Welcome developments on PSC

The UNP has pledged to nominate its members to the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) which would be charged with finding solutions to the issues faced by our communities and this is a highly welcome development. It holds out the prospect of this country arriving at a consensual solution to the most divisive political problems which have been bedeviling it over the decades.

Hopefully, other Opposition parties, such as, the TNA, would cooperate with the state in getting the PSC process off the ground by nominating its members to the Committee too. The well-meaning of this country could also be glad that the PSC would be giving itself a six month time frame for the conclusion of its business and that the public would probably be spared the agony of witnessing interminable and meandering confabulations that end inconclusively. Hopefully, the PSC exercise would not go the way of similar 'all party' deliberations that have preceded it.

Rather than be enraged over recent developments on the international relations front, we need to see them as having possibilities which need to be made good use of by Sri Lanka. The challenge posed to Sri Lanka is to prove that it could boldly traverse the path of national reconciliation. This is no thorny issue for this country and we are already journeying in the direction of resolving the most pressing problems confronted by our communities.

There has been rapid progress, for instance, in the areas of reconstruction and rehabilitation in the North and achievements on this score are plainly visible. For instance, the infrastructure development drive is progressively intensifying and almost all our IDPs have been resettled. Besides, landmine-infested jungles are fast becoming things of the past. Former LTTE cadres in vast numbers are being rehabilitated and integrated into mainstream life and the Jaffna district has been transformed into a most productive geographical region of the country, as could be seen from its economic growth rate.

All this and more has been made possible because the state has been adhering to the task of normalization and reconciliation. This, it would pursue consistently and is not obliged to please anyone on this score except the Lankan people. In other words, it is accountable to only the people of this country. However, the international community is obliged to take cognizance of these ground-breaking changes before venturing to comment on issues facing this country.

The UNP leader has focused on the need to give priority to the implementation of the LLRC recommendations but what needs to be realized is that this is already happening under the aegis of the numerous state agencies. As indicated by Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva in Parliament, the programme pertaining to implementing the LLRC recommendations is being activated by the Secretary to the President. The LLRC report is very much at the heart of the ongoing national rejuvenation drive.

Enough and more thinking has been done on the conflict over the decades in this country but it would be important to approach the PSC deliberations with an open mind. All the noteworthy documents and analytical studies that have come out over the years could be brought to the centre of the PSC discussions and inspiration could be derived from them for the purpose of having some enlightened thinking on the issues in question. However, fresh thinking too must surface and this would not be possible if the requirement is tacitly or otherwise observed that the parties to the deliberations should base their thinking on this or that document.

What needs to be arrived at is a national consensus on resolving our conflict. In this effort, all shades of relevant opinion in Sri Lanka should be taken into account. This should prove quite a task but one that must be undertaken because the issues concerned are highly complex and could not be resolved in a hurry. However, it is this grand consensus which is referred to as a home-grown solution. It is something that is worked out on the basis our thinking and native intellectual capital. Accordingly, it would be a completely independent exercise and serve as proof of our sovereign worth.