“We have lost a friend”: Jaffna District Cooperative Council

• Following is a statement by Jaffna District Cooperative Council on Mangala Samaraweera

Mangala Samaraweera

The loss of Mangala Samaraweera, former Parliamentarian and former Minister, is indeed shocking news for many. The political leaders of the country have described his demise with a heavy heart as the

loss of an irreplaceable leader, a great hero, a senior leader of the country and a voice that advocated justice for the Tamil national people and their political freedom. 

Those of us who are members of the cooperative movement in the north feel immense sadness at the loss of a friend of our movement. There is no surprise that the late Mangala Samaraweera, who dedicated himself to serving the people in a just and fair manner, upheld democratic traditions, and strove for the creation of a society free of inequalities, had faith in the cooperative movement. 

The late Samaraweera strongly believed that the Cooperative Movement could achieve a lot for the wider society. He once described the cooperative system as a sleeping giant and lent his hand towards its revival. Sadly, he entered eternal rest before seeing its full rejuvenation, leaving us in grief and sorrow. 

Driven by his vision of reconciliation, the late Samaraweera introduced special development schemes for the war-affected regions in the national budget. To rescue the people who fell into the debt trap of predatory microfinance companies, he disbursed Rs. 292 million to the credit cooperative sector in the north and created the ‘Aravanaippu’ loan scheme. He disbursed a further Rs. 450 million to revive the producer cooperative sector to create 50 industries. Under this loan scheme, 40,000 small scale loans have been granted through the cooperative sector. 

No other politician had shown such support towards the development of the cooperatives. The cooperative sector remembers with gratitude the many visits made by the late Samaraweera to the Jaffna District Cooperative Council and co-operative societies in the Jaffna District. He interacted in person with the members of those societies and observed their activities with keenness. Standing shoulder to shoulder with members of the cooperative movement, he carried out his ministerial responsibilities both as a friend and as a person committed to service. 

Even as many among us were splitting hairs over whether the ‘cooperative movement’ came under the purview of the central government or the provincial administration, the late Samaraweera embraced the Tamil regions that had faced severe destruction during the war and the people whose lives were in tatters, and recognised the supportive role the cooperatives could play in their rejuvenation. He offered us a helping hand in the hour of our need. 

In 2016, when he was the Minister of External Affairs, for the first time in history, he held ministerial level talks with his counterpart India to seek a solution to the problems that northern fishermen were facing due to the poaching of Indian trawlers. 

The late Samaraweera was simple, friendly, honest, justice-minded and likeable. We have lost a friend of the cooperative movement. As cooperative workers from the Northern Province, we, in our thousands, pay our heartfelt homage to this great leader and pray for his soul to rest in peace.