All Sri Lankans should benefit from the development of the East
Posted on July 16th, 2012
Asada M Erpin
The media reported on 15 July that the government is to spend over 16 billion rupees for the development of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Whatever the detractors of the present rulers may say the fact remains that there will be additional opportunities for employment and a boost in the upgrading of the infrastructure of the region.
An important message that should be given the widest possible publicity, hand in hand with the investment, is that the benefits that would become available should be reaped by all Sri Lankans who opt to live in the region, and not by a section of Tamils or a group of Moors who are desirous of carving out ethnic or religious enclaves for their own tribes or clans.
The Tamil National Alliance led by its never-fatiguing Sampanthan, ably supported by others of his ilk such as Premachandran and Sumanthiran, keep on harping on a re-merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka and the primacy of Tamil aspirations. Some of the separatists had even mentioned that the issue of the highest priority is getting their aspirations realised and not the development of the region or creating employment opportunities for the people.
The talk of a Tamil homeland in the Northern and Eastern Provinces is based on ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ mere concocted history, which would get clearly rubbished if one were to read the writings of De Queyroz and others of the period of the Portuguese occupation ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” none of whom treated the Sinhalese as their darlings – and is ready to pay attention to the numerous historical and archaeological evidence and artefacts that had surfaced from the days from many centuries prior to that. The Kadurugoda (at present renamed as the Kandarodai) temple and the Vallipuram Gold plate inscription of 2nd Century AD from the period of the reign of King Vasabha are just two examples of the items that should open the eyes of the objective reader.
King Senarat, whom ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the Dutch Philippus Baldaeus referred to as the Emperor of Ceylon, the King of Kandy, Sitavaka, Trincomalee, and Jaffna, was the ruler who gave land grants in the East for the persecuted Moors to settle in the region and to carry on with their trade and other occupations. The rumblings that emanate from the Eastern Province today for a separate geographical entity for the Moors, obviously strengthened by financial and moral enticements from foreign groups with ulterior motives, should not be given any hearing whatsoever and should be squashed with all the legally-sanctioned power..
Sri Lanka has just come out of the terrorist curse that plagued it for nearly three decades. Many innocent lives of small-time cultivators, schoolchildren and office workers were lost, and members of the armed forces, in the prime of their lives, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-gave their today for our tomorrowƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ because of a megalomaniacƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s pursuit of a mythical mono-ethnic Eelam for the Tamils.
Sri Lanka, with its nine provinces, is for all Sri Lankans who love their country, irrespective of their ethnic or religious affiliations. If anyone wishes to live in any region of the country, the government should give whatever encouragement feasible.
The first Prime Minister of the then Ceylon, Hon. Mr. D.S. Senanayake, settled people from the rest of the country in the East under the Gal Oya Scheme. The current President, His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse, who unified Sri Lanka by defeating the LTTE terrorists, who had received the backing of Norway and other Western countries, should do the same. People who wish to move to the East should be given all the necessary assistance to do so. The LTTE-backed MPs in Sri Lanka, the Colombo-based and foreign-funded human rights merchants and the Tamils cocooned in the affluent countries in the West and Australia will cry foul and label the move as government-sponsored colonisation of Tamil areas. Let them do so: after all, when the estimated killed in the last stages of the liberation war of 2009 was approximately 7200 according to the UN Office in Colombo – a figure that even the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”augustƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ institution itself said could not be verified, the rest of the world has accepted as Gospel truth and gladly propagates another myth that 40,000 (nice round figure!) civilians were killed by the armed forces of Sri Lanka.