Piece by piece for peace

Peace and related issues, including Premier Wickremesinghe's India visit, are dominating political discourse at present with newspaper editorials warning the new United National Front administration of the traps and tragedies on the road to full peace. 

The new government wasted no time in reviving the peace process. Contacts with Norway were made and the premier himself undertook a mission to New Delhi, seeking the blessings of Indian leaders for the new peace initiative. 

The manner in which the new government deals with the peace process indicates that it is willing to take some risks in winning the people's hearts and minds. Checkpoints in Colombo and other places, which were described by Tamils as harassment points, were removed. Roads that had been closed for security reasons were reopened, paving the way for smooth flow of traffic in Colombo. These and other measures the new government is taking in pursuance of peace made even some hardcore UNPers to question the wisdom behind them. But the new premier appears to be determined. He not only responded positively to the LTTE's festive season one - month cessation of hostilities but also took steps to relax the economic embargo effective in the uncleared areas of the north and east.

His critics ask: "Doesn't the premier know the price President R. Premadasa and President Chandrika Kumaratunga paid for going that extra mile for peace?" Like Mr. Wickremesinghe, Mr. Premadasa and Ms. Kumaratunga relaxed the economic embargo to the north, allowing a free flow of food and medicine as soon as they came to office, but the Tigers bit the hand that fed them.

Mr. Wickremesinghe is not unaware of the danger. Given the track record of his political strategies, it is unlikely he will take a risk without first knowing about its consequences.

Peace is not the only priority of the UNF government. Economy is the other area the new government is trying to revive. While the stock market showed early gains and investor confidence being restored, the common man, who usually wants to see quick results, is yet to get any real benefit. The common man wants the cost of living brought down, though it was not a prominent election promise. 

Making the task difficult for the government, prices of certain essential items, such as rice and wheat flour, went up, though, as a small mercy, a private milk food company reduced prices of its products by a couple of rupees after pleas from ministers concerned. 

Commerce Minister Ravi Karunanayake was one such minister who is taking steps to bring down the cost of living. After discussing the matter with his ministry's new secretary Harsha Wickremasinghe, Mr. Karunanayake wanted him to find out ways to bring down the rice price. The young minister then discussed the matter with Agriculture Minister S. B. Dissanayake. 

The latter issued a note of warning. "Whatever we do, we must not put paddy farmers in crisis. They have just begun harvesting," Mr. Dissanayake said pointing out that the state's responsibility should be to assure a reasonable price for the local farmer. 

The study commissioned by Mr. Karunanayake showed that the previous government had imported 12,000 tons of rice to keep the rice price under control but the move had backfired with the local farmer finding it difficult to sell his harvest. 

Mr. Karunanayake is said to be considering a move to bring down the rice price by offering tax concessions to the importers, while he also took steps in consultation with CWE senior officials to sell rice at prices ranging from Rs. 24 to 34.

From rice economics to macroeconomics. Industrial Development Minister G. L. Peiris, who holds the view that an extraordinary effort is necessary to put the economy on the right track, on Boxing Day sent a letter to European Union Ambassador Illka Uusitalo, seeking the EU assistance to give a fillip to the economy. 

Pointing out that war had contributed to unemployment and other economic problems and made hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced, Prof. Peiris said the new government had taken early and speedy measures to bring about peace and urged the EU to provide necessary help, by way of tariff concessions to garment exports from Sri Lanka.

While the UNP and its alliance partners are busy reviving economy and the peace process, the defeated PA is slowly fading into political oblivion, reminiscent of its role during the 17-year UNP rule. Commenting on the SLFP inertia as an opposition party, former President J. R. Jayewardene during his retirement once remarked that the SLFP was unable to topple a government though it had everything necessary on a platter.

Journalists these days find it increasingly difficult to contact PA MPs.

On Christmas day, a journalist, after several attempts, succeeded in tracking down a PA stalwart. 

"Aiyo Manthrithuma, it is very difficult to find you' these days," the journalist said.

"Yes, some of our members are in jail and others are in hospital while another group of our members have gone into hiding," the MP quipped.

But quite in contrast to the PA, the JVP is alert and active, despite losing the power and influence it had during the last weeks of the PA government. On Friday, the JVP held a massive demonstration in Colombo to protest against post-poll violence while the politburo met to discuss the current situation with the focus on premier Wickremesinghe's peace initiative. 

