Tamils Recruiting the President?

This morning I was directed to the article ‘Sri Lanka's electoral dysfunction’ by Journalist J.S.Thissainayagam, published in Tamil Guardian; the original article having been published in Foreign Policy journal. I was able to comfortably identify with the essence of Mr. Thissainayagam’s message about minority rights in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Thissainayagam states:

[The international community must take forward the UN investigation into Sri Lankan atrocities "to bring those responsible for crimes in both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE before an international tribunal"]

This to me is an administrative statement as opposed to the following from a ‘Tamil only’ supporter who is supporting ‘no voting’ by Tamils:

[The Tamil problem in SL can only be resolved with the involvement and engagement of the international community. The Vaddukoddai resolution, the election of the TNA to the NPC has sent a clear message to the IC, that the Tamils want to be left alone to live and manage their own affairs peacefully.]

As with most communities we Tamils also have our share of emotionally driven groups and those operating at the higher Administrative level. Within the Diaspora, some of us are taking the Administrative approach through global mechanisms whilst others are using politics of their current areas of residence to influence majority outcomes. Such political exercise  has the effect of suppressing Administrative outcomes in areas where subjective power is not evenly balanced.  When this happens, it  would reduce the value of Sri Lanka as a whole at the International level.  The Administrative path on the other hand, would maintain the promised Equal status of Sri Lanka with other UN member nations. Maintaining that subjective power to equal levels – would lead to reliable administration through the subjective path.

When we interact with individuals as per each other’s current contributions only – we develop the political system in which the excess becomes wastage when we step into higher administrative level. The higher value of Administration is that we pass our costs through positions common to many contributors and also derive benefits through those positions. This results in beneficiaries of the same level  having  Opportunity to derive Equal benefits and those with higher entitlement (not as per their contribution to the current benefits pool but as per their contribution to the total value – including the inherited values – often reflected through the seniors in a family/community/nation ) – deriving  higher benefits by raising the base opportunity to the higher level through their own efforts. Those seniors who focus more on current benefits than on positions are part of the wastage that politics/emotional attachments become beyond their physical lifetime.

Under the system of Democracy –  our Administrative contributions spread laterally to become global values. The wider the reach  the greater the global value and therefore the stronger the heritage value when read through the vertical system of time.  The strength of this heritage/global value is determined by the Truth within the structure. Often when there is no medium for such structure – it still remains as Energy and empowers the seekers universally – often without either side being conscious of its existence. They are like acts of god.

Truth and Fact are often confused and they are indiscriminately used to suit the current desires of those in custody of the physical form of power.  Likewise Heritage value and History are often mixed indiscriminately resulting in wastage of current resources. One who is not conscious of the oldest position in a family or the position with widest coverage in lateral system of democracy is talking about history when s/he refers to Heritage. Both leading ethnicities in Sri Lankan politics – Tamils and Sinhalese accepting armed leadership over intellectual leadership are referring to history when they refer to the past. Both distract from discovering the real and lasting solution that suits Sri Lankans of all ethnicities/the Common Sri Lankan.

 Like with the individual, there are three levels at which ‘fact’ is measured. The objectively measurable fact that is seen physically and is measured through independent majority report; the subjectively reported  fact that the person thinks it is;  and the real fact that is a manifestation of Truth as experienced. That Truth is never changing across the various levels and across time.  The ‘fact’ as reported by subjects is valid only to the extent that the subject is connected to the person/s who had the ‘experience’. These are the subjects who are connected to the experience through feelings. In democracy, it is more difficult than in autocracy,  to experience feelings through objectively measurable outcomes that did not happen in our life time.

Like the mind, the fact as we think it is,  is a combination of the body of the outcome and the Truth / the soul of the fact. A fact without soul is wastage beyond its physical time or place of external use. Politics has higher risk of this wastage than Administration. Subjective expressions without equal opposition often become political wastage due to weak ‘other’ side.

 A vote without belief is a wasted vote. ‘No  voting’ without an Administrative purpose weakens the investment by Tamils in ‘political rights’. The LTTE being included in the ‘war-crimes’ investigations confirms that the ‘no voting’ in 2005 Presidential Elections became a current cost against the LTTE and the Tamils – especially those strongly influenced by LTTE.

