By Ananda Ariyarathne Courtesy Ceylon Today

“Whether we like it or not, as long as we keep on and identify people as ours, yours, theirs, his or hers, we will set our barriers and obstacles in our own minds. We are first prejudiced and then try to look at issues and automatically we create a frame of mind that cannot be appeased truly. The problem with us is the fact that we try to understand problems, ignoring the true root causes.

Reaching a consensus becomes a matter of fooling ourselves.”

In a recent interview by Mirudhula Thambiah of Ceylon Today, the Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthi Sasitharan had very clearly stated that the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)

R. Sampanthan has forgotten the issues of their people. The Provincial Councillor went on the say that Sampanthan abandoned the cause of the grievances of the people.

Missing persons

The issue relating to missing persons is one of the strongest allegations levelled against the government. Leaving aside her chauvinistic attitude, there still remains the possibility of mishandling of information. The inability to pursue the issue itself looks awkward as there seems to be an element of uncertainty. In the first place, why should the activists like Ananthi Sasitharan herself leave such a grave thing in the hands of a person like R. Sampanthan? Finding information cannot be that complicated. It is just a case of waiting for things to happen.

Village is a geographical area where everybody knows each other. Is it possible to have people living in secrecy? It is a matter of simple arithmetic. If the village had 500 students, is it difficult to find out how many pursued education? How many of them went abroad to be with their relations? How many ended up in refugee camps in India? How many of them were conscripted into LTTE combat forces? Then where did they serve? Definitely there would be people among the rehabilitated LTTE combatants. With whom were they? Where did they have skirmishes with the armed forces? Who were the commanders and under whom did they serve?

These are some of the simplest questions that would bring about the true picture. If a young person had met with his untimely death, who will know about it? Ananthi definitely has ways and means to find it out. But has she really done anything to find it out?

How many had escaped to different countries but now prefer to stay missing while their closest family members know where they are.

Whether Ananthi accepts or rejects it, the reality that people went missing since the LTTE started its power struggle that resulted in eliminating opponents. Once the LTTE gained full control there was no one to question its methods adopted to increase its cadre?

United Nations

Then another problem crops up. The United Nations and other international agencies which operated in the war regions have given figures which tally with a survey done after the war. Another ridiculous fact is that even the Tamilnet had figures lower than what the government gave. What do all these indicate?

It is a fact that the propagandists use whatever they could get hold of. Thereafter, it became necessary to maintain the figures.

And activists such as Ananthi are busy defending what they stood for. The real problem is whether it is worth.

Silence gains time and time gains endurance. At the end people get used to living with pain. Later people get more time to become rational and their diehard attitudes will also disappear slowly. It is quite possible that Sampanthan has now realized the true nature of the problem. The only answer is reconciliation. If he opens his mouth, he becomes a traitor.

Accusations

Allegations end up as strong accusations and then they ask for foreign Judges settle our disputes. These are naive and childish aspirations. Would the Sinhalese majority who had been losing their traditional lands agree to any proposition that would deteriorate their position further? In spite of all that they are still the majority with over 70 per cent of the population. So, they will not agree to bring down foreign Judges. The Tamil Diaspora would not stop with that demand. They will want to destroy the Sinhalese. They have been doing it in subtle ways. Unfortunately, the Sinhalese are divided in many ways. They are getting fragmented everyday.

The people in the North and East are not demanding to have a flag of their own. What they want is fair opportunities. It is our political system that makes it impossible. At first the party is taken as the most important factor. Then there are those who sing praises about politicians. Even among Tamil politicians, it is the same story. In a way, people like Ananthi have some novel ideas.

However, most of them have a one track mind.

How could a new Constitution change the prevailing position? Whatever the Constitution, the same politicians will be there. They will as usual depend on bureaucrats who are more interested in saving their skins. These are the real issues that have not been looked into.

The biggest Issue we have is the absence of a well-thought out master plan. Our efforts have become sporadic on one hand and on the other hand they are concentrated on random objectives. That is because we have not done a National Needs Analysis. If we have done it, then our efforts will be well synchronized. All such efforts would be connected to components, and those components will be well connected. Finally, the national efforts will bear fruit.

All the other current issues relevant to this are connected to the National Master Plan and they are nothing but the ‘missing components’.

Take the main issue the Provincial Councillor has been harping on. Is it not a clear indication that all the efforts are thoroughly disoriented? While she is chasing her selected target, linked more to the dead or sometimes even imaginary, the living people are stranded. If she is sincere, she should first try to solve the very real and physical problems of the living.

Does she have any idea about the resources of her own region? What are the possible ways to make use of those resources to bring about benefits to those who are living? It should not be misunderstood that she should forget the missing persons’ issue. Now that there is a strong allegation, the best way out is to go deep into it and then satisfy ourselves about what had really happened.

Human resources

In order to develop the country we need human resources with skills. That way, skills development becomes a national issue and there will be a component applicable to the region of the Provincial Concillor. Can she be satisfied that the government has done something in that direction? Then she should start thinking about her own Northern Provincial Council. Does her chief minister have an idea about it?

It ends up with education. Has anyone in her Provincial Council thought of education of the people? There will be schools, both elementary and secondary before having higher education centres. The realistic outcome would be a varying level of qualifications achieved. What are the opportunities for higher education?

Major issues

All those people need houses and we do not need foreign specialists to tell us about them. Every house will need electricity and water in addition to food. In order to buy food, they will need money and that means jobs.

The people will fall ill and they will need healthcare. They will also need transport facilities.

Those are some of the major issues. But we have politicians who are trying to justify themselves about what they are doing.

They seek solutions, but they have no ideas about what the main issues are and what are the root causes of such issues.

Politicians are busy accusing their rivals. Those who lost power are challenging the incumbent government, threatening that they would come back. Politicians like Ananthi are busy trying to keep the wounds open. Some others are busy in speculation and trying their luck.

The government needs funds for development. Funds are raised through budgets while putting the responsibility of economic development on the private sector investment. People become shock absorbers.

Investors try to have hi-tech factories which would need the least number of employees. They will earn unlimited revenue. But, how will a fraction of such revenue trickle down to the people?

How would such development help the nation?

Our attention is still on superficial aspects.