Naval ratings giving a helping hand to a group of civilians who were among 139 that escaped from the LTTE controlled areas in nine dinghies on Monday.

With the penultimate phase of the conflict now drawing to a close, it is indeed gratifying to note that the President has gone on record as stating that this country belongs to all of us, whether we be Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays, Burghers, Parsis or Sindhis, all of whom have come to call this their home. This is indeed a most heartening statement coming as it does from the Executive Head of the government, who certainly has the power to see that this expectation does come true, namely that all minority ethnic groups in particular, come to feel that this is indeed their homeland as it is of the majority community. Let us make them all feel proud to be Sri Lankans. The realization of this laudable goal would ensure for the President a permanent place in the history of our land, as a farseeing leader who ended the terrorist menace and brought peace to this land. The foremost issue we need to address at this critical juncture is the divisive polarization of the different communities who inhabit our country. The language policy of the country and the manner of its implementation is of particular import in this regard, which needs to be sensitively reformulated and boldly readdressed.

What are the building blocks that need to be in place to build a new nation of Sri Lankans? The 1972 Constitution took away Article 29 of the Soulbury Constitution; to my mind this was a dreadful mistake, we need to have Constitutional protection, not in the form spelled out in the present Constitution but in a more inalienable form. I recall how Minister/ Professor GL Peiris wanted to introduce legislation to ensure the equality of all citizens —- could that act not be reintroduced? The language policy of the country needs to be readdressed. Should not the Constitution recognize the reality of the existence of ethnic minorities and ensure that they be constitutionally brought into the decision-making process at the highest level? Yes this Constitution needs to be changed in the country’s interest and with it the electoral system which is a caricature of what it should be.

Building a new Sri Lankan society would of course require not only values that would bond us closely, but equally importantly, it would require all our people to be in a position to communicate with each other? Once again the President has, with practical foresight, paved the way for such a transformation to begin by declaring this year as the year of English and IT. This is indeed a momentous decision. English is today THE Language of all facets of international relations. As it is no longer the language of the English people alone, and being now the widely accepted language of international communication, the President would be equipping our children in a meaningful and practical manner by making it possible to have English taught to all children, from the age of five upto the age of eight, after which they could be made to study in their mother tongue along with English. Surely, we can find the teachers to teach English to little kids of five, six, seven and eight? The government could also make it a ‘fun thing’ by establishing language laboratories in all schools equipped with computers to enable children to play computer games and engage in practical learning exercises. I have no doubt that countries which have been helping us over the years in our development efforts would surely come in enthusiastically on a project like this, to help build a new Sri Lanka. If only our different ethnic groups could communicate with each other, as our own generation did as we had the good fortune of learning English, then our current differences would be better appreciated and to that extent be alleviated. We should ensure that all our people are uniformly endowed with this ability. Language has divided us and I am convinced that such measures will above all, act as the strongest bonds that would unite our people. Yes, the child to be taught in English in the first three years and thereafter for the child to study in the mother tongue whilst continuing with the study of English as a subject would ensure the rapid breakdown of the cleavages that exist at present among the different communities. The education system needs to be most decidedly re-vamped if we are to achieve the cherished goal of building a new Sri Lankan nation.

Of equal importance are values, social, religious and cultural, which inculcate discipline, tolerance and social cohesiveness. Newspapers have reported that students of a school in Balapitiya assaulted their Principal! I consider it to be a slap on the face of the nation. Is it not a damning indictment on our society? I believe religion though taught as a compulsory subject in schools has failed —- what is the purpose if the products of this education system hold nothing sacred? We have never heard of such horrible happening in our time. ! What we need most is a total transformation in our value systems if our society and our country are to be saved from the current spate of violence and lawlessness rapidly deteriorating into a state of anomie. We need, in the first place, to make the teaching profession an attractive, respected and noble one, drawing quality people into its fold. Aspiring teachers should, in the first instance, be tested for the required ‘aptitudes’ and, those seeking to enter the teaching profession only to obtain employment, should never be recruited as teachers. We need to effect a revolutionary change to save our society and our country. We need to make the teaching profession a noble one; it should be a Service that attracts the best human beings —- persons worthy of being entrusted with the task of moulding the minds of our children, persons able to inculcate values; persons who would be living examples to the students to take to the teaching profession. To make the profession attractive, the salaries of those who have been trained for at least two years and have been tested in every sense of the word, should be equal to that paid to an executive in the Public Service.

