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| Sunday, 8 February 2004 |
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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 11 2429239 / 2331181 Fax : 94 11 2429230 It's about time The suspense drags on. Will they, or won't they? The question is about the political prospects for the country: will the two main national parties, the United National Party, now in Government, and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, now controlling the Presidency, agree to share state power and come to a working arrangement that will stave off a costly snap general election? Sri Lankans will be forgiven if they free themselves of the stressful tensions of these past four months of deadlocked governance and suspended peace talks and, indulge in a happy cynicism oblivious to the nation's prospects. That may be why much of the elite forgot the Independence commemorative rites and simply fled to holiday resorts for the midweek holidays. After all, given the prevarications of the political party leaderships over their share of the governmental and ministerial pie and their speculations about electoral prospects, how can ordinary citizens sustain their focus on the political crisis? Perhaps sensing the public exasperation and the possible effect on party electoral fortunes, the two main parties last week moved towards a compromise on the main sticking point: control of the Defence portfolio. It's about time. Any intransigence that would have compelled a midterm general election would certainly have rebounded on the party responsible for the intransigence. Citizens, tired after successive early polls and the inevitable political violence, destruction, tragedy, and general dislocation of normal life, are sure to punish the party or parties responsible for yet another such bout of high intensity politics. So, those who had been insisting on recovering complete control of the Defence Ministry now seem to have agreed to a sharing of the portfolio. This week the two sides must finalise the overall arrangement for a systematically collaborative governance. There may be other obstacles in this complex process and the outcome of the Mano-Malik talks remain a matter of suspenseful anticipation. That all this is extremely complicated and difficult to resolve, no one doubts. But when the way forward is obvious to many, if not all, delays and prevarications cannot be excused. Given the urgency of the national situation in which a power sharing between the UNP and the SLFP/PA is only a precursor for the larger, much more complex, process of finalising a political settlement of the ethnic conflict, delays due to personal or party interests will not be looked at kindly by the voter. If the Mano-Malik committee does succeed this week in producing a blueprint for a working arrangement between the President and the Government, then, the next step would be to explore ways of drawing into the co-operative fold the SLFP's new partner in politics, the JVP. The more there is an inclusive political process, the greater the prospects for peace, social stability and economic development. ####### Water Even if the political excitement entertains and distracts, at the end of the day more mundane matters need to be attended and water becomes an essential resource. The prolonged drought has once again prompted moves to curtail water supplies. Once again, the problem looms while little has been done to prevent it. Even as it looms, little is being done to ameliorate the impact of the drought. The apathy of the administration and the abject failure to initiate forward-thinking programmes that would meet the water crisis halfway all seem part of the Sri Lankan karma. Who will wake up the slumbering bureaucracy and mobilise both state and civil society in the endeavour to prevent or overcome the trauma of drought? Action has to be taken now if tragedy is not to visit us yet again. |
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