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Getting off to a sound start
A new calendar year has opened with the usual
expectations in most quarters that the country would charter
fresh directions in its public affairs. We do hope that a break
would be made with the past, particularly in relation to the
gamut of issues facing the North-East and particularly with
regard to national rejuvenation and reconciliation.
A challenge is posed to the state and the people of this
country in the form of the LLRC report. To implement or not to
implement – this seems to be the dilemma facing some. As for
those with the interests of this country at heart, there could
be no doubt that the LLRC recommendations should be seriously
considered by all concerned, including the state, and
implemented in earnest, where implementable. There needs to be a
vigorous public discourse on the report, but it is our request
that interminable debates and arguments are not had on it, in
the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), or outside.
We are guided by past experience, when we say this. Over the
past 25 years and more we have had a multitude of forums on the
National Question and the reports, papers, books and
publications brought out here and abroad on the subject may have
run into the hundreds. All the ‘serious thinking’ that could
have been done on the issues facing our communities has already
been done and we call for down-to-earth practical measures to
resolve the issues at hand. Talks, there need be, but not of the
delaying and time-consuming kind. These stalling tactics will
ensure a prolongation of the issues facing the North-East and by
implication the country.
Prior to the LLRC report, there have been many memorable
studies of the conflict, its causes and paths to its resolution,
such as the work of the APRC, and we call on the concerned
quarters to lose no further time by talking interminably on the
issues facing the North-East. It needs to be borne in mind that
not all such issues have been looked at and resolved although
the state is getting on with the task of developing the once
conflict-affected areas of the country and this is a positive
development that should be taken note of.
For instance, the government has allocated some Rs. 61,000
million for the purpose of accelerating the development effort
in the Jaffna district, besides other substantive development
initiatives in the Northern Province and we wish to place on
record our deep appreciation of this vigorous thrust to bring
material benefits to the people of the areas concerned. As we
have time and again pointed out in this commentary, the growth
expected from such initiatives should be evenly distributed
among the affected population segments, if some of the
disaffection of the past is to be eased off, and we hope this
aspect of the growth process is being addressed by the
government.
The government is doing well to usher in infrastructure
development in all the relevant areas of the country, but it
should be the focus of the state to ensure that redistributive
justice becomes a chief cornerstone of governance. To be sure,
the state has not lost sight of this need but it should not lose
sight of this objective in the days ahead too because social
peace and cohesion depends considerably on it.
When analyzed closely, it could be found that it is
constantly denied socio-economic justice that gives rise to
those political issues that are subsumed under the head,
‘identity-based conflicts’. It is prolonged material deprivation
that drives some sections of the people to believe that they are
discriminated against. This will make them acutely aware of
their ethnic identity and serve as the basis for ethnic
movements.
Therefore, there could be no getting away from the fact that
redistributive justice must be constantly striven for by the
state. What needs to be aimed at is material advancement that
would benefit all equally. This is what past ‘development’
experiences failed to achieve in this country. It should be also
noted that political power is sought by some sections,
particularly those who believe they are discriminated against,
not primarily for its own sake but for the purpose of acquiring
what they believe they have been wrongly denied. Therefore,
development, correctly understood as growth with equity, is the
crying need. |
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Sri Lanka brimming with promise
Two years after the end of a three decades
conflict, the lifting of the emergency rule in late August 2011
confirmed the beginning of a new era for Sri Lanka. With the recent
discovery of gas fields off its coast, its future looks bright. Dr
Dayan Jayatilleka, the ambassador of Sri Lanka to France, tells us
about the opportunities of this renewal for the country’s
development and the assets of its strategic positioning at the heart
of the Indian Ocean rim.
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Ghanaians need to be aware about climate change
“Earthly things have changed and it is because
we have started cutting down trees everywhere,” said middle-aged
Lariba Mohammed, a vegetable farmer near Tamale, the capital of the
Northern Region, 658 km North of the Ghanaian capital Accra.
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Shake hands with an Angel - meeting with Lt. Gen Romeo Dallaire
After Rwanda, Gen Romeo Dallaire gave leadership
in a project to develop a conceptual base for the elimination of the
use of child soldiers. In his best-selling book "They Fight Like
Soldiers, They Die Like Children," Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire
suggests to promote Zero Force, an international campaign to
eradicate the use of child soldiers. He is determined to fight to
eradicate the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts. It is a
mission to which Gen Dallaire has committed himself for the rest of
his life.
Full Story
Walking together to restore the old grandeur
For nearly three decades, Tiger terrorists
fought the government forces in Sri Lanka, once controlling its
Northern and Eastern regions. In May 2009, the Sri Lankan military
finally crushed the rebels, ending one of Asia's longest-running
conflicts. The threat of terrorism abated, and for all Sri Lankans,
life began to take an unbelievably good turn. People's aspirations
triumphed.
Full Story |