Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has attracted a lot of stick for his recent proposal that unconditional talks with the LTTE be started in a bid to end the war that has already bled this nation white. Predictably, one extreme of Sinhala opinion is angrily opposed to any kind of talks with a terrorist group whose track record hardly bears examination. Not only national leaders of this country but also the Indian leadership have for too long been deceived by the Tigers who have over the years used the ploy of talking peace while preparing for war.

While all this is true, there is no getting away from the harsh reality that any kind of durable peace cannot be attained without the LTTE being part of the deal. The government has been attempting to isolate the Tigers by winning the goodwill for its peace efforts of other Tamil groups who are represented in parliament. But it is inescapable that those parties whose support the government claims cannot be considered the true representatives of the Tamil people of particularly the north, given the nature of the last election which sent those MPs to parliament. Very few electors voted at that election and the MPs who represent those electorates polled a minuscule proportion of the registered vote.

Also, it must not be forgotten that even technically the government enjoys a parliamentary majority of only one and needs the support of the Tamil parties, which it comfortably commands, to ensure its survival in the legislature. Despite the slender majority, the Chandrika government has at no time during the incumbency of the current parliament ever seriously risked a defeat in the House. Although the TULF, for example, may choose to register token opposition to the extension of the Emergency, nobody expects the Tamil parties to vote to topple the government if such an occasion should ever arise. To ensure that happy state, the government naturally bends over backwards to pander to those parties whose parliamentary votes are important for its continuance.

The LTTE understands very well that no peace package that does not command the support of the UNP and the SLFP, the two major parties of the south, is of little value. It is a great pity that the ruling People's Alliance administration made little more than a cosmetic effort to secure the concurrence of at least the UNP, if a broader consensus was not possible, for a viable peace proposal to be presented to the Tigers. Various gestures of attempting to find a consensus were undoubtedly made. But given the aggressive posture adopted by the government towards the UNP at most times since its election and the witch-hunting that continues to this day, it was hardly likely that the desired co-operation would be forthcoming.

There were those who dared to hope that the Liam Fox initiative would pay a useful dividend. But this was not to be. We are far from achieving the desired degree of co-operation between the two major political parties of the country for the resolution of the biggest challenge that Sri Lanka has faced in its contemporary history. The role that both the UNP and the SLFP played to prevent each other from resolving the problem before it reached present proportions is too well known to deserve repetition. Both sides are looking for the Tamil votes in an election that is possible early next year. Everything they do from now on with regard to the resolution of the national question will be perceived by the public to be in pursuit of a narrow electoral advantage for themselves. Given their records, nobody can be blamed for taking the cynical view.

The demand has been made that neither the PA nor the UNP has any contacts with the LTTE on a party basis. Such talks, if and when they are held, must necessarily be bipartisan. It is therefore necessary that the PA and the UNP abandons the confrontational stand they take against each other and try to reach some kind of agreement on a common approach that must be adopted at any talks that may become possible. The lessons of past history will teach our national leaders what must and must not be done in such a exercise. Given the record of its past deception and the tactic of the Tigers of being willing to enter into peace negotiations when they are in a military bind will naturally strengthen the hand of all those who say that the war must go on even if peace talks begin. Others, like President Kumaratunga, are of the view that any negotiations must be time bound.

Instead of punching each other in a climate of approaching elections and looking for political advantage even on the question of dealing or not dealing with the LTTE, it is time that the national leadership took decisions that the national interest demands. Ideally, a national government should take office in Colombo and negotiate a just and honourable peace. But the way is going to be long and treacherous as past experience has already taught us. India, after all, militarily underwrote one agreement but even that did not bring the desired results for reasons the people are all too familiar with. Is it too much to hope that our politicians will see the light even now?