3 solutions to the Wilpattu crisis

The Wilpattu crisis is a perfect example of how governments are directly responsible for (instead of solving, but) causing social and environmental problems. The internally-displaced Muslims in Puttalam live very sad lives. Chased away from their homes by the LTTE terrorists, they remain lost souls searching for a sense of belonging.

In their brutally-patriarchal society, I’ve seen how their women and children are subjugated without much hope of retribution. Neglected and deprived of access to good education, healthcare and employment opportunities, those people are stuck in a limbo of poverty. Not a single politician, not even one of their own, has taken any genuine effort to help those people.

Instead, they are yet again being displaced into even more isolation. If the real intention here is to help a group of people who were born in this same country that you and I live in, then there are better ways to do that. Here’s how.

1. Build the world’s best eco-village

Let’s assume the lands in question are in fact their ancestral lands. But must we bulldoze all the thousands of acres just to build a few hundred houses? That’s downright stupid. We are living in the 21st century. There are far more scientific and efficient ways to build new villages or cities. The rest of the world is desperately trying to build sustainable cities full of greenery, and here we are cutting down hundreds of thousands of trees to make a few tiny houses, and in the driest of the dry-zone!

If the intention is really to give their homes back, there’s no reason for them to cut down so many trees. What we should’ve done is plan a modern forest-based economic system built on the geography, geology, climate, resources, culture and social structures. For example, we could’ve used modern forest farming practices (agroforestry) without cutting down the massive trees. We could’ve built a wonderful eco-tourism space.

You also don’t need thousands of acres to build a factory. Besides, with the least logistical infrastructure, it’s the most illogical location to build a big factory anyway. If we think smart, and look at what some other countries have done, we could have designed and built an amazing social-economic system which will create sustainable benefits to the community, while the same community diligently preserving their forest.

2. Build integrated community housing

However, the problems of the Muslims living in Puttalam area cannot be solved by just relocating them. And definitely not by further isolating them in the middle of a jungle. Those tiny tin-roofed houses are too far apart. If the women and girls are facing such unimaginable harassment in Puttalam with their neighbours living close by, nobody will hear their screams in this Jassim “Jurassic” City. Students will have to walk a lot longer to and from their school, and patients will have to travel a lot longer to the hospital; than back in Puttalam. It’s the most ridiculous way to relocate a community.

Instead, we could’ve built a well-planned community-based urban housing project in Puttalam itself. There’s plenty of land available there. We could’ve built a set of modern apartments. It would’ve given far more dignity and security for those people than giving them a tiny house. We could’ve used that foreign money to build a state-of-the-art school and a hospital closer to the apartments. We could’ve built a vocational training facility targeting the youth. It would’ve made those people much happier than being abandoned among wildlife.

That’s how you improve people’s lives, and create better life-chances for the youth and the children as they grow up. The best part is, we could’ve made it a part of a bigger plan of transforming Puttalam as a developed region.

3. Not voting in stupid politicians

This whole debacle is caused by the whims and fancies of uneducated, egoistic, opportunistic career-politicians. If you really care about your own people, you would never relocate them from civilization to a jungle after cutting down and selling off all the trees. You will not go on an ego-tantrum building ethnic cities just because some foreigner is giving you money, without actually thinking what’s best for your own people. Those Muslims need to reconcile with the Tamils, not with wild animals. Isolating them and making their lives miserable is a sure way for more ethnic disharmony.

They maybe Muslims, but they are first and foremost human beings. They have undergone so much hardships already, their family structure is broken, their women and children are suffering; they deserve something better than a tiny house in the middle of a jungle.

The average Muslims and Tamils in Sri Lanka should actually worry more about their own devious political leaders. Time and time again it has been proven that it is their own leaders who in fact keep them in poverty, in isolation, in conflict, and in fear; for their own political survival. That’s why still the Tamil leaders have failed to do any meaningful social or economic development in the north, since the end of the war. It is the reason why the estate sector Tamils are still being kept in modern day slavery. It is the same reason why the Muslims in Puttalam are brought back to the same poor lives they and their parents lived when they were evicted in the ’90s.

On top of all of this, there’s the unquestionable crime of massive deforestation, and destruction of biodiversity. In a country where there is plenty of land available after the majestic jungles were cut down already, destroying the little forest cover that remains is anything but godly.

(The writer is Chairman – Social Enterprise Lanka. Please send your ideas for more solutions to [email protected].)