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It is not only property that were damaged, but more crucially, the social structure of that community turned completely topsy-turvy. Naturally, the most affected community in the inferno was the Tamils and the areas where they predominate, the north and the east of the country, were devastated by the fighting. No nation can go through three decades of such insecurity and violence without scars and damage. When the war started in earnest, it was not a problem that could be solved by the politicians with the rise of the armed bands, a different leadership, a complete contrast in attitude and background, came to the fore. Until 1977, the Tamil leadership unfailingly comprised of learned men and professionals. What began with isolated acts of violence by a tiny group of militant youth eventually, and mainly after July 1983, grew into a full-scale war with an entrenched liberation army. Then came the Black July riots of 1983 and the three decades that followed the tragedy of that July were perhaps the most painful years of our recent history nearly undid this small country of limited resources. The power-greed politicians burned their wings, insensitive to the grievances of the minority Tamils, dared “if they want war they can have war”, that broadly took the form of a racial riot. Rulers got carried away by the awakening economy, resulted in a sense of exclusion on the part of the minorities in the making of the Republican Constitutions, an increasingly unprincipled political culture, deteriorating standards in nearly every field, politicization of the machinery of the State and the repeated failure on the part of succeeding governments to lead the country out of near systemic economic stagnation, undoubtedly played their role. Small and medium businesses opened up everywhere while the larger firms were busy supplying the ongoing Mahaweli project, originally planned for 25 years, now telescoped and accelerated, depriving any benefits by it to minority Tamils living in the North and East.
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To the traditional exports were added first fisheries and later garments export bringing in valuable foreign exchange.
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After almost a decade of near static policies that brought much of the economy under State control the long-dormant economy of post-1977 was liberalized, made possible with IMF loans, the markets were active, new ventures were coming up rapidly. Taking loans is nothing new to the rulers of Sri Lanka, a practice that began in 1951, when the country was drifting aimlessly after independence at a time issues such as the current complex relationship between the majority Sinhalese and the main minority Tamils were visible, along with rising nationalism in the country. The state filled the shortfall in production by imports, had there been proper planning to bring rural farmers out of subsistence to export oriented farming the country would have developed. Agricultural exports have been from the colonial days been limited to Tea, Coconut and Spices, while the bulk of the rural farmers have been doing subsistence farming growing essential crops like paddy and vegetables. All due to lack of proper planning, any planning in the past was not all inclusive planning to get agriculture produce to export levels to create earnings to meet the cost of massive welfare payments. In a bitter parallel the Sri Lankan rulers have for the past four decades soared into the sky, their wings made up of money that came from borrowings to live beyond their means. His wings were destroyed, and he fell into the sea and drowned. Overcome by the excitement of flying, Icarus forgot his father’s warning and flew too high. He warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, because the heat would melt the wax. Daedalus, a remarkable Athenian craftsman, designed two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers for himself and his son, Icarus. Greek drama and mythology are intertwined.