The democratic sprit and institutions are obviously not as strong in the north as they are in the south. The Tamils have got used to various exactions imposed upon them by various non-state forces and this kind of submission provides ideal ground for the rise of an underworld dominated population as we see in some parts of the world. The north could easily turn into another Bihar if the government is not careful and in this context, this young government official has raised some relevant issues in his account of his journey to Jaffna where he met a cross section of society. Some of the issues highlighted by this official are as follows. The observations of the present columnist are made following each of the reports made by him.
1. There are around 20 political parties and groups active in Jaffna. Of these the government maintains close links with the EPDP. Because of the EPDP, the activities of the UPFA and the SLFP have gone down proportionately. Due to this reason even if the people of Jaffna want to build up a political rapport with the government, they are forced to do it through another party.
Note: The present columnist has always had misgivings about mainline political parties reaching out to the minorities through minority parties, by a kind of kangany system. The planter deals with the kangany and the kangany deals with the workers. That system worked well on the British owned plantations but it is not the correct formula for politics. While the UPFA is completely dependent on the EPDP as an intermediary in dealing with the people of Jaffna, the UNP has a direct link through its lone Jaffna MP. This approach is always better because then it’s the mainline political party interacting direct with the minority community without any intermediaries who may have agendas of their own.
2. There has been a construction boom in Jaffna after the end of the war. The construction activities going on in Jaffna require a lot of sand – around 15,000 four and a half cube tipper loads a month. There is at the moment a sand monopoly in Jaffna with one organization called the Maheshwari Foundation selling sand to those who need it. This foundation mines and sells the sand banks in the Mallakadu area. The granting of a monopoly to one operator has given rise to resentment. A large 4.5 cube tipper of sand costs Rs 22,000. To extract that quantity of sand from the sand banks will cost Rs 7,500 and transport will cost another Rs 6,000 bringing the total cost to Rs 13,500. The profit of Rs 8,500 per load goes to the Maheshwari Foundation. The people look upon this large scale sand racket with disgust.
Note: This is an accusation that we have been hearing from the TNA as well. Whether anybody has a monopoly over anything is easy enough to ascertain. Nobody should have a monopoly over anything and undoubtedly a monopoly (if it really exists) should be broken. If muscle power is what maintains the monopoly, then the army should step in and begin mining and selling the sand as a way of breaking the monopoly. Also a government fact finding team should be sent to Jaffna to find out whether such a monopoly is in operation and whether unconscionable profits are being made. The price of sand in Colombo and other districts in the south should be used as a benchmark to see whether the Jaffna sand operation was skimming off too much profit.
Some care will have to be exercised in this matter. The people in Jaffna are not used to democratic politics and after three decades of living under the jackboot of terrorists they are unaware about the standard behaviour of third world politicians. The politicians in Colombo and Tamil Nadu make money. That’s part of the system and normalization means having a few rogues and racketeers in society as well. As Mao Tse Tung once famously told his personal physician, ‘fish cannot live in clean water’. If this sand operation is just a case of a politician trying to make some campaign money, then it should be overlooked. Even in the south this is what politicians do as can be seen in the latest spat that Swarnavahini has been having with quarry operators in Kaduwela. In any case nobody should have a monopoly over anything and any sand monopoly should be broken and the market freed even if it takes the army to do so. No politician in the south has a monopoly over anything and there is no reason for any political entity in the north to have what the southern politicians do not have.
3. Fishing is one of the main occupations in Jaffna with 19,055 families living off fishing. Fish production had increased significantly after the war. In 2007 the total production had been 2,963 metric tones while in 2008 it had been 2,248 mt. In 2009 this had gone up to 6,990 mt and in 2010 it had tripled to 19,854 mt. The removal of war time restrictions on fishing was reviving the industry. However the fishermen operating out of the fishing harbours of Colombothurai and Gurunagar among others, have a problem because the prices of their catch are decided on by the ubiquitous mafia even before they arrive on shore. The same situation appertains on the coastal stretch from Thondamanaru to Vadamarachchi. What happens here is that extortionists buy their catch at rock bottom prices. The prices of crabs and prawns are also decided by this same mafia. A large crab will be sold in the Singapore market at anything between Rs 10,000 to 13,000, but the fisherman in Jaffna gets only Rs 700 to 800.
