To transform my country into a just, peaceful and prosperous society which respect diversity and guarantees the well being of all. 

Provide leadership and facilitation in building a challenging people’s movement capable of spiritual, cultural, social and structural transformation.

1. Develop a code of ethics through our own behaviour and practices and infuse it to the society.
   
2. Transform people from passive observes to become informed citizens and agents of transformation.
   
3. Build forums, platforms, opportunities and spaces capable of engaging both the likeminded and un-likeminded stakeholders with the aim of building net-works of transformation.
   
4. Build opportunities and spaces to promote alternative social and cultural practices strength-ending the foundations for multi-culturalism and co-existence.
   
5. Build fruitful and efficient media and communication strategies to facilitate our mission.

The Peoples manifesto which is before you is the result of widespread consultation conducted by the National Anti War Front (NAWF) in 22 districts and sectors throughout the country. Over a hundred people in each district took part in these consultations. Consultations were held with young people, trade unions, and women, inter religious leaders and ordinary citizens. Since it was not conducive to hold a meeting in Jaffna we were able to consult citizens from Jaffna who are based in Colombo as well. Further a series of meetings were held with experts in various subjects so that the Peoples Appeal will benefit from the knowledge available to this country. These experts have contributed immensely to the conceptualisation of the draft recommendations made by the people. Finally a draft of the Peoples Appeal was presented to representatives of all the 9 provinces where over 300 representatives participated in each of the provinces. The Manifesto is truly a vision of the people from all walks of life.     

It is no secret that a profound crisis has taken hold of the country. There is no value frame and no center to guide the destiny of our country. We continue to drift asunder with no moral authority, direction or leaderaship to guide the country.

We have lost faith in the political system of the country. The political system is corrupt to the core and does not inspire confidence amongst the people. The Presidential system does not account to the Parliament and the President is no longer the President of the whole country and above party politics but is the President of his party, his ethnic group and is surrounded by a small coterie of hangers on. Nepotism and favoritism is rampant within the system.

1. DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE

Governance is the process whereby public institutions conduct public affairs, manage public resources and guarantee the realization of all human rights. Good governance accomplishes this in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption by respecting the following key attributed of good governance: transparency, accountability, equality and inclusion, diversity and pluralism, responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, rule of law, participation and consensus.

We as citizens of this country feel that this form of negative and destructive trends in the governance of the country cannot be allowed to be continued and therefore, we propose the following reforms:

2.1.RULE OF LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION AND ACCESS FOR JUSTICE:

Good governance requires fair legal framework that enforce impartiality. It also requires full protection of human rights, particularly those of minorities and opposition. Impartial enforcement of law requires an independent judiciary and an impartial and an incorruptible police force. Therefore,

3.1.OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF GOVERNANCE:

LANGUAGE ISSUE

In 1956, the Parliament decided to enact the Official Language Act, which stated that “the Sinhala language shall be the one official language of Ceylon.” This meant that citizens of the country who did not speak Sinhala were virtually denied access to the services and institutions that the state is obliged to provide its citizens. It was not until 1987 that Tamil was also made an official language.

4. PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The fulfillment of human rights of every person, woman, man, youth and child, to live in dignity and well being, lies at the heart of Human Rights advocated in the Declarations, Covenants and Conventions of the United Nations. Sri Lanka has accepted signed and ratifies most of these human rights declarations and covenants. But, very little has been done pragmatically to guarantee the enjoyment of the rights enshrined in these declarations and covenants to the citizens. Therefore, we call upon the government to take effective steps to ensure the following:

5. THE WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Sri Lankan society reflects mainly patriarchal characteristics. The women who are living in this patriarchal culture have to face injustices and discrimination in social, economic, political and cultural spheres. Women should be treated as equal partners in development. The main requirement in this regard is to convert the social inter-relationship between man and woman to en equal footing. To begin to realize the gender equality in the country, we propose that the representation of women be constituted and guaranteed on the following basis. 

6. THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILDREN

Children are the future of any society. The Child Rights are fundamental freedoms and the inherent rights of all human beings below the age of 18. These rights apply to every child, irrespective of the child’s parents’/legal guardian’s ethnicity, religion, colour, sex, creed, outlook, social status or other status.

7. LABOR RIGHTS (TRADE UNIONS)

Whereas Sri Lanka is bound by the Philadelphia Declaration of 1944 and also to the agreement and recommendations of the International Labour Organization, Sri Lanka should establish a national Labour law which needs to be effective.

8. THE RIGHTS OF THE MINORITIES

All democracies are systems in which citizens freely make political decisions by majority rule. It is proved beyond any doubts that the rule by the majority is not necessarily democratic as far as the minorities or the excluded communities are concerned. In a democratic society, majority rule must be coupled with guarantees of individual human rights that, in turn, serve to protect the rights of minorities.

9. THE RIGHTS OF YOUTH

The Department of Census and Statistics in its latest report has stated that the number of unemployed persons in Sri Lanka is estimated as about 462,000 during the first quarter of 2007. The total unemployment rate for this quarter is reported as 6.2 perent. .The survey results also reveal that, the highest unemployment rate is reported from the G.C.E (A/L) and above group which is about 12.3 percent. Further, the unemployment rate among the youth (in the age group 20 – 24 yrs) in 22 percent and is much higher when compared with other age groups.

10. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

10.1. POVERTY AND RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT

Development of citizens in a democracy is a right and not a privilege. But, at least a quarter of our fellow citizen’s right to development is denied. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals aims to end poverty by 2015. The poverty in Sri Lanka in 2002 was 22%. Reaching the millennium target has become a challenge. Hence it is an absolute necessity to have a national policy of poverty eradication and development. Therefore, we recommend the following steps to eradicate poverty and to ensure the right to development:

11. NON-PARTISAN INTERVENTION FOR A STATE CULTURAL POLICY

Speaking generally and considering the fact that culture has been universally claimed as constituting a fundamental and inalienable sphere in the total human development , and; speaking specifically and considering the fact that our country is presently engulfed in a serious crisis of civilization, recovery from which can only be achieved through renaissance and empowerment of the civil society which must draw the essential strength from the development and transformation of our cultural life.

12. THE ECONOMY.

Today there are two great powers that will drive the global economy both of whom belong to Asia. They are India and China with its vast population and extraordinary growth rates which will dominate the global competitive market in the future. Sri Lanka then has to gear its strategies in relation to these growth centers and find its particular niche in the global economy. Sri Lanka is primarily an international trade economy with its main incomes derived from our traditional exports in tea, rubber and coconut and also the incomes generated from the export of labor primarily to the Middle East.

13. SCIENCE AND TECHONOLY

13.1. TECHNOLOGY POLICY AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Sri Lanka is way behind other countries in technology developments. Technology Policy should focus on technology innovation and adaptation and commercialisation. There must be incentives to facilitate investment on pilot plants, process demonstration units and prototype development in order to enable rapid commercial exploitation of technologies developed in laboratories.

14. EDUCATION

Education should be viewed as a life-long process. Whilst obtaining necessary knowledge and skills to perform an assigned task, it is also expected that a change in attitudes and ethics will be accomplished through Education. There are eight types of skills that are identified as necessary for living in the 21st Century. We are in need of a System of Education that fosters the objective of establishing a society equipped with required skills to match the demands of the global labour market which is manifest with such comprehensive skills. An Act for National Education should be approved and the need for a National Education Policy is emphasized. (For this task, it needs the representatives from different levels of education such as government and private teachers, private school authorities, business community, all other professionals, local, foreign and private Universities. The views and ideas of the public and the students should be involved in this effort)

15. THE RIGHT TO HEALTH

The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every citizen in a democracy. The highest attainable health means a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Ensuring the equal and universal access to and promotion of primary, preventive and curative health care services to improve the quality of life of all citizens with out any form of discrimination is a prime responsibility of the state. Unfortunately, poor people living among the marginalized and excluded communities and particularly those living in the conflict zones do not enjoy this right to health care. Further, there is a general decline in the quality of the public health services and therefore, people increasingly becoming the dependants on the private medical services. This is a very serious issue affecting the poor and marginalized communities. Therefore, we propose the following to ensure every citizens fundamental right the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, which is one of the obligation of the state:

16. AGRICULTURE AND LAND

The agrarian sector is facing acute crisis for its sustainability due to increased pricing of agricultural inputs, labour and low prices for agricultural product. Therefore it is an urgent need for agrarian reform to ensure sustainability of the agriculture sector, which is the livelihood of millions of rural poor in the country.

17. ENVIRONMENT

The rich environment of Sri Lanka encompasses the wide range of plants, animals and ecosystem that she hosts. Our country includes coral reefs and coastlines, rivers and streams, forests, wetlands and grasslands. It ranges from the dry lowland plains to the fertile highlands and mountain areas. These diverse environments provide valuable goods and services to the human population - including the fish, natural resources, tourism and agricultural products on which the economy depends, as well as the life support functions that are essential to underpin them, such as ample clean water, productive fishing grounds, rich fertile soil and green surroundings.

18. MASS MEDIA: TOWARDS ONE COUNTRY, WITH MANY VOICES

The mass media, the dominant structure of modern social communication in Sri Lanka, has evolved over the past two centuries from colonially initiated print media in the early 19th century to become a vibrant sector of the economy. With significant capital investments and mobilization of labour power and skilled human resources, this sector was once dominated by media ventures controlled by the State and operated according to Governmental policy and political strategy. Today, after many years of agitation and lobbying by people’s and media professionals’ media rights movements as well as due to public disenchantment with the State monopoly of the news media, the State has been compelled to allow the growth of private sector news media ventures. In the past decade the mass media, become a highly competitive industry with both private and State sector media enterprises almost entirely based in Colombo and its outskirts.

19. FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND THE RIGHT TO WORSHIP

Every person – women, man, youth and children – has the fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. There fundamental human rights are explicitly set out in all international human rights instruments that the Sri Lankan government has accepted and ratified.

20. THE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS

In a democracy, government is only one, perhaps the major, stakeholder in governing the country. Political parties, various institutions, non governmental organizations (NGOs), associations, trade unions and private business are other stakeholders involved in varied functions in the governance of the country. This diversity is called pluralism and their existence, legitimacy and authority are drawn from the constitutionally recognized rights of association, expression and assemble.

21. TRANSFORMATION OF THE ETHNIC CONFLICT AND PEACE

The ethnic conflict originated as a result of the denial of the legitimate aspiration of the Tamils to be an equal constituent partner of the Sri Lankan polity with equality and equal participation on decisions affecting their community. Although this conflict has developed from political protest to the large scale civil war, it is generally believed that this issue can only be resolved through negotiation process by sharing political powers that can transform the present unitarist majoritarian governance into a multi-ethnic consensual governance.