[Rev. Thomas Savuntharanayagam]
The now much hyped ‘cold war’ between NPC Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe does not vibe well with Jaffna’s Catholic Bishop Rt. Rev. Thomas Savuntharanayagam.
At a meeting with German Ambassador
Dr. Jürgen Morhard over the ‘cold war’ between the Northern Chief Minister Wigneswaran and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, which had prevented them from meeting each other during the Prime Minister’s recent visit to the Northern Province.
The visibly peeved shepherd of the Catholic flock up North, in deeply pensive mood, broached the subject with the envoy quipping that ” the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister keeping themselves away from each other will not help in any way in efforts to meaningfully address the grievances of the Northerners.”
The Bishop called attention, with anxiety, to the fact that even on his recent visit to the North, the ‘cold war’ between the two was all too evident.
The Bishop has said that the two leaders had kept away from each other and this attitude will create obstacles to joint efforts between North and South to address the people’s needs.
The meeting between the Jaffna Bishop and the German Envoy took place at the Bishop House in Jaffna last Wednesday , the duo discussed several unresolved issues in the North since the new government came to power last January.
The Bishop told envoy Morhard that the serious lack of job opportunities combined with grave livelihood challenges were compelling the youth in Jaffna into seeking better opportunities abroad. To which Morhard responded with the pledge that Germany would help provide them with good job opportunities so that they may get out of the ’emigrating’ mindset. The Bishop observed that the recent move by the new government to release 1,000 acres of land in Palali,which was under a heavy security forces presence had now created new hopes among Tamil people in the North that other crucial issues would also be addressed in a favourable way.
By M. Sasikumar
CT