Note: If as in the case of sand, some sort of an unholy monopoly has been established as regards the fishing industry, then that has to be broken and a free market established. The government should as a matter of priority, appoint a fact finding mission to report on these matters. It has to be ascertained whether the fishermen operating out of the Jaffna fishing harbours mentioned above have been getting abnormally low prices for their catch when compared with fishermen in the south. Another thing that has to be ascertained is whether an underworld type monopoly on fish buying operations does exist in Jaffna. If it does, then the Navy should step in and start buying fish which they will sell in the fish wholesale market in Colombo. When the military gets involved to this extent in civilian life, that does pose a danger to the nature of the state, but when civilian institutions turn out to be non-existent or dysfunctional, then it is the military that has to step in.
When Maj Gen Janaka Perera entered politics, one of the claims he made was that he was quite used to civilian administration anyway because a part of his duties when holding territory in the north and east, was looking after civilians and their needs.
4. As every where else passenger transport is done by both the state and private sector. The state owned Transport Board operates three depots in Jaffna, Karainagar and Pt Pedro which operate about a 100 buses a day with 50 more awaiting repairs. In addition to this, about 500 private buses are in operation in the Jaffna peninsula. There is a private bus owners association but the time tables change due to the operation of an unseen hand and the best turns when crowds are available are allocated only to ‘friends’. There is no procedure to register buses and or charge the relevant taxes.
Note: private bus operation is one area where the mafia can be very active because this business goes hand in hand with muscle power. If the private bus system is as disorganized in the Jaffna district as it is said to be, then the army should be asked to step in and register the buses and allocate time tables until there is a provincial council for the north whose duty this really is.
5. The Merchant Bank had planned to build a three star 85 room hotel in Nallur and had even laid the foundation stone. But an organized gang had opposed the construction of this hotel on the grounds that it is culturally inappropriate to have a hotel in proximity to the Nallur Kovil. A certain individual had demanded a sum of Rs 5 million from the Merchant Bank to be allowed to build the hotel.
Note: This again has to be treated with care. Politicians both in Colombo and Tamil Nadu take ‘santhosams’ from businesses within their area. Usually this is done amicably and the money is given willingly to create goodwill. But if it has come to a situation where extortion is being practiced to such an extent that employment generating projects are stalled, then here again the army has to step in and do what is necessary to allow investors the freedom they need.
6 The three main daily newspapers in Jaffna are the Uthayan, Valampuri and Thinamurusu with circulations of 20,000 , 15,000 and 7,000 respectively. People buy the newspapers early morning but the government owned Thinakaran arrives in Jaffna only at around 10.00 or 12.00. The result of this is that the government’s point of view does not get conveyed to the people of Jaffna.
Note: A matter for Lake House to look into!
7. Politicians, organizations, NGOs and state officials in Jaffna do not talk much about the government at official gatherings and no effort is made to inform the public about the activities of the government.
Note: A serious lacuna which needs to be addressed as a matter of priority.
8. There are still around 20 illegal cable TV operators in Jaffna. Only one or two have obtained sanction from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission. These cable TV operators broadcast programmes that militate against national unity. Besides this, the general news being disseminated by the Jaffna newspapers and TV channels about abductions, robberies and instances of intimidation and extortion paint the government in a very poor light.
Note: A part of this problem can be solved by putting these illegal operators out of business. If there are no illegal Cable TV operators in the south there can’t be any in the north either. As for the content, filtering what the Jaffna people see on their TV screens may not be the best option. Censorship only increases the appetite for what is censored. The contagion that this young official speaks of obviously comes from Tamil Nadu which was the birthplace of Tamil separatism and still continues to be so in many ways with the Tamil Nadu film industry being at the forefront of this movement. This was obviously one reason why the Indian government cooperated fully with the Sri Lankan government when they knew that the LTTE was on the verge of being defeated.
 We have been hearing various reports about unusual goings on in Jaffna. When one hears of these o...){kind=link}
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