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Challenge

Even as the nation prepares for the twin holy festivals of Vesak and Milad-un-Nabi, we must confront sudden new tensions in the body politic.

This second Vesak festival after the Cease-fire has been billed as one which will attract foreign visitors to our land to experience the spectacle and the fervour of Buddhism's most important commemorative moment. The happy coincidence of the commemoration of the Holy Prophet's (PBUH) Birthday makes this week an even more significant one for our island community.

Now, however, political interests have intervened to cloud a Sri Lankan horizon that had begun to show some light and hint at the possibilities of future splendour. Even while every political and diplomatic muscle is being strained to bring the LTTE back to the negotiating table after the controversy arising from the Washington aid meeting, a sudden move by the President threatens to push the country into another, complex political contingency.

The President has moved to bring under her control the Development Lotteries Board under the impression that the Board is to be shifted to another government Ministry. We must examine critically the desirability of using executive power to carve out areas of control and thereby create a situation of constitutional uncertainty at a time when the process to resolve the larger national crisis of ethnic conflict is at a most delicate stage.

The political mandate given by the people of this country in recent electoral processes is clear: both national political formations, the United National Front and the People's Alliance, have been given a share of power in the Sri Lankan State, the one over the Government and the other over the Presidency.

The vast majority of the people, of all ethnic communities, have begun consistently supporting the common policy of both political formations to end the military action and to begin to resolve the ethnic conflict by means of political negotiation and a reform of the Sri Lankan State.

Both national leaders today, President Chandrika Kumaratunga as well as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, have already made their mark as leaders with the determination and courage to take the country forward towards peace and justice. Despite the foreboding of some, both have broadly shown their readiness to emphasise more the collaborative rather than the competitive dimensions of the current co-habitation in State power of their two political formations.

That is not only what the people have voted for, but it is also what is most needed in the national interest. A return to the old practices of intense rivalry over the resources and powers of the Sri Lankan State will serve only to undermine the political impetus towards an ending of the war. Neither party can afford to return, at this juncture, to the politics of contest over the 'spoils' of State. The focus of the entire nation, especially of the political leadership, must remain fixed on the critical issue of the time, which is the ethnic conflict. Both the United National Front as well as the People's Alliance cannot afford to engage in any manoeuvres aimed at carving out areas of control in the State at a time when the integrity of the State and the well-being of the nation has been so undermined by war and social conflict.

If, on the part of the Government, there has been any room for uncertainty or misunderstanding in relation to the integrity and stability of the Presidency, then it is upto the Government to quickly clarify the situation. This norm also applies to the President.

Attempts to outmanoeuvre and force the issue by either party can only be regarded as irresponsible acts not befitting the trust and historic mandate given by the Sri Lankan citizenry.

Now, at this time of celebration of Enlightenment and spiritual greatness, the challenge is for sober and rational thought and action.

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