TOWARDS A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
For the umpteenth time the political pundits as well as the politicians are talking of a national government. Different people have different ideas of a national government and that is one reason why no national government has been formed in the recent years despite so much talk of national governments. If the people and the politicians cannot agree on the meaning of a national government how can a national government be formed. It is not only the concept of national government on which the country does not have a consensus but on anything that could normally be called a national policy. The country does not have a national policy on education, health or for that matter on anything. What we have are party policies on some of these and in most cases even party policies have not been worked out.
National governments are not formed overnight and neither the national policies could be formulated. Usually national governments are formed when the nation is in a crisis. If the political parties differ on important matters, they cannot join hands to form a national government. In the absence of national policies on almost anything what is the policy that the so called national government would adopt. On the other hand, a national government could be formed only by parties that are prepared to form governments. If certain parties are not prepared to form governments and if they are interested in forming only non government organisations what could one do? A party such as the present UNF that is prepared only to form non government organisations instead of governments would have difficulty in forming a national government.
Many people who talk of a national government like a manthram as the panacea for all the problems in the country, are not clear about what they mean by such a government. It appears that they are of the opinion that a national government should be established by inviting all the political parties that are represented in the parliament. If that is the case then we would end up by having a national government of the UNF, PA, JVP, TNA, EPDP, SLMM (all factions) and the other parties. What would such a government achieve? With the differences in their policies the cabinet of the national government would become only a talking shop. One would say that some consensus could be reached after discussing the problems, but with the divergent opinions held by different parties the discussion would end up as a never ending exercise.
A so called national government of all the parties (or at least the major parties) in the parliament is possible only under one condition. That is if all the parties agree to form a non governmental organisation run by the so called international community. If the western powers succeed in forcing all the parties to adopt a policy that is dictated by the former then under such circumstances a "national government" would become a possibility. However, it is unlikely that though the UNF has become a puppet of the western powers some other parties would follow it.
In these columns we had described Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga as the de jure executive president but a de facto ceremonial president. Last week she had to take action that enabled her to become the de facto executive president of the country. When she took over three ministries using powers of the executive presidency she demonstrated how the personal interests become important in taking important decisions that effect the country. The transferring of the three ministries was long over due. In fact she should have retained the ministries of defence and the internal defence from the very beginning. There was no need for a separate ministry of internal defence as by defence what is always meant is internal defence. What does one mean by non internal defence? We as a country are not that much interested in the defence of the external countries to have a ministry of defence that is not dealing with internal defence. We would have a limited interest in the defence of the sovereignty of other countries but we would not be sending our forces to defend those countries.
It may be that the UNF interpreted non internal defence as defence of the country from external forces that belong to other countries. That particular interpretation is compatible with the inaction of the ministry of defence in the recent past. As there was no threat to the country from any external forces the ministry of defence (non internal) did not have much work to do. As such the former secretary of the ministry of defence, Mr. Austin Fernando occupied himself by providing security to the members of the LTTE and safeguarding them from possible non internal attacks. How Mr. Fernando or one of his officers in the ministry of defence (non internal) took apples to a terrorist when he (the terrorist) was undergoing treatment in the Nawaloka hospital was in the news sometime ago. The president having taken over the ministries of defence (non internal) and internal defence could take a step further and bring them under one ministry. There should be only one ministry of defence if one is interested in the defence of the country.
We said earlier that the president should have taken over the three ministries long time ago when it was quite clear that all the three ministries were a threat to the sovereignty of the country. The two ministries of defence were defending the interests of the LTTE and the western powers and the ministry of mass communication was either giving publicity to such defences or attacking the culture of the country with the help of people such as Ganganath Dissanayake and Lakshpathy Arachchi. The president waited though there was pressure from the national forces to take over the relevant ministries. It cannot be denied that she was finally forced to take action when her own survival was under threat. The UNF had taken steps to impeach the chief justice and the next step would have been an impeachment against the president herself. In any event, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga has taken action at last and the country is having some breathing space, and by her action she has been able to become the de jure as well as the de facto executive president of the country.
At the same time the judiciary of the country has become strong and independent of the parliament. The attempted impeachment of the chief justice was to bring the judiciary under the control of the parliament and to politicise the judiciary. While the executive and the judiciary have become stronger the legislature has become weak in the process. It was clear that the parliament with a UNF majority was trying to establish its supremacy vis a vis the executive and the judiciary during the past few months. Without such supremacy the UNF would not have been in a position to function as the agent of the non national forces, especially of the western powers. The latter is still reluctant to interfere with the affairs of the country on behalf of Tamil racism in general and the LTTE in particular, against Sinhalathva and needs the assistance of some agent. The UNF fits into this position and with the response of the LTTE to the "government" proposal it became necessary for the UNF to establish the supremacy of the parliament over the executive and the judiciary in order to prepare itself for the worst betrayal since Don Juan Dharmapala some five hundred years ago. However, the personal interests of Ms. Kumaratunga were also threatened in the process and with the national forces backing her she was forced to take action.
As there is no agreement between the UNF and the SLFP on the "interim self governing authority" it is futile to talk of a national government. The interim self governing authority, as Mr. Dinesh Gunawardhane has pointed out, is about self government and not on devolution. Thus even those who are of the view that power should be devolved cannot agree on the proposals (the responses) of the LTTE terrorists. The Tamil racists following SJV Chelvanayakam who translated Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kachchi into Sinhala as Federal Party, are now translating interim self governing authority as "unthur palanya" giving the impression that power is being devolved. We have to thank the MEP leader for drawing our attention to this play of words.
The UNF is making a big fuss over the taking over of the ministry of defence by the president. They claim that for the "peace process" to succeed the ministry of defence should come under a nominee of the prime minister who is "responsible" for the negotiations. Is there any need for negotiations. The LTTE has made it very clear that they want an Eelam and nothing else. They also have said that if the "government" is not prepared to give what they want then there is no alternative but to go to "war". The LTTE means only one thing by peace. That is giving Eelam on a platter. As far as they are concerned peace is another word for Eelam. It is appropriate that while the UNF is negotiating with the LTTE on the ways and means (krama saha vidhi) of giving Eelam to the LTTE, the president should have complete control over the armed forces as well as the police.
With this background only one kind of national government is needed today. What the country wants is a government of the national forces and not a government or an NGO of the non national forces. Ms. Kumaratunga should take steps to form a government of the national forces against Tamil racism and the western colonialists and their agents who support the LTTE and the other Tamil racists. However in order to achieve that objective Ms. Kumaratunga has herself to become a nationalist without listening to various so called advisors who are mainly agents of non national forces.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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