Gajalakshmi Paramasivam – 14 October  2015

Motherland Intuition

[The basic idea of Human Rights up Front is that some human rights violations are an early indicator of potential forthcoming mass atrocities, and that if we could gather more systematically information, analyze it, and use appropriate channels to trigger timely action we could prevent some tragedies.

The initiative was triggered by the Sri Lanka experience and analysis of that experience indicated that there were some shortcomings in the United Nations system regarding the gathering of information, analysis, and timely ringing of the alarm bell.] Ivan Šimonović, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights

The above was stated when Mr. Simonovic was speaking  to journalists following his closed-door briefing to the Security Council on the human rights situation in Ukraine.

Tamils – especially the Tamil Diaspora was highlighting the UN’s own contribution to the sufferings of Tamils during the last stages of the war.  They were knocked back due to their minority status – but their persistence resulted in the UN inquiry through Channel 4 video. Not only the UN but none of the mainstream media leaders – starting with the BBC  cared enough to get involved. The reason is their own ‘attachment’ to their official status above Truth. This is fine – so long as this status is not ‘enforced’ on others who serve the groups that seem to be ‘lesser children of god’.

Those who report as they observed – are at Technical level; those who find ‘other cultures’ as their customers are at Business level and those who discover Truth and empower themselves through that Truth – are at Policy level. In global governance the UN is expected to be at Policy level.

UN Correspondent of the Diplomatic Courier - Akshan de Alwis: ‘A global process like this must be expensive, yet the OHCHR has infamously received only a marginal percentage of the UN’s budget. Is there anything the public can do to help, and what are the steps your office has to make to be more catalytic with limited funding?’

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights: It’s a famous saying, that—and it’s not only a saying, it was reaffirmed by the World Conference in 2005—the UN is based on three pillars: one of those pillars is peace and security, the other one is development, and third one is human rights.

But in reality, the human rights pillar, especially in sense of financing, is thinner than the other two, because one of three pillars is getting less than 3 percent of the regular budget of the UN.

So as the OHCHR, we have to rely on extra-budgetary resources, meaning support from donors mostly – and those donors are member states. I would say that about 60 percent of our budget is coming from donors. And then there are some states that are saying “Oh, doesn’t that expose you to the danger of being donor driven?” It’s certainly a valid concern, however at the moment, because of a lack of regular budget resources, we need to rely on some donations. But of course it’s then essential to make them very transparent, and through that reduce the possibility to a minimum that donors have some special role or influence.

Human Rights and Policy are both untouchables. One, like the Asuras (driven by the physical) is at the bottom and the other like the Thevar (gods) is at the top. Where Politics is at Technical level – Human Rights  would not reach wider world and rightly so. This was the natural attribute not only of  the Rajapaksa regime but of the Bandaranaike regime. They both learnt Law largely on the basis of English Law and as per English mind-order – but they were naturally Sinhalese Buddhists as per their personal and family ‘attributes’.

 Leaders who invested in British education merely for a living – failed to sustain the value of that education, once the British were no longer their masters. Hence they resorted to Swabasha/Indigenous language – using it as official language – so they could have the best of both world.  THAT was the problem – because a good proportion of Sri Lankans do not speak or understand Sinhalese. I believe I am Sri Lankan and yet I could not understand the current President’s recent speech at the UN. If I am able to believe I am Sri Lankan and I did  not need to be proficient in Sinhalese at the official level – then we could conclude that at the National level – through my  pathway as an Accounting Professional – I did not need Sinhalese or for that matter Tamil. My children’s first language was English for this reason. That was the natural make up of MY children as Sri Lankans. To majority  Sri Lankans, Tamil or Sinhalese – would have been  the first language. Not so to mine. I believe mine, were also getting the Truth that I was a professional when I became their mother and hence given that my professional studies were in English – they got those professional genes as part of their heritage and therefore the English language as the first language. They were born in Colombo whilst I was born in Jaffna. These are attributes that confirm our make-up at the time of birth. They represent our Truth. Each time we discover Truth and/or practice Truth discovered by someone else – we restructure this Natural Attribute that is our real self. Had I remained in Jaffna where I had my primary and secondary education after we got displaced from Colombo to Jaffna due to the civil riots in 1958, I would not have become a Chartered Accountant and hence my children would not have inherited those genes from me and their first language would have been Tamil. But that would not be THESE three children who joined my Natural make up.

The UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights is reported to have stated ‘So the idea of HRuF (Human Rights up Front ) was that on behalf of the Secretary General, [the Sri Lanka experience] should be ‘never again.’ We cannot guarantee that atrocities will not happen, but never again will we be silent.’

But to know through the current make-up of the UN – the inner workings of the Sinhalese Community whose leaders became the cause of the excesses of Subjective power – the UN must have Sinhalese in its make up. Likewise Tamils in its make up. That is the value of Political Representation. Hence the shout from Tamils that we ARE two Nations within One Country.

