Sour grapes, or . . .?

When Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran did not turn up, last week, for the very first international investor gathering to be held in Jaffna, outwardly his seeming boycott looked like an action akin to that old adage about 'sour grapes'. That is, the Chief Minister - it is speculated - did not attend because he felt that the Provincial Governor, acting on behalf of the central Government, had upstaged him in a most important area of economic activity, namely, the mobilising of vitally needed foreign capital investment in the war-ravaged North.

Even though the Chief Minister, himself, did not attend the investor conference, the Chairman of the Northern Provincial Council as well as senior national-level leaders of the Tamil National Alliance, the Provincial ruling party, as well as many provincial councillors, made sure to attend. In this light, the general political leadership in the North as well as the Tamil community leadership at national-level, can clearly be seen to be giving high priority to this exercise which is one that could easily have a significant impact on the North.

After all, the North as well as the East, need the greatest possible input of resources, both human as well as financial, and as quickly as possible. These regions need to recover not only from decades of utterly destructive warfare but, also, from an even longer period of marginalisation in national development by successive regimes in Colombo that actually contributed to the ethnic conflict. Indeed, this marginalisation in national development also occurred in other parts of the island distant from Colombo, namely, the deep south and south-eastern hinterland, similarly contributing to no less than two successive rural youth insurgencies in the southern half of the country.

Hence, the Investor Forum in Jaffna must be seen as an exercise that should be part of a larger socio-economic strategy aimed at ensuring the spread of development that has already benefitted the western and central parts of the country. The ignoring of the geographical 'periphery' can only be done at the political peril of political leaderships in Colombo, as such leaders have learnt from shock results in elections. And the country as a whole should also know by now - after multiple insurgencies from precisely this periphery - the peril to the nation and, our island civilisation, from such a strategic failure.

Dharma dveepa or not, the social and cultural triage suffered from these conflicts is equal to the economic and environmental devastation.

Hence, Chief Minister Wigneswaran's 'boycott' action must be seen as something more than just churlishness. At the very least, it could be read as a symbolic action. The full participation of the Northern ruling party other than the Chief Minister is an indication of not only the importance given by the Northern political society to the Investor Forum exercise. It also signals the general Tamil leadership's readiness to participate in nationally initiated programs even in their own constituency regions despite the intrusive connotations of such initiatives by the centre.

In the light of remarks by his aides about the reasons for his absence, the Chief Minister's 'boycott' could be seen as a symbolic expression of frustration that such things as investor fora have not been left to the provincial administration to manage. After all, the provincial leadership has direct knowledge of the ground situation and, local needs and sensitivities, making them the most competent to convene such a gathering to ensure the maximum outcome. No doubt the Northern Provincial Council would have been happy to be helped by the various agencies of the centre that have the expertise as well as bureaucratic powers to facilitate the whole exercise.

Thus, while the Government and its representative agencies in the North can certainly pat themselves on the back for an excellent initiative - long overdue - the national political leaderships must remain sensitive to the interests, enthusiasms and aspirations of the northern communities in such vital activity.

This is especially critical at a time when national leaderships are now engaged in far-reaching moves - including constitutional reform, no less - to make amends for the tragic errors and failures of the past and, to re-arrange community relations and the national development structure, to enable more community self-realisation whether in the North or other parts of our long-neglected 'peripheries'. Ultimately, a wholly equal national development should mean an end to a single 'centre' and to any 'periphery'.

Breathing easy

On the previous Sunday, this newspaper broke the news of a 15-hour delay of a Srilanka Airlines flight set to depart Frankfurt for Colombo. The cause of the delay was reportedly the inebriated condition of the chief pilot of the aircraft when he reported for duty in Frankfurt to take control of the flight.

Happily for the 270 plus passengers on board UL 554, other crew members noticed the behaviour of the officer concerned and following standard procedure, reported to higher authorities, thereby activating other procedures that effectively grounded the officer and ensured that substitute personnel were found to take over the flight. Still the passengers suffered from a wholly un-expected delay of over 15 hours. The airline, inevitably, suffered financial loss due to extra logistical costs and compensation for the passengers. It also suffered a hit to its reputation as a world class carrier.

The incident reveals a loop-hole in operational procedures meant to ensure flight safety and security.

While the air and ground crews fully deserve credit for their professional response, it is now incumbent on the air travel regulators to examine the whole incident and devise new procedures that will, ultimately, deter such crew misbehaviour. After all, the purpose is to prevent such occurrences and consequent losses rather than to merely respond to an avoidable crisis.

The current Indian model of compulsory pre-flight breathalyser tests is one possibility. The main thing is for the passengers and crew to breathe easy in-flight.