Tackling the North South divide
Right here in England we always seem to have had the notion of a North/South divide, in fact, it has often provided the material for many a comedian or the backdrop for many a television production, however, we are not alone in the national perception of such division. In countries as diverse and distant as Germany, Italy and Egypt there is also the perception of such a division (although in these countries the North is seen as the more affluent and sophisticated of the two sides).
Recently though, a contributory factor to just such a national division has been highlighted on the island of Sri Lanka. Of course, the Island has had a long running history of troubles amongst its Northern, mostly ethnically Tamil population and its Southern mostly ethnically Sinhalese population but it is only now that a linguistic division has been officially acknowledged as a major contributory factor in the island’s troubles and a lasting solution is being sought with mutual linguistic understanding as the lynchpin of its policy.
Previously, although always widely known about, the ignorance of the masses on both sides of the divide about each other’s languages was largely ignored by both Tamil and Sinhalese political leaders in order to gain political mileage from these differences.
Now, Sri Lankan Social Services and Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda has identified that this widening linguistic barrier has been the route cause of the exclusion of many ethnic Tamils from access to a wide range of social and economic services which had caused them in the past to align themselves to violent nationalist groups as a vehicle to gain some measure of redress.
The Minister added that in the future, in order to bring about a peaceful integration of all groups on Sri Lanka, a language policy was needed that would require all Sinhalese to learn Tamil and for all Tamils to learn Sinhala.