We need now to win that other war, which is not going to be any less easy - the war to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people in particular

This general election affords us the opportunity to enthrone true democracy in our land. The past 30 years have seen a widening gap between what should have been and what there is on the ground.

Politicians on both sides of our political divide have let us down; perhaps the only saving grace in the past 30 years is that this Government single-mindedly saved this country from being separated. Had the LTTE established its sepa¬rate state, we would possibly have had a 100-year war on our hands and a 200 mile border to defend, which would have bled this country to death.

We need now to win that other war, which is not going to be any less easy - the war to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people in particular. Merely saying that the Tamil people are also our people is not enough; they must themselves feel that they are also Sri Lankans and that this is also their country where they can live as equal citizens in dignity and be in the decision-making process at all levels.

In this regard, the initiative of Minister Milinda Moragoda to call for the reintroduction of the Equal Opportunities Bill, which was pre¬pared by Prof. G.L. Peiris during the tenure of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, is most timely.

If this Act is passed and imple¬mented to the letter, we would be taking the wind out of the sails of the Tamil diaspora and all others including the Secretary General of the UN and his gang, who are seek¬ing selectively to harm this country with their double standards, helped by certain misguided elements in this country who seek political gain at the expense of the nation's image.

The next important initiative we the people need to support is the demand of the right to non-clas¬sified information. We the people must have a have a right to informa¬tion regarding government busi¬ness that is not classified.

There is no reason whatsoever for a government not to be transparent in its actions unless it is indulging in that which is crooked. A 'Right to Information Bill' which has long been in the pipeline is long overdue in this country. We the people are said to be sovereign so we should have this right as a birthright.

I am happy that the new Sri Lanka National Congress and its leader has taken the initiative to have legislation introduced to empower us the people to seek information on matters that are of public importance. Such a right will open a huge space for the people to participate in the democratic proc¬ess and to even inspect or scrutinise government projects.

The biggest beneficiaries of such an act would of course be the media, which would have a legal right to obtain information in the public interest. They should support this initiative and ensure the enactment of legislation which would empow¬er the people with a fundamental human right, which would be in keeping with the letter and spirit of democracy.

The corrupt politicians would no doubt oppose this but all peo¬ple's organisations should be mobi¬lised in all parts of the country to demand this right, for it is vital to control corruption which has taken on new proportions and to ensure good governance, which I believe all political parties claim they stand for.

They must realise that "there is no nothing concealed that will not be revealed neither hidden that shall not be known" - Luke 12.2.

Today there is a worldwide push for equal rights, bringing to mind former British Prime Minister Macmillan's words: to create a soci¬ety which respects the rights of individuals, a society hi which indi¬vidual merit, and individual merit alone, is the criterion for a man's advancement whether political or economic. This is the type of society we need to create.

There is a perception internationally that we have been remiss in this regard and that we have discrimi¬nated against the minorities and the Tamils in particu¬lar. This has been the main reason for the international support which was enjoyed by the LTTE.

The almost emotional support for minorities the world over rose after World War II and the brutal atrocities committed by Hitler's Nazis on minorities in Europe. We need to' place the high¬est priority nationally to erase this impression that we discriminate against minorities.

I should emphasise that we need, for its own sake, to ensure that no country or person accuses this country of practicing discrimina¬tion for such an image is detrimen¬tal to our country and hurts our dig¬nity as a nation, so let us have the Equal Opportunities Bill.

Furthermore. we are members of the United Nations and its Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which made human rights a birthright. The Charter and the Universal Declaration were both, as stated earlier, born of the horrors of World War II, which wit¬nessed a total disregard for human life.

Yes, the war came about because that Nazi, Hitler, sought to extermi¬nate 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). The Optional Protocol to which we have become a signatory 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 rec¬ognised 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 awareness and make our people conscious of the importance of 'human rights'- for its own sake and also because of the importance placed by the inter¬national 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. There is indeed a new world legal order which we need to recognise.

Whilst we do need to get our act together on the issue of human rights, we need also without fur¬ther delay, to settle the so-called ethnic problem which has been at 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 read as follows: "An act to make unlaw¬ful discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, gender, or religious

or political opinion, language caste, age or disability in employ¬ment, education, access to public places, and means of transport station and in the provision of accommodation, goods and serv¬ices; to provide for the formula¬tion of equal opportunity pro¬grammes 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 lan¬guage, recognised as such in the Constitution itself, I do not see its full implementation on the ground and this is a fact.

A third valuable initiative by Minister Moragoda is the call for the resurrection of the Administration of Justice Law, No. 44 of 1973, the Preamble of which reads as follows: "A law to provide for the establishment and consti¬tution of a new system of courts for the administration of justice within the Republic of Sri Lanka, to define the jurisdiction of the courts, to regulate the procedure in and before such courts, includ¬ing special procedure in respect of testamentary matters, to repeal certain written laws and to make provision for all other matters con¬nected therewith and incidental thereto."

This piece of legislation was enacted when the late Felix Dias Bandaranaike was Minister of Justice. He firmly believed in the words of that legal cliché that "justice delayed is justice denied," meaning that if redress is not available within a reasonable peri¬od of time for the injured party, then it is the same as not receiving redress at all.

This principle is the basis for the right to a speedy trial and similar rights, which are meant to expe¬dite the legal process, because it is unfair for the injured party to have to sustain the injury with lit¬tle hope of justice.

It is no secret that our courts take years to resolve issues that come before them. Quite often litigants die before a case is over. The courts today are said to be over-burdened with cases but another important factor is that the process or proce¬dures are outdated.

The Administration of Justice Law sought to expedite the process in the interest of justice and equally importantly in the interest of the litigants, but it was said that some influential lawyers were against the law as it affected their earning capacities and these leading members of the Bar at the time with close connections to power had the act repealed.

Today, there is a discernible lack of confidence in our entire legal system; it is absolutely vital that a rule of law, because the destruction of confidence is doing incalculable harm to our country.

The saddest part of it all is that people have come to believe that corruption in various forms has taken over our legal system. They are beginning to believe that the law cannot protect them. The rule of law is intended to protect indi¬viduals, to guarantee then fundamental rights.

Yet, if the rule of law is to be respected, it must be enforced as it should be without teal of favour. We also need to have a Witness Protection Bill; it is certainly an imperative considering the situa¬tion today.

Justice delayed is justice denied. All victims have a legitimate right to an effective judicial remedy and the equal protection of the law. These rights are universal: they are not subject to political consid¬erations.

The belief that accountability and the rule of law can be brushed aside with impunity in the name of politics is really the cause of our problem. History has taught us time and time again, that sus-tamable peace can only be built on human rights, on justice, and the rule of law

I sincerely hope that all political parties in Parliament would sup¬port the Equal Opportunities Bill, the Administration of Justice Law and a Right to Information Law in the public interest. It is quite possi¬ble that some corrupt members of certain political parties may seek to oppose it but civil society and the media should campaign to have these laws in place in the public interest.

We must end all forms of discrim¬ination, enthrone merit and speed up the judicial process to ensure that justice becomes meaningful to the people and for all this we do need to have the Right to Information law in the Statute book.