At this point in time, when Tamils have the responsibility to decide not only whom to vote for in January 2015,  but also whether to vote or not to vote – the heritage value of Tamil Community needs to be understood for what it truly is. Only those who feel connected to  Tamil ancestors as opposition to majority  Sinhalese have true connection to ownership ‘rights’ in the ethnic issue. The Vaddukoddai Resolution was made as per the Political structure common to all Sri Lankans and was indeed motivated towards ‘winning’ positions in that Political Structure common to Sri Lankans. Tamils winning the Equal Opposition position in  Parliament in 1977 confirmed the natural heritage value of  Tamils’ higher  investments in Administration. If there had been a parallel investment in lateral democracy – the Tamil Diaspora would have fielded their local representative to ‘show’ their power at its maximum, and done so  before the Common Opposition Candidate was fielded by Sinhalese. THAT would have been the foundation on which a Tamil would one day become a Common President of Sri Lanka. Such power is still available but more so in  Administrative form.

The 1977 Equal position was achieved through the True investment by Tamils in  Administration. As per my observations – Tamils as a community are the deepest investors in common structures and positions – including through job  based caste system as regulated by Thesawalamai Law – which is very different to the Sinhalese customary system which influences development of law in Sri Lanka. Caste system today is of heritage value to Jaffna Tamils. It was indeed the foundation of the Administrative system as practiced by Tamils of Northern Sri Lanka which led to the Political victory in 1977 when Tamils won the position of Equal Opposition in Parliament.

The above mentioned ‘Tamil only’ participant states in support of his claim that Tamils would be better off ‘staying at home’ on election day:

‘Gandhi made a stand;  we Tamils collectively can, if we stay at home at this election, and watch the mayhem amongst them for a change, with a clear message - ABSTAIN, and the IC will understand, our next step.’

Gandhi acted as per his investment in Administration. When he could not derive returns as per his investment in the Administrative system  - Gandhi promoted and practiced non-violent non-cooperation in Administration. The Administrative unit  when translated at the physical level – becomes double or more multiples of the unit value of political  power. This is because politics is limited to physical units and one person can enjoy / suffer only one or the other of ‘pain or pleasure’ at any one time at the physical level. The rest is stored intellectually.

In Administration there are two sides :

(1)   Positions taken by  two or more subjects – one/one group  taking one side and the other taking the equal and opposite side – as in Parliament where the Opposition has Equal rights as the Government; or

(2)   One person representing the ‘right’ side of the matter measured through common rule, principle or law and the other person/group representing  ‘not-right’ / ‘wrong’ side of the matter. The right side gets the benefit and the wrong side pays the cost. The deeper the applicability of the law or the wider the applicable coverage  the higher the multiple value mentioned above.

Subjective Local path

One (1) above represents heritage value when the subjects have contributed to maintenance of systems that represent true experiences of persons before our time at that place and  who do not have a direct vote / say in making current decisions. Some examples of the above heritage values  for Sri Lankan Tamils are King Ellalan, Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan,   GG Ponnambalam; SJV Chevanayagam and Appapillai Amirthalingam. The older their contribution and the more current the consciousness of the person is – the greater the subjective value when manifested at political level.

There is a published list in Wikipedia – of  people described as  Tamils of Sri Lanka defined as follows:

[This is a List of Tamils of Sri Lanka by their country of domicile or origin. All communities that speak Tamil or spoke Tamil and originally came from Sri Lanka are included.Tamils of Sri Lanka today are a trans-national minority and are found across the globe. They are known by many other names including Ceylonese, Jaffnese, Eelamese and Nagas among others.]

Included in the list are personalities such as Mr. Maha Sinnathamby who is reported to have stated publicly ‘Proud to be a Tamil". Be proud to be a part of to be a part of this great country and can I say what unites us is far, far greater than what divides us - so let us join hands and work together’

If there is a Tamil v English vote in Australia – then the above would be a valid political statement. But Mr. Sinnathamby to have subjective power influencing Sri Lankan politics, needs to believe that he is Sri Lankan – no more or no less than he is Malaysian or Australian. The ownership Truth as experienced at national level is the common soul in all descriptions at equal level. The conscious connection to the local group is essential for the senior/high achiever  to be included as part of the group. On that basis Mr. Sinnathamby is not known to have shared his achievements with Sri Lankans nor was he in Sri Lanka when he achieved his credentials. The Sri Lankan root to be a valid claim, needs to be  kept alive through Belief as individual,  part of family and/or part of community. That belief is the spark of True experience and is as good and valid as the Experience itself.

