Dark reminders

President Kumaratunga's words that the country's economy is on the right track, despite the devastation of December 26, 2004, should have a reassuring impact on the public.

"Although the tsunami dealt a massive blow to the country, we are confident of rebuilding the country with the help of the international community," she emphasised while highlighting that Sri Lanka was on course to achieving economic targets she had set for herself.

These confident words were pronounced by the President against the backdrop of gathering trade union unrest in some prominent public sector institutions, notably the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

If we know the President well, she wouldn't be succumbing to any form of blackmail but adhere to the noble enterprise of steering the Ship of State away from troubled waters with a firm hand, in the interests of all. The efforts of saboteurs, whatever their hue, are, thus, likely to fizzle out.

Those stirring this round of unrest do not seem to be having the knack - or are pretending not to have the knack - of separating the wood from the trees. As lucidly explained by Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama, what is being attempted at some of our loss-incurring public sector bodies is restructuring or re-organising and not privatisation.

The Government would in no way bring these institutions "under the hammer" - as the saying goes - but reorganise them with a view to making them profitable. Private interests wouldn't be allowed to hold the whip hand in these bodies.

After this was explained lucidly by the Finance Minister and the Secretary to the Treasury Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, the employee interest agreed to a two week time period to further study the issues involved. The affected services were back on track last evening.

These tactics are eerily reminiscent of the late Eighties and early Nineties when a general state of unrest was created in Sri Lanka and the country brought to the brink of ruin. State and private organisations were crippled, political and trade union opponents brutally gunned down and an atmosphere of panic ruthlessly built up in the country.

The same weird logic seems to be dominating their thinking, on this occasion too. Democracy and all that it stands for are being brutally brushed aside in the mad scramble for power.

In this scramble for power nothing is deemed precious - not even the lives of school children. In those times even school children were rounded-up to protest the Indo-Lanka accord and the IPKF presence here.

Our minds go back to how school children hardly out of their mothers' laps were paraded along the streets of Colombo by hoodlums in what were purported to be protest demonstrations. This time round this is being re-attempted and we are thankful to the educational authorities headed by the President, for bringing this gross abuse of the young to the public's notice.

However, the President wouldn't tolerate these terror tactics but use all the legitimate means at her command to safeguard the public interest. We urge her to go steadily ahead in this task.

We urge restraint among those groups, in the public interest. Prolonged unrest would grievously wound all.

Let's get together and put the country into shape, particularly after the heart rending tsunami disaster.