Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

2 June  2019

Citizen’s Prevention of Terrorism

When I learnt about the passing away of the husband of the daughter of family friends of ours, my heart went out to the parents and the daughter. It was natural. We were not bound by biological connections and yet the feeling was there. To my mind, that is how true relationships are formed through Commonness – often common need. This paved the way for us to serve that extended family and also be respected and honoured by those we served genuinely. When we connect to others as if they are a part of us – we recognize that we are children of god, even though we may not be conscious of it.  Then when we serve each other we serve humanity. Until we reach that stage – if we kill in the name of Jihad – that is to ‘show’ and we get punished one way or the other. If the victim trusted us - the return karma becomes exponential. Often such false Jihadists / soldiers turn against their own elders. This is true not only of the Muslim and Tamil communities but also the Sinhala Buddhist community of Sri Lanka. They operate against humanity and become animals.

Yesterday we heard on the news about early detection of Alzheimer’s through an eye test. I said to the family that in my case I believe I prevent Alzheimer’s by keeping my brain in active order. Living in Truth I believe would prevent Alzheimer’s  or at least minimise its effects. The Truth that is dormant needs to be brought upwards to the third eye spot – which discriminates the matter into right side and wrong side. Truth being universally common would show us who is right and who is wrong for us. This may be the other way around to someone else. In that case we are travelling in different paths.  

On that basis – we may have early detection of recognition of wrongs  within our community but to some other community they may be rights. That which is wrong for Tamil Politicians may have been right for militants influenced by Indian handouts. Likewise that which was wrong to the Muslim community of Sri Lanka would have seemed right to ISIS. Likewise, that which was wrong to the Tamil community of Sri Lanka would have seemed to other countries like China and Even the USA government with excessive war power.

If  development of commonness ceases – we need to not get closer than we are to each other.  If we find that we are not able to discipline those we consider to be our juniors – we need to move away from them so they do not earn our curse.

BBC’s article headed ‘The man who might have stopped Sri Lanka's Easter bombings’ – at  https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48435902 leads us into the mind of a Muslim family that did not have the power to discipline the would be bombers:

[Months before the bombings, Taslim, an earnest 37-year-old local politician from a Muslim-majority town in central Sri Lanka, had been at the forefront of efforts to investigate the extremists.

Taslim's story encapsulates both how the country's Muslim community actively tried to stop the emergence of radical elements in their midst, and how the authorities failed to recognise repeated warning signs ahead of the Easter attacks.

The town of Mawanella is just a few hours' drive east of the capital, Colombo. It's surrounded by a lush green landscape, and the area is dominated by Buddhist and Muslim communities.]

Mawanella is close to Kandy – the Capital of  upper class Sinhalese – known as Kandyan Sinhalese who as per my knowledge were ruling class. I know that within my family ‘traditional seniors’ have difficulty treating me as equal even after I take more responsibility than they in family issues. They do not get the early warnings of ‘outsiders’ whom they treat as equals or worse as seniors in our family. Like Taslim mentioned above – I also reported on the basis of racial discrimination at the University of NSW  - an institution that had a high proportion of migrant community which included Muslims from other countries and Muslims who were still living of the culture of their countries of origin, more than Australian Muslims. The government headed by Mr John Howard – effectively punished me for the government’s  failure to follow Equal Employment Opportunity principles and policies. When I could go no more and separated myself – the karma returned with interest at the government’s level – first as Terrorism attacks and – eventually to dismiss Mr Howard. THAT is true ownership power that a good proportion of migrants contributed to. Through my truth I identify with that reasoning at policy level.  Like in the case of the above family who were not blood relatives, I was not a blood relative of non-migrant Australians. Yet I received the early warning – due to my feelings of ownership by including even my seniors who showed more than they really were in their positions. Hence I resigned albeit out of pain but Mr Howard was dismissed by the People because he separated himself from migrants and became deaf to their intelligence sharing. When we are true to each other  the land that we live on becomes ‘common’ and in turn makes our families and communities ‘common’. It starts with the individual.

