Peace for the World

Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam

Thursday, November 1, 2012


Jaffna: Development Without Trust

By Namini Wijedasa -November 1, 2012
Namini Wijedasa
Colombo TelegraphA crowd lingers in darkness on the veranda of an old house at Temple Road,Jaffna. The fluorescent bulbs come on, throwing light on their anxious faces: Men and women of all ages, waiting to meet one of the president’s point men in the peninsula.
They are here most days, often till nightfall, with their worn files, crumpled polythene bags and brown paper envelopes. The house—a typicalJaffnaabode with a garden in the middle—is the office of Angajan Ramanathan, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party’sJaffnadistrict organiser.
Ramanathan, 29, is at his desk. Above his head are portraits of PresidentMahinda Rajapakse, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse andNamal Rajapakse, MP. Further away is a shrine with images of Lord Ganesha, Lord Buddha and Jesus.
“Politicians inJaffna,” he says, “are always talking about rights. Nobody is here to talk about daily problems.” Problems like road construction, garbage collection, pension and relief payments, resettlement issues, education and jobs, security challenges and so on.
Jobs, and more jobs
The crowd enters Ramanathan’s room. Many want employment. One man shows him an application for position of trainee banking assistant. There is a woman, a volunteer teacher, who asks when she would be made permanent. And there are graduates who are registered with a job bank Ramanathan has created, inquiring whether anything new has come up.
Jaffnadoes not have enough jobs for young people who eschew the traditional farming and fisheries sectors. This is just one of the challenges the government faces, in a district that many educated middle class residents insist, is still simmering. There is considerable frustration among young people which, if not managed, could further complicate post-war reconciliation.
Ramanathan is evidently tasked with soothing at least some of these tensions. An old boy of Mahajana College, Tellippilai, andSt. Thomas’ College,Mount Lavinia, he earned a master’s degree in engineering from Australia. But these are ancillary to his most attractive “qualifications”. This man has access to President Rajapakse through Namal, good relations with Basil and even claims he can meet Defence SecretaryGotabhaya Rajapakse directly to discuss security matters.
They are privileges other parties, ostensibly the Tamil National Alliance, are deliberately deprived of. On that, Ramanathan—the mouthpiece of the SLFP—is clear. Any political party is free to work in Jaffna as long as it is “a national party that does not play the communal card”. This places the TNA clearly outside of the equation. In contrast, the United National Party is welcome, Ramanathan said, because they did not practice communal politics.
What about political rights for Tamils? Ramanathan does not dwell on these. He speaks instead about how Jaffna needs an educated workforce. The graduates who come to him for jobs “can’t even do a proper resume,” he says. And he laments that Jaffna people are not proactive—they wait for government jobs to land at their feet without out seeking out employment in the private sector.
“Basically, they are funded by diaspora,” he analyses. “Each family has two or three relations abroad. They have money coming, and Tommy t-shirts, motorbikes and perfumes. What else have they got to say other than, ‘I want rights’?
Three years, still nothing                              Read More