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Defusing the disinformation drive

Speaking and acting with a deep sense of responsibility is, indeed, a prime requirement. We are glad that the need for this has been clearly underscored by no less a person than Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Orientating public discourse towards positive outcomes on issues of national importance is a responsibility of the country's political leadership and we consider it incumbent on us to pinpoint that the Prime Minister's contribution towards this is substantial, although utterances by some other political leaders leave very much to be desired. Today, edifying and enlightening words from political leaders to the people are proving more important than ever before.

In fact, communication of this quality can "make" countries. Incendiary, emotionally-charged words from the rulers to the people, on the hand, can "break" countries. Jawaharlal Nehru India's first post-independence Prime Minister and Great Britain's war-time Premier Winston Churchill, are two world leaders of recent memory, who used words constructively and creatively for the betterment of their countries.

We hope it would be borne in mind that this country doesn't really have much time on its hands to play around with.

Besides refraining from addressing the baser side of human nature, there is a great need for political leaders to also clarify the issues of the day with utmost logicality and lucidity. Unfortunately, the tendency is great among some to deliberately obfuscate issues for the achievement of short-term political gain. This destructive trend could, however, be defused by a State-initiated, vigorous public education program, on, for instance, the factual state of affairs in the peace process.

One such truth is that the LTTE is giving active consideration to the Government's latest proposals on a suitable North- East Interim Administration. In fact, their legal experts are due to meet very soon in a Western capital to formulate an appropriate response to this proposal. The fact is that the LTTE is, once again, engaging itself in the peace effort. Thus has some distance been traversed in the peace process. No doubt, we have a very long way to go and this journey is not going to be a smoothly-evolving path. Meanwhile, the minds of the public need to be disabused of a plethora of myths and untruths.

For instance, the "Interim Administration" is not a stepping stone to a separate state in the North-East. If all goes well, it would be a stepping stone to a region where the Tamil community would be enjoying limited self-governing rights within an united Sri Lanka, while respecting the rights of the "minorities within the minority" - the Muslim and Sinhala communities of the North-East.

Second, the year 2000 draft constitution could not be considered an ideal answer to the National Question. It falls well short of Tamil aspirations. If at all this draft could be used at the present juncture, it could only play the role of a "basis" to negotiations. If we already have the answer to our problem, the present troubled path to a negotiated settlement wouldn't have been needed at all.

Besides, the primacy of the LTTE to negotiations has been increasingly recognized over the years; 1994 being a watershed in this respect. What is important is that the key actors to the conflict stop playing political games.

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