The Commonwealth as a force for good

It is a rare privilege to be with you here today. The Sri Lankan leader and politician in whose name this organisation and institute operates symbolises a mix of courage, determination, intellect and achievement I am pleased and honoured to salute. He was a builder, an internationalist, a steadfast opponent of terrorism who symbolised the best of the human spirit – resolute, determined, insightful and courageous.

I bring a deep and abiding respect for the work you do here. Foreign and defence policy in all our countries must not be caught in the never-ending rut of repeating the initiatives of least resistance and comforting familiarity time and time again to no avail.

Going back and forth in the same path dependent rut, with only the speed and depth changing, gets policy practitioners further away from the sun and realities on the surface. Sometimes in all our countries, finding the energy to start a new path is the best way ahead. It is not without risk - but few important paths or choices are. No country, certainly not Canada is perfect; we all have work to do on various challenges.

The new path I wish to suggest for all of us who share the Commonwealth relationship is one that is neither hidebound nor tied to old colonial shibboleths. It is a path based on mutual learning, shared best practices, innovation, technical collaboration and core pluralism in the way governments within the Commonwealth respect each other’s differences while defending common values and principles.

Unlike the UN, today’s Commonwealth has no permanent five and no veto. There is no hierarchy. The largest countries like India, or Canada or Pakistan have one vote and voice each as do the smallest like Kiribati or the Solomon Islands. The wealthiest and the poorest are equals at the Commonwealth table. The most populace and the smallest population share the same equal role.

We are governed by no treaty or formal contract. We are all in the Commonwealth because we choose to be there and respect its common principles and core values.

Canada and Sri Lanka

Colleagues, this is a remarkable association, unique in the world. And, over the last three years, it has set aside path dependency on the way things were and struck out on a new road aimed on the way ahead. Canada and Sri Lanka stood together in shaping this new way ahead.

In Port of Spain, our countries stood together with others on empowering a new Eminent Persons Group to revitalise and make more fit-for-purpose the Commonwealth of tomorrow. Sri Lanka was part of a task force on modernising the role of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in order to broaden its trigger points and streamline its procedure so that it could engage when issues other than a “coup or no coup” context existed. These issues like rule of law, human rights and judicial independence were added to the list of triggers for CMAG in a report unanimously accepted by your Foreign Minister, my Foreign Minister and 52 others at the Perth CHOGM and, the following day by the government Heads themselves – also unanimously.

Canada and Sri Lanka were on the same page on these fundamental structural issues.

As to the values of the Commonwealth, just last week on 11 March, Her Majesty The Queen as Head of the Commonwealth, signed a new Charter of the Commonwealth which pulls together all the statements made over the years by Commonwealth Heads of government at Singapore, Harare, Latimer House, Port of Spain, Perth and elsewhere. Respect for diversity and pluralism, protection for minorities, separation of powers, democracy, free and open elections, rights of women, religious freedom, development and judicial independence – all consolidated in one document.

I stood across the hall from your distinguished High Commissioner in London, with whom I have had the pleasure of meeting and chatting on various occasions. We both warmly applauded Her Majesty’s signature and brief speech.

Challenge the entire Commonwealth faces

So, the challenge the entire Commonwealth faces, Canada and Sri Lanka included, can best be summed up in three questions:

1. If we have a new code and operating model, which the Charter and CMAG remit represent, how do we use them well as partners and independent countries?

2. Can the new Commonwealth be even better than the old Commonwealth?

3. How do we use this new infrastructure of values and procedures to shape a better world, both when we agree and when we disagree?

I believe that as a global network for civility, cooperation, trade promotion and democratic development, what unites us is greater than what divides us. But we cannot get to what unites us if we avoid where we differ. We cannot build a better, more economically compelling world if we avoid the differences that exist.

Looking away is always more costly than facing a challenge head on. “Going along to get along” is about avoiding unpleasant realities.

The Commonwealth did not do that on Apartheid, or when there was a temporary military coup in Nigeria, or a clear violation of core values in Zimbabwe, or the sacking of 12 Supreme Court justices in Pakistan. The Commonwealth cannot do that here.

My remit as Special Envoy to the Commonwealth does not include the internal affairs of this or any other country. Sovereign countries sort out their own affairs. My remit embraces the future of the Commonwealth and that includes the degree to which all of us meet the membership criteria established by core Commonwealth values, principles and procedures.

No membership is perpetual as South Africa, Nigeria, Fiji, Pakistan and Zimbabwe found out. Some for brief periods, some for longer.

An alliance of like-minded countries working together in the interest of their populations, their democracies their trade, education and development, as equals is unique and vital. We can trade with China; she can invest in our countries – all of which is welcome. But they are not, as we speak and for the foreseeable future, likely to share our democratic values or purposes. China invests in her own interest – and there is nothing wrong with that – but that is different from a shared set of values and purposes.

