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| Sunday, 16 March 2003 |
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Editorial |  |
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Please forward your comments to the
Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 Action Just as much as the world community is on tenterhooks over the plans of the United States and its allies to invade Iraq, tension in Sri Lanka waxes and wanes over the progress and pitfalls in the peace process here. Much of the debate over the ethnic conflict and the options of political settlement and military solution has been about the intentions of the protagonists. There has been much questioning, over decades and, especially during peace initiatives, whether or not the Government was serious about power sharing and equality among ethnic communities. Likewise, there have been doubts and suspicions about the possibility that the Tamil nationalist movement would exploit any power-sharing framework to partition the country. The peace process today proceeds not on the basis of speculation over intentions, but on concrete action by both sides to demonstrate their commitment to a negotiated settlement and avoidance of war. Over the past twelve months both the Government as well as the LTTE have actually practised peace-making. It has been a practice of active measures to rehabilitate war-affected areas and to regulate movements of military forces in accordance with the provisions of the Cease-fire Agreement 2002. Even if there have been the inevitable problematic incidents causing some tensions and mis-understandings, both sides practised restraint in a manner that precluded a return to war. The very latest minor crisis that occurred at sea off Mullaitivu is also expected to demonstrate further this maturity and capacity to move towards a resolution of the problem without a return to hostilities. Ultimately, as Sri Lankans are learning, it is not intentions but action that leads to creative solutions to societal problems; it is action that demonstrates and concretises the bona fides of the protagonists and legitimises the situation on the ground. At the global level too, there has been much speculation over the intentions of both the United States of America, the currently dominant superpower and Iraq, a rapidly modernising, oil rich, Persian Gulf state with a record of aggression against its neighbours. While Iraq has been accused of aggression and the use of weapons of mass destruction, the US has been suspected of numerous geo-political designs, including plans to capture Iraq's massive oil resources and to subdue dissident states to its global writ. It is not intentions but action and, the record or history of actions, that has ultimately either upheld or undermined the standing and credibility of a country or society in the eyes of the global community. And while Iraq has persistently acted in ways that have undermined its credibility as a peaceful and democratic state, the United States, on the other hand, has regularly, if not always, demonstrated its commitment to the rule of law and respect for the people's democratically expressed will. The greatest monument to the American people's commitment to world peace and global civilization has been the leadership Washington gave to the establishment of the United Nations Organisation. To date, the UN remains indebted to the American people for its financial upkeep in which the US takes up some 25 per cent of the cost. Today, thanks to the initiative of America and its allies, the UN is the source of legitimacy in global governance and the benchmark, if yet imperfect, of democracy and justice in international relations. The US and its western allies have led the way in upholding the writ of the UN in making peace and facilitating justice and development worldwide. It is only this practice that ensures the legitimacy of all states acting on the world stage today. Today, in the face of the grave challenge to peace in the Persian Gulf, the world body and its founding members are bound together in an inextricable embrace the sundering of which can only bring down the whole edifice of world order and global progress. |
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