Muslim leaders and Sinhalese to whom Kandy and surroundings are ‘home’ would have shared ruling power. But not Batticaloa Muslim and Kandy Muslim. Batticaloa ownership is shared largely between Muslims and Tamils. By attacking Batticaloa church, the attackers  confirmed that they were not Muslims of Sri Lanka but had weakened their brains so much that they would become obedient servants of foreigners who ‘looked’ Muslims and used the name of Islam for lower purposes.

Many of them had education in ‘Christian-looking’ institutions and nations. LTTE leader from North also changed his religious looks – to be seen as Christian and named his son Charles Anthony. Hence he did not hear intuitively my plea to surrender to Lord Muruga of Nallur. Those who ‘show’ more than they have – separate and eventually isolate themselves. Once they do so – it is easy to defeat them. Likewise the Easter Bomber did not hear the Mawanella leader’s voice and now the whole Sri Lankan Muslim community is suffering. The BBC report shows the order in which the truth unfolded and how deaf and therefore disorderly the custodians of power were:

[A senior Sri Lankan police source told me that one of Hashim's close associates confessed that Hashim ordered Taslim be killed for acting as an "informant".

In March, just over a month before the Easter attacks, a gunman quietly entered Taslim's house in the early hours of the morning. He was lying in bed, next to his wife, and his youngest son. The gunman shot him once in the head.

"At first I thought the phone charger had exploded, but I looked and it was fine," Taslim's wife told me. "Then I tried to wake him up, and I could smell gunpowder… I reached out to him and I realised he wasn't conscious. I thought he was dead."

Taslim was rushed to hospital. He survived the attack, but it's not clear if he will ever fully recover.

Sri Lanka's army commander, Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake, is now playing a leading role in the investigation into the Easter Bombings. He told me it had been confirmed that the "same network" was also responsible for the desecration of the Buddhist statues, the explosives hidden in the coconut grove, and the shooting of Taslim.

He admitted that the previous incidents should have made the authorities more alert to the dangers of a jihadist attack. Instead, warnings by the Indian security services in the days and hours leading up the bombings weren't followed up, due to what the army commander referred to as problems with "intelligence sharing" between different departments.]

‘Intelligence sharing’ has been highlighted as a key issue in the Easter bombing. One who ‘includes’ the other as part of her/himself has ‘intelligence’ that the other has – even when it is not expressly communicated. That is the value of family/institution/nation. Where one is not able to do so naturally – one needs to consciously follow the common pathway so that one gets the opportunity to access the other’s intelligence more quickly than if they were separate pathways of outsiders. Reliable and healthy immigration relies strongly on such common travel.

The Easter Bombings have confirmed that internal migration in Sri Lanka is unhealthy due to lack of natural intelligence sharing. At citizens’ level – majority Sri Lankans do not have conflict with members of other ethnicities any more than they have within their family and community. But all attackers target Colombo government because they consider themselves the equals of the Colombo government which often shows more status than it has. In Democracy no  government can have more status than the common citizen. From the point they are equal – the government has the duty to treat the citizen as Equal. A government that keeps elevating itself above the common citizen’s level invites ‘outsiders’ who have excess capacity in weapon based war.

The Rajapaksa government did that in terms of Tamil militants and spread it to community which had the effect of depressing them. To the extent they had excess capacity – they turned against Sinhalese. The Easter bombings confirm that the Tamils were not beaten but that the risk to Sri Lanka as a whole of foreign invasion was far greater due to the exodus and the dirty linen washing at international level. We citizens need to seek and find our commonness. Now after the Easter bombings, Tamil militants and Muslim militants – have commonness and this would get stronger if Muslims are blamed but the officials are not disciplined. Then we can expect more and more ISIS attacks. The way to prevent it is for citizens to not leave it to the lame duck government but to find common ways to share in everyday life – starting with family – especially family by law. To the extent we are communities through religion – we are Sri Lankans by law until we feel each other’s pain as ours. That is the real cure for which we do not ‘need’ handouts from government.  In fact even if the government ‘hands-out’ we need to earn it our way.  A soldier who does not work for his remuneration depresses the government’s Defence intelligence. Likewise the militant. THAT is the root cause of the terrorism in Sri Lanka.