Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe
Prime Minister
Temple Trees
Colombo 3.

Dear Prime Minister,

I have noted with interest your opening statement to the Tokyo aid conference. It contains certain statements which have the potential to mislead our country's friends abroad. They need to be corrected.

However, I welcome your statement that "a Muslim delegation should participate in the peace talks to articulate the concerns of the Muslims." The absence of a Muslim delegation is a weakness in the current peace process which should be rectified. This is especially necessary in the context of the LTTE's threats, harassments and attacks on the Muslim community in the Eastern Province since the ceasefire became operational. Nine attacks were carried out on Muslim villages by the LTTE during your peace process, which the UNF was unable to contain.

The President suggested to you in writing that if you did not wish to have her nominee on the negotiating team, nominees of Sinhala and Muslim political parties representing the Northern and Eastern Provinces should be nominated to the Committee of Reconstruction and one nominee each of the head of state should be appointed to the two committees on demilitarisation and political reforms. You did not even brother to reply these letters nor discuss it with the President.

I am also surprised at your statement that you seek to consult with the President as widely as possible. The reality is that there has been no prior consultation whatsoever with the President with regard to the peace process. There have only been a few briefings on events which have already been publicised in the press.

When Her Excellency the President suggested a presidential nominee on the negotiation team and a joint steering committee for the peace process comprising the President, Prime Minister and two nominees each, you did not implement either suggestion. It is therefore highly misleading for you to state that you seek to consult with the President as widely as possible.

You claim a mandate to "recapture lost opportunities". It is necessary at the outset to lay on record that your mandate was received after destabilising and toppling, largely through dubious means, the previous government. Which was duly elected and lawfully constituted barely a year prior to that. In any event your parry has a majority of only two seats in parliament and is kept in office by the votes of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). This is hardly the kind of mandate that allows you to recapture lost opportunities. Whatever they may be.

You also claim that a challenge you face is to rebuild an economy which was on its knees. Even after providing for poetic liberty and license, such a statement is blatantly false as evidenced by the World Bank report on Sri Lanka in 2000 which states: "Despite the acceleration of the civil conflict in the 1990s economic growth has been healthy due to good macro economic management and progress in trade liberalisation, privatisation and financial sector reform. Sri Lanka is today South Asia's most open economy and has a relatively well developed capital market infrastructure. Its per capita income of (US$ 820) remains the highest in the region after Maldives. Unemployment and inflation have fallen to historical lows, the external current affairs account has been strengthened, exports have diversified and expanded and foreign direct investment has risen" (World Bank Country Report - Sri Lanka, May 2000, Executive Summary page I). The most open economy in South Asia with a per capita income of US$ 820 in 2000 is hardly on its knees.

I also note that you have dealt with the issue of elections becoming increasingly violent and discordant. It is a pity that you have done nothing to change that state of affairs. I am constrained to point out that the government has failed to investigate, arrest or file charges against a single suspect regarding the approximately 50 opposition activists murdered during the last election and the more than 3000 opposition activists who were victims of post election violence after your party won the last parliamentary elections. Moreover the vicious post election violence subsequent to your election in December 2001, continued unabated as part of the pre election violence in the lead up to the local government elections of 2002 and was seemingly a strategic plan of your political party to destroy the democratic political opposition.

It is indeed appropriate that you state "political promises always outweigh the ability to deliver." I note that according to the correspondence between you and the LTTE, the promise of an interim administration exclusively to the LTTE and outside the parameters of the laws of the land, seems to have been the key election promise on which you are now unable to deliver.

I also find it quite ludicrous that you state "good professional people have been thrown out of jobs to make way for political appointees. Not so with this government." The government has made some of the most appalling appointments including to bring back people who had to flee the country when your previous government was defeated and appoint such persons of dubious integrity and questionable ability to responsible positions. Unprincipled and disgraceful appointments in the Ministry of Plan Implementation held by you and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for instance have been made.

You also go on to state that the opposition should be responsible and oppose the government on matters of principle and policy. I would suggest that it is the duty of the government of the day to the public through the media.

I am also surprised that you claim that any instability of the current government is detrimental to the peace process. If there is any such instability it is because your conduct of the peace process is seriously flawed. In any event, the search for a negotiated solution to the ethnic problem must continue whether the government of the day is unstable or not.

Finally, your appeal to "politicians to put aside their differences on this one matter and to support the government in finding a way forward to a lasting peace" would have some credibility if you had practiced what you now advocate by supporting devolution of power and the granting of minority rights through the constitution of August 2000. It is widely known that when in opposition your party did its utmost to sabotage the efforts made by the PA government to seek a negotiated settlement of the ethnic problem.

Your sincerely

Mahinda Rajapaksa M.P.
Leader of the Opposition