EDITORIAL

A Donkey's Year

TO those charged with keeping the peace, the past year must have seemed an eternity. Given the LTTE's past, and the Sri Lankan President's propensity for putting her foot in her mouth, few expected when the first anniversary of the government-LTTE MoU came up for review yesterday, that the country would still be at peace. It is, and we are all the happier for it. But the euphoria of February 2002 has worn off now, and the government and the Tigers have settled down to what seems to be an endless standoff, punctuated only by menstrual talks in far-flung corners of the planet.

Looking back over the peace accord's year-long history, it is clear that almost nobody has fulfilled their promise. Leading his new government into Temple Trees, Ranil Wickremesinghe promised the nation a swift dose of prosperity, UNP-style. Granted, the country has now gone from recession into growth, but the expected 'feel good' factor has yet to materialise. Foreign investors are still fighting shy of Sri Lanka, and the stock market is nowhere near the heady days of 1993-94. The government has not managed to get the construction industry on its feet, though Wickremesinghe himself is convinced that that is what is needed to get employment going. The southern highway, to name one major project, remains on the drawing board.

Not a small factor in the UNF's December 2001 win was the power crisis. Next to nothing has been done, however, with regard to addressing the crisis through fresh initiatives apart from jacking the prices up yet again, making Sri Lankan electricity the most expensive in Asia, and more than double the cost in India. The argument about whether to opt for coal, gas or oil-powered generation continues to bedevil the energy supply committee, which has sat for the past year and supplied lots of hot air but precious little energy.

The UNF's electoral success owed much also to the corruption that was rampant in the PA regime. We have exposed blatant acts of financial impropriety and abuse of power by senior cabinet ministers of the UNF government, but no action has ever been taken. Not even an inquiry has been instituted. Given this record, the people have a right to ask, 'What has changed?'

Well, obviously, the UNF's trump card is peace, and the fact that there is now an indefinite ceasefire between the government and the Tigers is milked to the maximum. But man cannot live on peace alone, especially given that the peace is oh-so-tenuous, and especially that it seems to be leading nowhere quickly. That, we are told, is because the government and the LTTE are building confidence in each other. Fine, but the LTTE's recent conduct hardly bears out that argument.

During the past year, the Scandinavian monitors have proved to the public's satisfaction and the opposition's delight that they are just that: observers. The SLMM has declined to take a moral stand on any issue that is ever so slightly outside their terms of reference, whether it be the imposition of illegal taxes or the recruitment of child soldiers. If the Norwegians and the international community at large have any influence on the Tigers at all, there is precious little evidence of it. This is hardly reassuring to those of us who suspect that Velupillai Prabhakaran's bona fides may not be as noble as Wickremesinghe thinks they are.

Last evening, however, there were many who celebrated the completion of one year since the signing of the government-LTTE MoU. The 'Peace 52' concert at Viharamahadevi Park by four schoolchildren - from the four ethnic communities - in Colombo in aid of the children of the north and east must have warmed many hearts. If the youth are the breeding ground for the JVP, then here were refreshingly different youth.

But the JVP itself was not celebrating the completion of 52 weeks since the signing of the MoU. Last Thursday's protest march, enthusiastically supported by the opposition, certainly drew on to the streets those who would prefer a military solution to a negotiated one. Sadly, the Prime Minister forewent an extraordinarily attractive opportunity to call their bluff. In the opinion of many, the protesters should have been invited into Temple Trees, received by Wickremesinghe and offered enlistment forms for the army. That would have put them to shame. By giving them the water cannon treatment, the government ran the risk of turning hooligans into heroes, something it would be well advised to avoid doing in future.

That the country has been at peace for the past year, for the first time in a quarter century, is of course an enormous achievement. But we need seriously to engage the international community to institute reform within the LTTE. Starved for funds from their traditional sources of funding abroad, the Tigers have no choice but to levy illegal taxes. Concerned that the President might at any moment pull the rug out from under the feet of the peace process by calling elections, they have no choice but to be armed, trained and ready. But inasmuch as Kumaratunga is renowned for her capriciousness, so is Prabhakaran. If the Sri Lankan government too, were to make preparedness for war, rather than national development and rehabilitation of the north and east as its primary function, the peace process would be rendered meaningless.

At the outset of the peace process, Prabhakaran appeared in public, met with the media, and helped assuage the suspicion that had dogged him for decades. He has not been seen since. For his part, Anton Balasingham has been making ever more strident statements in the aftermath of the suicide-boat explosion last fortnight. The fact is that the Tigers were entirely to blame for that, and they almost took the lives of two SLMM monitors. Still, the response from the monitors has been lame and apologetic. Sadly, the fact is that the SLMM and the Norwegian government have barely lived up to their promise. They have a moral duty to institute reform in the LTTE, a duty they have performed almost entirely in the breach.

Despite all this, everyone knows that if a process whereby the peace is broken does in fact begin, it will begin with Kumaratunga. That said, the nation cannot wait forever - for donkey's years - for development to start. The government talks interminably about the peace dividend: the time to declare dividends and pay up to us, the shareholders, is here.