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Keep the momentum

On Wednesday we witnessed the first mass initiative of the business community for peace in our land.

Except for few concerned individuals the business community has stood aloof from the peace movement. As long as the open economy guaranteed them profits, they were not so much worried about billions spent from the public exchequer on war and armaments. Nor were they concerned with the plight of the refugees or those affected by war.

The heat of the war was felt by them only after the devastating terrorist attack on the airport which delivered a whack on their backs. It is after the convulsions felt in trade and industrial sectors, especially in the tourist sector that the business community woke up from the slumber.

Whatever the reasons for the new found enthusiasm for peace among the business community, it is a positive development. We urge the business community to keep the momentum going.

Holding hands is good, but not enough. They should now bring pressure on political parties and groups to arrive at a consensus on the need for peace as well as on a consensual approach for talks with the LTTE.

Certain political parties have evaded their responsibility to find a solution to the pressing problem of the fratricidal war. For nearly two decades they have failed to address the grievances of minority communities for narrow partisan electoral gains. Power politics had displaced both patriotism and statesmanship.

The least that the business community could do at this juncture is to call upon the major parties to make a joint appeal to the LTTE to resume the dialogue with the government. They should use their influence within these parties to change their intransigent opposition to talks or to any consensual approach to the problem.

While certain politicians and professionals have been blind to the central issue of democratization of the body politic in the country, namely the ending of the war and solving the ethnic issue and concentrating on lesser issues in democratization, the business community has taken the bull by the horns.

There cannot be an end to the war without the protagonists in the war talking to each other. There cannot be any successful conclusion of the talks without a just solution to the ethnic issue including devolution of power and power sharing at the center.

If these two issues are not pursued in earnest, if the SriLankaFirst campaign does not bring pressure on the parties that follow a dog in the manger policy the expectation of the thousands who held hands on Wednesday would remain a daydream and the credentials of the organizers would be open to challenge.

• Editorial of  The Observer - 20.9.2001: Business vs ethnic fanatics

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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