We had a recent incident in a high-risk zone in Vaddukoddai district in Northern Sri Lanka – where our security cameras were disconnected by those who got upset that we denied them access to our temple property. Access was denied due to knowledge that the vehicles parked in our property were used for  ‘smuggling’ and the owners were fined by the Courts. Until the vehicle was parked within our premises the smuggling activity details were hearsay to me. I did not act on it. But the moment the vehicle came into our premises – and I had knowledge of it –I had the duty to preserve the sanctity of those premises so it would support ALL of us including myself. The parallel in the Sri Lankan war – is the Sri Lankan soldiers’ sexual abuse of Tamil women. So long as it happened in their natural habitats – such were hearsay to us and likewise of the Tamil weaknesses to the Sinhalese. We had our respective Customary Laws and Traditions to deal with them. But when such weakness manifest in our home habitats – we have the Natural duty to protect ourselves from infection.

One of the ways in which we protected ourselves was the erection of a steel fence and installation of CCTV to monitor our ‘borders’. The electric wires were disconnected and we are now in the process of installing Solar Panels. In the meantime we reported the matter to the Vaddukoddai Police and also to the Government Civil Officers concerned. We have claimed compensation from the latter for Rs. 1,432,900  as follows:

(i)                 Money –                Rs 116,450. 

(ii)               Human Value –     Rs 600,000. [The current value of our Donated Land (Rs. 500,000 from which we need to deduct the RESPECT shown for the Donor by the Donee or Add to it the DISRESPECT shown – which in this case is Rs. 100,000 – Rs.116,450 rounded down to the nearest hundred thousand) ]

(iii)             Policy Value  -      Rs 716,450 

[The total of the above losses – the other side of which was enjoyed by the authorities as comforts due to idling]

This is what is owed to Victims of War – especially if the Sri Lankan Government is moving towards Zero Base Budgetary system. To give voice to one side against another – the UN needs political mandate from both sides. Otherwise it has to remain silent and wait until the problem comes into its area – as we did in the above matter.

Where Donors are 60% of the UN Budget and the matter is through a majority Resolution – then the value of the issue needs to be calculated through the above process – to clean the funds of majority infection and make it common. Where it becomes of global value – as the Sri Lankan experience has been confirmed to be – then the UN needs to integrate the Truth discovered into its Policies as Common Law.  If not the UN must clearly declare that it is a facility for ‘foreign missions’ in these countries – like we are in Northern Sri Lanka. That way we protect our interests and act in Defence – never to attack. Without this Separation – we are likely to ‘interfere’ in local structures – as many NGOs do in Sri Lanka.

The UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights states:

[We will observe early signs, we will improve our systems of information gathering and analysis, we will improve our coordination both in the field and in the headquarters, and we will be doing all of these things pro-actively.]

Without knowing whether they are a Facility or Common Judge – the UN would be collecting unwanted data without relevance to the core purpose that produced that data.

An example of such ‘donor’ driven interference is :

[Addressing the media at the Information Department, Weliamuna said that Parliament would have to make the required amendments to pave the way for international participation in the process. He said that a hybrid court would have been much better where the addressing of the issues was concerned, but the recently adopted Geneva resolution co-sponsored by the government of Sri Lanka had promised on less intrusive mechanism.]

The International Community became late entrants to the Sri Lankan problem. How could they be served first? They are like the CCTV Camera people in the above Vaddukoddai example. They want Business but I seek to contribute to Policy through the Truth I discover about another section of  MY Community. They say to have more Cameras so the Cameras would monitor each other. I want to remove the blocks in the Human Resource pathway – so our Truth would merge and we together make Natural Policy for that area. Likewise Sinhalese and Tamils. Foreign Judges and Lawyers are UN’s CCTV Cameras and in an International Hybrid environment – they would capture pictures of each other – for their own International  Business.

My conclusion is that Compensation needs to be paid by one to the other and by those who failed in their duty to monitor through Common Policies. The UN needs to facilitate this before all else. Otherwise there is the real risk of the UN starting a new game while the old victims are neglected. The Sri Lankan Government led by Sinhalese Majority started the war game through its military power for itself. It cannot walk away from its responsibility to those who minded their own businesses within their ‘home habitats’. LTTE could be punished for its ‘ATTACKS’ but not for its Defence of its Home Habitat. Recognizing our Home Habitats is also part of Human Rights. It is commonly recognizes as  Land Rights. Unless UN owns Land in a particular Habitat – it is limited to Policy ownership.

We merge with institutions naturally, as per our own True institutional makeup. That would bring us the message intuitively – ahead of the calculations through Data Analyses and other intellectual and physical pathways. UN needs to invest in grassroots level through its Human Resources to tap into this natural intuition of Motherland.