Readers of this issue of the Sunday Island, we are sure, will welcome the return to our columns after a long absence of Foxwatch who over many years was strongly critical about pussyfooting on the LTTE issue and forthrightly advocated the military option that was followed after Prabhakaran closed the Mavil Aru sluice. He made that point long before the decisive moment offering many invaluable insights on the mistakes that had been made and continued to be made over the years. His views on the conclusion of the war and the elimination of the LTTE leadership, as well as his words of caution on possible missteps in the future, deserve careful study not only by the defence establishment but also by a wider readership.

Democracy demands that many voices are heard and opinions expressed on matters of national import. This newspaper has in the past done its best to accommodate as many viewpoints as possible and this issue is no exception. As Tisaranee Gunasekera, another of our insightful and widely appreciated commentators, has said in her fortnightly column today, President Premadasa’s approach to the JVP rank and file whose leadership too, like that of the LTTE, was eliminated by the State in 1989, needs study – she advocates emulation – for coping with the post-war situation in the predominantly Tamil areas. Nobody in authority should adopt a `know-all’ attitude but tap the best brains and resources available to the country to win a durable peace now that the war has been won. The approach must be necessarily national and not populist or political in the sense of garnering electoral advantages.

Foxwatch has warned that ``the other big battle’’ with those countries abroad who tried to throw the LTTE a lifeline as the bloody end of the war approached is not over. Economic and diplomatic screws are being turned. A lot of work remains to be done and it is essential that the best skills that can be mustered are deployed to stand up to the coming storm. An obvious Achilles heel on this score is the penchant of the current administration, like its predecessors, to regard postings to our missions abroad as a pork barrel for the dispensation of patronage, often to people without the skills the jobs require. Hopefully, those in authority will stand up to the demands of their friends, relatives and supporters and undo the damage already done. We have seen how well we did where we had the right people and we must profit from this experience. A news item in our columns today reports an example where Ambassador Palihakkara at the UN in New York had earned a warm plaudit from an online newspaper reporting on the United Nations. People like him are experienced diplomats who do their work silently and effectively and the country is fortunate to have at least some such ability on tap.

One of the major problems that have for too long confronted Sri Lanka is the lack of the necessary administrative and technical talent to handle major projects and challenges facing the country. Successive governments have weakened the fabric of the public service by liberal dispensation of political patronage. There is a school of thought that the rot began with the 1972 constitution where the ruling political establishment made radical changes to existing structures undermining institutions like the Public Service Commission that had long served the country well. The situation is worse than bad today with a bloated public service not giving the taxpayer his money’s worth. It has been aggravated by the brain drain caused both by the desire for a better life abroad as well as country conditions here. The phenomenal growth of public expenditure over the post-1977 years brought with it burgeoning corruption tainting both politicians as well as bureaucrats. The private sector which paid the bribes was, of course, the wellspring of that sorry development.

Rehabilitating the war-torn areas of the north and east, particularly the Vanni, is a gigantic task with the government committing itself to a six month timeframe for re-settling the displaced. President Mahinda Rajapaksa best knows that given the existing constraints, both resource and human, this is a tall order. So was militarily finishing off the LTTE which, to borrow Foxwatch’s description, was accomplished by a ``dream team of political and military leaders.’’ Perhaps the challenge presented by the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 was less daunting than what is faced today. We then had the support of governments and people worldwide, whereas today a section of the so-called international community has ganged up against us and the overseas Tamils, or the diaspora as they are commonly described, are determined to use their muscle to teach Sri Lanka a lesson. They will do well to reflect on the brutality of Prabhakaran to the people whose sole representative he claimed to be, finally using them as a human shield against the advancing military. They must understand that spanners thrown into the works of the rehabilitation and resettlement effort, or for that matter even depriving Sri Lanka of GSP+, will most hurt the IDPs.