New Governor to 'motivate' Northern Province to concentrate on development

The newly-appointed Governor of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province, Reginold Cooray, has said that he intends to “motivate” the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) to give priority to the development of the province.

The 68 year old left-liberal leader told Express in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, that voicing political demands is legitimate in a democracy, but the interest of the common man should be at the core of these demands.

He was commenting on the charge that the NPC under Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran has been passing political resolutions to the virtual exclusion of developmental work. Even statutes to run the administration are not passed.

“The Central government had given the Northern Province a lot of money for development, but 60 percent of it was returned. I have been Chief Minister of the Western Province for 12 years, and I can share my experience with the NPC. However, I will not be a teacher or an instructor. I will only be a motivator and a participant in the developmental process,” Cooray said.

However, neither he nor the Central government would take credit for any progress made in the Northern Province. “The credit should always go to the people of the province. And we (the people of South Lanka) should be  ready for any sacrifice,”  he said.

Asked if he would be able to work with Chief Minister Wigneswaran, who has been putting forth radical demands as head of the Tamil Peoples‘ Council, Cooray said: “ In a democracy we have to tolerate it. But Wigneswaran is a gentleman with an interest in promoting ethnic harmony. Recently he worshiped at Nagavihara, a Buddhist shrine in Jaffna. I don’t think I will have a problem with him.”

Cooray was confident of being welcomed by the Northern Tamils. “ I have never been accused of being a Sinhala chauvinist,” he said.

He had cut his political teeth in Vijaya Kumaratunga’s liberal Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (SLMP), which was the only supporter of the 1987 India-Sri Lanka Accord which devolved power to Provincial Councils. “For this we sacrificed 150 lives. I was shot at, and my house was destroyed,” Cooray recalled.(The New Indian Express)