North-South bridges

Scenes of rejoicing in the Jaffna Peninsula in the wake of the capture of Pooneryn it is hoped would serve to change the attitude of some members of the majority community who still treat all Tamils as LTTE sympathizers.

The spontaneous celebrations and the pictures in the newspapers of the people of Jaffna carrying national flags would no doubt help erase all suspicion and misgivings in this regard and hopefully charter a new course for national unity.

It is clear that Tamils no longer consider the LTTE as their saviours. The tales of those who have escaped the clutches of the Tiger testify to this.

The catalogue of suffering, brutality and torture inflicted by the LTTE on the Tamil people is now emerging giving the lie to its claim of being the sole representatives of the Tamils.

Hence the rejoicing in Jaffna following the fall of Pooneryn is but a reflection of this collective hate and hostility nurtured towards the LTTE by a populace who has been living under the jackboot of terrorism for three long decades.

It is apparent that these people are only waiting for an opportunity to express their feelings and what better outlet for this than a victory against their oppressors ? Front page photos in all newspapers showing people in the North demonstrating these feelings carrying the national flag amply manifests the sea change that has undergone in the Tamil people vis-a-vis the LTTE.

The national flag was once symbol of hate for the Tamils of the North where the Eelam flag held sway. Today indeed it is a matter of national pride to all that the Lion emblem is once again being enthroned in the North symbolic of the national reconciliation striven for by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Yesterday's capture of Muhamalai another LTTE bastion is bound trigger more such celebrations among the Tamil population in the North and is bound to be a regular feature as LTTE strongholds fall one after the other to the advancing troops.

How many of those who took part in the celebrations in Jaffna may have lost a family member or loved one to the LTTE ? How many among them would have lost a bread winner or an offspring to be turned into killing machines for a futile cause ?

Is what we are witnessing today a collective eruption of emotions that were suppressed all these years ? The scenes depicted in the newspapers spoke volumes of the desire of the people of the North to live in unity and brotherhood with their Southern brethren.

The Government should lose no time making use of these anti-LTTE emotions to take the message of unity and brotherhood across the divide. What is needed is more people to people contact which could be facilitated through social and cultural interaction programmes.

The recent cricket match organised in Colombo for a team from the North is one such example.

All measures should be taken to mend fences and renew contact with a generation of Tamil youth from the North who has had no inkling of the life beyond the iron curtain which shielded them from the outside world all these years.

They may also be yearning for the day when they will be able conduct their affairs on their own in the case of the newly liberated East. The sooner this is done the better the chances of democracy once again taking root in these once killing fields.

The Government on its part should make use of the goodwill generated by the people of the North in the wake of the military victories to build bridges and foster amity and brotherhood paving the way for integration.

All barriers that separated the two communities during the last three decades should be pulled down allowing our Northern brethren to be partners in national polity.

Speedy measures should be devised to coopt this segment into the national veal. The Government also has a duty cast on it to rehabilitate all LTTE surrendees in a more productive and tangible form.

The recent confession made by a female LTTE cadre who had doubled as a Government English teacher provides an insight into the extent of the task at hand. These are our own citizens who had been cut off from a normal life and turned into zombies by a megalomaniac to carry out his evil designs.

There is an urgent need to rehabilitate and integrate these unfortunates into the general mainstream of life.

We owe this much to our brethren who had undergone so much suffering and privation due to force of circumstances.

With the war drawing to an end and the return to normality a programme should be devised to gradually induct this segment into a society which hopefully would be one free of rancour and bitterness, bigotry and hatred paving the way for a nation of unity and fraternity among all its children.