President’s move for reconciliation - EDITORIAL

n what could be a turning point in Sri Lanka’s history, President Maithripala Sirisena last week sought cabinet approval for an eleven-page draft of a comprehensive national reconciliation policy based on the principle of power-sharing as the means of reaching a political settlement, which would address the grievances and aspirations of all communities.   
The draft, published exclusively in our sister paper the Sunday Times, was worked out by the Ministry of National Integration and Reconciliation and the Office of National Unity and Reconciliation headed by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.   
Ms. Kumaratunga, when she was the Executive President in 1998 presented a similar draft for power sharing and it was worked out by the then Constitutional Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris and the Tamil National Alliances’ constitutional expert Neelan Thiruchelvam. As we often see in Sri Lanka, the then Opposition the United National Party (UNP) strongly opposed this solution and even burnt copies of the draft in parliament. UNP leaders said they were opposing it mainly because Ms. Kumaratunga had included a provision to enable her to go for a third term as the Executive Prime Minister after scrapping the executive presidential system. But the UNP’s street protests provoked racial tension, Ms. Kumaratunga was forced to drop the package and her government lost the general election in December 2001.   
Several similar moves to find a just and fair solution to the ethnic conflict were sabotaged by opposition parties which whipped up racial tension. In 1957, the then Prime Minister S.W. R. D Bandaranaike tried to undo the damage he had done by introducing the “Sinahala only” card at the 1956 General election. He realized his folly fast and by the end of 1957 worked out the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam pact for district councils. But opposition groups led by UNP’s J. R. Jayewardene marched to Kandy alleging Mr. Bandaranaike was trying to divide the country. The first racial riots erupted in 1958 and Mr. Bandaranaike was forced to drop the bill for district councils which had less powers than the present Provincial Councils and might have helped to prevent the devastating 26-year ethnic war. Mr. Bandaranaike was assassinated on September 26, 1959 and Ms. Kumaratunga is probably being led through her new draft to undo whatever damage her father might have done before 1956.   
In 1965, the UNP’s then Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake set up a National Government including the then Federal Party and one of its members M. Thiruchelvam, the father of Neelan, was the Minister of Local Government. Mr. Senanayake worked out what was called the Dudley-Chelvanayakam pact for district councils. But again extremist elements -- this time led by the SLFP provoked racial tension and forced the Prime Minister to drop the DC bill. In 1986 India virtually forced Sri Lanka to sign the Indo-Sri Lanka peace agreement for the setting up of Provincial Councils. But instead of a solution it prolonged the war. In 1990 the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also failed as did Ms. Kumaratunga’s package in 1999.   
In 2002 the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe worked out a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE and held peace talks in several countries with Norway as the mediator. But that too failed, the Wickremesinghe government was ousted in an infamous constitutional coup by the then President Kumaratunga and the UNP was defeated at the 2004 general elections. What we are trying to show here is that all major parties played party politics to sabotage national reconciliation and the consequence was the catastrophic war in which hundreds of thousands were killed or injured while the cost in terms of resources is beyond calculation. We hope it does not happen again. It must not and should not happen again.   
The so-called joint opposition led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already ridiculed the 11-page draft, probably without even reflecting on it deeply and fully. While dismissing the plan, Mr. Rajapaksa is focussing on the October 8 anti-Sirisena rally at which they hope to finalise plans for a new political party. Strangely one of Mr. Rajapaksa’s main supporters is Prof. G. L. Peiris who after 1996 drafted a similar plan for Ms. Kumaratunga.   
 The new draft has clear-cut perspectives on key issues including human rights, inclusivity, diversity, multiculturalism, gender equality and judicial independence. Good, wise and long-term thinking has apparently gone into it. We urge all moderates on the middle path to reject extremist views on both sides and cooperate in the process of truth and reconciliation with multi-racial and multi-religious unity in diversity.