Kick-starting the PSC process

Any perceptive reader of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's observations on current issues which we front-paged yesterday would have inferred that much would depend on how expeditiously solutions are found to our questions through the democratic process. This is as it should be because the adoption of the democratic approach is the right course the country should take. Needless to say, it is Parliament and the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) which could deliver the most representative, democratic and, therefore, nationally significant answers to these questions of our times. Accordingly, the President was correct in emphasizing the principal importance of the PSC and the democratic process. For, this process would reflect the wishes of the people and highlight their aspirations. It would not be the case of the Executive President imposing his views on the public.

Therefore, what needs to be done is to kick-start the PSC process and the President has committed himself to launching this effort presently by calling all relevant political parties to a meeting on the matter. He has promised to call on all such parties to cooperate solidly in getting the PSC off the ground. The first step in this venture is to get the Opposition parties to nominate their personnel to the PSC and this must be done forthwith since sections of the Opposition have balked at naming their nominees so far.

The way forward, once the PSC mechanism is launched, is going to be long and arduous but the challenge has to be courageously accepted by our polity since the collective interests of the country are at stake. After all, the challenge at hand is to find a durable political solution to the long-running conflict in this country, which has cost it so dearly in terms of lives, material wealth and happiness. Moreover, the polity has the assurance of the President that 'Parliament's decision will be my decision.'

Therefore, on the question of resolving the issues of our communities, there is likely to be perfect accord between the Executive and the legislature and this is a huge plus which should be taken into consideration in the days ahead. The task at hand is for the polity to meet in the PSC, without further delay, and get the talks started. Once started, every effort must be made to ensure that the talks are productive, goal-oriented and time-bound.

Our hope is that the referred to meeting of our political parties will be called in the immediate future and the PSC process enabled to get underway and sustained in the smoothest fashion.

The essential consideration that needs to be borne in mind by all sides is that they will be meeting to focus on a specific concrete issue and that is the establishment of durable peace in this country to the complete satisfaction of all our communities.

This will be their principal aim and they would need to single-mindedly work towards it. If the parties work within these parameters there is no way in which this latest collective effort in the direction of peace and harmony could go askew.

However, all parties to this effort should also be in a realistic frame of mind. The TNA, for instance, cannot resort to the tired slogans and now invalid positions of the past.

There could be no provision, as we could see it, for an ethnically monolithic 'homeland' in the North-East. Besides being inhabited in some substantial areas by the main communities, the unquestionable reality is that all communities within the region should opt to for harmonious co-existence if peaceful living is to prevail. The power realities within the region should be taken cognizance of if the talks are to prove fruitful.

Those political parties of Southern Sri Lanka which have been veering to a communalistic position, should, on the other hand, come to terms with the fact there is no way out for Sri Lanka other than through harmonious living among our communities. We must opt for a shared future. It is the perception among some, that they were unfairly treated that drove them to take-up arms against the state. The consequence was 30 years of suffering for all. These lessons of the past must be strongly borne in mind by all.