Editorial

12th November 2000

Think before talk

President Chandrika Kumaratunga in her policy statement on Thursday said among other things that the LTTE had asked for the relaxation of the economic embargo as a fore-runner to peace talks.

Whatever said and done, successive Sri Lankan governments have had the rare distinction of feeding, and supplying medicines to a group of terrorists that is fighting the state. This is by way of sending supplies to the people in the battle zones — and the LTTE taking away their quota from the very people they say they are fighting for.

The LTTE is obviously feeling the pressure of the people in the areas under its control largely because those very people are not enjoying whatever little comforts and benefits citizens in other areas of the country have. So those people resent the LTTE for their plight far from treating them as liberators.

Back in 1995 before the later aborted peace talks, the LTTE had proposed conditions regarding economic embargoes, fishing rights and related matters prerequisites for talks only to torpedo the exercise by sinking a naval craft. That is recent history.

The LTTE needs to take the responsibility for ruination of not only this country's economy when the country was well on its upward path in the post-1977 market economy period, but especially the economy of the northern people whom the LTTE claims to be the saviours of.

The LTTE and the other Tamil groups missed the bus and opted for a life of waging war through which the leaders became rich and famous but the lives of those whom they call "their" people are in tatters when other people around them have had a definitive improvement in their quality of life since 1977.

Now, the Norwegians will surely ask the government of Sri Lanka to relax the economic embargo. Harsh as it may sound, this might only serve to relieve the pressure on the LTTE from its own people.

What will be the quid pro quo for this if the government agrees? At last now we know what the LTTE wants. There is some merit, some transparency in the President's remarks in Parliament this week. The remarks may have been prompted by the LTTE itself announcing this condition, but at least we know now and there's no secrecy as there was on the last occasions, the Government held talks. Indeed we wish the government has wisdom and foresight in taking the next step on the road to peace talks with this utterly un-trustworthy organisation.

Florida fiasco

As things stood yesterday morning in the unprecedented US presidential election, Republican candidate George W. Bush's lead in the crisis state of Florida had been cut down to less than 350 with the absentee or overseas votes still not counted, and question marks over more than 20,000 votes in some counties or electorates.

Here in Sri Lanka, millions have been watching the whole sensational drama, live on TV day and night. Besides the news value, it is providing good education and understanding on democracy and the US Constitution which is widely regarded as one of the most enlightened documents produced by human beings. The entertainment value also has not been lacking, with some jokes about rigging politicians from here having been seen in Florida allegedly to help Florida Governor Jed Bush to manipulate things for his brother. Among the names mentioned are VIPs who were widely accused of rigging or malpractices along with India's now notorious match-fixer M. K. Gupta. Who knows Sri Lanka and other third world countries might now even be called upon to send monitors and observers for future US elections.

More seriously it seems above all to be a testing time for the statesmanship of Al Gore and George Bush. More than technicalities or computer twitches, what matters is the actual will of the people.

We also could draw another parallel to Sri Lanka. This country accepted the questionable verdict at the October 10 General Election with remarkable aplomb though the ruling party apparently bull-dozed its way, with alleged threats to the Elections Commissioner, thuggery, vote rigging and other malpractices. It is also clear that we lack constitutional checks and balances as in the United States to challenge questionable factors and fully probe them so that the actual will of the people is reflected.

The Political Column

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