What was then called Ceylon, along with Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand and the UK signed the first and founding agreement called the London Declaration in 1949. When I was in Westminster Abbey last week the first flags to march in was that of Sri Lanka, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and the United Kingdom.

We are the ones who shaped the idea. We are the ones who were the first to say we can work together, we can have common values, we can respect our differences, we can build a better world, across race, across colour, across geography, across wealth. And we can do it because we believe in our ability to do so.

Leonard Birchall

I want to talk for a moment about a particular Canadian that you may have some knowledge of. His name is Leonard Birchall.

The reason I mention Len Birchall is because he lived for many years in a city I live in, Kingston, Ontario Canada. He was dubbed by Winston Churchill the “Saviour of Ceylon”. He was the individual who helped prevent a surprise Japanese attack on Colombo, Ceylon. This attack, if successful, would have equalled a second Pearl Harbour and killed thousands of People. Birchall was assigned to fly the Consolidated PBY Catalina “flying boat” from which he issued his historic protective warning of Ceylon.

In the pre-dawn hours of 4 April 1942, Birchall and his eight-man flight crew embarked upon a day-long patrol southeast of Ceylon in search of Japanese presence in the Indian Ocean. Just at the end of the patrol, strong elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy were sighted steaming toward Ceylon with the intention of surprising heavy surface units of the Royal Navy. Birchall and his crew desperately sent signals alerting Allied units as carrier-based Zeros attacked the Catalina. This action permitted naval units to avoid detection and enabled forces on the island critical time to prepare a strong defence.

Birchall was shot down. He was held as a Japanese prisoner of war for three years and four months. As the senior Allied officer in the compound, Birchall displayed the utmost concern for the welfare of his fellow prisoners, often disregarding his own safety. While in captivity at the Yokohama Camp, he called a sit-down strike in protest against ill-treatment of his men. On another occasion, when the Japanese wanted to send sick prisoners of war to work, Birchall physically intervened. The Japanese response was to beat the brave Canadian within an inch of his life every time. He survived the war, lived to a ripe old age, and died in his nineties a few years ago in Kingston, Ontario.

Shared sacrifices

This morning before I began my meeting with Minister Peiris, a very distinguished spokesman for your country all around the world, I visited the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery adjacent to Canada’s official residence. Not only to pay my respect to the fallen Canadian flyers who are buried there but also to the fallen Ceylonese Sri Lankan servicemen who gave their lives in the common struggle against the oppressor in support of shared values. They lay side by side – Sri Lankans, Canadians, Indians, Brits, Australians and others.

Our past and shared sacrifices remind us all of the values we share and for which many of our forbearers made the ultimate sacrifice. The terrorist war your country had to face, the many terrorist attacks within Sri Lanka, speaks to a deeply challenging history where huge difficulties were overcome by your people and, to their credit, your armed forces.

Canada believes that as a prospective CHOGM host, your country could embrace this opportunity, perhaps to take and make real initiatives on accountability on both sides, on publishing a list of detainees, on demilitarising wherever possible and appropriate, on moving to a more accelerated program of reconciliation.

The right balance

I have been to the north and I am overwhelmed by the work that is being done by your Government there. It is impressive, it is substantial, it has cost great amounts of money, it has been done with measure of professionalism and focus.

But there are two kinds of infrastructure in our lives. Physical infrastructure – roads schools, hospitals, houses – and the infrastructure of stability, decency and generosity. And it’s always challenging to find the right balance between the two.

That being said, I come to learn, observe and report back to my Government. And I am genuinely grateful to the Government of Sri Lanka, and your High Commissioner in Ottawa for helping make this learning and observing opportunity possible.

I come as a Commonwealth brother to all the people of this great land, Singhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Christian, young and old, rich and poor.

Sri Lanka is a deeply impressive country. Moving ahead in so many economic social technical channels and setting very high standards for the world indeed.

The ability of the Commonwealth to be an even stronger force for good, a network for entrepreneurship and growth, a meshwork of ideas, creativity, enhanced trade and increased development has never been greater. But the need to embrace the core values of rule of law, democracy, freedom and pluralism remains at the centre of our compelling common interest as sovereign states voluntarily associated in the Commonwealth of Nations.

The Commonwealth can be made increasingly stronger by a Sri Lanka that seeks, wherever possible, to embrace a more robust premise, human rights, rule of law, pluralist and inclusive democratic future for all. Every country in the Commonwealth has work to do. We do in Canada. We must move ahead always in the right direction and do so together.

It is a great privilege to be with you tonight.

Thank you all.

(Senator Segal was a member of the Eminent Persons Group of the Commonwealth Secretariat who currently works on job protection for returning members of the Armed Forces Reserves, Crown Corporations and quarterly financial reporting to the public on behalf of the Government as a Senator.)