Tuesday 2 November 2021

 

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam


01 November 2021

 

 

FROM FOREMOST TO SEPARATION

Sri Lanka: Mandates Stupidity’ states Prabath Sahabandu who according to Sri Lanka Guardian is ‘the Chief Editor of The Island, a Colombo based daily where this piece first appeared.’ The Island, as per my knowledge never published my articles. But taken as a whole – Sri Lanka Guardian leads in publishing my work over the years. Hence I accepted their word as to who Prabath Sahabandu is. That is the way of Commonness.

So, do I think that the government acted stupidly in appointing a Buddhist monk to head the Presidential Taskforce ? No!

Let us see as to why not?

The introduction to the subject matter begins as follows:

[It has been reported that the Rajapaksa brothers saw red when one of the SLPP coalition leaders, at a recent meeting, expressed his displeasure at the appointment of Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara as the head of the so-called one-country-one-law presidential task force. ]

The Red Rag was actually ‘shown’ to minority bulls through the above mentioned appointment. This would then tend towards perpetuating rebellions and therefore the need to visibly maintain the armed forces at current or greater levels. That is the way of Sakuni / Son of Saturn in the epic Mahabharatham. Sakuni’s weapons were his gambling dice. The weapons of Sinhala Nationalists is Buddhism. The weapons of Tamil Nationalists is Racism. The weapons of Junior Tamils who desire Equality is Casteism.

The Chief Editor goes on to state:

[They reportedly demanded to know what right the dissenting leader had to question the decision of a President who had received a mandate from 6.9 million people. Their line of reasoning defies comprehension. Do they think the mandate they are crowing about has made the President infallible?]

When you logically comprehend, you are not in belief and v.v. One who believes is infallible as per her/his conscience.

When Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected by the People – it was taken to be as per their Belief. I concluded my article headed ‘ICAC ERODING OUR WELLBEING?’ – as follows:

[The ICAC lacks jurisdiction to enter into this area of ‘belief’. Only we the People have the authority to dismiss an elected person on the basis of ‘loss’ of trust. We also have to wait for election time towards this. Let us not forget that criminals who believe in their own sovereignty are also entitled to leader of their belief. ]

That is the power of democracy which is based on ‘soul power’. The soul is a spark of Divinity in us and it is infallible. This power is known as Common power.

When the President recently gave his speech at the UN – the English media in Sri Lanka did not call it ‘stupid’. There Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa played the tune of the English media. Knowledge without belief cannot be sustained to benefit our natural environment.

The Chief Editor states:

[A popular mandate is not a licence for a leader to do as he or she pleases. Instead, it is the authority the people confer on a political leader to act as their representative and serve them.]

True. The Common voter can be served only as per the common belief of that relationship. This is confirmed by that part of the Sri Lankan Constitution that applies exclusively to majority group. This is in Article 9 which states that Buddhism is foremost and Buddha Sasana is the law:

[The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e).. ]

The current President has so far demonstrated that he gave Buddhism foremost place. Non Buddhists therefore have the choice of accepting him as senior or separating themselves as Equals and operate within their own laws such as Thesawalamai law and Muslim law.

The hidden perpetual value in this constitutional structure is separatism when we claim to be Equal to a Buddhist – as in Common global law. Otherwise every non-Buddhist has the limit to take Junior position to a Buddhist and it is the duty of every Buddhist to take senior position and provide the facilities for the junior religions to practice their faith. Thesawalamai law has the parallel on gender basis. The division is work based. Those of us who practice Thesawalamai law would appreciate the built in Separation of powers in article 9. Those who failed to do so desired Equal Status and invoked juniors to declare separation. Thus ‘Sinhala only’ policy of Mr SWRD  Bandaranayake became Buddhism foremost during the rule of Mrs Bandaranayake who was treated by her husband as a junior who belonged in the kitchen. He was killed by Buddhist monk and the lady who accepted Junior position elevated the Buddhist monk through the above article which within political leadership would have offset the fear of Buddhist leaders getting killed by Buddhist monks.

