Moral strength to war hero
families
According to a news item
in our inside pages yesterday Defence Secretary Gotabhaya
Rajapaksa had met families of soldiers who made the supreme
sacrifice on behalf of the motherland at the Saliyapura Army
camp and inquired after their welfare. During the meeting the
Defence Secretary is also reported to have personally intervened
and discussed the problems of the members of these families and
promised redress.
This is a most laudable gesture by the chief authority
prosecuting the war to take time off from his busy schedule to
be with families of our war heroes and give a personal ear to
their grievances. Hitherto the family members of our departed
war heroes came under the public glare only during commemorative
ceremonies or Poppy Day solemnities where fallen soldiers are
remembered.
The Defence Secretary said the names of these war heroes who
sacrificed their lives for the motherland would always be
remembered and treasured by a grateful nation. This statement by
the Defence Secretary should be harkened to by all patriotic
citizens of the country since amidst the present euphoria of war
victories there is a tendency to forget the role of those who
laid their lives on the battlefront since the inception of the
conflict.
Rightly so the focus today is on the victory march and
empathy with those who lay down their lives in the final thrust.
This however should not blind us to the collective sacrifices
made by all soldiers who laid down their lives in the three
decades long war.
This empathy shown by the Defence Secretary towards all
soldier families with their loss should open the eyes of all
patriotic citizens to make common cause with their plight. We
say this because while the soldier on the battlefield is deified
and rightly so the plight of the families of those who made the
supreme sacrifices tends to get obliterated.
True, there are various schemes and projects to help orphaned
soldier families such as housing and education facilities. But
this alone is not sufficient to salve our collective conscience.
There should be moves to establish rapport with these persons at
a personal level by the community at large on a permanent basis
so that they would receive the moral strength to rebuild their
lives and bear their loss with equanimity.
Steps should also be taken to monitor the living conditions
and progress of these families on a continuous basis. For some
the trauma of their loss may be too big to endure which may
place them in a state of drift. It is not just the families of
dead soldiers, the Government will also have to deal with all
victims from the fall out of the war in the near future when the
fighting is brought to an end.
This no doubt will be a Herculean task given the magnitude of
the devastation. It is not just the physical wounds but the
psychological scars too that would have to be healed as a matter
of urgency lest we have to grapple with another problem stemming
from post war trauma and stress factor of three decades of
bloodshed.
In this respect the steps already taken by the Government in
the East to rebuild the lives of the civilian population is an
ideal beginning. The training given to youth to find overseas
employment and to fit into a vocation and society in general is
a move in the right direction. A similar scheme should be
replicated in the South to help the offspring of soldiers who
laid their lives in battle so that they too could fit into and
accepted in society.
As already mentioned, our society at large too should
contribute their mite to help these segments of our brethren but
for whose sacrifice we would not be enjoying our present
freedom. But for the supreme sacrifice made by the fathers,
brothers or sons of these families we would not have had a
country left to call our own. Alas, this realisation has escaped
a majority of our people who go about their lives impervious to
the sacrifices of our valiant men.
It is in this context that one needs to censure the conduct
certain segments of our society who behave and conduct
themselves as if they care a tuppence of what goes on in the
theatre of war.
The vulgar display of ostentation and the rich carefree
lifestyles indulged in by some in callous disregard of the lives
lost on the battle front is obscene to say the least. Even some
TV programmes at the height of the ongoing battles betrayed this
lack of sensitivity with the latest Super Star culture getting
pride of place.
We certainly are not killjoys and life should go on as usual.
In fact to do otherwise would give a victory of sorts to the
terrorists.
But one should also exercise circumspection and try to scale
down all entertainment and indulgences at a time a section of
our brethren are spilling blood to salvage the sovereignty of
the country.
The least these sections could do now is to contribute
generously towards the families of our fallen soldiers and
redeem their debt. |