In an interview with The Hindu in New Delhi on Thursday, October 14, he said, “The Tamils' response has been good. They are coming on board.”

Prof. Peiris further declared, “India is the pivot of our foreign policy. India has helped us in our darkest hour.” He was apparently referring to the crucial help India rendered to the island nation during war that ended in May last year.

“There is close rapport between the political leaders of our two countries,” he pointed out. He recalled that his predecessor Lakshman Kadirgamar used to say that relations between India and Sri Lanka were “so ancient that they are lost in the midst of time,” and yet so strong.

Explaining the reasons behind the Tamils' change of stance in recent months, he said President Rajapaksa had met Tamil National Alliance (TNA) chief R. Sampanthan and TNA MPs twice, and invited their suggestions for totally transforming the north-east from a devastated war zone into a zone of peace and prosperity.

The Minister quoted the Tamil MPs as telling the President: “Trust us. We will work with you.”

The Minister said that, in the past, plans were imposed on the Tamils from above, the Hindu reported. The absence of a two-thirds majority in Parliament had made it impossible for successive governments during the past 25 years to undertake any worthwhile schemes or devolution packages for the north-east.

But, said the Minister, President Rajapaksa's re-election for a second term in January and a near two-third majority for the ruling combine in the April parliamentary election had brought about a dramatic change in the island's political scenario.

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission was holding sittings in Colombo, Jaffna and elsewhere. It had already submitted an interim report. Of the 2,97,000 in the Northern Province internally displaced, only 20,000 remained to be resettled and rehabilitated in their native places.

Tamil-speaking girls were now bread-winners in many families in the North, he noted.

“We are resuscitating the political process in the North. Local government elections have been held in Jaffna and Vavuniya.

They will be held in the remaining districts as well. We hope to conduct provincial council polls in the North as soon as possible,” the Minister added.

As for the nearly one-million-strong Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, the Minister said: “Gotabaya Rajapaksa and I are working on this. We want to engage our Tamil brethren living overseas in our efforts to transform the war-ravaged north-east”.

Prof. Peiris said: “We tell them: You have to recognise that the ground situation has changed fundamentally since the war ended. They realise this too, and their response has been good.”

Judging by a Sri Lankan airline's passenger manifest, a large number of Tamils who fled to the West from their villages in the north-east due to the war were now flying to Colombo with their wives and children and going to their native places to see for themselves what had been happening since the war ended.

And, said the Minister, they were reasonably impressed with what they saw with their own eyes. They now wanted to invest at home, and hoped to return to their homeland in the not-too-distant future.

“At the end of the day, wherever you may live for years and decades, you long to return to your homeland to live in peace and tranquility.”

The Minister added: “The Tamil diaspora is no longer a monolith. We can engage a substantial segment of the diaspora to change things around.”

Since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was defeated and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran physically eliminated in May 2009, there was durable peace all across the island. There was a mood of optimism. The anxiety and tension that pervaded for nearly three decades was gone, and people were looking to the future with hope, said the Minister.

There was an unprecedented degree of political stability. This was encouraging foreign companies, including those from India, to invest in a big way in a variety of projects in Sri Lanka, the Minister explained.

“We are putting a multifaceted strategy in place. We are investing hugely in infrastructure projects, like building ports, harbours, a new international airport, agricultural and skill development schemes,” he said.

He pointed out that it took Sri Lanka 12 years to raise the per capita income to $1,000. After becoming President five years ago, Mr. Rajapaksa undertook a massive transformation at the grassroots level, and succeeded in doubling the per capita income to $2,000. “Now, so much economic activity is going on that we are hoping to double the per capita income to $4,000 by 2015.”

Thanks to the resounding faith Sri Lankans had imposed in President Rajapaksa by electing him to a second term and giving his ruling alliance a near two-third majority in Parliament, and thanks to the recent 18th Amendment, it was now possible to undertake meaningful and long-term plans that would make Sri Lanka a model state of progress and cultural integration, the Minister opined.

Concluding his interview Prof. Peiris said: “The people's confidence in the President is the most conspicuous feature of life in Sri Lanka today. The people are saying, ‘We don't want history to repeat itself as a tragedy. We want a job done. Do it now, and do it well'.”