A conference on 22 October, arranged by major business organisations, including the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Exporters Association, adopted a 10-point work plan, besides urging cooperation between the two main political parties and bipartisan agreement towards resolution of the Sri Lankan problem. A national committee on peace, including government and opposition delegates, will also be appointed.
The work plan, while envisaging equality and personal security for all Sri Lankans, encourages the political parties to adopt policy criteria for agriculture, industry and trade, which will remain unchanged for 15 years. Whether the business community has any leverage over hardened politicians to accomplish consensus is yet to be seen.
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) refused to participate because Justice minister GL Peiris attended the conference. The UNP believes that Mr Peiris manipulated the failure of the all-party conference on the ethnic conflict organised by the party in September.
Representing the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) at the conference, Mr Peiris welcomed the new initiative and agreed with the business community that there can be no economic development without lasting peace. The war and the resulting difficulty in attracting foreign investment has worried the businessmen.
The 1998 fiscal deficit is expected to exceed the target of 6.5% and reach 8% at the end of the year, due to escalating war expenditure and shortfall in revenue collection, economists say. NGOs have continued to point out the rising crime, increasing poverty, the misery of the internally displaced and the enormous loss of life as a result of the war.
In late October, the businessmen met UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, who pledged that his party would support any meaningful steps of the government towards peace, but insisted that there would be no deal without the participation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
At an earlier meeting with the business community, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunge said that she wanted the UNP and other political parties to join the new initiative. In late October, the President blamed Mr Wickremasinghe for refusing a recent government offer of bipartisan cooperation. She declared that peace efforts will continue even without UNP support.
The peace plan is not without its critics. The hardline National Movement against Terrorism, which advocates a military solution, urged the business community to contribute 10% of income to the National Defence Fund and assist in the annihilation of the LTTE. The call by the businessmen for reform of labour laws is seen by trade unions as an attempt to erode workers’ rights consolidated over several decades.
The immediate aim of the businessmen seems to be to unite the two major political parties. But with presidential polls announced for early next year, it may prove an impossible task. The statements of party leaders indicate that the race has already begun for the general elections in the year 2000. The parties may now look for political mileage in conflict rather than collaboration.
Two days after the conference, following negotiations with the ICRC, the LTTE released six soldiers, detained for the last five years, and three crew members of the ships Iris Moana and MV Missen. The Tigers say that the release is a humanitarian gesture to improve mutual understanding. The move has raised hopes that the LTTE may be willing to establish contacts with the government.
The allocation of massive funds for war, meanwhile, has angered the government’s Tamil allies. The moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), accused the government of giving priority to military efforts and threatened to vote against the 1999 budget proposals scheduled to be tabled in Parliament in November. The government has a thin majority in the legislature. The TULF also expressed shock over President Chandrika’s statement in South Africa that the Tamils are not the original people of Sri Lanka.
While politicians squabble, there is a great desire for peace among the Sri Lankan people, observers say. A major survey by Colombo University’s Centre for Anthropological and Sociological Studies, made public in October, reveals that majority of the Sinhalese people favour peaceful means to end the conflict and reject a military solution. The survey results may come as a surprise to those claiming to represent people’s opinion and advocating war. Sociology Professor Siri Hettige, who supervised the survey, says that the people at grassroots understand the complexities of the situation and are open-minded than those opinion-makers with vested interests.