Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

19 April 2017

Our Sovereignty

I believe that our Sovereignty at birth is confirmed by the  borders of the position in which we are born – at that time. For example, I am the second child of Sironmani and Navaratnam. To the extent my parents were conscious of their position with wider family, community and society, the ‘structure’ that confirms my Sovereignty would include those heritages. Anyone demotes my parents below themselves disturbs my Sovereign borders. This may even be someone from the inner circle of the family. To the extent I mentally distance myself from them and treat them as ‘outsiders’ I preserve my Sovereignty which may or may not be confirmed by my position. Once I completed my relationship with my parents – they come with me not as individuals but as per their positions. They are included in me as part of myself.  We complete relationships through various expressions of Belief. We start off with belief in ourselves and completion is confirmed by Common belief. Common Belief is with the individual also where there is no change in the original structure. Common Belief is with the structure, where the other individual fails to complete her/his role. One who so completes is able to comfortably and legitimately take on either position in that relationship. Hence sons take the father’s position and daughters the mother’s position in the system of Thesawalamai – applicable to Northern Sri Lankans.

This applies also in Governance at National level. Most of us are citizens when we complete the relationship with the government we become the Government. In Democracy, we are facilitated to vote one of us as our representatives and if majority voters are self-governing – the Government elected by them would uphold the Sovereignty of the whole. Stated the other way around, one who upholds the Sovereignty of a Nation is the Government of the Nation.

Recently after worshipping at  Keerimalai Naguleswaram temple, in Northern Sri Lanka we were traveling towards Jaffna town and we noted the Kankesanthurai (KKS) Cement factory where my brother in law Subramaniam Yoganathan worked and became a governing member of that institution,  by disciplining the management through legal action. The Courts did not award reinstatement and Mr. Yoganathan rejected their compensation. This promoted him to governing position. It was a sad sight to note that that institution was now idle. Yesterday, my attention was drawn to the Lanka news web article ‘War heroes, patriots sold KKS Cement factory for scrap iron’ which states:

[The sale of state properties came to the fore again with the Hambantota port agreement. Former president, Kurunegala district MP Mahinda Rajapaksa commented, “In our time, we did not sell state properties in this manner. We developed state properties.” Leave alone our opinion with regard to the sale of state properties. It is one thing to sell something in a manner that benefits someone. But, it is a completely different thing to destroy and then sell state and Sri Lankan nation owned properties. This exposure is about the national crime of the sale by the so-called owners of patriotism of the Kankesanthurai cement factory for scrap iron.]

This kind of dismantling of government structure happens when a government is elected by People who practiced reverse autocracy. Democracy is confirmed when the citizen is facilitated to govern her/himself. In Sri Lanka both rebellions against elected governments / politicians confirmed the rule of reverse autocracy. It’s the parallel of the child ‘administrating’ the parent. That would happen only when one has mentally moved away from the origin without completing the governance responsibility in the structure that one is born into. Not only governments that go into areas that are more self-governing than their own but migrants who are yet to complete their home governance relationship  and show cleverness to take status outside their institutional and family boundaries, disturb others’ Sovereignty. When such emigrants/members of the Diaspora return mentally and/or physically to Sri Lanka, and take positions higher than the ones they left open when emigrating, they disturb the peace of that homeland. Then that land is open to invasion by foreigners.

It is to prevent such disturbances that we need to complete our relationships when emigrating. The system of dowry to daughters is to facilitate such completion. But those who take it as payments for their work, abandon their original positions and make foreigners of themselves.

Those of us closely associated with KKS Cement factory directly and/or through others who became governors of that institution will continue to carry its value in our minds through other institutions that need good governors. That confirms that the Aathma / Soul never dies. The KKS Cement factor may physically get dismantled, but the true values of that institution would travel to support all its governors.