Renaissance of the North

The educational Exhibition “Future Minds of Jaffna” to be held in Jaffna at the end of this month it is hoped will be the beginning of similar such programmes to realise the full potential of the Northern youth who had been languishing in the dark all these years while the world moved on in giant leaps.

That these unfortunate youth were cut off from mainstream activity for decades was due to no fault of theirs has been realised by the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa which is making every endeavour to redress their plight.

Already several projects and programmes have been earmarked to integrate the Youth of the North into the national mainstream.

This process in already taking place in earnest in the East where recently several schemes were started to train its youth to be equipped for overseas employment. Such initiatives existed only in the realms of fantasy in the past when death stalked their every movement.

According to an inside page report in our Weekend paper the Sunday Observer the exhibition, on the initiative of the Jaffna Commander Major General G.A. Chandrasiri, will provide opportunities for schoolchildren, school leavers and unemployed youth to learn the latest technological developments and avenues for job opportunities.

In addition new technology for farming industries will be the highlight of this exhibition together with new trends in information technology and in the field of telecommunication.

Such initiatives by the Government is indeed laudable and will be seen as a positive step in the renaissance of the North and its integration with the mainstream activity as well as its entry into national polity.

It will certainly provide these youth with means to make up for the missed opportunities which the climate that prevailed all these years denied them as well as a means to once again make use of the talents and skills of the Jaffna citizens of which the country was well served in the past.

We nostalgically recall the times when the country’s administrative service as well as the professions were enriched by the talents of the natives of Jaffna who were also well known for their enterprise and drive.

Even some of the best mathematicians, accountants and members of the medical profession hailed from the North contributing their mite to the country’s forward march. Then there was no rancour or bitterness and all served as one cohesive unit under one mother Lanka. The time has come to reinvent the wheel.

It is only to be expected that these youth with their traditional enterprise and verve would be more than equal to their task and blossom out as worthy successors to their brilliant forefathers who made their mark in multifarious fields in the country’s professional and academic landscape.

The country could well do with their contribution at this moment of time when the Government has launched on multifaceted development projects in the East and poised to do so in the North with the imminent liberation of the entire North from the clutches of LTTE terrorism.

This in turn would ensure the speedy development of the North and its gradual integration into the national veal. This would indeed be a huge boost to the national economy which was deprived of the fruits of both the human as well as economic resources of the North for well over four decades.

The Government should also move to take other measures that would facilitate in allaying suspicion and bitterness between the two major communities implanted in them by outside forces. Such bridge building measures should include more and more interactive programmes such as sports and cultural exchanges. The recent welcome accorded to a cricket team from the North in Colombo is a good example.

It is gratifying to note that several such measures are already in operation such as the “Friendship Train” that took off on a journey to the North recently. Such gestures are only bound to help in the healing process and a gradual integration across the divide.

This fence mending exercise should be undertaken in earnest now that the people of the North are responding positively to the good-will shown by their southern brethren. The recent demonstration by Jaffna youth following the Army’s capture of Pooneryn was a demonstration of this trend.

The Government should build on this goodwill to break the barriers of rancour and bitterness that divided us as a nation and left it bleeding by a wasteful and fratricidal war.