A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Back to 500BC.
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Northern Province Development: My Preferences
A
few years ago a group of officials from the Northern Provincial Council
met a farmer in Vavuniya and asked for his preferences in respect of
some matter. The old man braced himself up, looked at the officials and
said “Sirs! I am 78 years old. This is the first time I am hearing of
officials wanting to note down what my preferences are. Hitherto you
decided what was best for me. Never asked me what I want”.
Government Economic Development Programme and Jaffna District Development Projects under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Hon’ Ranil Wickremesighe at the Jaffna District Secretariat on 19th May 2017 at 3 pm views of Chief Minister, Northern Province:
Hon’ Prime Minister, Hon’ Ministers, Hon’ Members of Parliament, Hon’
Members of Northern Provincial Council, High officials of Central and
Provincial Services, my dear brothers and sisters,
We
are pleased to have the Hon’ Prime Minister discussing with Political
Representatives and our Officials the Government Economic Development
Programme and Jaffna District Development Projects. This is a process we
have been agitating for and not long ago in this very Hall we had Hon’
Malik Samarawickrama taking the trouble to find out our point of view
before embarking on Economic Development Programmes and Projects which
related to his Ministry to establish a National Program of 2000
Entrepreneurs for the whole Island of whom 200 were to be from the
North.
Sir,
there are a few matters with regard to the psyche of the Tamils of Sri
Lanka that you must understand. At my age I believe I am qualified to
express same. You would realize from around 1956 when the “Sinhala only”
Act was foisted on us, the Tamils of the North and East preferred to
critically engage the Government in power rather than approve of an
enduring partnership with them except during the short spell in 1965
under the Prime Ministership of Hon’ Dudley Senanayake. As a result the
electorates in the North and East suffered due to lack of economic
endowments from the Centre. When it was decided to end this period of
lethargy and indifference towards the North and East and a positive
engagement was opted for what irked the Northern and Eastern Tamils was
the “top to bottom” attitude of the Centre.
A
few years ago a group of officials from the Northern Provincial Council
met a farmer in Vavuniya and asked for his preferences in respect of
some matter. The old man braced himself up, looked at the officials and
said “Sirs! I am 78 years old. This is the first time I am hearing of
officials wanting to note down what my preferences are. Hitherto you
decided what was best for me. Never asked me what I want”.
That
sums up how the Tamils have felt so far after the end of the war. You
must realize that we apportion more importance to the attitude of the
Centre rather than their lavish largesse. When we found a discriminative
design on the part of the Centre in the post 1956 period we resorted to
non – violent struggle openly rather than deign deceptive co-operation
in order to obtain our lost rights. It was only when non – violence
failed that violence took charge. But it must be remembered that
generally we are, as a unit of people with special characteristics of
our own, trustworthy, provided you recognized our talents and
temperaments. We are as a Nation conscious of our antiquity and our
ancient classical language. The older generation among us still approve
of the adage “high thinking and simple living”.
All
this introduction brings me to the matters at hand. Our Economic
Development must ensure that we the people of this Province are at the
helm of our own affairs. We cannot be used as a vassal Province for the
benefit of wayward investors. We are proud of our heritage; we like to
live a life of our own rather that be dictated to by outsiders. But we
are most certainly willing to join in earnest co –operation in the
economic field, like in co – operative federalism in the field of politics.
Hence there are a few important policy considerations we like to discuss with Your Honour.
In
the aftermath of the war there has been certain major infrastructural
development already in place. But our Rural areas have been neglected.
We must empower our rural folk to have access to markets in the
Agricultural and Fisheries Sector while they preserve their rural
innocence and simplicity.
In
working out our Industries we would prefer not to use our natural
resources internally available if alternatives from elsewhere could be
procured or purchased. Release of productive lands from the Armed Forces
must be a followed by rapid economic development based on knowledge and
technology transfer bearing in mind our immediate and future needs.