Anusha David spotlights the hottest styles and statements in and around Sri Lanka – from political leaders to celebrity CEOs, masters of the game to fashion icons and stars of the silver screen and stage. Here are society’s leaders talking about the determination, vision, smarts, competence and professionalism. Today, she speaks to Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu.

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu or Sara as he is known, needs no introduction. Hailing from a prominent Tamil family he has been a consistent advocate for human rights, espousing the cause of war victims and the need for good governance. The grandson of the famous Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu who is mostly remembered for his association with the Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club which he helped develop, Sara an old boy of St. Thomas College has long been a voice for those without a voice and is the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Your grandfather P. Sara contested the 1947 elections – have you no political aspirations?

Well as far as I’m concerned I see the work I am doing as political. The question would be do I want to contest electoral politics. In order to contest electoral politics under the current system, [A] for a start you need to find a party that would give you nomination, and [B] you need millions of rupees to spend on your campaign, and I fall short on both counts.

What does the outcome of the parliamentary election mean to you as a human rights activist and a citizen?

I’m greatly relieved. I would have been happier if there had been a much larger majority for the government of the day but I’m greatly relieved.

Were you surprised by the JVP’s final result?

No, because it's always been my experience that people say they will vote for the JVP and at the last moment they don’t. Likewise with the TNA, they criticize the TNA and say they will not vote for the TNA and invariably they do.

Name the books that shaped your life and politics.

The Confederacy of Dunces by John P. Kennedy O Toole, written by a Korean war veteran. He wrote this book and nobody would publish it. He died and it was published posthumously and went on to win the Pulitzer prize. The other is by an Italian minor prince Lampedusa, called the Leopard. It was made into a film as well starring Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon. It was the only book written by its author and it's about the change, the transformation wrought about in Italy moving towards the unification of Italy. The third one is a book about the French revolution given to me by my father because he said his father had given it to him, called Scaramouche.

How does your family inspire you?

My family inspires me in a number of ways but the most important one is the emphasis on integrity and the emphasis on public service – that one should do something that makes a difference. That you hold true to your principles, that you do not compromise on them and that you do give something back to society. You make a difference in terms of other people’s lives, the people you come into touch with, that you open up avenues and opportunities for them which enables them to achieve their full potential.

What is your favourite family tradition?

A fabulous Christmas party on the 25th!

Presumably a new Sri Lanka will now come into being. What are the three things you would like to see implemented?

You know there is a philosophical treatise by an Israeli philosopher called Avishai Margalit and he talks about a decent society and a civilized society where institutions do not humiliate people and citizens do not humiliate each other, and I think that’s a good guideline for the kind of society that we need to build. We need to recognize all the peoples of Sri Lanka in their diversity, with their multiple identities as Sri Lankan citizens and we need to have the political and constitutional architecture in place that protects that diversity and provides the space for all of these people to achieve their full potential. Likewise with regard to the economy, we really need to unleash the creative potential of the people of this country. So to me it is a prosperous Sri Lanka that is built upon a tolerant Sri Lanka, recognizing, protecting, nurturing its diversity and pluralism. I would like to see an election where those who go around spouting avowedly racist sentiments, those who go around using fear as their principle political weapon, are soundly beaten. We really need to move forward, we really need to have a new paradigm of understanding that we cannot govern on the basis of fear, and we have to prosper on the basis of hope.

Tell us about the Centre for Policy Alternatives and its current scope of work.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives is basically an independent public policy institute which works on questions of governance, peace and democracy, from a human rights perspective through programmes of research and advocacy. We have a lot of work that we have done and continue to do in respect of constitutional reform and legal reform. We send in written and oral submissions to Presidential and Parliamentary commissions, we come out with policy briefs, advocate alternatives, we lobby parliamentarians to look at what we are suggesting and to see whether they can be passed into legislation. We have an extensive public interest litigation programme which has brought relief to some. In other cases we have not succeeded, but we have been able to highlight issues which is also tremendously important. We have an extensive outreach programme which deals with language rights and works with people at the community level on fundamental rights. We work with Pradeshiya Sabhas and Provincial Councils on building up their capacity to utilize whatever limited powers they have.

We have Groundviews, Mathram and Vikalpa, which are basically three websites, blog sites which are well recognized both locally as well as internationally, providing a platform for views and news that is either neglected or under exposed and not talked about in the mainstream media. We have a social indicator which is a polling power which looks at questions of governance; we have an ongoing poll called the democracy index, we had one during the war years called the peace confidence index and so our programmes continue along those lines. In the last 10 years more and more of our work was very much focused on human rights violations for obvious reasons, particularly the situation of the internally displaced people [IDPs], the situation in the North, as well as in terms of contributing information and analyses to the special mechanisms of the UN Human Rights Council.

Despite claims about progress and economic development by the UPFA government, the North is lagging behind the rest of the Provinces. Do you think the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration will be able to achieve substantive development in the next five years?

I think they will certainly be able to and they are well positioned to do this and to do a lot more than what the Rajapakses did, which was largely infrastructure. Infrastructure is needed but there is a lot that needs to be done with regards to livelihoods. In the North for example there are young men with motorbikes and money because it is becoming a remittance economy, but no jobs. Now what I would strongly advise is – there is a Tamil diaspora out there that is quite rich. We all know that it helped to fund the LTTE. The economic situation out there in Europe and North America is not particularly propitious for investments. They will get a bigger bank for their buck over here. I would invite them to come and invest in Sri Lanka and make them dual nationals immediately. Furthermore a lot of them are linked to very high powered networks of academic excellence in fields of medicine, engineering, etc; you could turn this place into an educational hub by linking up with all of that and that’s the way that I would go.

In your opinion what are the most pressing issues facing the Prime Minister and his government?

Well I think there are two issues. If you look at the country as a whole, I think it would be fair to say without simplifying things, that the country as a whole wants accountability. Accountability in the South of the country outside of the North and East is largely about corruption . Lack of transparency, corruption, the looting of the State ; and they want to know that this is going to stop. That action is going to be taken in respect of those responsible for it. In the North and East, accountability is with respect to human rights violations, particularly the allegations of war crimes. People want the truth established. You cannot proceed with reconciliation unless there is a basis of truth that is out there, which is acknowledged. That they have been to hell and back is acknowledged by the Sri Lankan state.

If you are going to talk about them as equal citizens of this country, what has happened to them and what we have all allowed to happen to ourselves, should be out there and recorded. So accountability is a key. The second point is that the economy needs a number of reforms; to this I would add the education system as well. You know by 2030 or so, we will be confirmed as a country without a demographic dividend, with an aging population. This is going to have a knock on effect on our health services, on our ability to pay pensions, on a whole lot of things. So we need to be far sighted in terms of economic policy. We have a public service which numbers something like 1.3 million. It probably needs to be cut at least by half. And then there is the issue of the armed forces. People with arms number probably about 400,000. If you start demobilizing, where are they going to get jobs? Do they have the necessary skills? We need to look at all of that. I mean it is ironic that in Sri Lanka today we talk of our literacy, but it is very difficult to get a plumber or electrician. Now as you know we have German Tech in Moratuwa. Now there is a suburb in Melbourne called German Tech because the Sri Lankans who have those skills have used them to get points to migrate to go to Australia. So a number of challenges lie ahead, as far as accountability is concerned and as far as the economy is concerned.

Interviewed by Anusha David