17 March 2021
GTF
vs LTTE
Every community needs an internal hierarchy
through which the community is managed. Mine began with family and then extended to the
workplace in Colombo. Hence I became Sri Lankan largely through the workplace.
Likewise here in Australia. After I stopped working for material returns, I had
to find a group that would best facilitate
my contribution to become a heritage. The
first call came when a Yoga Swami devotee asked me whether I would go to
Northern Sri Lanka to help the Tamil Tigers set up a public admin system with funded
by the UNDP? That gave me the opportunity to assess not only the needs of the
Tamil community as it was then but also the willingness of the LTTE to accept
such an administration. It was a failure due to both factors. The public who
were affected by the war expressed from different angles. Hence I had to first
become part of the LTTE managed group and then the Government managed group.
The reports were differently structured to suit the diversity of the two
groups.
As a Tamil in Australia, I am similarly
having to go into two different modes when engaging with the Tamil Community. I
identified with similar separation in the British Tamil Community also. The
UNHRC report has manifested this at this time. Anyone serving the Tamil
community of Sri Lanka, needs to appreciate this need to take two different
structures when dealing with the Tamil Community of Sri Lankan and of Sri
Lankan origin.
As has been published frequently this month, Mrs Ambihai K Selvakumar, a director of the International
Centre for the Prevention of Genocide (ICPPG) is on hunger strike, and she
demands that the UK refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court.
It is possible that this identity came through her workplace structure which
needs to first identify with the need of the community. Given the internal
divisions, this is not possible. It is worse when the issue is seen as a Sri
Lankan problem and becomes more confusing when it is seen in the context of global
participants.
Each one of us needs a structure through which to
connect to other participants. To the extent we provided service on the basis
that the need of the beneficiary is our
need, the structure is Universal. Universal Franchise is based on this
discovery. Hence in democracy where the voter is positioned below the one who
receives the vote would empower the one above through independence. Independence
is an absolute power. A democratically elected leader would lead naturally through
this absolute power of truth.
As a self-governing person, I do not
identify with Mrs Ambihai K Selvakumar’s claim
that she represents the Tamil community. Within the British Tamil Community,
this lady’s part is very small as per the supporters. Global Tamil Forum which
has been given official space by the Island, which is a mainstream Sri Lankan on
the basis of an interview by the BBC.
The essence of it was presented as follows:
[The Global Tamil Forum
(GTF) spokesperson Suren Surendiran said that the Tamil community did not
believe in commissions appointed by the government of Sri Lanka to address
post-war reconciliation issues. In an interview with the BBC Sinhala service,
Surendiran said that the Tamil community expected the UNHRC to address their
grievances.]
The role of GTF is confirmed also as follows:
[GTF doesn’t directly involve in politics in Sri
Lanka. We work very closely with the elected members of our community and
others. We engage with civil society organisations and representatives from a
cross section of all communities in Sri Lanka and reflect the ground reality in
Sri Lanka to overseas stakeholders.]
When Mrs Ambihai K Selvakumar began her hunger strike did the
GTF see it as its democratic duty to either endorse it or openly oppose it? I
have no knowledge of the GTF’s stand on this. Hence one has to conclude that
the GTF’s stand was to remain silent on the issues raised by Mrs Selvakumar.
Until one knows otherwise, one has to acknowledge that Mrs Selvakumar believes in the claims she
is making. If GTF were law abiding group then it is possible that they would identify
with the belief of Mrs Thatcher in the case of IRA Martyr Bobby Sands:
"Mr Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to take
his own life. It was a choice that his organisation did not allow to many of
its victims".
This applies also to Mrs Selvakumar whose mentor as
per her own admission is LTTE’s Thileepan. LTTE killed Tamil Politics and hence
Democracy itself. If that is the governance
structure that Jaffna Tamils wanted they
would have abstained from voting in the parliamentary elections.
As I keep saying to my students, one has to
believe in the measure/theory, – to know rights and wrongs of an action. I
usually use Pythagoras's theorem which states that ‘the
square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas of the
squares on the other two sides.’
Represented as follows:
a2 + b2 = c2
This was also the 50:50 demand by the Hon G G
Ponnambalam – as per Sri Lanka’s Political reality.
The reverse of Pythagoras's theorem is also
true. Accordingly when the square of the longest side of a triangle is equal to
the sum of the squares of the other two the triangle is a right angled
triangle.
Represented as follows:
c2 = a2 + b2
Politics is linear measure and its square is
governance measure. Hence the second highest vote winner is raised to Equal
level to complete the governance picture.
In Sri
Lanka, the Sinhalese community is the hypotenuse. Tamils and Muslims are
respectively the other two sides of the triangle. Self-governance cannot be
measured through linear measures. It has to be multiplied by itself. Hence
where all three communities are self governing the triangle is a sovereign body.
If there is interference with this through powers using linear measures – the whole
loses its sovereignty and does so exponentially.
LTTE killed such Tamil leaders – using linear
measures. This is why Mrs Selvakumar said that she was not following in
Gandhi’s path. Gandhi was self-governing and hence whatever he did to himself as penance would naturally spread itself to
all those who believed in him and considered Gandhi to be part of themselves.
Mrs Selvakumar’s penance would go towards those to whom LTTE was governance
power. But this then makes them part of the group proscribed by the government of the UK
and other countries. LTTE chose to live in hiding. It would not have gone to
the UN for Justice. It had the courage to give itself the same punishment that
it meted out to its opposition. It is disrespectful for those who take the
lawful path – to grade them – including as heroes.
If proscription is lifted by the UK prior to
governance power being allocated by law to those in Sri Lanka – then that would
effectively demote the status of law abiding Tamils and Muslims of Sri Lanka
who have realised self-governance in the little space they have had. Tamil community’s claim of Nationhood was
lost when Tamil Politicians were killed and majority remained silent.
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