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by Dhamma Disanayake, Snr. Lecturer, University of Colombo

War and Peace the issue at the forthcoming Presidential Election has aroused controversy on the validity of solutions offered to the national problem in the manifestos of the main candidates, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe.

In the latter's campaign, two myths are being propagated to cloud the issue of war and peace and hoodwink the voter at the Presidential Election to be held on 17th November. They are:

(i) The myth of unavoidable war in the event of Mahinda Rajapaksa's victory and

(ii) The myth of dawn of an era of peace if Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe wins.

These two myths are the result of clever fiendish manipulation of falsehoods by the UNP and the media run by them. The aim of this vicious propaganda is to create a fear psychosis on a mass scale. We are aware that the battlefield is a killing field and life and limb of even the non-combatants is in danger.

So will be their property, acquired through hard earned money. These two myths have instilled fear in the voter both in the North and in the South. Thus a fear psychosis has benumbed the critical faculties of the large number of voters.

Why do the UNP media continue to harp on the threat of a war in the event of Mahinda Rajapaksa's victory? The Mahinda Chinthana which expounds the policies of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the allies, does not have a single sentence in favour of war, let alone any suggestion as to waging a war.

Nor does any public speaker of any affiliated party of the new alliance oppose the peace process. In contrast, all the political parties affiliated to the UPFA strongly recommend negotiations as the best means of achieving a lasting peace. But the UNP and the allied electronic and print media are engaged in an aggressive campaign to tarnish the image of Mahinda Rajapaksa as a peace lover.

The Mahinda Chinthana clearly stresses that the only way to achieve durable peace is dialogue at the broadest level. Further the Mahinda Chinthana reiterates, Mahinda Rajapaksa's unequivocal commitment to peace, his unwavering stance. According to Mahinda Chinthana, peace talks with the LTTE will be resumed on the solid basis of a consensus arrived through a fruitful dialogue with all stakeholders and all political parties including the UNP.

Upon close analysis of the current international scenario, we do not discern any factor that may contribute to outbreak of a war between the Sri Lankan State and the LTTE. The manufacture of arms by the military industrial complex of the super powers has boomeranged on them as shown by the terrorist attack. Now no super power will support any armed movement in the world. So chances of an outbreak of a war in Sri Lanka are remote.

In the context of the super power being threatened with terrorist attacks, the LTTE will not be able to count on their military or diplomatic support. For e.g., the USA, the U.K. and India have already proscribed the LTTE. Further, the European Union's ban on travel by the LTTE delegates is a clear sign of the attitudinal change of policy vis-a-vis the LTTE.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, if elected will not be able to usher in a lasting peace. The northern terrorism raised its ugly head after the black July in 1983 when the racial riots ignited by the hooligans organised by the racist elements in the UNP government of which Ranil Wickremesinghe held the important Ministry of Youth Affairs.

Because of the inaction of Ranil Wickremesinghe and his colleagues, the communal riots were allowed to spread causing the massacre of Tamils and the destruction of their property. This was the historical backdrop of the birth of the LTTE. The dubious role of Ranil Wickremesinghe in July 1983 casts serious doubts on his credentials as a national leader who can usher in a lasting peace.

('A beggar's wound is his bread and butter') the saying goes. For a government lacking public support, a protracted war is a blessing for it provides an excuse to impose an emergency to suppress opposition.

Wickremesinghe was no exception for he held responsible ministries in the government that forced the Tamil parliamentarians out of the legislature and persecuted both the Sinhala and the Tamil political rivals. Thus the emergency laws were proved to be an iron-curtain for Wickremesinghe and his colleagues to hide their misdeeds.

Further Ranil Wickremesinghe is not a genuine peace lover. He uses peace as a slogan to gain political power. During the election campaign he harps on the theme of peace. If he is a true peace lover, he should have supported the draft constitution presented to Parliament in 2000 by the P.A. government.

Ironically, Wickremesinghe who participated in the drafting of the constitution with a political solution to the national problem, shamelessly sabotaged it, apparently to rob the P.A. government of the credit it so richly deserved.

Today, what the nation witnesses in the Ceasefire Agreement with the LTTE is nothing but a submission to the unjust demands of the LTTE. However, if Wickremesinghe's concern for peace is bona-fide, he should have consulted political parties in the South and in the North and sought the blessing of the Executive President before signing the CFA with the LTTE. In this context people believe that Ranil Wickremesinghe has become a virtual prisoner of his own political tactics.

Today, the UNP has formed an unholy alliance with the CWC led by Thondaman and the SLMC of Hakeem who are notorious for their political expediency. On the other hand the plurality of interests represented in the UPFA and the new alliance is sadly lacking in the UNP.

For the first time in history all religious and racial minorities, religious organisations and civil society organisations have accepted the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the UPFA candidate and endorsed his concepts expounded in his manifesto, The Mahinda Chinthana... In addition to 24 political parties, hundreds of trade unions, and cultural and professional organisations have pledged their support and vowed to ensure his victory.

The UNP does not represent such a wide spectrum of political and social forces and cultural trends. So this broad based mass movement so rapidly grown as a national force will definity help prevent a war by developing a consensus on non-violent course of resolving the conflict in the North and East and the national question.

Since the UPFA and the allies consist of the widest spectrum of ethnic and religious shades and political thought in Sri Lanka, it has the capacity to offer a solution to the national problem. The fact that the UPFA is an alliance of such a wide variety of parties and communities, is the clear indication of the compromises made by each to arrive at a consensus towards the attainment of lasting peace through a just political solution.

Such broad consensus on any issue is a remote possibility ever in the future. This is rare and remarkable indeed. So the paramount duty of the people of Sri Lanka is to ensure the victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the UPFA candidate in recognition of a unity that can be established in the midst of plurality and diversity. The task before us is to convince the voter of these practical aspects of the UPFA's approach to the national problem based on enlightened pluralism.

The JVP and JHU, the main partners of the UPFA are the target of the vicious campaign of the UNP and their media, labelling them as racist and chauvinistic. This is a myth.

True, they represent nationalist trends. It is strange that these political pundits fail to discern the difference between chauvinism and nationalism. We do believe that enlightened nationalism is legitimate in a developing country like ours and that it plays a positive role in national resurgence, so vital to economic, social and cultural development.

So it is a crime to label such nationalist movements as chauvinistic or racist. Genuine nationalists do not profess ethnic superiority but firmly believe in equality as against chauvinism which is an offshoot of racism. So labelling of nationalist forces such as JVP and the JHU as chauvinistic holds no water.

We firmly believe that the first step in achieving peace is to eliminate these myths at the forthcoming Presidential Election. The Mahinda Chinthana eloquently expresses this vision.

In contrast the UNP manifesto offers no concrete and feasible solution to the national problem. The imposition of an unfair impracticable solution will only aggravate the national problem promoting discontent in the South, fuelling protracted armed conflict. In this backdrop, Mahinda Rajapaksa's manifesto, the Mahinda Chinthana with broad consensus it offers, stands out as a harbinger of a lasting peace in Sri Lanka.

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