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The way forward

As our front page report as well as the interview we carry today with Prof. G.L. Peiris makes clear, there is substantial support among well meaning people for a consensual approach, including a possible national government, to resolve the country’s pressing problems. The ethnic problem or the national question as it has often been described is obviously the most urgent of these. The sooner the country begins working towards a meaningful resolution of the grievances that exploded into a civil war, the better for Sri Lanka itself and all its inhabitants.

Although the Daily News in an editorial on Thursday pontificated on the ``stampede in some quarters towards a national government’’ stressing that the president in her acceptance speech did not use the term ``national government’’ or any term even approximating it, there is no arguing that she did invite Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and his supporters to ``join this government.’’ What exactly she meant by that must be elucidated by Mrs. Kumaratunga herself. Now that she is back home and at work, she will no doubt quickly explain her precise thinking to the country and the UNP will be able to formulate its response to a clearly stated proposal.

Whether a national government will be or not, it is essential that the two major political parties in the country present a united front to the LTTE. The Tigers can then negotiate on the footing that history will not repeat itself with the SLFP and the UNP taking opportunistic stances on proposals made by their opponents to resolve the outstanding grievances of the Tamil people. It is the responsibility of the government to create the conditions that would make this co-operation possible. President Kumaratunga’s speech has undoubtedly opened the doors to what the prominent citizens group whose statement we carry today has seen as an ``unprecedented historic challenge and opportunity.’’ It barely needs re-telling that we must move forward from that point.

However much partisans of the government as well as its constituents try to delude themselves on that score, the election that has just been concluded was neither free nor fair. Whether President Kumaratunga, given the wide margin of victory, would have won regardless of malpractice and electoral fraud will long be debated. We ourselves, as stated in these columns last week, believe that the result indicates that the president would have won even if the race was run on a level field. But that does not mean that elections of the sort we saw in the Wayamba an year ago or last month can be countenanced or condoned. Given what happened in the referendum of 1982, we said that the UNP has reaped what it sowed. But that does not mean that we must forever live in a country of fraudulent elections with adversaries gaily sailing along on the philosophy of ``what you can do, I can do better.’’

The fact is that whatever happened at the referendum, President D.B. Wijetunga gave us a fair election in 1994. What should have followed is an improvement on that situation at succeeding elections but, unfortunately, the reality was exactly to the contrary. It is essential that even now corrective action is taken and the first step the president and the ruling PA can take towards this objective is to establish independent elections, police and public service commissions before the parliamentary elections that must be held by August. That is one way in which the president herself and her party can show the country and the opposition that she is determined to make the spirit of what she said last week a reality. It will also help the UNP, tasting bitter defeat where it expected victory, to respond realistically to the proposal for consensual politics the country desperately needs.

Let the president demonstrate unequivocally that she is not seeking to perpetuate her reign by fair means or foul and ensure that the next parliamentary election will be something the country can be proud of and the people will accept as absolutely above board. This is much more important at this present juncture than protecting defectors from losing their parliamentary seats which the government had promised Dr. Sarath Amunugama and his friends to do no sooner the presidential election was won. The UNP too can show its good faith by agreeing that it will not in this instance proceed to act against those five MPs who backed the president’s re-election if the government abandons the proposed anti-defection laws at least for the time being and will as a first step agree to urgently legislate for the three independent commissions.

If we are to move forward, it is necessary that the prevailing bitterness in the aftermath of a controversial election is not aggravated. President Kumaratunga has a heaven sent opportunity to demonstrate her good faith in this matter and make it easier for a defeated UNP to unreservedly co-operate in resolving the national question. She created the goodwill with her acceptance speech and she must proceed to build on it. The UNP too must show that it will live up to its name and serve the cause of a united nation.

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