Good bye, Menik Farm

The well meaning among us are bound to welcome the news that settlements for the Displaced in the North are finally being wound-up, following the conclusion of the state-run resettlement process. Over the past two to three years, Menik Farm in Vavuniya has epitomized the heart-rending condition of our citizens who were displaced by the conflict necessitated by the LTTE's recalcitrance and vainglorious persistence in pushing its demands. Menik Farm, then, is a metaphor for the suffering of a section of our people for no fault of theirs.

However, Menik Farm also stands for the state's positive and beneficial intervention in the suffering and torment of the Northern people. While Sri Lanka's critics, here and abroad, have been coming down hard on the Lankan state over a string of baseless allegations, here at Menik Farm is the proof that the state is ready to go to the assistance of its people, wherever they may be, and to succour them to the best of its ability. Thus, Menik Farm and associated institutional mechanisms become a symbol of the continuance of the welfare state system in this country.

Now, however, the news is that Menik and other Farms of its kind are being closed down since they have served their purpose and are wanted no more. The dismantling of these settlements and the resettling of the once-Displaced is the positive proof that, generally, the phenomenon of Displacement stemming from the last stages of the humanitarian operation in the North, is now becoming a thing of the past. In a way, this is the culminating point of the humanitarian operation because the once-homeless are being given homes and ensured a full return to normalcy and stable living.

This is no mean achievement which should be highlighted by the state and its agencies to the world outside. Particularly at present when the government is taking on sections of the world community on the controversial Panel Report and issues arising from it, it is particularly important that the international community is enlightened sufficiently on the government's successes in the area of normalization of conditions in the North-East. The shutting down of Menik Farm and institutions of its kind is the signal that an unhappy phase in Sri Lanka's post independence history is drawing to a close.

We believe that the state should also be emphatic that in the successful conclusion of the resettlement process we have the clinching evidence that no section of our populace is being subjected to humiliations of any kind. People in their tens of thousands came into the warm embrace of the state and its agencies in the closing stages of the humanitarian operation in May 2009 and they have since been looked after in the most humane ways possible and this is a moment of rejoicing really for the whole of Sri Lanka. Rather than persecute these people, as some critics give out, they are being given a new lease of life and this, the world needs to know. On the other hand, these sections were subjected to the most inhumane treatment by the LTTE and this too must be freshly highlighted lest the bestiality of the Tigers is forgotten. Sections of the Northern people were turned into cannon fodder by the LTTE in their futile war against the state while their children were turned into helpless tools in the Tigers' war machine. It is best that these harsh truths are recalled to mind by those sections which are excoriating the Lankan state in the forums of the world.

In contrast, the Lankan state has gone more than the extra mile to fend for the communities of this land. Even at the height of the conflict, the people of the North-East were not abandoned by the state and this we have time and again underscored. With the closing down of the North's welfare centres, the world is being given to understand in no uncertain terms that the Lankan state has responded more than adequately to the call of duty.

However, the journey to normalization does not end here. There is still a long way to go. The final solution to our harrowing 30-year nightmare is a political one which would address in full the grievances of our communities. This is the challenge that continues to await us.