State must continue its caring role

Whatever differences the State may be having with the LTTE, the Tamil community remains the Government's responsibility. This is because the Tamil civilian public is an important part of our citizenry and by virtue of this identity is the State's responsibility. The LTTE is an enemy of the State but not the Tamil people.

Accordingly, the State would be going even more than the extra mile to care and fend for the Tamil community in its hours of distress. As is known, the biggest victim of the LTTE-inspired violence in the North is the Tamil community. A large number of Tamil civilians have been displaced as a result of this violence but the State is taking no chances but doing everything within its power to bring relief to them.

As disclosed in our lead story yesterday, the Government has despatched essential food items and other requirements to the displaced of the North.

The relief would be distributed among the needy by State institutions and State personnel, such as GAs and Divisional Secretariats. These caring moves by the Government establish afresh that the State would be standing by the Tamil community, come what may.

While commending the Government on these measures, we call on it to continue to succour the Tamil community who are part and parcel of the national polity. It comes as a relief that State assistance is also going out to the displaced and the needy in the districts of Trincomalee, Anuradhapura, and Batticaloa. It is measures such as these that clearly underscore the geographical unity of Sri Lanka, besides pointing to communal equality.

It is just as well that the Government is exerting itself in these directions because the needs of the totality of Lanka's people are the State's concern. It is the failure of the State in the past to meet these needs on an equal basis which led to disaffection and disgruntlement in the first place. Needless to say, this process has to be reversed and every Lankan considered part of the larger Lankan family, regardless of ethnicity, religion and language.

We are glad that the State is underwriting this vital distinction between the LTTE and the Tamil people. The LTTE is an enemy of the State and the people and should be treated as such. But not so the Tamil people, the majority of whom live in Southern Sri Lanka among their Sinhala, Muslim, Malay and Burgher countrymen, in happy accord.

The majority of Tamil people opt for peaceful co-existence among other communities and live-up to the ideals expected of a democratic citizenry. Thus they earn for themselves the care and attention of the Government.

Even in the case of the LTTE, it must be noted that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has always left open the possibility of a negotiated solution being found to the conflict. It is up to the LTTE to explore this option rather than continuously exercise the terror weapon.

To the extent to which the LTTE persists on the path of terror, the State is obliged to defend itself and the people from the resultant dehumanising violence. We are seeing this process unfolding in the North at present.

Apart from this obligation to protect the people from LTTE terror, the State is duty-bound to care for all the communities of the land. This great undertaking is being commendably carried out by the State.

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