A welcome move

According a news report we carried on Saturday recruitment of Tamil youths to the military services and Police is significantly on the rise. The report further states that these youth were absorbed in to the defence services after a period of 30 years. A group of 356 Police personnel including 20 women from the North were among the latest batch of recruits to the Police service. What is more these recruits speak all three languages.

It is indeed a pity that Northern youth were shut off from the regular services for three decades due to security concerns as a result of LTTE terrorism. In fact Tamils in the North feared joining the Government services due to reprisals from the Tiger terrorists and were consigned to a life of misery.

This is why the new development should be welcomed and appreciated all the more. Tamils of the North have now being given the opportunity to join mainstream life without fear or hindrance. No doubt they would seize upon these opportunities to prove their true worth and give a good account of themselves in characteristic fashion in the various fields that are now opened to them.

This is certainly a good catalyst for national reconciliation since this inclusivity would give the Tamil community a sense of belonging and a feeling of not being excluded from the mainstream activity in the national sphere which in turn would serve to dispel all suspicion and misgivings of the past and help engender national pride.

As already mentioned during the thick of the Eelam war, youth from the North were not recruited to the services for obvious reasons. In fact even Tamils living in the South were considered a security threat in work places sometimes unreasonably so. This naturally bred resentment and bitterness among the minority Tamils who felt excluded from the natural scheme of things.

Now this recruitment to the forces and Police service which was strictly a taboo area for Tamils in the not too distant past is bound to instill confidence and lift the morale of Tamil youth who felt spurned and unwanted in the past. Besides easing tensions this in turn will go a long way in the healing of wounds and signal the beginning of a fresh bonding based on trust and understanding between the communities.

This would also redefine relations between the Sinhala and Tamil communities which needless to say were sharply polarised on ethnic lines in the past. The 30 year war only served to heighten and exacerbate this rift.

With the President’s injunction at the victory day speech that there are no more communities differentiated by their ethnicity but only a single community knit by the bond of patriotism would no doubt have served to drive home the point that the era when Lankans who viewed their fellow men with tinted glasses of racism was a thing of the past. This recruitment scheme of Tamils to the regular services without doubt will greatly help in fostering such feelings among the minority communities.

On the subject of mixed recruitment to the services it would be recalled that we had some of the best men among the Tamil and Muslim community who adorned their ranks with distinction and honour. This was mainly seen in the Police service where the department boasted top officers a good number of whom went on to become IGPs.

This was obviously a time when ethnic considerations did not count for recruitment or elevation in ranks. It is also pertinent to recall here of the many Tamil Police officers who sacrificed their lives during the war when they dared to confront the enemy that was a national threat without considering any blood ties. Some of these Police officers were hunted down and put to cruel deaths. The case of Inspector Bastianpillai readily comes to mind.

It is therefore appropriate to recognize their sacrifices in some way by commemorating their bravery and even offering some form of financial benefit to surviving family members. A special monument to commemorate all Tamil Police officers who paid the supreme sacrifice for the Motherland would not be out of place at a time when all measures are being taken to bury the past and build new bridges to facilitate ethnic harmony.

One hopes that the new recruitment scheme of Tamils to the services would extend to all other fields now that the security threat is no more. This way we could ease their fears and suspicions and banish the rancour and bitterness of the past by demonstrating our genuine intentions towards our Tamil brethren that would prove an ideal recipe for national reconciliation.