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| Sunday, 27 July 2003 |
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Editorial |  |
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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 Division Division rules once again. And the division is all about the ending of the division of the country. The country's political leadership is yet again embroiled in a divisive confrontation over the proposals submitted by the Government for an interim administrative structure for the war-torn North-Eastern region. It is barely 15 months since the Cease-fire Agreement of February 2002 and the country is cautious about the durability of this tentative peace. That it is a tentative peace, everyone knows, since the process of achieving a permanent settlement of the ethnic conflict is ongoing and going only in fits and starts. Right now, the actual negotiations between the Government and the LTTE are in suspense, leaving the whole country in suspense over the future of the peace process and the survival of the Ceasefire. The need for an effective implementation of rehabilitation and recovery measures for the war-ravaged North-Eastern region is acknowledged by all. It is the failure of the existing institutional framework to enable implementation that has driven home the need for a more effective framework. That is why successive Governments, in the process of negotiating a permanent settlement, have given serious consideration to the setting up of an 'interim administration' for the North-East for the purpose of ensuring efficacy of delivery. The previous People's Alliance government proposed an 'interim' arrangement that, in certain circumstances, was envisaged for a duration of up to ten years. However, this proposal was part of a larger settlement proposal that, among other things, provided for the finalising of a permanent settlement. The current United National Front government has set in motion a peace process that has seen unprecedented success already and the success of which relies on a cautious, step-by-step approach. Hence, provision is being made for social and economic recovery measures for the North-East even before the political fundamentals come up for negotiation. It is at this interim stage that recovery measures already agreed on now require the necessary institutional infrastructure for effective implementation. Since the social and economic conditions in the North-East must be conducive for the progress of the peace process towards the fundamental political issues, the institutional mechanisms to enable the socio-economic work are now an urgent necessity. The proposed 'Interim Administration' (IA) then, is a stepping stone - not to secession as some fear, but to the more substantive negotiating process that will ensure the permanent re-unification of the country. It is a sad irony that the very initiative to re-unite what is currently a divided land must spark divisions within the very national political leadership that must take the country forward to peace and unity. Here, seeming discrepancies in information communicated between the principal political protagonists are at the root of the divisions that have now arisen among them. The country's top national leadership now co-habiting in State power, cannot lose sight of the challenge presented to them by the electorate: to collaborate for peace and transcend divisive inter-party competition. The Presidency as well as the Government have been mandated by the people to do just this. At a time when the whole country nervously watches developments, political behaviour has to be cautious, and moves must be made in ways that do not provoke further tensions. After all, this month commemorates the horrific riots of July 1983 that were the result of such provocations. The political parties concerned, therefore, must observe protocol that avoids confrontations and hostile debates that may, additionally, serve to prompt a negative public attitude towards the subject of debate: in this case the vital interim administration proposals. Such protocol for co-habitation should also include the practice of effective communication between the Presidency and Government. The Government needs to carefully communicate its latest proposals to the Presidency without giving any ground for confusion. And the Presidency must ensure that its response to Government proposals is made in a manner that does not arouse public fears and confusion. |
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