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Will Wickremasinghe continue from where he left it?

The upcoming Presidential election is going to take place at an important political juncture.

The Tamil society, that in the past had internal contradictions, has gathered itself into one single united people’s force and it is demanding its right self-determination. This Tamil society has been waiting for the last three and half years for a just solution.

It is at this juncture that the presidential election is going to take place. Instead of using the opportunity to obtain the endorsement of all the people including the Sinhala people for a just solution, the political leadership is yet again determined to use the ethnic issue to gain votes. This continuing tragedy of errors being committed by the political leadership is taking the island into a very confused state.

The Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse signed agreements with Sinhala chauvinistic parties to win votes. Now it appears that even the opposition candidate Ranil Wickremasinghe wants to show that he is no exception to this conduct.

It was Ranil Wickremasinghe who began the peace talks with the sole representatives of the Tamil people, the LTTE. As soon as his government issued a statement that it is ready to continue the talks based on the proposals for an interim administration put forward by the LTTE, President Kumaratunge took away three ministries from the control of his government. Since then the peace efforts have come to a standstill.

The crucial question is whether Wickremasinghe will continue with the peace talks from where he left it, that is talk on the basis of the LTTE proposal for an interim administration. Sadly, there are no definitive answers to this question in his election manifesto released yesterday. The manifesto talks of Oslo declaration and Tokyo declaration without much clarity.

One could say, since the interim administration was discussed at the Tokyo meeting, Wickremasinghe has accepted this indirectly. However, people are expecting more definitive plans from the candidates.

The peace process came to stand still following the statement by Wickremasinghe’s then government that they are ready to hold talks based on the 2003 proposal for the interim administration. If Wickremasinghe becomes the next President will he continue from where he left it? A clear reply from him to this question is very important.

28 September 2005

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