Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

15 April  2020

PUNISHING MINORITIES THROUGH COVID-19?

As per latest news  14 new cases of Coronavirus infection have been reported in Sri Lanka:

[Eight of the confirmed patients have been identified at the Palaly quarantine center, while 4 from the Mulankavil quarantine center and one from the Puttalam quarantine center have been identified.]

Palaly and Mulankavil are majority Tamil areas and Puttalam is majority Muslim area. The question is whether minorities are being punished by the current government led by Armed Forces headed by Lt Gen Shavendra Silva? Is this a projected outcome of the election promises?

As highlighted previously in relation to Coronavirus fear, there is a Tamil story about Goddess Durga and Cholera. Below is the parallel from Indonesian Legends and Folk Tales. Narrated  by Adele de Leeuw:

The Three Companions

Every year Cholera made a visit to the Holy City of Mecca with her companions Death and Fear. One year however, Fear came to the city before Death and Cholera. The old gatekeeper, who did not know Fear, let her enter.

When Cholera and Death arrived at the gate, the gatekeeper shouted,
“Cholera, how many victims will you take this time?”
“Not more than 500 I’m sure this time,” Cholera said.
“Death, how many will you take?” the gatekeeper cried.
“As always, I will take only what Cholera gives me.”
The gatekeeper let them enter.

Weeks later, Death and Cholera returned and called to the gatekeeper,
“Open the gates.”
“Cholera, how many victims did you take?” the gatekeeper asked.
“Only 499,” Cholera answered.
“And Death, how many did you take?” asked the gatekeeper
“I took more than a thousand.”
“You promised you’d only take what Cholera gave you!” the gatekeeper cried.
“Yes,” Death answered sadly, “Most of those who died were taken by Fear who entered your gate alone before us. Now you know that Fear does more harm and causes more deaths than Cholera!”

We do not know the scientific reasons of the effects produced by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces nor their enemy – the Tamil Tigers. We can know through empirical studies. For example the Armed Forces which were not held accountable as per the law – become the Independent variables/inputs. The outcomes they produced by the same source changing the inputs, to my mind are Dependent variables.    The armed war outcomes depended on the highly subjective and therefore Independent input by the government. Likewise, the Coronavirus  outcomes controlled by the Armed Forces – produced in war-areas.

Since the Armed Forces are independent – we need to, for our own protection,  take an ‘effects based’ approach to know why ? That would help eliminate fear from our minds. Yesterday for example, I used empirical evidence to identify with the reason of the conduct of neighbours in Thunaivi who forced open our temple gate to come into the temple for prayers. The female head of that family left Thunaivi and lived in Mulankavil until recently.

The parallel discovery by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in August 2008 was the cemetery by the LTTE. By observation, one confirms that in Mulankavil, the LTTE remembered with respect their war-heroes. One is entitled to conclude that that discovery would now become the new Independent input in producing Coronavirus statistics. Hence the above . I identify with this through the following by William Isaac Thomas – the American specialist in ‘sociology in immigration’:

[If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences]

One needs to ask the question as to whether minority minds are being influenced to demote themselves as punishment for opposing the government. If yes, to the extent those minds were independent through their own beliefs – the punishment will be returned to sender.