Gajalakshmi
Paramasivam – 15 February 2015
Occupied Territories or Captured Territories?
A leading Sri Lankan of Sinhalese origin who
was offended by the Genocide Resolution by the Northern Provincial Council in
Sri Lanka, said in response:
‘If a
30 years war was fought and the common enemy was vanquished.. the NPC
politicians should know to use their mandate to look after the people with the
budget given without preparing resolutions on LIES... it is good for people to
remind these people of this first without pointing fingers at us’
To such Sinhalese – LTTE is the enemy. By using the word enemy – the above
Sinhalese confirms separation – exactly what LTTE wanted. The occupied
territories then become ‘captured
territories’. That picture seems to be of a feudal society. This is likely
to happen when we make claims of superiority by using the names of our
ancestors who used the path of war to show their superiority. Instead, if we
had taken the Truth discovered by such ancestor – whether it was pleasant or
unpleasant – we would work today’s Democracy comfortably. The Northern Provincial
Council is not able to deliver Democratic outcomes any more than the Rajapaksa
Government did. The Sri Lankan Administrators at the top are the gurus of the
common members of the Provincial Council. Hence the unspent budget – which amounts to
hoarding if retained at Provincial level and amounts to dumping if it returns
to the Central Authorities. The International Community also dumped excesses in
Sri Lanka and contributed to the war related outcomes. Any war crime inquiry must begin with that
kind of ‘dumping’ by foreigners – including India.
The resurfacing of Indian Fishermen in Sri Lankan waters is the
parallel of Indonesians using Australian waters to dump asylum seekers. At the
bottom level and at the topmost level – there is no distinction between mine
and ours. Indian Fishermen would consider waters around Tamil parts of Sri
Lanka as theirs – unless there are physical restrictions. They see and they
conclude/conquer. At the top – one consolidates and thinks by controlling the
seen – as in the case of Lady Justice – until the seen becomes common in the
mind. Common fact becomes Energy when it loses all physical form and is recognized
as part of us – our Truth. The mind driven by this Truth is the steady mind.
The war damage happened due to both sides.
One who celebrated victory over the other side – is an outsider and therefore
is naturally the enemy when one uses the feudal structure. Tamils who blame the
Government as being solely responsible are burying the contribution by the LTTE
to escalate the problem to the global level.
They have already been punished through the ‘Terrorism’ label. Similarly
– the war crimes resolution against the Sri Lankan Government at UN level. We
are even now at that level and the Presidential elections confirmed this. Once
we are ‘even’ – we need closure – so we ourselves would ‘see’ the picture/the
Balance Sheet – not to show – but for our own purposes.
The confirmation of closure for the Tamil side would be strongly
influenced by compensation for every unit of resource taken over by the
Government. Without such compensation – the government would continue to
practice the feudal system and invoke such in those open to it – such as the
fishermen to whom the sea without physical occupation is everybody’s. If the mind of the Tamil fishermen is low –
they would not protect as theirs – waters that are legally Sri Lankan. Where
there is no law in the mind of the user – the seen and the possessed is
ownership. It is in the interest of the Sri Lankan Government to restore the self-confidence
of Tamil fishermen – including through high level compensation (Presidential
Homeland Rate for Northern Fishermen at http://austms.blogspot.com.au/ ). Every
person/body that contributes to this as provider or beneficiary – is participating
in good governance.
Money compensation without
appropriate structure is also a problem in post-war Sri Lanka. Our family
donated land for common pathway at the request of the People of Thunaivi – who were
already using the land – to reach the main-road. Fences were often damaged
towards their personal comfort. They are the parallels of Indian Fishermen using
Sri Lankan waters. Later due to requests from Government managed development organization,
we donated land for the building of Development Secretariat. That Secretariat
is the parallel of the unspent budget of the Northern Provincial Council that
the above Sinhalese is pointing to. Those folks who are Toddy Tappers are not
able to use it and hence it is idling most of the time. In the meantime – the ‘building and the access
to water facilities’ provided by us are
fenced off and used largely as storage space. This is likely to happen if ‘compensation’
is given directly to Myliddy fisher-folks at the higher money rate.
At Thunaivi – we overcame the ‘possession
is ownership’ problem by funding self-employment by those who showed commitment
to earning their benefits. In terms of children we discovered that they came
together more for their kind of
activities at the temple and also for playing games. They learn to play by the
rule and recognize each other’s territories – including in terms of time. Ours
is a small model but it is working. I would strongly recommend that the
Provincial Council adopts this model – and becomes Accountable to all funding
groups – including directly from international groups who demonstrate ground
level connection with Northern Province.
Most important aspect of our management
is Accountability. The coordinator in Thunaivi has been trained to provide us
with monthly Accounts and we provide regular reports to our donors – not about
how the monies were spent but about the values added. This article is one such
Report. The Northern Provincial Council
could follow in this path and become a model for other Provincial Councils in
Sri Lanka.
Those who feel comfortable in ‘program’
based spending – and therefore operate without closures – would keep traveling
back into the past. Usually those who are complacent in their top positions
tend to be such blocks. We need to seek and include as ours the pain and loss
of others to develop a mind that is balanced and steady at the global level –
to recognize others’ rights in benefits in our custody. Those others include
our ancestors from whom we inherited common values and cultures and above all
The Lord – Father to All of us. Mr. Rajapaksa became godfather due to making
LTTE as his enemy instead of Tamils as his opposition. His guru was Prabhakaran
of Myliddy area.
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