The Public Service should be thoroughly professionalized if the efficiency expected of it is to be consistently maintained, equally important is the matter of putting the spine back of the Public Servant who has today become a servant of the politician. A professional public servant must be afforded the security necessary to enable him to give of his or her best. The Public Service Commission should be enthroned and made absolutely independent as was envisaged in the 17th Amendment. It was the first Srima Bandaranaike government, after the attempted Coup in the early 1960s, which took political control of the Public Service. The 1972 Constitution sanctified this control and the Public Service became a ‘kept’ service after that; The micro minded politician would of course prefer this arrangement little realizing that having the independent and impartial advice of professional executives would be in his own interest, as most politicians nowadays are essentially men of rather poor calibre whose thinking is mostly centred round narrow notions of self love and self interest as the beginning and the end of human motive! A complete transformation of the Public Service is indeed of vital interest if we are to move meaningfully towards the objective of building a new Sri Lankan nation.

As much as I was shocked to read of the brutal assault on the Principal of a school quite recently,I was also shocked to read of the conviction of a Magistrate on the charge of a felony! and of another Judge who is said to have embezzled and committed fraud and has been sentenced to 45 years in jail. What a disgrace for the once respected judiciary of our land. It is indeed time that we sat up and addressed the much delayed question of the reform of our Judicial System. Has our Criminal Justice System ensured the security of all citizens of this country? A survey commissioned some years ago by the Marga Institute, titled ‘A System Under Siege", indicated that the majority of those surveyed expressed the view that they had no confidence in our judicial system as it was not always fair or impartial. Furthermore, they felt that it was susceptible to corruption, not easily accessible and hardly ever affordable, while at the same being far too slow. That was indeed quite an indictment! Although many years have gone by since that survey, I have reason to believe that the situation quite apart from improving, has deteriorated further. Although, a Presidential Commission on Law and Order was appointed by President Chandrika Kumaratunge and its report was officially submitted to her, the report has sadly, never seen the light of day! I am reliably informed that this report had advocated far reaching reforms to the entire Criminal Justice System which would amount to a complete revamping of the system and the substitution in its place of an alternative system that would :-

1)Make the Criminal Justice System more responsive to the communities it serves.

2)Enable the Criminal Justice System to function as a coherent whole,ensuring greater co-ordination with the established structures of the component agencies while safeguarding the independence of the judiciary and the prosecution.

3)Strengthen the management of performance of the system in service delivery, by instituting reporting structures in consultation with the concerned agencies,with clear lines of responsibility.

4) Initiate reform of the Criminal Justice System and its law regime, ensuring thereby a co-ordinated approach of the agencies to meet the objective of law and order by gearing the process towards its clear legal function of getting at the truth, consistent with justice, by balancing the system in favour of the victim and the community.

Another imperative need is to change the concept of Policing; the emphasis must change from mere enforcement to community policing. The Police department has indeed an important role to play in the building of a Sri Lanka nation. Today most minorities in particular dread to visit a Police station, this situation must change. Sri Lanka needs to have a truly Sri Lankan Police Force. The government could consider even requiring all youth over the age of eighteen to undergo a period of three months Police training as apart of national service, just as some countries, including Singapore, require all youth to undergo military training as a part of national service. This would not only discipline our youth but also promote camaraderie and would also help the Police to maintain law and order more effectively.

A respected lady who once held office with integrity wrote to me and stated that she "strongly feel examples must be set by the very top leaders in Government and the private sector; they must profess sincerity, honesty and integrity, those with poor track records must never be nominated for high office and leaders must set the tone for good governance and institutional honesty and stability...and this should be reflected in a world-class education system which is accessible to all children; that is how countries like Singapore prospered"

In conclusion, I can do no better than quote from a recent statement put out by a group of eminent citizens of our country, invited to a brain storming session by the Marga Institute, "Managing the future that is emerging requires a profound transformation of our politics and a full commitment to the core human values of a just society. The challenges we face transcend the narrow partisan agendas of gaining or retaining political power". Let us dedicate ourselves to this worthy cause.