Developing the North
The appointment of a Task Force
Committee to oversee the development of the North hot on the
heels of the Eastern Reawaking programme is a commendable move
and is a clear indication that the Government is bent on
continuing with the emancipation of population that had
undergone huge privations and misery during the long drawn out
conflict.
It also means that the Government means business and is also
going all out to militarily defeat the LTTE whilst devolving
power through the political mechanism worked out through the
APRC process.
The move also opens a new chapter in the lives of the people
of the North who had borne the brunt of the three decades long
war and a clear indication that the Government will reassert its
writ in that part of the country which had been cut off from the
national mainstream due to the conflict.
Cabinet approval had been received for setting up this Task
Force headed by Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda and is
a prelude to the establishment of the Northern Provincial
Council.
According to our weekend paper the Sunday Observer the
Committee had lost no time in formulating a work programme to be
implemented in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Kilinochchi and
Mullaitivu.
It is hoped that the Northern development programme would be
undertaken with the same vigour with which the East is currently
being developed following the eviction of the LTTE from the
province. What has to be borne in mind is that the dynamics of
the North are different to the East with different demands and
aspirations of the people for their social and economic
development.
One cannot get away from the inference that the Government
had set its sights on developing the North on the premise that
the LTTE will be completely vanquished in the near future and
the people liberated as in the East.
Also unlike in the East the Government may have to start from
scratch in the North which has been reduced to a virtual
wasteland with the ravages of war taking a heavy toll.
Recreating the infrastructure would present a monumental
challenge and the Task force should also set its sights on
building up the broken livelihoods of the people who had been
cast off their moorings by a brutal war inflicted on them by the
LTTE.
Attention would have to be paid on how to get economic
activity in this once thriving landscape started and priorities
identified that would bring immediate relief to the people.
There is no doubt the devastation is vast in the North compared
to the East and the rebuilding process would present a gigantic
challenge.
Focus should be drawn towards the reconstruction of homes,
schools and places of religious worship damaged during the long
years of the conflict which would no doubt be a monumental
undertaking. Attention should also be paid towards protecting
the sensitivities of the people of the North who are by nature
tradition bound in all undertakings.
There is a lot of thinking to do before a final blueprint is
drawn up. Factored into the envisaged programmes should be the
industry drive and enterprises associated with the people of the
North so that optimum results could be attained.
Above all, while resurrecting a once thriving economy
connecting it with the mainstream of national development,
measures should also be taken to erase the scars of war from the
minds of these people.
The rebuilding process should also take into account the vast
damage inflicted on the education sector in the North
particularly in the context of forcible recruitment of youth by
the LTTE.
More than anything what is of paramount importance is
cleansing the Jaffna population of the hatred and animosity and
suspicion with which they had been looking at the their brethren
in the South over long decades so that they would be integrated
with the rest of their countrymen in amity and brotherhood
shedding aside the cloak of enmity that had clung onto them all
these years.
The process no doubt would be gargantuan one and it would
mind boggling even to contemplate the cost of this exercise. No
doubt international donors will come to our assistance to help
the Government accomplish this colossal task.
Now that a political process had been activated through the
APRC it is hoped that the international community would
favourably view this programme launched by the Government to
develop the North to bring these people on par with the rest of
country offering them equal treatment and justice. |