Yesterday, on learning about the declaration of Emergency in Sri Lanka, I rang the most vulnerable member of our common family in Colombo, to find out whether she was ok. She sounded ok and said she would contact me if she did not feel ok. My intuitive feeling was confirmed by Mr Rajapaksa who is reported to have stated as follows:

“The local and foreign forces seeking to destabilise this country are trying to engineer another 1983 style conflagration to drum up support for their constitutional reforms which seek to divide this country into several semi-independent states,” - adaderana.lk report headed ‘Rajapaksa urges citizens to refrain from all acts of violence’

I identify with the Truth in that message. It took an ethnic war for Mr Rajapaksa to identify with this Truth. As an active de facto Opposition, Mr Rajapaksa speaks the Truth, about what his group would do if it thought that ‘foreigners’ would invade Sri Lanka. This ‘Divide and Rule’ system prevailed during Colonial rule and the Dutch codified Customary laws to facilitate this kind of semi-independent states. Northerners got Thesawalamai law, Easterners got Mukuwa law, Kandyans got Kandyan law and Muslims got Muslim Law. This was highlighted in May 2013, by the Hon M.A.Sumanthiran during a panel Discussion on “Religion, Reconciliation and Future” as follows:

[there was reference made a couple of times to – four great religions of the world being present in this country and whenever that fact is mentioned I always remember, something that Judge Weeramantry wrote about the laws of this country, you know that the laws in this country, we have many laws, we have the Roman – Dutch law, we have the English law, we have Thesavalamai, we have the Kandyan Law, we have the Muslim law, we have the Mukuwa law – and he said the “Sri Lankan law is embarrassed by the richness of its source, rather than the lack of it.”]

Only Non-Kandyan Sinhalese seem to not have their own special customary law. They would tend to rule the whole through majority force due to lack of Commonness. Common laws help us escalate our thoughts through higher mind-structures. We may develop those structures through our own sacrifices of earned benefits and/or inherit them from our ancestors by respecting them. Without either, we would tend to divide and subdivide. The above multicultural laws confirm our diversity. Whoever rules in these special cultural areas – is already recognising the independence of these communities. The Ministries within the Executive Government on the basis of religion confirm this division and therefore the semi-independent state structure on the basis of religion.

The outbreak of violence in Kandy, Sri Lanka, confirms the deterioration within the group that has failed to respect this diversity. The greater our enjoyment of immediate returns, the lower our level of interpretation, as if we are poor in principles and therefore live a hand-to-mouth living. The lower our level of interpretation, the greater the need for small grouping, so we could ‘see’ the pain of the other and share our strengths. It is for this reason that money is consciously prevented as being used as a measure of merit in family relationships. The more we take as money the less commonness because one has to divide on the basis of objectively measurable outcomes. Money divides when used beyond human needs.

The deeper our belief in the other – the less we need money to reward. Whether others know it or not, when we use money we know that and develop our expectation on that basis. When Mr Rajapaksa paid money to LTTE in 2005, he confirmed his inner knowledge of LTTE’s weakness to ‘show’ cleverness at any cost. Most of us blamed or credited LTTE for the murder of former Prime Minister of India – the Hon Rajiv Gandhi. Indian Peace Keeping Force was shown as the reason why LTTE wanted to eliminate Mr Gandhi. But as per the records, the LTTE became the medium through whom the then President of Sri Lanka got rid of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF). The LTTE eventually turned against that very president. That is the problem with money in its various forms.

LTTE, as a guerrilla force is effective only if it remains behind the scenes and acts to defend and not attack. Through my inner knowledge of the group – during UNDP project, I learnt that many of the members found the activities exciting. It’s easy to brainwash those who become dependent on a leader. Those who earn their positions cannot be brainwashed. There were a few of them within the LTTE also. They are true soldiers and therefore Defence facilities in guerrilla uniform.

Indian leaders who promoted LTTE and other Tamil militants of Sri Lanka earned their return karma through Mr Rajiv Gandhi. Likewise Tamil politicians who promoted LTTE instead of protecting their political borders from armed militants. Like Mistresses, Guerrilla forces are best when they are in hiding. They lose power when they come out in the open. More money greater the transparency and therefore they can no longer be guerrilla forces. The multiculturalism within the Tamil as well as Sinhalese communities happened due to militancy in both communities. If those borders are respected – we would be positive democracy.

Even though Mr Rajapaksa and President Premadasa belong to two different political parties – their modus operandi groups them together. They both bought for money, the services of the LTTE for their own political desires below the level of law and hence the subdivision. This can be invoked even by one genuine practitioner of Sri Lankan law whose earned higher position is damaged by such coalitions, beyond the point of tolerance by that practitioner . Higher laws protect us from excessive use of majority force. The mind that does not have such protection is usually unaware of the enemy within. Hence the need for Opposition to be recognized as Equal – so we look in the mirror of Opposition and recognise our problem as theirs – as Mr Rajapaksa has done.

Australian Tamil Management Service

Thursday, 8 March 2018

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