Who cares?
How much would it cost a third General Election in four years? An Election in this five-star democracy will cost the public purse a staggering Rs 650 million plus ( please see story on page 3) quite apart from the millions upon millions that have been spent on a spate of elections since 1999 to 2002.

That is why we have two Governments, not one, and a constitutional crisis that is - if unresolved - heading towards yet another trek to the polling booth which will return the same result and a return to the same problem. The JVP and the hardliners on both sides seem to be the ones pushing for this option - the General Election option, an option the vast majority of the people see as the last possible option.

For no other reason, not even the cost factor, but that the end-result would be, by-and-large, no different to the overall composition of Parliament. What, therefore would be inexcusable, is for the President to go into that option just to get out of the corner she has painted herself into with a sudden rush of blood last week. A move that has helped turn things upside down and inside out for a Nation and its People, slowly but surely picking itself up from the dumps it has fallen into over the years.

Furthermore, she must take cognizance of the fact that were she to go ahead with the dissolution of Parliament option, she would be doing so in the face of the fact that she would be dissolving a Parliament where the clear majority has not asked for a dissolution and served only two of the six years mandated to be in office.

Doing so would not only be unprecedented, but enjoin her in the galaxy of constitutional tricksters of Sri Lanka's contemporary history, like the 1972 instance when Ms. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her leftist LSSP-CP coalition extended the term of Parliament till 1977 by a mathematical jugglery, and in 1982 when President J.R.Jayewardene held a Referendum instead of a parliamentary election to keep his two-thirds majority in place.
And now, the boot is on the President's foot, and in these past few days she has done U-turn after U-turn, calling the Armed Forces to co-operate with the notorious monitors of the SLMM, whose head she beheaded; pledged to abide by the Ceasefire Agreement which she termed illegal; and asked the Prime Minister to continue with the same peace process which she said was a sell-out of the Nation's sovereignty.

Suddenly, reality has dawned on her that it is one thing to play politics, another to play stateswoman. The parting shot by the Norwegians would not have been well taken. There is no need to de-code their message - clearly, they blame the President for the breakdown of the peace process.

Not that the Norwegians were the paragons of virtue, and blameless.Their Nelsonian-eye to the goings by the LTTE did not help either. The role of the SLMM was fuel to fire as far as the southern electorate was concerned.

Clergymen, businessmen and influential citizens have streamed into President's House and Temple Trees and tried their best to impress upon the two leaders viz., the President and the Prime Minister to place Country Before Party. Easier said than done, and it would appear that it is these well-meaning peoples sanity that is being put to test. But over the weekend we have heard some conciliatory soundings from both leaders and veiled suggestions of National Governments and National Fronts.

All is not lost - and the middle of the road majority conciliators will need to persist if they wish to defeat the tyranny of the minority.

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