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A future of promise

Today we mark two important events in the current peace process: the beginning of the second round of peace talks between the Government and the LTTE in the first phase of the peace effort and the 250th day of the ceasefire. Both developments are part of the same process but the first wouldn't have been possible without the second. It is the cessation of hostilities and its continuity which has established a conducive climate for the launching of negotiations between the parties.

As has been pointed out in our special supplement titled '250 Days of Peace', issued with the 'Daily News' today, the continuity of the ceasefire cannot be shrugged off as insignificant when our terrible 20-year-history of war and destruction is taken into consideration. An entire generation of Lankans has been born and bred amid conflict and bloody discord and, for once, they are living and breathing in an environment free of war.

For 20 long years, violent discord, death and destruction were the sad lot of Lankans. It was a long night of suffering which claimed tens of thousands of lives and which left many limbless and disabled, besides rendering a great multitude homeless and destitute. Hundreds of young men and women have disappeared without a trace and have left behind silently pining mothers, fathers, widows and orphans. A greater trauma Lankans have never experienced in living memory.

Now, however, the opportunity has arisen to bring about a change for the better. The ceasefire launched in mid. February this year is continuing to hold and the relatively peaceful times it has ushered in have enabled the main protagonists, the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to go in for negotiations to end the conflict. For the first time in the history of the conflict, the Government and the LTTE are constructively engaging each other, holding out the promise of the conflict being resolved by peaceful means.

These developments have not evolved fortuitously. A change in political leadership has been as significant as other factors in bringing about the possibility of a peaceful resolution. The electoral verdict of December 5th last year could be considered the most crucial to date in the post-independence history of this country. It proved, once and for all, that the people had grown stupendously in political maturity.

Disdainfully rejecting the communal appeals of some politicians, the people voted resoundingly for the UNF and its message of ethnic peace. If they are wise enough the purveyors of communalism would now learn that the "Communal Cord" has outlived its usefulness.

Having voted out a destructive past, the people are now looking forward to a constructive future. Although we have "miles to go before we could sleep," the UNF Government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has enabled the people to catch a glimpse of a future which is pregnant with promise. The future belongs to those who could help realise these rich possibilities and not with those who are remaining trapped in the past with its enslaving mindsets and habits of thought. Accordingly, crying foul against the peace process wouldn't prove effective because a communalistic culture may not have many takers.

It has become habitual in some quarters to dwell on the negatives in the current political scenario. Yet, we dare say that Sri Lanka has come of age as a democracy. For, it is not possible for any one community to exercise hegemonistic control over the others and dictate the terms of co-existence any longer. Today, the different political parties, some of which are ethnic in character, are compelled to negotiate with each other for the formation of stable governments. In the process each others just needs and demands have to be accommodated and negotiated. Accordingly, the multi-ethnic basis of the State is being strengthened; Lankan democracy is acquiring greater vibrancy.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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