Peace may be so far away, but yet, the possibility of peace has led certain people to believe that there should be a vast operation aimed at readying people for peace. But, it is quite curious that this campaign has begun with the armed forces.

A belief that the 'armed forces will be a hindrance to peace'' has led to an effort to de-induct the forces into a state of peace-readiness. The defence review committee is said to be in charge of accomplishing this task.

The details are not the issue here - they have already been dealt with by our defence columnist. It is the psychology of preparing the army for peace while the rest of the community is still suffering from an immense war hangover, that is quite curious.

The rest of the community is acting under the assumption that there is no certainty yet about peace, and whether the peace will last. But, the army on the other hand, has been handed a fait accompli. For whatever reason, the army is being told that the war is definitely over.

But everybody else from the NGO community to former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar to the LTTE cadres in Trincomalee are finding it difficult to adjust to this supposed long journey to peace that is ahead of us. A recent peace tract that has been issued by a NGO insisted on readying the media for the job of reporting the "peace process.' We hope you are enjoying covering the peace process, wrote some Swedish resource people to me, being as they are in the business of imparting knowledge on journalism and democracy!

The assumption all around is that we are 'still in the process of getting disengaged from the war' and need to ready our systems for the possibilities of peace which are seen - I dare say mainly by the NGO community - - as frightening.

The NGO community is afraid of the end of the conflict, for many reasons, one being that they will not be able to hector the rest of the community about how to end the war when the war is actually over. They will be men without a substantial cause. Neither will they be able to make money for nothing.

But the NGO community has reacted by choosing to graft their fears onto others such as media people by getting foreign resource persons and experts to tell them 'now look here - this is how you report the war, this is how you report the peace process.'' They have not yet got to telling the media about how to report 'peace' itself, because they are themselves mortally afraid of the peace leave alone getting there.

It is the NGO community that has for the most part been behind the moves by the government focused on regimenting the reporting of the peace process. Now, there are facts that are not known by the unsuspecting - - and dare I say gullible? - readership of Sri Lankan newspapers. The state has been carrying out a well-orchestrated campaign to report the 'peace process' strictly according to the preferences of the state.

This has been more pronounced in the Sinhala media, which has for the most part succumbed to these pressures without any resistance. This is how it works: A media czar appointed by the government, tells Editors that such and such persons are required to cover the peace process. Those who refuse to conform are 'bumped off' not in a physical sense, which of course was the stuff of a less sophisticated era. But the management is prevailed upon to relieve non-players of their posts and their influence in these media organizations.

More on this on a later date - but for the moment, it is good to remember that there are several ways of skinning a cat. Previous governments deployed methods of outright intimidation of the media, but when half the media managements are friendly towards the government, what need is there to play thug? Instead, the managements themselves can be used to control the yokels of the press. Send A for this coverage - keep B out of any coverages, or keep B out of political reporting altogether - or better still keep B out of the media organization completely.

The NGOs while all this goes on have at least a sub-conscious desire that the country will finally pull back from the brink of peace, and go back to war. Then, they will be able to hector the community about peace again, and how to extricate itself from the jaws of a disastrous conflict.

But, take a closer look - - when it comes to the army the "process' part has been removed altogether and jettisoned and thrown into the cesspool of peace detritus. The media is being told to cover a 'peace process'' - but the army is not being told about any 'process' at all. The army is being told - forget the process - there is peace here already. The army is therefore being told, and in not so subtle a manner either, that it is one of the biggest single impediments towards the peace that has already arrived. Hence, the army needs to be demobilized, or sent packing for UN peace keeping, or generally told to keep their pestilent hands out of the new peace that has been hatched in the Norwegian-brand incubator provided for that purpose.

But the people - they need to be given bread and circuses to keep them from discerning the outlines of reality in this whole drama of peace that is like the magical genie, both here and not here at the same time.

Bring out the Gypsies in Colombo by night, and disturb the peace. The NGOs will be happy as long as nobody disturbs the 'peace process.'

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