So the SAARC Summit, brought out of turn to Colombo to commemorate our Independence golden jubilee, has ended with no incidents. For that, the people of this country will no doubt say a silent prayer of thanksgiving. But they are not likely to be told by their rulers how much this extravagance cost the taxpayer in terms of hard cash. Colombo dwellers particularly know only too well what it cost them in inconvenience.

We are not for a moment saying that regional groupings such as SAARC do not have their uses. Institutions like the European Economic Community, now the European Union, and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) much closer home are good examples of what a united front of nations can do for a region. SAARC, which has completed its tenth Summit, can undoubtedly bring much desired benefits to this region populated by a fifth of mankind. But it will take many more years before the first fruits are borne.

It is useful for countries like ours whose resources are small and whose people by and large are poor to reflect on whether we need to have tamashas on the kind of grand scale that we as a people seem to favour. Events such as that which has just been completed could very well have been just as successfully hosted on a much more modest scale. But no. We must do the grand and that is the way it is done not only right at the top but way down below among the middle and working classes. The mentality that too many of our people display getting into debt to host five-star weddings for our daughters is mirrored by our governments. Who can deny that we get the government we deserve.

Also, there had been a lot of messing up as far as the organisation was concerned, we are told (see story on accompanying page). The understandable and necessary preoccupation with security may have resulted in some of the other arrangements not flowing as smoothly as they should have. The stark reality is that in this country if it is not always breakdown, it is nearly always breakdown. The politicians have contributed immensely to demoralising and ruining a once excellent public service which any country could have been proud of. The results were very visible in the organisational failures that were evident.

The experience gained in Kandy last February when the LTTE blasted the Dalada Maligawa on the eve of the Independence celebration at which Prince Charles was chief guest seems to have done some good. A massive security blanket was thrown over Colombo to ensure that Velupillai Prabhakaran did not make any waves. Unlike in Kandy, the LTTE either could not or did not penetrate this cordon for which the vast majority of us are most grateful. But the question does arise on whether similar security resources could not have been spared from the warfront to hold the provincial council elections that are very likely to be postponed.

Of course we are not unaware that securing much of the island excluding the north and east where no provincial council elections are scheduled is a much bigger operation than securing just the Colombo city. But let us not forget that the SAARC security was much more intensive than what we are familiar with at election time. And the proposal has been made that the provincial council elections be held on a staggered basis, one province at a time, with the counting done simultaneously, so that the security forces are not unduly stretched at the cost of the war effort.

The fact is that the powers that be wished the SAARC Summit to be held here this year for reasons of their own egos and glorification. So it was held regardless of any stretching of the security apparatus notwithstanding the war. Undoubtedly there were some pretty pictures on television and it was an opportunity for the country to enjoy some pomp and pageantry and, as one of our regular columnists has said elsewhere in the paper, our beautiful president. That was quite a change from the usual fare even if ambulance sirens were still a part of the city scene.

Just as much as the government wished the SAARC Summit here this year, it does not wish the provincial council elections. So we have one and not the other. We for our part are no great admirers of the provincial councils and are convinced that they are both useless and wasteful. We have said as much before. But a government which is looking towards substituting the provincial councils with regional councils believes that now is not the best time for it to get a verdict on itself from the people. And the war is both a handy and plausible excuse to postpone these elections. Even the Mahanayakes do not want them we are told. But they also did not want the much vaunted package about which we hear very little nowadays.