APRC on Kota Udda (on the rock)

"The unofficial claim states that APRC proposals will be released in January 2008. Can anyone believe this will happen? Pros and cons are said about defeating the government on 14 December 2007, when second stage of the budget voting takes place."

by. R Jayadevan

(December, 02, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) No one now speaks about All Party Representative Committee (APRC) which was formed by the President Rajapakse upon his election just over two years ago to prepare a political framework to end the conflict in Sri Lanka.

APRC received all the publicity that the government was sincere in finding a political resolution by reaching an acceptable political resolution for all the people in Sri Lanka. There was widespread opinion and hope that the APRC process was a good initiative of the newly elected President and the international community too viewed the initiative with hope to see an end to the conflict in Sri Lanka.

APRC process was considered a serous process when members of its committee published independent reports pre-empting optimism in the outcome of the process. The eminent persons report touched on wide raging devolutionary process and Chairman of the APRC Prof. Vitharane’s own proposal gave some relief to the people that the outcome of the APRC will be useful.

Whilst the President engineered the APRC process, when it was reaching the climax of enthusiasm, he himself did everything to undermine it.

He fired the first salvo when he backed the extreme JVP initiative to break the North and East merger. The President is being accused of colluding with the racist JVP and the Chief Justice Sarath De Silva to ensure the break up of the north and east. When the APRC process had been undertaken to bring peace, the government should have worked to create the climate to build confidence in the minds of the people that it is sincere in its efforts to bring peace. Instead of delivering a farfetched resolution which could have overridden any existing and unimplemented operational arrangement reached under the Indo-Lanka Accord, the government went around the bush to play the age old deception game by nullifying the North-East merger.

The second most disgraceful assault came about when the President’s Party (SLFP) submitted its proposal to the APRC, claimed to be prepared on the personal direction of the President. It submitted a pathetic district level proposal to devolve power. The President having known the exceptional mood in the APRC, as the leader of the nation decided to undermine the process by producing a substandard, unacceptable and a proposal similar one condemned by the nation decades ago.

Whilst these undermining processes were going through, the President put further constraint on the APRC by buying over some disgruntled opposition party members by offering them ministerial posts. This effort effectively brought an end to the unenthusiastically entered by-partisan agreement between the government and the opposition United National Party to take a common approach to find a lasting resolution to the conflict.

The government did everything to undermine a genuine APRC process. Many announcements and claims were made that the APRC proposals will be released at different unfulfilled deadlines for the past one year.

It is now claimed, the APRC process has got entangled in the political decay that is strangling the government. The parties and members of APRC are said to be engaged in a political football match in the parliament since the Budget for 2008 was presented by the Finance Minister who is the President. It is knowledge that the APRC did not meet for the past few months to discuss and reach consensus, due to progressively deteriorating political situation in Colombo.

The unofficial claim states that APRC proposals will be released in January 2008. Can anyone believe this will happen? Pros and cons are said about defeating the government on 14 December 2007, when second stage of the budget voting takes place.

Even if the government wins, it will be difficult to salvage the imminent death of the APRC. It is at present sitting like a duck on the rock –(Kotta Uda), to be submerged If the government is defeated in the parliament.