Peace parameters

While the Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference could be said to have outlined the broad parameters within which our peace journey should be resumed and continued, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse is bound to draw paeans of praise for the inspirational guidance he has provided this great collective endeavour which awaits us by committing himself totally to bringing peace to Sri Lanka.

"I will create an environment for the people of all ethnic communities and faiths to live in peace and harmony sans fear and suspicion", Premier Rajapakse was quoted telling the inaugural 'Dinawamu Sri Lanka' Presidential election campaign in Colombo on Tuesday.

This inspirational input by the SLFP's Presidential front - runner to the on-going efforts to revive the peace drive should put many a mind and heart at ease and rebut very effectively those sections which are bent on triggering irrational fears over the country's future.

As far as we could perceive, only the granting of the legitimate rights and aspirations of all our communities, could lay the foundation for peace and cordial living and this catalyst in peace - making the Premier seems to have factored in to his visualizations of a conflict-free state.

It hardly needs elaboration that only a future dispensation which meets the legitimate power aspirations of our communities would satisfy the minimal conditions for peace and this is something the experienced politician who is Mahinda Rajapakse could be expected to be fully aware of. Inspired political thinking of this kind should be the Prime Minister's constant guide in the days ahead.

The Tokyo Donor Conference Co-Chairs, on the other hand, have made a number of points in their recent New York declaration which should pin-point to the Lankan body - politic and its prime actors some essential future chores for the fulfilment of the goal of peace.

We hope the LTTE would get the message of the world community loud and clear that it needs to clean-up its act very badly if a degree of progress is to be made on the road to peace. It goes without saying that the LTTE needs to act in ways which would be promotive of peace and its current killing spree is certainly no way of achieving this end.

How could LTTE-inspired murderous violence contribute towards the establishment of an environment which is conducive to peace-making ? Besides, how could the plethora of human rights violations spawned by the LTTE - including continued recruitment of child soldiers - help establish any peaceful intentions on the LTTE's part ?

The Lankan State has gone more than the extra mile to sustain the ceasefire and jumpstart the peace effort. We believe the onus is now on the world community, including the Co-Chairs, to impress very strongly on the LTTE the need to cooperate fully in resuming the peace process. We await a dynamic and proactive involvement of the world community in our peace endeavour.

The Co-Chairs have also emphasized - very rightly - the need for a peace based on power devolution. This is, of course, the best way to peace and we hope that this principle would prove a guidepost to peace in this land.

Sleepless in Berlin

The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily, said it all on Tuesday: "Germany is in an awful mess". This 'mess' has been created by the inconclusive General Election which ended in a 'no-win' situation for both German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats and Angela Merkel's conservative opposition Christian Democrats.

With neither party managing to get a majority, Europe's biggest economy has been in limbo for several days. The parties were to open talks on forming a ruling coalition yesterday to resolve the political deadlock.

The most likely option currently appears to be a "grand coalition" that would group the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats.

But with Schroeder saying his Social Democrats would not join a Government under Merkel's leadership, things are not exactly clear on this front either. Merkel, on the other hand, has expressed the hope of forming a Government with a coalition of several other parties.

But Germany and the rest of Europe must not be kept in suspense any longer. A stable Government in Germany is a sine quo non for the overall stability of Europe. The absence of a new Government has added to the economic uncertainty in a country struggling with a plethora of problems.

Some five million Germans are out of work, the pensions system is in a crisis, public finances are overstretched and the economy that once drove growth in Europe is now acting as a drag on the rest of the Continent.

It is not therefore surprising that Germany's European partners are anxious to see the establishment of a stable Government in Berlin. The new Chancellor will have to undertake far-reaching reforms to take Germany out of its present morass. Schroeder's "Agenda 2010" reforms to welfare and labour market rules are ambitious, but many analysts winder whether they go far enough. Merkel too is reform-minded, but it all depends on how the leadership issue is resolved.

That said, the German election has once again proved that the only certainty in a democracy is uncertainty. Voters sometimes think and work in mysterious ways, often giving polls pundits and politicians a nasty shock. That is the very essence of democracy - the people are always supreme.