Selling our souls for a mess of pottage

During the past six months, our country has been through three major elections.

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The winner in all three formats of the electoral process has been the National People’s Power (NPP) in collaboration with its stronger partner, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Whether it be in the north—formerly the stronghold of regional Tamil parties, in the upcountry—home to the Estate Tamil Community, or in Colombo—the stronghold of the United National Party (UNP), the NPP/JVP combine won numbers of seats.

This new combination of mostly inexperienced politicians in the party political field is today faced with a myriad of problems, including managing our foreign relationships.

Since independence, our leaders, whether they be Sinhala or Tamil, have been in a constant state of confusion regarding our relations with our nearest and largest neighbour—India. For instance, D.S. Senanayake, the first Prime Minister of then Ceylon, went on to secure a defence pact to ensure continued British involvement in areas like defence and external relations, even after our country received independence.