Banish politics from welfare, development

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's call for banishing politics from development and public welfare activities will be hailed by a majority of the public across the political divide for if there is one thing that has kept the country from achieving progress and prosperity it is the canker of party politics which today has seeped into every walk of life and field of activity.

The Presidential appeal is also an obvious invitation to the Opposition to be a stakeholder in the Government's development drive, the inherent message being that a collective effort shedding aside all parochial considerations and political differences would help the Government to pursue its programmes for the common good of the masses with vigour and effectiveness, whilst realising the goals and aspirations of the nation.

Whether the Opposition Leader would display statesmanship and harken to the President's appeal would no doubt be keenly watched by the public.

Declaring open the renovated Galle International Stadium three years after its tsunami battering, President Rajapaksa said: "There is no politics in cricket. We should divorce politics from the provision of welfare facilities to the people. We should not view the country's development from an envious perspective."

In drawing parallels with the national cricket team what the President was trying to underline was the unprecedented success achieved on the international stage by Sri Lanka in the sport with the collective efforts of the different nationalities and religions that comprise the team.

Inherent in the President's allusion is the realisation what the country as a whole could have achieved if this unity and togetherness prevailed among all races and communities since independence, in taking the country towards progress and prosperity.

More than anything else it can be argued that the decline and deterioration witnessed down the years was the direct result of contentious party politics which had proved to be the bane in the country's forward march to development and progress.

In another editorial we commented how incoming Governments destroyed or halted the development work of their predecessors for purely political reasons leaving the vicious cycle to continue until the country was reduced to a state of drift blown off its moorings.

The President has no doubt realised the detrimental effect of party politics on the progress of the country. Hence his admonition for politics to be left out of the development sphere. We hope that the President's appeal will be heeded by both the Government and opposition MPs and partymen.

True, the opposition has a right to pinpoint deficiencies of the Government. But this should be constructive criticism rather than political mudslinging. As we have said before a developing country like ours cannot afford to wallow in politics while our neighbours in the region forge ahead making giant strides.

It should be realised by all politicians that we are a unique case where the Government is engaged in a debilitating war to defeat the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world while on the other hand waging an economic war braving severe odds exacerbated by the galloping world prices in essential commodities.

Opposition politicians should therefore act with circumspection without firing their artillery on all fronts at the Government which is waging a battle on multiple fronts to keep the nation ticking.

The least that the country wants is instability of the kind the opposition tried to create by attempting to defeat the Government on the budget vote by conspiratorial means. Had the plot succeeded the country would certainly have plunged into political chaos with the resultant stalemate between the Executive and the legislature providing the ideal recipe for the economy to go into a tailspin while throwing a lifeline to the LTTE which is in its death throes.

Now that the heat has died down it is incumbent on all the actors to rethink their strategies in the interest of the country and create a climate where rancorous and vituperative politics is shunned paving the way for the country to emerge as a economic and social giant in Asia.