To my mind, Communism / Marxism was an avenue through which commonness was visibly promoted and hence became a natural opposition of religion and belief based structures that are based on invisible values of Tradition. Their heirs are the JVP in South and LTTE in North. They are now separating from mainstream Traditional politicians in North.

To argue as per the Constitution which is the Bible of Sri Lanka, one has to be above Buddhism as Common God or consciously remain within her/his side of the Constitution where s/he has the opportunity to be god.

Let us therefore project the statement above regarding service as a representative. As Equal  - one Represents. But to serve one has to be junior. As a senior you need the authority to structure and the structure ensures protection of your earnings. A senior does not lead by direct work at equal level as the person s/he represents. Hence majority vote beyond one vote is not valuable. All one needs is one vote majority to represent. Such a person is a first amongst equals and is NOT senior. The government gets to go first on the basis of majority.

No law in democracy would render powers / authority to take a position above the common person / group that shares / delegates its powers. Hence we have the Judiciary whose power is based to higher level through intellectual pursuit coupled with belief in those who gave the world such laws.  If the Judiciary had frowned upon such opposition – one could conclude that that member of the Judiciary was ignorant. But not so a politician who represents.

Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa did not claim he was a clever leader to produce a policy that would satisfy the educated. He listened to his brother who accepted Equal position of LTTE leader – including by bribing LTTE’s eastern commander Karuna. The English media did not call that ‘unjust’ or ‘stupid’. Tamils demoted the status of Eastern branch but that was too little too late.

Article 9 has continued to be part of our constitution and has been accepted by all governments since 1972. Unlike in the case of language issue – minorities also did not show strong opposition to this. They thus confirmed the height of their intelligence as well.

The Chief Editor states:

[If the SLPP leaders believe that the incumbent President’s decisions and actions cannot be questioned or challenged simply because of his mandate, then they will have to explain why they protested against what the late Presidents J. R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa did. They held street protests, filed court cases, and carried out malicious propaganda onslaughts against those leaders. They even went to Geneva against President Premadasa. They also campaigned against President Maithripala Sirisena and tried to oust him in spite of his mandate, didn’t they?]

When Rajapaksas protested against UNP – they did so under SLFP mandate. SLPP is a new entity and its makeup and way of living are different to SLFP. This was brought about also due to Mr Maithripala Sirisena switching his allegiance to oppose the Rajapaksas. Opposition as an equal is a sin in autocracy and a virtue in democracy. Rajapaksas practice autocracy within their own clan. This is not immoral, given that they look-after their juniors. No leader since 1972 considered it her/his duty to repeal article 9 and liberate the constitution from religious prisons.

Through one of his songs praising Lord Muruga – Tamil Saint Yoga Swami shares with us as follows:

Thevar Sirai Meetah Selvan Thiruvaddihal Kaaval Enakkam’/ The feet of the adorable boy who redeemed the higher thinkers (spiritual minds) from their prison (body and its pleasures) are my security.

Every Sri Lankan who believes in Muruga gets redeemed from the prison of majority power. Sinhala Buddhists who do so are covered by the Opposition side to a Buddhist leader and v.v. Each time the Premadasa group opposes a Buddhist-looking government on the basis of belief  – its powers are added to the non-Buddhist side who have accepted junior position. That combined force toppled Mr Sirisena and paved the way for Mr Gotabaya to become president.  So long as it remains within the boundaries of the party they are safe. When it comes out to the public, there is an avenue to oppose and that was how Mrs Bandaranayake fell. Likewise Mr Sirisena. Mr Wickremesinghe fell due to his attachment to his intellectual height which is the enemy of democracy.

Mr Premadasa is a hybrid of the two and if he joins UNP and accepts Ranil as an advisor we can have the good from both worlds.

Natural powers work in the order – body first, brain next and soul eternal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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