By Anush Wijesinha
The Director General of the Peace Secretariat (SCOPP) Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha this week emphasised that the private sector should take the lead role in the rebuilding of the North and East as well as take education initiatives to the war torn areas.

He made this appeal during a discussion on the “Peace Process – Where is it heading” organised by the Sri Lanka-Italy Business Council.

Addressing the gathering, Prof. Wijesinha said that although all welcomed the CFA in 2002, particularly the business community, what was absolutely essential was focussing on the reconstruction effort.

According to him, the task of reconstruction should be entrusted to the business sector, for greatest efficacy. Following the CFA, Colombo seemed very content with the situation, and insisted that ‘business is booming’, but the private sector did not really understand what more it needed to do. “The concept of ‘it will trickle down’ is simply not good enough” he said. “It is understood that businesses must run things, but we cannot just sit back and wait to see if the benefits get through to people”. “The private sector is not only about trade. We need it for social and infrastructure development,” he said.

“We always welcome a fully committed involvement of the private sector in the reconstruction effort, and the role of the government is to target your attention to the areas needing special attention”.

Prof. Wijesinha briefly highlighted the role of SCOPP, as a facilitator for taking the peace process forward, providing materials for the negotiations, promoting the activities of the All Party Conference (APC) and restore and resurrect confidence in areas where different communities live. The Director General hopes to bring in a change of culture to the secretariat by being more open to the press about its activities. “We are paid for by the people. We need to let them know what’s going on, we need to be accountable”. He said that there have been many productive outcomes of the APC, like taking up the issue of a second chamber for the regions and the inadequate representation of minorities in the public service and armed forces.

He made particular reference to the poor education system and constant withdrawal and re-introduction of important and progressive education reforms. He stressed the importance of education in bridging the ethnic divide, and the inherent advantage that an English language education has, in this regard. “The first batch of English medium students would be sitting their A/L’s next month and this would be a great opportunity to get them involved in this process”. He emphasised the importance of certain reforms in the education system in resolving grievances felt by the minorities in taking up jobs in the public administration and armed forces. The SCOPP head noted that despite the large number of NGOs in the conflict regions, education has taken little prominence. “In some areas, we have as many as 8 NGOs to a particular sector, but in education, just 1”. He made special reference to the crying need for private education in the North and East, with a large demand for classes in CIMA and other professional qualifications in Batticaloa and Trincomalee. “These students need to be taught subjects that they can really put to use. The business community should work towards establishing institutes to teach key subjects like English, maths and computing and hopefully it will be a profit-making venture too.”

Prof. Wijesinha advocated the provision of scholarships to students in conflict areas to enter Colombo schools, mentioning the recently established Keethish Loganathan Scholarship by S. Thomas’ College and the Kadiragamar Scholarship by the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies. “We already have several pledges of international funding for scholarships, why not promote more local funding?” he said. “We need to rebuild the communities in those regions, instead of the ‘step-motherly’ treatment given to the provinces in the past”.

Italian Ambassador Pio Mariani in his address shared his experiences and a more international perspective of the situation. He mentioned the continued interest that Italy has in Sri Lanka and the trade advantages to both countries if there is peace. “We have an interest in Sri Lanka as it helps our own prosperity too. With peace we can sell more of our products here”. The ambassador also noted Italy’s aid contribution of 80m Euros for post-Tsunami reconstruction.

In a panel discussion that followed, former Treasury chief Charitha Ratwatte and former head of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Deva Rodrigo made their observations and answered questions from the audience. Deva Rodrigo pointed out that establishing law and order and putting forward a proper devolution proposal are the needs of the hour. Charitha Ratwatte cited examples of the South African and Northern Ireland situation where the business community supported and pushed for a peaceful settlement. With regard to the country’s constitution, he said “We are probably the only populist democracy in the world which violates its own constitution. What can the business community do about it? - it can put pressure for a new constitutional regime”.

When the FT asked Mr. Rodrigo what business councils and chambers can do to promote peace, he said “Business councils in Colombo are cutting across all ethnic divisions. We need to cut across all these barriers and build confidence and trust in each other. Many chambers are already doing that. Discussions of this nature are also important.”