While the National Advisory Council on Peace and Reconciliation (NACPR) initiative had a faltering start with several key stake-holders boycotting the inauguration, the LTTE which has now got a fresh excuse to flaunt, is fast on track to gain international legitimacy.
The unsteady move by the government came at a time when the Tiger Constitutional Affairs Committee was making headlines here and abroad as they opened a forum with the expatriate Tamil legal experts and Swiss government emissaries in Geneva, five months after a successful Pongu Thamil celebration in the same city.
Other than the logistics and the reputation of a safe haven for global minorities, the Geneva venue of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, of course, is not an accident. Located a few kilometres away from the United Nations office, the Tigers very well knew the importance of the location and the kind of publicity a meeting there would generate.
The LTTE delegation which had discussed the modes of getting humanitarian aid and the legal stumbling blocks in garnering same during the Geneva meeting, is also scheduled to visit Ireland and Denmark.
This comes at a time when the government of Sri Lanka was still pleading with the political parties across the board to take part in the NACPR, even as the chief opposition United National Front (UNF) and other minor parties were playing hard-to-get.
For the first time after the UPFA came into office, President Chandrika Kumaratunga appeared to have shed her 'devil may care' attitude and was seen making earnest requests to the UNF to reconsider its decision.
However, what is interesting about the whole affair is the fact that these desperate moves were being made at a time when the President had made it clear that the NACPR would not have any 'direct role in peace negotiations'.
Her stand has been that the NACPR's role would be a supplementary one - that is, to keep the parliamentarians and through them the public, informed and in addition to make recommendations to the interlocutors at the plenary talks.
Besides the component of the political representatives, there are two other elements - civil society and the religious leaders.
Concept wise, as far as the inclusiveness and transparency of the peace process are concerned, the setting up of a mechanism of the nature of the NACPR is a land-mark event.
If the move bears fruit, as President Kumaratunga has maintained in her speech on Monday, it will ensure the "openness and inclusiveness" of the peace process.
For the first time in the history of the conflict, civil society has been identified as an important force within the State when attempting a negotiated settlement to the conflict. At the same time, it is the first instance that concrete efforts are being made to keep the public informed. These two considerations have been overlooked by the previous UNF regime in its attempts at peacemaking.
Facing a venue where the vacant seats outnumbered those that were occupied, President Kumaratunga, notwithstanding the poor attendance, appeared resolute and confident.
The same degree of determination witnessed four years ago, when she presented the 2004 Draft Constitution Bill despite the heckles of the Opposition in the House, was seen during President Kumaratunga's Monday address.
Had the President managed to muster the support of the UNF, by convincing the party hierarchy that the move is a genuine one and that there was no question of one southern party gaining credit for it, the inaugural session, as Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said, would have been a historic one despite the absence of the TNA, which was expected anyway.
However, now that the UNF has boycotted the event, along with some minor and minority parties in the opposition, what the President should do is to carry forward the task undeterred, with a commitment and vigour that would make the opposition parties reconsider their initial stance.
Having got religious leaders, civil society, and also the JVP on board, President Kumaratunga should use the opportunity to send the peace message, using these channels, to the electorate which appears to have taken peace for granted as the ceasefire has survived till now.
One of the greatest advantages President Chandrika Kumaratunga has in trying to convince the Sinhala-Buddhists of the need for a paradigm shift in their attitude towards resolving the conflict is the support of the new Mahanayake of the Malwatte Chapter who appears to have radicalized the clergy mind-set with his bold approach towards the issue.
With his recent pledges to initiate a dialogue between the LTTE and the JVP and also his willingness to hold talks with the Tigers, the most Venerable Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Mahanayake Thera has already created a few ripples in the Sinhala-Buddhist polity.
While certain sections of the constituency had tried discordant notes on the declaration of the Mahanayake Thera, there appears to be quite a sizeable majority which endorses his views, which are in direct contrast to the stance adopted by his predecessors and also that of the Asgiriya Chapter.
"The winner creates hatred in the mind of the loser. The loser lives in sorrow. One who lives in equanimity lives in tranquility by renouncing both victory and defeat. This is the eternal truth pronounced by Buddha that we have to be mindful of when we contemplate a peaceful resolution of conflicts in a realistic manner," the Venerable Mayanayake Thera said, addressing the NACPR on Monday.
One may wonder what thoughts crossed the minds of UNP seniors when they saw the empty chairs which would otherwise have been occupied by them during this important national exercise?
Surely, along with civil society and the clergy, the President and the UPFA seem to be making a few concrete moves towards preparing the electorate for some unpalatable decisions to be made as regards the peace process.
Both Minister Kadirgamar and Mr. Godfrey Gunatillake in their speeches created the impression that the absence of the UNP from the forum was as much a loss to Ranil Wickremesinghe's party as much as it was for the people of the country.
It was interesting to note President Kumaratunga quoting LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's Mahaveerar Day speech (November 26, 2003) to point out how the Sinhala leaders have made a mockery of the prospects of southern consensus.
What the President perhaps would have forgotten was that more than anybody else, it was her that the LTTE leader targeted in this speech, which was made barely three weeks after she took over the Ministries of Defence, Interior and Media from the UNP in a constitutional coup even as the then government was planning to resume talks with the LTTE.
The LTTE leader emphasised that southern leaders blocked peace moves by a rival southern party when they were in the opposition - in the last instance the seizure of the Ministries three days after the unveiling of the ISGA proposals.
But then, we all know how the UNP and also the JVP destroyed the 2000 Draft Constitution initiative by instigating the electorate against the government, to serve their parochial agendas.
But one thing that has been noticeable throughout previous peace initiatives is that while the UNP appeared quite complacent with the idea of forging ahead on their own when in power, the SLFP-led alliances made some efforts to rope in the opposition - the cases in point are the earlier PA Peace Package and now the NACPR.
While one may view this as a tactical move to get the UNP to share the blame in case the whole process collapses, one cannot totally rule out that there was a considerable degree of genuineness given the need for a two-thirds majority to endorse any radical constitutional measures towards establishing peace.
However, one of the fundamental factors behind the failure of all these moves to woo the opposition, as in the case of the NACPR, is the failure by the SLFP-led alliances to back up such efforts by appropriate confidence-building measures.
The President or the UPFA cannot expect the UNP to simply attend the forum after months of hostile treatment meted out by the new government. Coupled with this is the fast-approaching Presidential election. It is reliably understood that party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has come under tremendous pressure from party stalwarts to take a detached course without having anything to do with the UPFA-initiated peace moves.
The only way President Kumaratunga, her UPFA government, the clergy and civil society who have now become the partners in the NACPR exercise, can rope the opposition into the initiative, is to make the NACPR a roaring success, notwithstanding the initial absence of the UNP. The tactic is to make it too tempting for the opposition to resist participation.
