Editorial

11th January 1998

Deadlines and double standards

The government has given the UNP a Janu-ary 31 deadline to make its alternative suggestions on constitutional reforms and the devolution of power. Why the indecent hurry? After scrabbling around for more than 3 years, now a one-month deadline is given on the basis that provincial elections must be held by June. In yet another ironical twist the PA is doing a JR - holding a referendum to circumvent an election which it fears it may lose.

The Devolution Package debate is now beginning to hotup. On Tuesday there will be a live debate between the protagonists and the antagonists of the package. As a prelude, the Norwegian and other foreign funded NGOs have plastered the city walls and disseminated literature calling for an end to the war.

‘The Sunday Times’ carries today a special report on the cost of the war as calculated by the NGOs to show the immense price being paid by Sri Lanka for the ongoing conflict. We hope the exercise stops at that. Nothing will warm the cockles of the hearts of the LTTE more than what some foreign funded NGOs are doing - plugging away at the line that the war costs are getting to be intolerable. It all sounds so similar to what once UNP Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel, 10 years ago kept repeating to say we couldn’t go on like this for another year and so on. This is the kind of oxygen the LTTE would like to survive on at a time like this. When one is at war, there is a price to pay. That does not mean that one side must stop the war to achieve peace. It doesn’t happen that way.

It might be apposite to recall how prior to the outbreak of the Second World War Oxbridge intellectual types unwittingly helped Hitler by opposing the declaration of war against him and hence the prosecution of the war. What these NGOs have to be cautious about is to ensure that they are not going to be accused of being manipulated by their foreign financiers who in turn are being manipulated by Eelam International Incorporated. This is what Sri Lanka must be eternally vigilant about. The subtle pressures and inducements coming from these foreign funded NGOs, and the not -so -subtle pressures from governments using aid and investment as sticks to drive us towards their objectives.

In this context, the pro -Sinhalese National Joint Committee (NJC) has vehemently opposed the arrival of Prince Charles as chief guest for our 50th Independence celebrations next month. Why on earth did this government decide to invite Prince Charles in the first place? Are we still suffering from a colonial hang up? Let us at least hope this may have been because Charles is likely to be the next head of the Commonwealth. Moreover we are surely independent enough now not to have hang-ups about British misrule in Sri Lanka during the colonial era and particularly about their infamous divide-and-rule policies. If we are to ask for apologies it may be more relevant today to ask India to apologise to us for what it has done in the way of nurturing terrorism in this country in recent years.

The inherent dangers are not those of the past, but of the present where foreign agencies are dictating terms in the internal affairs of the country.

Next week the NJC will be selling tickets at Rs. 500/- per head for a seminar to raise funds to oppose the package. They will be pitted against thousands of Norwegian kroners coming directly to the government in support of the package.

The YMBA held its centenary this week. It was formed in 1898 to safeguard Buddhism at the height of colonial rule in this country. While a term of hundred years is indeed impressive they should not live in a make-believe world imagining that length of time alone and the fact that leaders of an independent Lanka will necessarily safeguard Buddhism. On the eve of our 50 years of Independence it behoves us at this critical hour in the country’s history, to be watchful of our freedom, more than ever before.

Go to the Political Column

Return to the Editorial/Opinion contents page