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Peacemaking

Peacemaking goes by the misnomer of ''process''. A new peace process by the time it is packaged, incorporates the peculiarities of a new government. This government has almost overtaken the Liberation Tigers in terms of strategising for a lasting truce.

Going to the table with good strategy has a negative ring to it often times and peace strategists are thought of as sharp dealmakers and backroom boys. But, the government has strategised transparently, and the week's newspaper stories show the coaching has been rigorous, with nothing being taken for granted.

This attracts respect for the government's peace agenda and it would be possible to imagine Prabhakaran wiping a bead of sweat from his brow on the prospect of facing down an adversary who knows his onions.

This approach could have the danger of inviting grossly overrated expectations on the other hand. As any swatter who failed his exams will tell the team of negotiators headed for the Swiss capital, success does not depend on cramming alone or being brightly bookish. As we know, the UNP was edified by the fact that a peace wish does not translate automatically into a peace dividend.

Then, there is peace-theatre. A planeload of peacemakers scurrying to a European capital is a script written for a Shakespearean denouement; Just watch those international media exponents sharpening their pencils and nowadays re-booting their laptop computers to report this peace theatre as if its Shakespearean first and political only as afterthought.

So preparing for negations is a catch twenty-two; you'd be caught flat footed if there is a lack of forward planning, but with too much homework, there can be unreality written into the script in terms of heightened expectations.

But, there can be serendipitous leaps forward at the most unexpected moments, and even though the Good Friday agreement in Ireland and many other peace deals out of the conflict resolution handbooks indicate a great deal of perseverance, peace deals have often been hatched because there was the good fortune and kismet of the correct moment.

Last time around in Thailand and in Norway there was too much chemistry between the two chief negotiators; this time even those from the opposition benches will wake up from their political sleepwalk and say that what's most important for peace between the two negotiating teams is a healthy mutual respect. We daresay we do not know whether the feeling is mutual, but the government has to make a certainty that they, the LTTE, as negotiators respect us.

Cartoon controversy

Cartoonists have been reduced to hate figures before, but the global pyromaniac frenzy arising from the cartoon controversy is ballooning into something that is almost has the possibility of triggering off a World War. If that's hyperbole its only just so, considering that a lesser event such as an assassination in Austria set off WW1, even though catalyzing events preceded that trigger.

Journalists are the offenders in this controversy, and if we scribes are treated regularly as if we are socially outcast, now with this Danish controversy we almost feel we have earned it. Danish journalists backed by some callow fellow hacks from Europe are seen defending the caricature depiction of the prophet, which offended Muslim sensibilities around the world.

It's the arrogance behind such religious bigotry that stuns us; and bigotry it has to be if the members of a different religious faith are held to be intolerant if they defend the sanctity of their beliefs.

On ourselves

The Sunday Observer at least in a technical sense is the oldest newspaper in this country. The name Observer has been coupled with various prefixes at various times but essentially the newspaper which carries our name has straddled three centuries in this country as a journal.

The minor transformation that the Sunday Observer is undergoing this week is but a blip in the larger historical context of this solid journalistic institution. But, for every living generation, theirs alone is the most important epoch in history.

As makeovers go today, this newspaper offers a tentative change, which however, with time will mature into more than a cosmetic face-lift. We daresay people - readers - must be seeing us with our warts and all in their mind's eye, but this lady by the Beira is not bashful to acknowledge several stages in the evolution of her personality.

Our policy tendencies may be well known, sometimes known to the point of forming strong prejudices in the minds of readers. This week we face that mindset with confidence and you could even say, with a certain lack of reverence. It's an attempt to retain the essential identity of this newspaper while undergoing a transformation of our personality.

In terms of substance, from our policy and design we hope to break the mould almost to the point of eventually being unrecognizable from what we were. No, that is a bit of hyperbole, but the point to be made is that this journal will try to look different not for the sakes of it but with deliberate intent. It maybe presupposed that journalists couldn't buck the trend sitting on these Lake House benches.

Eventually, you can be the judge of the validity of such hypotheses. For our part, we at our workstations would like to give the lie to the notion that news is made only on the other side of the Beira Lake. That's not to throw down a gauntlet but to make a statement of intent, which says we will continue to take in our stride the coming years, as we did the considerable number of decades behind us.

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