Editorial-October 8, 2013
The government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a rare display of political maturity, refrained from flexing muscles, for once, on the question of Northern Province Chief Minister (CM) C. V. Vigneswaran’s swearing in. The TNA did not want him to take oaths before the Northern Governor Maj. Gen. (retd) G. A. Chandrasiri, whose ouster it seeks, but agreed to come to Colombo in spite of speculation that it would insist that the swearing in take place in Jaffna itself, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa reciprocated. This, we believe, is the way forward. Democracy is a process of give-and-take and the winner and loser should learn to cooperate.
Now, it is up to the government to do everything in its power to ensure that the NPC will work smoothly. It will have to nerve itself up to resist pressure from some of its coalition partners as well as other support groups who will want it to throw a monkey wrench in the works posthaste.
Unlike other PCs under the government’s thumb, the NPC is sure to strive to secure all the powers devolved under the 13th Amendment. Demanding more is the name of the game in politics. There have been instances where even the conformist CMs of the government-controlled PCs have got under the skin of Presidents by doing an Oliver Twist. The late NCP CM Bertie Premalal Dissanayake, it may be recalled, was at the forefront of a campaign to secure land and police powers. Vigneswaran may be a political novice but he is not likely to settle for what the Centre is willing to part with by way of devolution. He is sure to ask for what, he thinks, the NPC deserves or, perhaps, even more. For the first time since the collapse of the EPRLF-run North-East PC in the late 1980s we are now in a position to see how devolution is going to work. The general consensus is that PC system has become a white elephant, but this perception will be put to the test in the North.
There are many, both there and abroad, who will want to sway and manipulate the NPC to further their own interests. They may even try to use it as a battering ram against the Centre in a bid to plunge the North into chaos again and make a case for an external intervention. The onus is, therefore, on the newly elected NPC not to subjugate the interests of the Northern people who have reposed their trust in it to those of others peddling hidden agendas.
If the NPC adopts the advocacy of self-determination as its raison d’etre with its leaders hailing Prabhakaran as a war hero and lending their voice to calls from some quarters for an international war crimes probe, reconciliation will be pie in the sky. Worse, the NPC and the government will be on a collision course.
Name those racketeers
UNP parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake has made a very serious allegation against the government. He has recently told the media that two government MPs were responsible for an abortive attempt to smuggle in heroin and ethanol. The Customs detected a large haul of narcotics concealed in many cans of grease and two container loads of illegally imported ethanol. Investigations have been launched, we are told, but all chances are that they will draw a blank.
It is common knowledge that the kingpins of large-scale smuggling rackets cannot go scot free without political backing. No less a person than Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne told Parliament a few moons ago that politicians were involved in the narcotics trade.
If the UNP has irrefutable evidence to substantiate its allegation against government politicians, it ought to reveal the names of the culprits and lodge a complaint with the police without further delay. In fact, it should have made a beeline to the police before speaking to the media. It should also take up the issue in Parliament.
Here is a grand opportunity for the Opposition in the doldrums to gain some political mileage. If the UNP, instead of engaging in internecine violence, stages public protests, naming the heroin and ethanol smugglers and demanding action against them, it would be able to rally the public and regain lost ground. If it does so, it can rest assured that every right thinking person will join forces with it to get rid of the scourge of narcotics and illicit liquor. Making mere media statements and bellowing rhetoric won’t do.
