The public have been treated to some comic antics in the last few days with challenges being hurled in various directions on whether we are to have the provincial council elections that are now due or whether the president will call an early presidential election in lieu. The decision now appears to be in favour of the provincial polls.

The excuse trotted out by government about its inability to hold the provincial elections is that it is difficult to provide the necessary security for an election as the war is now at a "decisive'' stage. The war has been at such a decisive stage for the past many years and the politicians have now stopped giving deadlines, as they once did, on when the LTTE will be finally subdued.

We are glad that nobody in authority had dared to suggest that the war is going to be over by November when everything will be hunky dory for a presidential election. If such an assurance was proffered, not even the most trusting child would have believed it. It had all been said before and, unhappily, not come to pass. So the obvious question that arises is that if it is not possible to properly secure the provincial council elections in the next few weeks, how on earth would it be possible for a presidential election to be provided the necessary security cover by November?

It was not so very long ago that we had local elections countrywide. All kinds of thuggery and election malpractices prevailed on that occasion as attested by independent witnesses. The Elections Commissioner has gone on record on more than one occasion saying that if the police do not do a fair and impartial job, there is no way of implementing the election law. The war situation was no better then than it is now and if it was possible to hold local elections at that time, why not the provincial elections now?

The pity of it is that the provincial councils have been of little use. They have consumed enormous resources and achieved precious little in the years they have been in existence. The vast majority of the people of this country never asked for nor wanted provincial councils. They were set up to satisfy the minority demand for regional autonomy. But instead of implementing the scheme in those areas where it was needed, we were given PCs countrywide on the premise that what was given to Jaffna must also be given to Hambantota.

Ironically, the Northeastern Provincial Council for which there was both need and demand was able to function for only a few months while the Indian Peace Keeping Force was here. Chief Minister Varatharajah Perumal has been living in exile in India since the IPKF went away and the NEPC which was dissolved following his unilateral declaration of independence has long been administered by a governor. So the devolution exercise in the northeast has been sterile and has been of little use elsewhere in the country.

When the government wanted to have a big bash in Kandy to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Independence, the war was as intense as it is today. But the powers that be thought nothing of not only deploying a vast number of troops to secure the celebration but also of moving heavy armour to display to the public. In the event, Prabhakaran was able to abort the Kandy celebration despite the best efforts of Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte to host the show in his hometown. The current excuses of not being able to afford the needed manpower was not trotted out then.

Holding a presidential election too is farcical in the context of the commitment of both the government and opposition to scrap the system. As it is, the government is long past the promised deadline for abolishing the executive presidency and the people are tired of hearing excuses on why it could not be done. The fact is that it suits a government with a very slender parliamentary majority to maintain the status quo. We are told that piecemeal constitutional changes cannot be made and the abolition of the presidency will be part of that infamous ``package'' for which the government cannot muster the necessary parliamentary majority. Meanwhile the carnival goes on.

What the people want today are neither provincial council elections nor presidential elections. What they want is a cohesive defence policy agreed upon by the two major political parties of the country which can help make the Tigers see the sense of a just solution to a problem that has already bled this country white. Successful implementation of such a policy would be ideally overseen by a national government. That is what our leaders should be talking about now instead of wasting their time and ours by squabbling about provincial council elections or presidential elections.