National unity - a paramount need

WITH a section of the UNP opposition in Parliament joining the Government, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's hands could be said to have been further strengthened and the capacity of the State correspondingly boosted to handle the most vital issues facing the country.

Now that a Cabinet reshuffle has taken place and the main jobs of State distributed among the relevant personnel, the common wish is that the task of resolving the country's problems would be continued in earnest and with redoubled zeal.

The public would like to see the new Cabinet sparing no efforts to ensure development and peace - the two prime needs of the country.

We hope the Cabinet of Ministers would proceed single-mindedly with these tasks because national development could be achieved only on the basis of these exertions. There is simply no magic formula for development.

One could say that we are in possession of a broad-based Government, with even the SLMC now choosing to join the Government.

Accordingly, the basis has been laid for a concerted drive among some of the foremost political forces of the land for the achievement of the Mahinda Chinthana. Interestingly, these Cabinet changes come in the wake of the Sri Lanka Development Forum which opens in Galle today.

The Development Forum would outline Lanka's developmental tasks for the future and we hope the Cabinet would take cognizance of them as it settles down to the task of taking the country into the future.

However, it could not be emphasized enough that development and peace could only be premised on greater and continued support for the Government and increasing national unity.

This should be realised in particular by those sections of the UNP which wish to remain in the Opposition and by the JVP.

Today, the national interest should be of paramount concern. The ten year development plan envisaged by the Government would bear fruit only if national unity prevails.

If it turns out to be a question of politics as usual the development process runs the risk of being stymied. In that event, the whole of Sri Lanka would suffer greatly.

All would be losers including, of course, those who stand in the way of progress and those who choose to stall the State's development initiative.

Divided we fall. There is no questioning this strong possibility. The Opposition and the JVP face the choice of strengthening the President's hands and taking the country to a bright future or of standing in the way of progress and blighting the country's development prospects.

The choice in favour of national unity needs to be made now. The fact that the current Development Forum is being held in Galle, indicates the degree of confidence Sri Lanka enjoys internationally on account of its post-tsunami rebuilding efforts.

Such confidence should not be betrayed by the rest of our polity. LTTE terror too needs to be resoundingly defeated. This would not be possible if the Lankan polity remains divided. The LTTE should not be strengthened through divisions in the South.

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