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| Sunday, 29 June 2003 |
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Editorial |  |
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Please forward your comments to the
Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: editor@sundayobserver.lk Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 Tango In the face of hostile critics and alarmists ranging from none other than the President herself to sundry groups of 'patriots' and strict 'constitutionalists', all of them warning against an interim administration for the North-East region, the Government has remained firm with its strategy of leaving no stone unturned in its search for a permanent political settlement of the ethnic conflict. Rather than pussyfoot on such a controversial issue, the Government has pro-actively taken up the idea of an interim council. If the LTTE has initially expressed dissatisfaction with the first ideas for such an administration put forward by Colombo, that has not deterred the Government. It has proceeded to explore new ideas pertaining to such an administrative structure. And the Government has chosen to act fast in the cause of urgently needed peace and stability. While Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met with the United Kingdom's Prime Minister in London, Minister G.L. Peiris and other officials were at hand to monitor a fresh round of discussion between LTTE representatives in the British capital and the Norwegian facilitators. Responding positively to the Government's sustained initiative in favour of an interim council deal, the LTTE has now announced its readiness to return to direct negotiations. The Government must certainly be complimented on its persistence and the professional speed with which it has continued with its efforts to revive the peace process. It has not allowed dissident noises from local constituencies or power blocs to cause any further slowing down of the peace process. In this the Government has demonstrated courage and a firm political will. This courage and will, however, can only bear genuine fruit if the substance of the latest initiative really does meet the complex needs of the situation. On the one hand, the interim council structure cannot be too conducive towards a dilution, in the long term, of the integrity of the Sri Lankan State. On the other, the proposed structure must genuinely provide for the required degree of autonomy for this early stage of regional decision-making for the purpose of building confidence between the two sides and in the future direction of the peace process. In other words, the interim administrative structure must provide the LTTE and the rest of the political leadership in the North-East, of all communities in that region, with the facility to take quick decisions on their own in a way that will efficiently meet the specific and urgent needs of the region, regarding which the people of the region know best. It is only the provision of such a facility that will actually draw the North-East leadership into the larger negotiating process that aims at a final political settlement. Thus, a successful interim administration will be the path to peace and national unity. But while the Government is right to proceed apace on the matter, it cannot totally ignore the concerns of its immediate constituency in the South. As has been learnt in the past, often at much human cost, public sentiment cannot be ignored for long. There has to be adequate public communication to alleviate public fears and clarify misperceptions. The current overtures being made cannot be shrouded in total secrecy. Sri Lankans are a thinking people and will appreciate the need for confidentiality over details and nuances in the give-and-take of the current 'talks about talks'. But this confidentiality they will concede only when they have some confidence that the general substance is in the general national interest. Hence, the Government has to do more work, at national level, to communicate the facts about and the possibilities of an interim administrative structure. The LTTE too bears a similar responsibility. If it is dissatisfied with the ideas coming out of Colombo, then Kilinochchi must express, in some form, its own ideas. It takes two to tango after all. |
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