Sunday 15 February 2015


Gajalakshmi Paramasivam – 15 February  2015

Occupied Territories or Captured Territories?

A leading Sri Lankan of Sinhalese origin who was offended by the Genocide Resolution by the Northern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka, said in response:

If a 30 years war was fought and the common enemy was vanquished.. the NPC politicians should know to use their mandate to look after the people with the budget given without preparing resolutions on LIES... it is good for people to remind these people of this first without pointing fingers at us

To such Sinhalese – LTTE is the enemy. By using the word enemy – the above Sinhalese confirms separation – exactly what LTTE wanted. The occupied territories then become ‘captured territories’. That picture seems to be of a feudal society. This is likely to happen when we make claims of superiority by using the names of our ancestors who used the path of war to show their superiority. Instead, if we had taken the Truth discovered by such ancestor – whether it was pleasant or unpleasant – we would work today’s Democracy comfortably. The Northern Provincial Council is not able to deliver Democratic outcomes any more than the Rajapaksa Government did. The Sri Lankan Administrators at the top are the gurus of the common members of the Provincial Council.  Hence the unspent budget – which amounts to hoarding if retained at Provincial level and amounts to dumping if it returns to the Central Authorities. The International Community also dumped excesses in Sri Lanka and contributed to the war related outcomes.  Any war crime inquiry must begin with that kind of ‘dumping’ by foreigners – including India.

The resurfacing of   Indian Fishermen in Sri Lankan waters is the parallel of Indonesians using Australian waters to dump asylum seekers. At the bottom level and at the topmost level – there is no distinction between mine and ours. Indian Fishermen would consider waters around Tamil parts of Sri Lanka as theirs – unless there are physical restrictions. They see and they conclude/conquer. At the top – one consolidates and thinks by controlling the seen – as in the case of Lady Justice – until the seen becomes common in the mind. Common fact becomes Energy when it loses all physical form and is recognized as part of us – our Truth. The mind driven by this Truth is the steady mind.

The war damage happened due to both sides. One who celebrated victory over the other side – is an outsider and therefore is naturally the enemy when one uses the feudal structure. Tamils who blame the Government as being solely responsible are burying the contribution by the LTTE to escalate the problem to the global level.  They have already been punished through the ‘Terrorism’ label. Similarly – the war crimes resolution against the Sri Lankan Government at UN level. We are even now at that level and the Presidential elections confirmed this. Once we are ‘even’ – we need closure – so we ourselves would ‘see’ the picture/the Balance Sheet – not to show – but for our own purposes.

The confirmation of closure for the Tamil side would be strongly influenced by compensation for every unit of resource taken over by the Government. Without such compensation – the government would continue to practice the feudal system and invoke such in those open to it – such as the fishermen to whom the sea without physical occupation is everybody’s.  If the mind of the Tamil fishermen is low – they would not protect as theirs – waters that are legally Sri Lankan. Where there is no law in the mind of the user – the seen and the possessed is ownership. It is in the interest of the Sri Lankan Government to restore the self-confidence of Tamil fishermen – including through high level compensation (Presidential Homeland Rate for Northern Fishermen at http://austms.blogspot.com.au/ ). Every person/body that contributes to this as provider or beneficiary – is participating in good governance.
Money compensation without appropriate structure is also a problem in post-war Sri Lanka. Our family donated land for common pathway at the request of the People of Thunaivi – who were already using the land – to reach the main-road. Fences were often damaged towards their personal comfort. They are the parallels of Indian Fishermen using Sri Lankan waters. Later due to requests from Government managed development organization, we donated land for the building of Development Secretariat. That Secretariat is the parallel of the unspent budget of the Northern Provincial Council that the above Sinhalese is pointing to. Those folks who are Toddy Tappers are not able to use it and hence it is idling most of the time.  In the meantime – the ‘building and the access to water facilities’ provided by us  are fenced off and used largely as storage space. This is likely to happen if ‘compensation’ is given directly to Myliddy fisher-folks at the higher money rate.
At Thunaivi – we overcame the ‘possession is ownership’ problem by funding self-employment by those who showed commitment to earning their benefits. In terms of children we discovered that they came together more  for their kind of activities at the temple and also for playing games. They learn to play by the rule and recognize each other’s territories – including in terms of time. Ours is a small model but it is working. I would strongly recommend that the Provincial Council adopts this model – and becomes Accountable to all funding groups – including directly from international groups who demonstrate ground level connection with Northern Province.
Most important aspect of our management is Accountability. The coordinator in Thunaivi has been trained to provide us with monthly Accounts and we provide regular reports to our donors – not about how the monies were spent but about the values added. This article is one such Report.  The Northern Provincial Council could follow in this path and become a model for other Provincial Councils in Sri Lanka.

Those who feel comfortable in ‘program’ based spending – and therefore operate without closures – would keep traveling back into the past. Usually those who are complacent in their top positions tend to be such blocks. We need to seek and include as ours the pain and loss of others to develop a mind that is balanced and steady at the global level – to recognize others’ rights in benefits in our custody. Those others include our ancestors from whom we inherited common values and cultures and above all The Lord – Father to All of us. Mr. Rajapaksa became godfather due to making LTTE as his enemy instead of Tamils as his opposition. His guru was Prabhakaran of Myliddy area. 

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