GROWING PAINS IN COLOMBO AND JAFFNA

Recent events in Sri Lanka suggest that government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leaders are discovering the complexity of their evolving roles and slowing adjusting to them. President Chandrika Kumaratunga's formation of the National Consultation on Ethnic Reconciliation, for example, could have been motivated by several factors. During the previous government, Kumaratunga had virtually single-handedly took the country in the direction of a peace process that envisaged fundamental constitutional reform. She also brought in Norwegian facilitation, which has become the greatest asset to the peace process despite the strong objections of Sinhala nationalists. However, the president's image on peace issues took a beating during the election campaigns of August 2000 and December 2001. She campaigned on a strategy of militarily weakening the LTTE as a precursor to peace. She was reported to have made chilling predictions about the fate of the Sinhala people in the aftermath of a peace process initiated by the United National Party (UNP). After the UNP's decisive victory in the general elections, and its equally decisive revival of the peace process, the president has clearly been on the defensive vis-à-vis Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

During the past five months of ceasefire the president has been seen more as a potential spoiler of the peace process than as a positive contributor to it. In this context, it is likely that the primary purpose of the National Consultation is to improve the president's image, especially regarding her commitment to negotiations with the LITE. Concurrently, the consultation also provides a mechanism through which Kumaratunga can participate in the peace process and make genuine contributions to it. Although she is president, and constitutionally the head of state and government, she is only one of 32 in the cabinet, as she herself has admitted, and the consultation provides an avenue for the exercise of power.