As depicted by Jeffrey in his cartoon in the The Island of 1st February 2010, the re-emergence of the notorious Eelam map, which came to be known as the ‘Devil’s Shawl’  (Yakage Saaluwa) draped around the shoulders of Sri Lanka, in  the form of a polarisation in the voting pattern at the last Presidential election, managed to raise our eye brows.

The superimposability of one map over the other may have invited a range of interpretations from your thinking readership, as in the exercise of reading into an ink blot in psychological testing.  Has President Mahinda Rajapakse not yet been unable to  engage the people in the North and the East? Have the developmental  programmes, ‘Uthuru Wasanthaya’ (Northern Summer) and ‘Nagenahira Navodaya’ (Eastern Revival) not made inroads to the hearts and minds of the people yet?  Has freedom from the clutches of the terrorists not been appreciated?  Is there still a residue of separatists’ forces lying dormant in  these parts?

Needless to say,  three decades of war has had a major impact on the  collective psyche of our nation.  No one would deny that the brunt of that impact was received by the Tamil community living in the North and the East.  This is not to underscore  the extent of trauma experienced by the rest of the nation including the families of armed forces.  The devastating  effects of death, destruction, disability  and displacement over this dark  period need no emphasis.  The electoral lists  in the North and the East are full of:  mothers who lost their children ( there is no greater loss than a mother to lose a grown-up child); youngsters with thwarted ambitions in education  and employment; responsible adults who lost their livelihood; frail elders whose family support has been disrupted; and so on.  Their motivation and judgement in  casting their vote  should be seen in the context of the grief, anger, guilt, fear and mistrust, that surround them.

The  Tamil Community as a whole cannot take responsibility for the atrocities committed by the LTTE, although shades of sympathy for the separatists  cause did exist in that community. Nor should the Tamil Community feel ‘defeated’ due to the military elimination of the separatists group, although rhetorical statements by a few individuals from both sides of  politics have not helped in raising their self esteem and confidence.

The point that  we wish to arrive at is,  that there has to be  greater acknowledgement of the pain and suffering experienced by the fellow Sri Lankans in the North and the East, irrespective  of whether they were supportive of the separatist cause or not. This should go hand in hand with  the infrastructure development already undertaken by the government. Such empathy is not alien to our spiritual heritage and has precedence in history.

We believe that direct dialogue with the people in the North and the East is essential to prevent further polarisation and help in the exploration of factors that led to dissent and subsequent  arms struggle.  

Remember:  it was lack of FORESIGHT   by successive governments that led us to this miserable state which we would hate to see recur .

Partisanship aside, we believe that President Mahinda Rajapakse, with warmth and sensitivity in his personal style, is perhaps the only  leader in contemporary Sri Lankan politics, who has the capacity to reach out to the people in the North and East.  He should use to the maximum, his recognisable rapport with children.  Although the general theme of his address to the Nation at the Independence Day Celebration was conciliatory, he may have missed an opportunity to emphasise the above point.

But President  Rajapakse has made an excellent start by learning Tamil, so that he could directly speak to the hearts of the Tamil people.  He has also made  some helpful overtures in the wake of his election victory:  a) that he is the President for all Sri Lankans, irrespective of who they voted for, and  b) that he has made it possible for the people in the North and the East, to exercise their right to vote, and that who they voted for is immaterial; although a cynic would say that he could afford to make such utterances from his current position of strength.

We sincerely hope that President Mahinda Rajapakse will succeed in this regard, and help to discard the ‘Devil’s Shawl’ gently.