Blind strategy: Missing basics in the quest for peace

Except a few up in the ranks of the LTTE I believe most wants peace in our country. But I believe there are some fundamental elements missing in the government’s plan to achieve peace. One, Sri Lanka may be 60% Buddhist but no democracy is going to succeed if a certain sector of people, for cultural or historic reason, are going to expect to be superior to others. Every citizen has to be unequivocally 'equal'. Successive governments have only iterated this fact but none has been brave enough to implement such a simple but mandatory necessity due electoral reasons. Two: the separation of the church and state – well temple and state - along with complete religious freedom. Similar to the first point, no one religion can be the focus of government’s attention nor can you restrict ones right to follow a certain faith. And lastly, self determinations. Before one panics, this doesn’t suggest a separate parliaments and a foreign policy for every region of the country divided along the racial lines but rather the ability for people to appoint their own leaders and implement policies that are effectively the choice of the majority of the people who live those regions. Until the government ensures these basic principals, there will not be peace in the country, no matter how many bombs are dropped or how many Tigers are killed.