It was sad when JVP said NO, to Union with SLFP. It was sad when UNP said YES, to Union with SLFP.

By Charles Perera

De-merge North East – No Federal Constitution –Do not include UNP in peace talks.

The day that JVP decided not to join the Government and the day the UNP decided to join the government are two sad dates of the recent political history of Sri Lanka. JVP is a necessary partner even though they are not flexible for democratic function of governance. UNP is not trust worthy and its leader lacks leadership qualities, and he is too much of a manipulator for his personal benefits. Further GL Pieris failure to stand firm in the presence of LTTE led by Balasingham, and their principle of appeasement in dealing with the LTTE in the past peace talks, was a sad spectacle no citizen of Sri Lanka opposed to terrorism could forget, and do not expect it to be repeated once again.

Further more, people like LTTE friendly Badula Jayawardhana, SB Dissanayake, Tissa Attanayake, Senaratne and a host of others are politically immature for meaningful discussions for progressive development and see an end to terrorism. They cannot differentiate between the Tamil people, and the terrorists. Hakeem who now wants to meet the terrorists is a dangerous political leader. His allegiance to UNP should not be considered a reason to qualify him at any time in the future to join a SLFP-UNP government. ( if the President would have some say in the matter !)

And even before the SLFP-UNP union, there are already conflicts in the air. Ranil Wickramasinghe has said that though he is opposed to accepting Ministries for UNP members, if it becomes necessary, that the party should not forget that he is the one who is responsible for selecting Ministers. But, the selection of Ministers is the prerogative of the President and the Prime Minister !

The moot point is what are the core issues the Government is going to talk about with the terrorists. The terrorists do not take the talks seriously and that is seen in their continuous attacks against the army and exploding a bridge in Parichchankeni. The terrorists are merely marking time to procure missiles to attack the Kfir planes which are their present greatest problem. That is also why the government should not give into pressure, where ever it comes from, and let the security forces continue relentless defensive action .

In the discussion of core issues, one should not forget that the North and East were merged to facilitate the Indian Peace Keeping Force to move freely in the North and East in their peace keeping mission. Now that is past history, the North and East should be de-merged, to facilitate administration and to put right an error committed by the JR Jayawardhana government.

The other fact that should be seriously considered is the decision with regard to Constitutional changes for another system of government. That is that the decision taken by the APC, should not be a problem we will transmit to our future generations. Our country is only about 66000 sqkms in size and a Federal system is not suitable, not only because of its size, but also under a Federal system regions may be semi-independent, and may face considerable difficulties if there were to be a terrorist uprising in future in one or several of the Federal States. And a merged North East will be much larger than the other Provinces, which may have negative effect in development. Sri Lanka should have an improved Unitary system of Government with perhaps a changed electoral system. It is good to have the three languages English , Sinhalese and Tamil compulsory for all students. The Movement of population within the Island should be free, and segregation according to communal and religious distinctions should not be encouraged.

These may be some matters that require attention for the future progressive development of the county by every one of us, for every one of us.