Editorial

18th June 2000

The deadline

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has made a promise that she will present the government's devolution proposals (political package) to parliament, irrespective of whether talks on devolution of power with the UNP succeed or not. While noting that this call by the President sounds decisive, it should also be recalled that the President issued several deadlines before, for presenting the package in parliament. All these deadlines, though announced with great fanfare, passed on without so much as a whimper from the nation's various political spectators.

But, what's noteworthy is that the President's call this time comes when there is a parliamentary election around the corner. The international media has made a splash about the President's call for presenting the package without first "sending a draft to the Tigers.''

But, presenting any draft, without a consensus, can have serious repercussions for the People's Alliance, at a time when the nation seems to be becoming more aware of the intractability of the enemy that's called by the name LTTE – or Liberation Tigers of a Tamil Eelam.

The LTTE has proved to be aggressive, ruthless, and utterly unrelenting in its terror campaigns.

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It is now known that the carpenter who was carrying the bomb that exploded in Wattala last week was a Sinhalese and a drug addict.

Even the cloying peace brigade which was earlier taken up by the LTTE's apparent readiness for talks, has now come to terms with the LTTE and are grudgingly beginning to label the organization as fascist. It's a time, however late in the day, in which the Southern polity seems to be arriving at the firm conclusion that the real problem is the LTTE's audaciousness and not the fact that the Tamils have grievances that have not been addressed.

One reason for this realization, at a chronologically speaking late-hour, is probably because the LTTE has insisted these past few months in rubbing it in. Suicide attacks have been coming in a wave, and the LTTE's propaganda and fund raising blitz has been working overtime, especially in locations such as Canada where the diaspora has become a right royal pain in the neck for the Canadian political establishment.

Of course, the government is no longer in an appeasement mood. Even though the peaceniks are not the ones who have gone up in smoke, or are six feet under due to LTTE attacks, metaphorically speaking at least, the peaceniks have gone underground. In that background, the President's move to blitzkrieg the peace package through parliament seems to be a move that seems designed for international consumption, and for the sakes of appearing to be doing something other than waging war to end the strife.

But, instant moves for peace, after a six year long hiatus, may be an invitation for more trouble for a nation that already seems to have a legion of troubles stacked up on its plate. Among other things, there is the astronomical cost of living to contend with, and it's not exactly the political atmosphere in which more trouble should be dished up. In one sense, the government is increasingly caught up with its campaign to wrestle the LTTE and its sustained war effort. But, perhaps it's a miscalculation to think that the people of the South are not focused on other issues because the war is paramount in their minds. If that's the President's calculation, then its complacency of a different sort

The Political Column

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