It is simplistic to conclude that Mrs Kumaratunga's constitutional coup suspending parliament, sacking key ministers and announcing a state of emergency was only an attempt to upstage Mr Wickremesinghe by scuttling the peace process. Western analyses suggesting that she was piqued by American applause for Mr Wickremesinghe - who was in Washington for his second meeting in two years with President George W. Bush - diminish Asian realities and set a fanciful value on US patronage.

Sri Lanka's constitution gives the president more power than the prime minister. The courts recently upheld Mrs Kumaratunga's authority over the security forces. Rightly or wrongly, she suspects Mr Wickremesinghe has given more than the Tamil Tigers. In particular, she fears the latter's proposal for an interim self-governing authority in the Tamil-inhabited northeast (which it controls in any case) as the thin end of the wedge of secession.

Mrs Kumaratunga carries the burden of tragic history. Her father, the late prime minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, pandered to ultra-nationalistic Sinhalese and fuelled conflict by bestowing official status on Buddhism and the Sinhalese language. But he did not go far enough for the Buddhist monks who murdered him. The president's husband was also murdered, but by the Tigers who feared the appeal his liberalism might have for middle-of-the-road Tamils fed up with warring.

Over the years, the Tigers have avenged themselves for historical neglect and discrimination by ruthlessly eliminating anyone who challenged their demand of a sovereign homeland. Between Tamil militants and UNP hardliners, they killed Mrs Kumaratunga's 1995 plan, although the 27 moderate Tamil members of parliament welcomed it.

In the 1950s, Sri Lanka - Ceylon - boasted Asia's highest living standards. When he was reshaping Singapore in the 1960s, Lee Kuan Yew wished he had the benefit of Colombo's substantial sterling reserves. In the 1990s, the daily cost of the civil war was estimated at an awesome US$77.5 million. The death toll stands at 64,000. The war has ruined a once thriving economy and devastated large parts of the island.

It has also forged unholy links between the Tigers and forces like the Palestine Liberation Organisation which trains and arms them. Trafficking in narcotics, guns and illegal immigrants is said to finance the rebellion. A political settlement may remove these abuses. But there cannot be one if the president and prime minister are at loggerheads. Fresh elections under the present system will only perpetuate the impasse for the French-style cohabitation arrangement between two adversarial parties, which is not workable in Sri Lanka.

The answer lies in elections under a reformed constitution that redeems Mrs Kumaratunga's 1994 election pledge to restore the Westminster-style parliamentary system that was abolished in 1978. She cannot any longer plead the need to find a job for her aged mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first woman prime minister, whom she reappointed. Bandaranaike is dead and the Tigers are agreeable to negotiations. It can negotiate only with a responsible government that is unambiguously in control. True, elections might replace Mrs Kumaratunga with a UNP candidate, but Sri Lankans would regard that as the price of the peace they deserve and yearn for.

Meanwhile, the government and the Tigers must control their guns.

Sunanda Kisor Datta-Ray is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. The views expressed in this article are those of the author