EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

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Instead of PSC, we need statesmanship Tuesday, 21 June 2011 01:44 None of the myriad of problems the Sri Lankan government and its people are faced with can be whisked or wished away by ignoring them. It makes matters more complicated when government spokesmen make confusing and contradictory statements at different times. Amid this cacophony and the Babel of voices the government’s official stance is rarely clear. One of the main issues that need to be resolved is the national question. This must be done on a priority basis without allowing it to end up as a festering wound not responsive to treatment. Strangely, coinciding with the visit of a top level Indian delegation, the Eelam People’s Democratic Party leader (EPDP) and Minister Douglas Devananda issued a statement calling for the setting up of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) as the best way to find a solution to the grievances and aspirations of the Tamil-speaking people.  According to Mr. Devananda who is a close ally of the Rajapaksa regime, all political parties in parliament should take part in the process so that no party could object when a final settlement is reached. He said it could be reached within three to six months. This suggestion has been endorsed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He said the Rajapaksa regime would back the appointment of a PSC to formulate a new package that would address Tamil grievances. He said such a package would be placed before parliament for approval and implemented within a specified time frame. We have seen what happened to most committees appointed earlier and had to bite the dust for one reason or the other. The former Indian Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati-led International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) to investigate 16 incidents of alleged serious violation of human rights in Sri Lanka just before it quit said most of its suggestions with regard to the functioning of the government’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) had been ignored or rejected. Then came the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) to evolve a political solution to the national question. Its much hyped final report too has been confined to the archives and now forgotten. With that kind of track record attached to commissions and committees. What will happen to the PSC if it does come out with proposals to resolve the simmering national question? Like the others will this too go down the road to nowhere? In resolving this vital question, the government must win the trust of the people by being consistent and credible in what it says and does, matching its words with action and display a genuine and sincere desire to resolve this vital question once and for all. The need of the hour for such a step is a high level of statesmanship and President Rajapaksa is quite capable of doing the job with the same political will he displayed in eradicating terrorism and uniting all Sri Lanka.