‘So Close’ but ‘How Far’ ?

A. Serasingha

Mother Lanka is now at a very crucial juncture, ever faced since gaining independence in 1948. Today the Government forces are in the brink of clearing up the last held LTTE area.

When ordinary Tamil civilians escaping in hundreds and thousands from the uncleared areas and coming towards the government military dominated areas, one could not only visualise the horrendous misery these innocent civilians have gone through but also the anxiety, trust and hope that they now have to be ‘in a safer land’.

The balance area to be liberated from the LTTE as at now is even less than 45 sq. kilometers. So, for the ordinary citizens of our country it is ‘So close’. ‘So close’ in terms of liberating the areas from the clutches of the LTTE, for which we do have to salute the brave Armed Forces. But the burning question ‘How Far’ are we ‘in terms of number of days’ where these helpless citizens can proudly say ‘ We are now enjoying a descent livelihood and We are proud to be Sri Lankans’?

There is a long list how arguments and counter arguments blaming one another from pre-Independence era to post Independence era, to language policy to and administrative mismanagement of respective governments. The end result of these incorrect decisions has given opportunities for outside elements in capitalising on this issue and interfering into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka for gaining their own mileage at the tremendous expense of the helpless civilians, mainly Tamil civilians living in the North and East of our country.

The culprits who used our innocent civilians as their scapegoats can be politicians from south Indian and some countries in Europe as well as those so-called reputed humanitarian organisation and other NGOs.

We do not know whether the senior politicians and Government officials of the developed countries have actually monitored the involvement of these elements that have done much damage through not only financing for destruction but also fabricating stories to mislead the world purely for their own benefit.

Actions of those so-called bogus sympathisers are a main cause for bringing the country almost to a state of civil war and cause of prolonged misery for the innocent Tamils.

In order to achieve this task it is important that the Government now be ready for the next stage of drawing up a large scale master plan covering the requirements of infrastructure development. The time has come for the leaders of the developed countries who were misled over several decades to now come forward and directly assist in such mass scale development projects of the North and East.

The Mahaweli hydroelectric/irrigation scheme, which was estimated to be carried out in 30 years was completed in five years with direct participation of the governments such as United Kingdom. Canada, Japan, Germany. When the government is ready with their infrastructure master plan they can invite the respective developed countries to undertake in fulfilling such construction projects with their direct participation which can immensely assist the magnanimous task of re-building as an urgent priority.

It is well-proved to the entire world that there is no hatred between the two main ethnic groups living in this beautiful island not only by example such as how fellow citizens remained calm even when mass scale destruction to life and property through terrorist activities was carried out by the LTTE time to time in various parts of the country but also by the way the Security Forces really cared for the innocent displaced civilians as their own family members.