Unity through caring and sharing

The State's caring eye continues to be on the North-East citizenry and this is something all right-thinking persons could rejoice in. Now we learn that in addition to all essential food commodities and consumer requirements, fuel too is being continuously supplied to the North.

This is a striking gesture by the State which establishes the united undivided nature of the Sri Lankan polity. In the eyes of the State, all Lankans are one.

If the LTTE's efforts at building a support base in the North-East are to be defeated, such sustained care by the State for all its citizens should continue. In the past, the enemies of the State attempted to make out that the North-East citizenry were being virtually starved by the central authorities.

The accusation was widely circulated that this section of our populace was being subjected to the gravest hardships. Such wild allegations tended to strengthen the claim in some quarters that discrimination was very much a reality.

However, the reverse situation prevailed in the North-East even at the most intense moments of the conflict. The State never failed to keep the North-East supplied of its essentials. No citizen of the North or East ever starved or suffered acute deprivations of any kind.

The governmental machinery was always ticking in those conflict-hit regions and the people's basic needs were fulfilled. We are glad that this process is not only being continued by the State but accelerated as well.

What is left to be done by the State is to ensure that fuel and other essentials are distributed efficiently among the conflict-affected populace. Every effort must be made by the State to take these essentials to the persons and groups that need them most and that too in double quick time. It is particularly important that hoarding and black marketeering are eliminated, if they do exist.

The cordiality that the State has thus built-up among the people of the North-East should be consolidated with a view to furthering the peace effort. At bottom, the peace endeavour is all about winning hearts and minds.

There is no better way to do this than for the State to prove that it truly cares for the communities of this land wherever they may reside. The efficient distribution of essential food items and fuel is thus a key to winning the hearts and minds of our far-flung countrymen in the North-East.

However, caring and sharing should not stop with the provision of basic needs and requirements. The emotional and spiritual needs of our communities should also be catered to if progress is to be made in winning everyone over to the side of a united Sri Lanka.

Basically, what is meant is that all sections of our citizenry should be made to feel at home in our country. Much depends on how effectively this undertaking is handled by our Security Forces and Police. An advertising campaign is currently underway in the State media, projecting our Armed Forces as being part and parcel of our people, wherever they may reside.

This is a most effective campaign and we hope the message in these advertisements will be dwelt on and learnt by all members of our law enforcement agencies. They all need to be one with the people of the North-East and when this almost sacred mission is accomplished we would have a nation whose unity is rock-hard.

In simple terms, the members of our Armed Forces and Police should be so caring and concerned about the people of the North-East that they should come to be considered as brothers and sisters by the North-East citizenry.

State officials too need to exude this spirit in the conflict-hit areas. As in the case of the Security Forces, they too should engage in an energetic battle for hearts and minds in the North-East. Thus will brotherhood be built in Sri Lanka.

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