Strengthening North-South links

A front page report in our weekend paper the Sunday Observer yesterday reported on a meeting between the Mayors of Matara and Jaffna in Jaffna. As the reporter cryptically made out, it was a meeting between the Southern tip of the island and the Northern tip after several years. It was rarely, if ever, that a politician ventured out to the North during the past three decades. That a grassroot politician such as a mayor making the trip alone mirrors the sea change in the Northern landscape with the defeat of terrorism.

It certainly is a symbolic event that heralds the coming together of the two communities at grassroot level after decades of estrangement. To have had a politician from the South visit a Mayor of Jaffna and to have expected the latter to physically survive after such a visit would have been a miracle of sorts not very long ago. But this threat factor is now no more thanks to the action taken by the Government to rid the cancer of terrorism - the genie that was hovering over the politicians of the North who stepped out of line. The fate of one time Jaffna Mayoress Sarojini Yogeswaran was a case in point.

The report also said Mayor of Matara Upul Nishantha was given a rousing welcome by the people of Jaffna who accorded him a special reception. Jaffna Mayor Yogeswari Patkunaraja told her guest that the people of Jaffna were looking forward to establish good relations with the South and looked forward to more North-South interaction.

Such visits at grassroots level should be encouraged by the authorities more and more, not only by ground level politicians but also artistes and sportsmen who are bound to evoke tumultuous response. There should be frequent visits of delegations from the South to the North and vice versa. No lull should be there in the fence mending exercise for that would prolong the bitterness.

This kind of meetings no doubt would help promote better understanding while also help reach out to each other in a more informal setting. Reconciliation should ideally commence from the grassroots. Such visits would certainly help erase mutual suspicion and augurs well for the reconciliation process.

They would also help erase all physical boundaries, with the country as a whole treated as a single political entity. The grand reception accorded to the mayor from the South by the people of Jaffna should ideally be reciprocated in the South by with a similar response. This would lend the seal to the unifying process heralding a new beginning between the two communities based on mutual trust and fraternity. The response to the visit also demonstrated the change in attitude of the Northern polity in the post-war era.

It is a far cry from the days when politicians from the South were more often than not greeted with black flags. Hopefully this meeting will be the beginning of a fresh dialogue between the North and South which were unfortunately severed due to the events of the past few decades. Now that the war is over, there should be more and more visits by people’s representatives from both sides.

This, while acting as catalyst for reconciliation would also help pull down the barriers that stood in the way of unity all these years. Such fraternity is also bound to act as a healing touch to the deep wounds hitherto nursed by the two communities and help foster new bonds.

Time was when people of the South made frequent journeys to the North and were treated with hospitality by their brethren in the North. There were even businesses run by Sinhalese in Jaffna - the well-known being their bakeries which were much sought after for their products among the Jaffna populous. There were also screening of Sinhala films and even the staging of musical shows featuring well-known artistes from the South.

Alas, all these came to an end due to the deeds of one Velupillai Prabhakaran. As a result, the new generation in the North are unfamiliar with these past links with the South and relationships. Therefore no time should be lost in restoring the status quo and recreating those halcyon days when the two communities fraternized in brotherhood. The visits should be followed by concrete action to rebuild the political and social structures that facilitated this unity in the past.