A good beginning

It was very encouraging to see all the major political parties coming together on the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the most pressing need of the hour, to heal the wounds of the past and aim at reconciliation among all groups of people who had been distanced mainly due to unwise and unrealistic policies followed by certain leaders on the national question.

That apart the opportunity had arisen with the ending of the armed conflict so that the equitable development for all groups of people could be achieved in an atmosphere of mutual respect trust and goodwill. It need not be overemphasized that the people of all communities and all regions of the country had suffered immeasurably over a long period of over three decades with no solution to the problem at sight for all those years.

When President Rajapaksa addressed the Presidential Committee on Development and Reconciliation, he had grasped the quintessence of the reality as it should be stressing that we had discarded racism long ago and the opportunity now before us is to make amendments and aim at development where it was most needed. That was the only path that the Nation should tread to achieve the goal of being a member of a society where one group of people do not look at another group suspiciously or in fear as all citizens have equal rights in a democracy that had to be jealously safeguarded at all costs.

There are over 300,000 Internally Displaced Persons and a countless number of people who had suffered the consequences of the war losing their family members or the beloved ones in the incidents of violence and also the war itself.

The reconciliation and human development attempt was a gargantuan task given the magnitude of the problem. Yet, the will to reconcile is now present and the time to do it is the present moment. Therefore, that effort to rehabilitate such people and to work for development in the areas that had only seen violence and sabotage is the task ahead that had to be fulfilled with the cooperation of all parties and groups.

All parties agreeing on that common agenda for once was a heartening political development of the present times and all of them should continue to join that important effort.

It had to be remembered that a number of national leaders of Sri Lanka and even some leaders of India had made attempts to resolve the national question of this country with varying degrees of success or failure.

They perhaps postponed the main issue of arriving at a sustainable settlement to the problem acceptable to all groups. The immense suffering and bereavement of thousands of our own citizens was something that could have been avoided and now we are aware that the effort to prevent such a catastrophe should be within our reach.

Now at last there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel as the major political parties including the UNP, TNA, JVP and even the smaller but important political parties had rallied round the President and more importantly set aside playing politics to address the serious issue before the whole country. It augurs well to observe that all political parties were appreciative of the fact that the greatest challenge before the country was to win the reconciliation or the amelioration of the battle in our presence.

Wednesday's meeting convened by President Rajapaksa attended by the representatives of as much as 18 political parties seemed to be a good omen as the parties had all agreed that reconciliation hand in hand with rebuilding the affected areas though not an easy task was the need of the hour.

It was perhaps the first time that such a diverse group of parties across the political spectrum had sat together to address a common issue and from the proceedings of the meeting it appears that everyone had the desire to reach out to find the way forward to resolve the country's most urgent problem.

It had to be emphasized that today's political parties are the architects of the future who should now unite to build a country safe and secure for all groups of people and individuals. Therefore, everyone should contribute their share towards achieving that goal.