A patient Constitutional Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris gave ear to both-one Tamil woman from the BBC who, I thought for a moment, would have heart seizure as her agitated mind (if an overstatement might be permitted) tried to grapple with the possibility of some new military security zones in the north.

The other was a member of some Sinhale association here who climbed his favourite hobby horse and would have raced away for many verbal miles had he not been cut short in full flight by the chairman who pulled at the reins but could not easily stop the patriotic steed.

While the woman from Prabhakaran-land nearly chewed up poor GL with her bellicosity over the army obtaining several acres in the north, the man from the kingdom of Dutugemunu was arguing that the Tamils were recent immigrants to Sri Lanka from their own motherland in Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu was the proper place for them to go because they originated there. The Sinhala people were the indigenous people of Lanka and they had a right to the place.

Former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku who presided at the talk sponsored by the Royal Commonwealth Society quickly put paid to the patriotic fervour with words when the obvious body language failed to deter the man.

I, said Chief Anyaoku, come from Africa and according to modern theories mankind originated in Africa. So all you types quarrelling over Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka are really from Africa.

The laughter that followed fell like icy-cold water on the chap who wanted to send all Tamils across the Palk Strait but he was still heard muttering and cursing between bites of onion bhaji, which my knowledge of the culinary arts tells me, came from across the same Palk Strait to which our hero wants to consign the Tamil community.

As usual GLP was his eloquent self and it seemed to impress both Chief Anyaoku and Lord Naseby, co-chairman of the Friends of Sri Lanka in Parliament, that the minister held forth without a scrap of paper, without a single note to assist him.

But then he is not el professori for nothing. Moreover trying to make peace through constitutional and political reform is a subject he has been interested in even before he took up a portfolio in the Chandrika Kumaratunga government.

He is well versed in all the developments that led to the failed talks in April 1995 and subsequent attempts to restart the process. He is also aware of the moves made by the Ranil Wickremesinghe government to kick-start the peace process despite numerous hiccups.

Therefore Minister Peiris is able to provide useful insights into the thinking of the Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe administrations and the points of departure in approaching a problem that has remained intractable for so long, but which, according to Professor Peiris appears to show some light at the end of a long tunnel.

My grouse is not with what he said but that Chief Anyaoku whose radar was focussed mainly towards the back of the hall from whence the first foray into anthropology began at question time, had failed to see my raised hand though Professor Peiris had spotted it early enough as he indicated to me later.

I had a few genuine questions, not speeches masquerading as questions.

Several times the minister mentioned the prospective talks in Thailand. But not surprisingly he did not say whether they would begin in June or July or even August.

That is an indication that there are some stumbling blocks that have to be overcome. LTTE's chief negotiator Anton Balasingham referred to a "dichotomy" of views on core issues. That is obvious, for otherwise the problem would not exist.

But the vital question is whether the divisions that now exist with regard to the agenda for the Thailand talks can be settled soon enough for the talks to start. But is there a time frame for this or is it to be allowed to drift without a limit?

But I was more interested in Professor Peiris's thinking with regard to the revival of the old committee system that existed under the Donoughmore constitution. If the idea is to make the current political pluralism more democratic by bringing all political parties into the policy-making process, it is a pity that political democracy is being strangled in the North-East provincial administration, the LTTE demands.

In the early days the LTTE eliminated the leaders of every other militant or political group in the Tamil political spectrum. Now by coercion or other means it has virtually eliminated other Tamil parties from the political scene by limiting their participation. The Tamil National Alliance of four Tamil parties is but a mere shadow that moves according to the LTTE's wishes. It's assigned role is to look after rehabilitation and similar matters while the LTTE makes all the decisions.

So are we to have two systems of government in the country- democratic government at the centre and authoritarianism in the northeast?. The vociferous Tamils who spoke of human rights don't seem to mind a dimunition of those rights by their own people. How nice.

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