the people and the government are facing yet another attempt to ruin the image of our country because of this intemperate man’s statements; we do need to get our act together so that those spiteful elements among the international community and the Tamil Diaspora would not be able to point a finger at this country. I was therefore happy that Minister Milinda Moragoda has included the re-introduction of the Equal Opportunities Bill in his party’s (the Sri Lanka National Congress) Agenda to influence the government, for, the root cause of all these allegations stem from just one issue the so called ethnic problem and alleged discrimination.

This Equal Opportunities Bill, which to my mind ensures the right to a livelihood and life itself, was first tabled in Parliament by Prof. GL Peiris in 1999, but for reasons best known to the then government it suffered the same fate as the Bandaranaike- Chelvanayakam and the Dudley Senanayake-Chelvanayakam Agreements and did not see the light of day. If the government seriously wishes to settle the national problem and get on with the social and economic development of the country, then this Equal Opportunities Bill is an absolute must. We need to get our act together in a convincing manner, let us start with this piece of legislation on Equal Opportunities and also establish a credible independent Human Rights Commission of Inquiry on the lines of the Indian Human Rights Commission. Let us in addition have a Human Rights Tribunal (the Equal Opportunities Bill included both a Equal Opportunities Commission and a Tribunal, with teeth), we need to have strong credible institutions to improve the image of this country, the importance of this does not appear to have dawned on the managers of our affairs. We need to understand the importance placed on human rights and the rights of minorities in particular, after the second world war, The UN Charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which made Human Rights a birthright, were both born of the horrors of the second world war which witnessed a total disregard for human life. The war came about because that Nazi, Hitler, sought to exterminate minorities in Europe. Besides the Universal Declaration, we have the International Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the ICCPR);and the Optional Protocol to which we have become a signatory and requires us to pass domestic legislation to give legal validity to the Covenant and the optional Protocol. Article 2 (!) of the ICCPR reads " Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present covenant without distinction of any kind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status". We need to create an awareness and make our people conscious of the importance of ‘Human Rights’ (and that there is indeed a new world legal order), for its own sake also because of the importance placed by the international community on human rights. Human dignity must be made inviolable, it should be the legal duty of the state to respect and protect it. We need to see the Equal Opportunities Bill in this context.

This is but one aspect of the problem, the other is the manner in which we have reacted to our critics; no doubt they have sought to bully and intimidate us but should not our approach been more civil? I recall the manner in which John Holmes was treated and the abuse hurled at him. He may have been wrong in the statements he had made to a foreign correspondent, but abuse was not the answer. I can speak with authority on the manner Lakshman Kadirgamar ‘handled’ critics of our human rights record, for I traveled out with him many times. He engaged them in a civil manner and doused the flames. Our approach needs to change, we must engage our critics; we also need to obtain the support of India and China to counter our enemies.

In this regard I am happy that the government has, for once, acted correctly when it has had the Non Aligned take on the UNSG, who appears to have become a pawn at the hands of our detractors. Besides adopting legislation and building our institutions, we need to use the assistance of friendly countries, for diplomacy must be our first line of defence.. We need to have the countries of SAARC and ASEAN to put pressure on those who are seeking to wrong this country for the wrong reasons.

Whilst we do need to get our act together on the issue of Human Rights, we need also, without further delay to settle the so-called ethnic problem which has been the root cause of all our problems. The Equal Opportunities Bill if enacted and implemented would go a long way towards solving the problem. The Preamble of the EOB reads as follows: "An Act to make unlawful discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, gender, or religious or political opinion, language caste, age or disability in employment, education, access to public places, and means of transportation and in the provision of accommodation, goods and services; to provide for the formulation of equal opportunity programmes by employers; to provide for the establishment of an Equal Opportunity Commission and an Equal Opportunity Tribunal; and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto."

It is indeed a pity that this Bill was not enacted and implemented at the time it was first introduced, for it would have helped to counter the charge of discrimination at least to an extent, I say "to an extent" because such laws must be implemented and there must be evidence on the ground of the fact that the law is being implemented in good faith. Though Tamil is an official language, recognized as such in the constitution itself, I do not see its full implementation on the ground and this is a fact. I do hope Minister Moragoda whose initiative this is, is elected and would be reappointed as Justice Minister to steer this Bill and the equally important Administration of Justice Law through Parliament to speed up the judicial process and ensure that justice becomes meaningful to the people.