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Political unity essential for achieving peace

The decision taken by the government to involve the Opposition in Parliament in the peace process is to be commended, as this is the only way this country can solve the national question and bring about a reintegration of the country.

Ever since independence fifty-five years ago, this country has grappled with the Tamil National question in many different ways. The failure to find a solution led us to fight a 20-year war that devastated the country and set us back many years.

Our founding fathers set up a framework for development that was at the time the envy of the developing world. Countries such as South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia studied our education and social welfare systems way back then and learned vital lessons. Today they have benefited from these measures to the point that they are now highly developed countries with living standards far above what we have achieved.

One of the main reasons why we have failed to reach that point was that we mismanaged the ethnic problem and fought a civil war instead. The conflict gobbled up resources that could have been channelled towards development and also killed off so many of our young people who could have spent their lives in nation building.

The proposal made in Parliament is to set up joint Parliamentary teams or committees that would look at the peace process.

In Parliament the Prime Minister pointed out that peace is not only for Ranil Wickremesinghe. "It is for the whole country and therefore, there is a need for the involvement of all as we all are stakeholders in this vital process," the Prime Minister said in Parliament on Friday.

As the Premier rightly said the opposition should not miss this opportunity to constructively and creatively join in the peace process, as "there will be no other bus waiting for us."

The government has also pledged to keep all the parties concerned fully informed of the negotiations. There is already a great deal of transparency in the peace process. Many of the issues that are under discussion between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been given wide publicity and all sections of society have made their views on these matters public.

Norwegian officials facilitating the talks have pointed out that in other peace moves that they have made in different parts of the world the parties concerned have not made the process as transparent as it is in Sri Lanka. The Oslo Accords that were worked out for peace in the Middle-East for instance were negotiated in secret and presented to a surprised world at the very end of the negotiations.

But the Parliamentary in Sri Lanka process would take transparency even further. It must be done in a manner that no Member of Parliament can honestly say he is taken by surprise by this decision or that at the peace negotiations because they have been kept abreast of the developments.

The government also has the duty to take into account the opinions expressed by the various parties represented in Parliament, as they are the legitimate representatives of the people.

In this context it is important to note that representatives from almost all the political parties joined in studying Federal systems of governance in Europe recently. This was a healthy sign that the parties whether in Opposition or in Government are willing to explore these possibilities and also contribute constructively towards a final political solution as all of them would have to live with it.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna did not join the party that toured Europe and this is unfortunate. It is better for the leaders of this party to learn about power-sharing and how it works in other countries where there are peoples speaking different languages, with different cultures live together in one nation-state rather than criticize something they do not understand.

Whipping up public opinion with half-baked opinions for narrow political gain should be made a thing of the past.

The nation longs for our leaders to stop squabbling and get on with building a better future for our children. The initiative therefore made in Parliament by the government is a step towards that goal.

It will strengthen Parliament, our premier democratic institution, and also smoothen the path to peace. 

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