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Peace Is An Inherent Right Of The Nation's Population Which Cannot Be Denied.

Slowly but surely the insecurities of the Peace Process are appearing as cracks in a wall of uncertainty and seem to be headed for an impasse and consequently to a grinding halt which will be the case as predicted by the analysts, an anticlimax throwing the concerns of the Sinhala Nation into a vortex of confusion.The former Foreign Minister Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar addressing a press conference with other senior members of his caucus outlined the realities of where the Government was headed remarking that it was a "dangerous situation" where the hands of the opposition were virtually bound and incapacitated towards taking remedial action due to the tentative nature of political co-habitation between the PA and the UNF which appears to have gone into remission.

The theatrics orchestrated by the UNF and its promise to deliver are beginning to have a hollow ring to it and ironically although there is a welcome absence of hostilities and a certain calm prevailing, the cost of living and unemployment have sky rocketed to astronomical proportions where only the ' haves' continue to live comfortably and a greater percentage of the population continue to eke out a meagre living and the dissatisfaction of the populace that the UNF have not delivered their promises increases with each passing day.

President Kumaratunga has been placed in a catch 22 situation where categorically she is obligated towards supporting the Peace Process rather than sabotage it as the UNF pundits will surely accuse her of, albeit in her definition a Process which she does not agree with in principle although her sweeping powers by virtue of her status deemed constitutionally could easily veto the shenanigans of the rather comical antics of the UNF who have only themselves to blame having been quick to woo an internationally banned and proscribed LTTE who are more than likely to attempt turning tables on them due to their many indiscretions and whose present direction as far as the Peace Process is concerned seems to be headed nowhere except into the craftily devised net of entrapment of the LTTE whose every request is being met with a nod of assent much to the chagrin of the Sinhala Nation becoming more apprehensive about its identity and what the future may hold for them as the majority of the Nation's population??.

That the likelihood of the Peace Process as outlined by the UNF is bound to reach a stalemate is becoming very apparent as the LTTE realising the disadvantages they are likely to encounter should the negotiations continue at the present level have indicated their reluctance to continue and have begun laying down further pre-conditions such as Troop Withdrawal from strategic areas and free access to classified areas of security which the Government will not be able to accommodate as the agreement signed by the Government contains what Mr. Kadirgamar terms "Impractical Clauses from which they cannot extricate themselves' " and the once impressive sounding rhetoric of the Marapone, Fernando and Peiris trio of policymakers towards restoring the Nation seems to be taking on metaphorical intonations reaching from the sublime to the ridiculous involving bitter recriminations from an already frustrated LTTE who have their own version of how to restore the Nation!!!

The uncertainty on the dates for peace talks with the LTTE, or whether peace talks would be held at all is beginning to surface as a distinct possibility where. the Government had said, in response to LTTE statements that peace talks would not be held in the foreseeable future, that it too was in no hurry to begin negotiations, and that strengthening the ceasefire was more important and a matter of interpretation as far as its inference is concerned which is as confusing to the Sinhala Nation as much as it is to its Tamil Counterparts.

The same Norwegian-facilitated Peace Process was once introduced when the PA was in power through the then Foreign Minister Mr. Kadirgamar. Although presented to and rejected by the LTTE it also had a comprehensive agenda in which the issue of setting up an interim administration was linked to the final settlement as outlined in the words of the Former Foreign Minister where he cited " the importance of the main issues which must not be lost sight of. They must be linked carefully to an interim administration for the Tamil Community or we could have a situation where an interim administration proper for the Tamil People could become the De Facto final solution'' especially if it was thus manipulated by the LTTE, a proposition which nevertheless created much animosity and unrest within the land prior to the exiting of the PA from governing status.

Regardless of where the Peace Process is headed, this is a time for reckoning that the calm and tranquility which currently prevails has to be maintained in its continuity and that all the people of Sri Lanka deserve a decent existence through the restoration of their Democratic and Human Rights so cruelly devastated by the LTTE and that their right to exist as part of an Independent Sovereign Nation is an inherent right which cannot be dictated to by a crafty and self centred group of terrorists whose rights towards their own existence has been internationally condemned.The people of Sri Lanka cannot be denied the peace which has evaded them for the past three decades through the wretched mores of terrorism and the consolidation of this peace has to be spearheaded by a dedicated leadership focussing on realities rather than speculation.

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