Objective global  path

Two (2) above has the greater effect of lateral spread through policies and values. The less the ‘local’ baggage of ‘possession’ (as in Tamil only or Sinhala only) the further the outreach and lateral spread – even if one never left home physically. In this instance – the subject is lost consciousness of and the value is related through the outcome made available to the Public. Like the Soul, Truth / Independence, once experienced is never lost  - even when it is not recognized by others. Truth is Universal and hence manifestations of Truth acquire global value – the moment they are produced and given form as per the environment in which they are born.  They need not be recognized by those with global status – to be so valuable.

 They are independent of all subjects and yet belong to all – each one as per her/his belief in the ISSUE.  Some such as the Ponnambalams and Ellalan, in the above list would qualify under the global listing as well – due to their contribution to Administration through civil service. All those who are minorities and achieve highly and confirm it through production of public outcomes – are taken to have won through merit basis. Hence they are more global than those of majority power.

The issue in the current challenge facing Sri Lankan Tamils of global consciousness is participation in development of  strong Administrative foundation on which Politics would be played out democratically in Sri Lanka. To political minorities  who cannot directly identify with any Presidential candidate,  production of globally recognizable outcomes is the core purpose of voting. In the 2010 elections  majority Tamils voted for General Fonseka and thus confirmed that they were not against the armed forces. Since military action represents physical power – war crimes is no longer a political issue for local Sri Lankans. They are more of heritage value for those who had the experience and are preparing to handover to the next generation.

The People of Vaddukoddai – where the Vaddukoddai Resolution was made and declared in 1976, confirmed their acceptance of the current leaders as political leaders when they attended of their own accord  - meetings where President Rajapaksa spoke, earlier this year. If we are strong administrators in our current environments – however local and small they may seem – we would naturally exercise our right to vote and thus maintain our membership in global politics and also maintain the foundation level of global administration.

A right is exercised for oneself  by oneself - so our thoughts would be structured to merge with our environmental structures.  The majority voting for a particular side of the common order of thought has the priority leadership position. The other side is Equally important in that structure to which Tamils have also contributed over time and distance. If not for Sinhalese politicians – Tamils would be weak in politics and would be open to dictatorships as happened through  LTTE rule.

Hence to me the issue is whether Tamils seek  to vote for Mr.Rajapaksa and prevent future dictatorships which confirm loss of political power to armed forces or whether they/we  seek to vote for the Common Opposition Candidate and work along with like-minded Sinhalese for less structured and more transparent general living which carries the risk of loss of heritage value of Sri Lankans of both ethnicities. Under the current group leading the Opposition – the Opposition is not Common but General. Consolidation based on sacrifice of current benefits is essential for general to become common. If we are to vote for General the Tamil struggle at the political level would then become mere history.

Non-violent non-cooperation in Administration is an ownership declaration. It’s the parallel of no-confidence vote in parliament – and needs to be beyond the Administrative path and not before the Administrative path.

No-Voting in politics at the voters level -  is the path of the indifferent and has the effect of handing over our rights to dictators – including those on our side who make ‘deals’. We as individuals have the right to vote for a person or position as per the stated structure.  No one outside the  Presidential structure has the right to deal on our behalf with any of the candidates. Velupillai Prabhakaran in his ignorance and greed sold out and brought upon the curse of Tamil ancestors who used non-cooperation beyond Administration as a last resort before the issue was submitted to Natural Powers.  Any Tamil leader who compromises on the right of the individual Tamil voter would likewise lose the support of true global participants in democracy. Thus Jaffna may become another general section of Sri Lanka. To prevent this, we need to ‘recruit’ and not elect.

If we are influenced by strong Administrators – we would be ‘recruiting’ and not electing the President.

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam – 28 December 2014