Earlier, Minister Karu Jayasuriya had contacted JVP leaders to sound them out on their response to the proposed 18th amendment on electoral reforms. The UNP and the PA are generally known to favour a new system mixing proportional representation with the first-past-the-post basis. More than any other party, the JVP had benefited from the PR with its share skyrocketing from one seat in 1994 to 10 in 2000 and 16 this year. 

JVP parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa's response indicated the party was not very enthusiastic but he said discussions could be held once the proposals were officially made. 

On Boxing Day, there was no boxing at the cabinet meeting because for the first time after the UNF sweep, the cabinet met without President Kumaratunga in the chair.

The President, now virtually reduced to a figurehead, had flown out on December 24 for a white or blue Christmas with her children in Europe. The President had not officially appointed Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting President or acting head of government. But with or without formalities, Mr. Wickremesinghe did preside over the cabinet meeting.

For more than half an hour, he outlined his goals and visions of his dramatic peace initiative. Mr. Wickremesinghe briefed the cabinet on his talks with Indian leaders and the latest moves in the peace process with Norwegian facilitation.

He cautioned that the path to peace might be more difficult than the paths of war but he called for determination, dynamism and clear direction. 

The Prime Minister cited the Middle East scenario where despite ten years of peace talks with international backing, the situation appeared to be getting worse. But he pointed out that the peace process had not been abandoned there. Similarly, Sri Lanka needed to be patient and persevere in the path of dialogue, accommodation and unity.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said he had been in the mainstream when the Premadasa and the Kumaratunga regimes made their abortive peace efforts. He had learnt from the mistakes and would ensure they were not repeated.

He said he believed the main mistake of the Kumaratunga administration was an underplaying of the Indian equation. It was in this that he decided to have full-scale talks with Indian leaders before he launched out on the fresh peace efforts with full support from India.

On the minus side, he charged that the JVP and the PA appeared to be trying to sabotage the peace process as they did in 1987. Thus he sought full support from all ministers for the peace process and they gave it unanimously.

On other matters, he said that Prima had a monopoly and the government could not prevent it from raising the price of flour. But he had worked out a deal with India for the supply of low-cost wheat flour and he hoped the government would be able to reduce the price after February.

The Prime Minister said the world price of fuel had declined sharply but the government could not make a substantial reduction in the price here because the former government had played havoc in the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. Thus it was only possible to reduce the price of diesel by about Rs. one a litre.

Some ministers complained that the delay in appointing chairpersons and directors to important state institutions was causing problems. They said officials appointed by the previous regime were hanging on in those institutions and UNP trade unions were disturbed over the situation.

The Prime Minister was firm in his response. He insisted that reviving the economy was far more important than giving appointments to top posts. He bluntly told ministers they should insist that all those appointed to the top posts should follow the example where cabinet ministers were given the same salary as MPs. The chairpersons and directors should be told that instead of seeking high salaries and privileges, they should work with commitment to revive the institutions and the overall economy of the country.

The Prime Minister said the independent elections commission and other commissions under the 17th amendment would be brought into operation soon with hundred percent powers. He said the independent elections commission would then be directed to conduct the much-postponed local government elections by March.

The Prime Minister said there had been some reservations about holding another election so soon, but he believed that local government elections, put off for more than one and a half years, were important to strengthen the democratic process at the grassroots level. The cabinet agreed.

After the main cabinet meeting some ministers met the premier separately to raise what they saw as another crucial issue. They said the PA was blowing up the post-poll violence in an apparent bid to divert attention from the pre-poll violence committed by PA frontliners. The names mentioned included Anuruddha Ratwatte, D. M. Dassanayake and Salinda Dissanayake and Mahinda Aluthgamage.

The ministers asked why tough action was not being taken against the alleged PA offenders. Mr. Wickremesinghe in turn put the question to Interior Minister John Amaratunga who in turn put it to the IGP. Later orders went out to all police stations to act firmly against all offenders. 

The spotlight then moved to the bloodiest incident of the election campaign the Pallatalawinna massacre of ten SLMC supporters. The ministers said that as in the Osama bin Laden case, there was a video tape with incriminating evidence against VIP families and they believed this tape should be nationally telecast. A decision in this regard is to be taken tomorrow.