It is said that a blind man can be guided to get to his destination but a floundering person, a person who can see but will not, cannot be guided to the same given point because he does not want to get there. It is no secret that everyone knows what has to be done to get the country back into the charmed diplomatic loop that will give us back our credibility and acceptability in the international arena to transform the country once again as a respected sovereign state.

Well entrenched dictators with seemingly endless life spans have suddenly been shaken to the roots of their thirty/ forty years of authoritarian rule. Many of them have planned dynastic longevity by grooming their offspring to succeed them. Secure with a loyal, well equipped military no threat was envisaged.

The Presidential and Parliamentary elections have been held to give legitimacy to the post war government of President Rajapakse. Legitimacy to govern connotes the need to uphold democratic ideals and make democratic principles the foundation on which the collective and the individual functions in the State.

They, the people felt the pain – the pain of losing to the war their sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews, children of their friends and children of their neighbours. Whole communities lived in pain or on the edge of pain for thirty long years, ‘etherised’ upon the canvas of life stretching into the depth of years, unraveling without the reckoning of events in time.

The lost prize for victory over terrorism is yet another example of how Sri Lankans turn, ever so often, success into near nonevent. Challenge to the State through terrorist activity has become the virus that erodes the foundation of many societies in modern political history. Much of the time, energy and money of the political leadership and their civil society are expended in the efforts to eliminate terrorism.