Gajalakshmi Paramasivam – 24 October  2015

Tamilini  an Honorable Tamil

Why Sri Lanka Needs Tamil Administrators & Commissioners 

During one of my training sessions here in Australia – I said to the staff I was training – words to the effect – that we could all be managers and gave some examples in terms of decisions that we could make due to our work at grassroots level. Then Richard Caroll – who said that he understood Accounting much better the way I explained it than it was taught at the University showed interest – demonstrated excitement about the management position. Then Kathleen Caden who was the manager of Richard’s section said that Richard would like the money but not the Responsibility. Richard smiled as if in agreement. Most workers like the benefits but not the responsibility.

The above came to mind, when I read  – ‘Cost of Doing Little’ by the Island Editor in relation to the unruliness in Sri Lankan Parliament [There have been numerous instances where the Speakers sought to use religion and ethics in a bid to knock some sense into unruly MPs. Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara was famous for pontificating on religious values and warning those who misused public funds that they would be reborn as buffaloes. Speaker Jayasuriya has perhaps realised the futility of giving misbehaving MPs who are obviously beyond redemption, religious and moral lessons. On Wednesday, he sought to use economics in a bid to bring order out of chaos in Parliament.

Speaker Jayasuriya told the warring MPs that a single parliamentary sitting cost the taxpayers as much as Rs. 4.6 mn. Parliament usually meets eight days a month at a cost of about Rs. 36.8 mn. A sitting usually lasts six hours. That is sittings cost the taxpayers Rs. 12,777 per minute.

If sittings are suspended for ten minutes about Rs. 127,770 goes down the gurgler. This is something the lawmakers who kick up shindies and resort to fisticuffs at the drop of a hat ought to bear in mind.

Meanwhile, a government panjandrum has claimed that it costs about Rs. 150 mn a month to maintain the President’s House in Colombo Fort and that is why the incumbent President has decided against occupying it. (The place has to be maintained anyway with or without him living there.) Curiously, the cost of having a 225-member Parliament in session continuously for one month is less than that of maintaining the official residence of the President! Isn’t this an eloquent argument for abolishing the executive presidency?]

In my article ‘Motherland Intuition’ http://austms.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/gajalakshmiparamasivam-14-october.html

I pictured  the Balance Sheet as follows:

[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]

As per the above Actual in an area of Sri Lanka where Law & Order is weak – the ratio of Cash to Total Cost is 1:12  (116,450: 1,432,900   ) . Hence the total cost of a sitting of Sri Lankan Parliament is 56.6 million Rupees or AU$566k. Relatively speaking – Australia’s Cash Cost as per figures I found through my quick search - amount to $5.2million per sitting. Given that I do not have the ‘status cost values’ of the current government – one could conclude that the Total Cost is double the Cash Cost and amounts to $10.4 million per sitting.  In terms of Law and Order in Parliament – one could conclude that in a global context, Australian Parliament is 18 times more orderly than the Sri Lankan Parliament. Hence the status of Australia through its Government  in a global context is 18 times that of Sri Lanka through its Government. Once therefore a matter comes to the global forum – the above weightage needs to be applied, to escalate the value of the problem or the opportunity to equal footing. This is what happened in the case of war-issues escalated to the UN.

Hence the ‘punishment’ for internal purposes needs to be only one eighteenth  the punishment for global purposes for a government that acknowledges this ‘status’ difference at global level.

Members of Sri Lankan Parliament, when they talk about Australia – for example the Boat issue – need to discount their emotional values as per the above 1:18 ratio to kill the excitement of ‘global talk’. Likewise members of the Sri Lankan Diaspora in Australia, when relating through Parliamentary positions. As per news report in relation to Boat arrivals and people smuggling – [Australian High Commissioner Robyn Mudie told the Sunday Times, in an email interview, that they are working closely with the Sri Lankan Government to bring a complete stop to the people smuggling trade.]

As per this Sunday Times report [the lives of those who attempted the perilous journey and ended up being apprehended ,now face an uncertain future, caught between the law and economic hardships.

While a majority of those who left the country did so due to economic reasons, mortgaging lands and houses or borrowing between Rs. 600, 000 to Rs. 800, 000 to secure a place on an Australia-bound boat, many who made the abortive attempt face a worse predicament economically than before, some of them told the Sunday Times..]

The real cost/loss is Rs 7.2 million to Rs. 9.6 million per person to Sri Lanka. Australia recovers this cost in two years at the level of the individual who carries its policies. But to fill that vacancy in Sri Lanka, it would take Sri Lanka 13 years. The net rate at which people migrate (emigration – immigration) confirms that the policy ownership gap. Declarations of Sinhala only and Tamil only need to be discounted by this rate to arrive at the real value relative to the other country.

Once we start using global values – our relativity would be through this ‘total’ value. Like infinity,  Policy / Ownership is absolute value. But it is taken to have ‘total’ value for the purpose of relativity. Hence the use of Projects instead of Programs in bottom-up Democracy.

Within Sri Lanka – Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE need  be taken to be of Equal status once the minority side declares itself to be Independent of the other side – through a bottom up process. I myself did so with the Central Administrators of the University of NSW – who kept ‘ignoring’ me despite my outstanding performance at the Faculty level. This eventually led to the Vice Chancellor of the University being listed by the Police as a witness. As my son said to me in Court – about the individual who was the Dean of Engineering when he was an Engineering student  at UNSW -   ‘He denied you due time and now he has to wait the whole day in Court’.

This Separation of Powers was NOT practiced by the LTTE nor the Sri Lankan Government led by Mr. Rajapaksa. Current Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe confirms this as follows – as reported by Economy Next:

[Wickremesinghe said there was no doubt that the Tigers killed Kadirgamar, a key contender  for the presidential nomination, clearing the way for Rajapaksa.
"There is a connection between the Kadirgamar assassination and the presidential election," Wickremesinghe said. “The kadirgamnar assassination must be thoroughly probed and all this will come out.”
He said Rajapaksa was keen to save Puleedevan who had been the key figure who engineered Wickremesinghe’ s narrow defeat at the 2005 vote.
"Who wanted to save Puleedevan? Who put the November 2005 deal through for Rajapaksa," Wickremesinghe said. "Why did the regime want to save Puleedevan? I don't like people being killed, but Puleedevan is a man whose actions put the Tamil community in jeopardy.
"I do not shed any tears for Puleedevan. If not for him, Rajapaksa would not have been able to take power. It is by trying to save Puleedevan that the country is now facing this white flag crisis.
"Instead of leaving battle field decisions to field commanders, the then government tried to interfere. They were negotiating a surrender."
Wickremesinghe suggested that a senior military commander may have been getting conflicting signals about the surrender and that led to the killings.
The then Sri Lanka’s top official Palitha Kohona had asked the Tigers to carry white flags, walk slowly and give themselves up to the military.
Later, the Tiger leaders were found dead and the UN as well as the Paranagama commission has called for an independent judicial investigation in to the killings after characterising it as a war crime.
Wickremesinghe suggested that local field commanders had carried out the shooting without being fully aware of the negotiations between the Rajapaksa regime and Puleedevan, a fact that is well documented by United Nations diplomats who were involved in the process.
"If it was not a surrender that was negotiated, we won't be facing this problem today," he added.]

Separation of Powers is needed due to the way positions are structured. The Judiciary for example is structured to start with its investment in Law. The Executive on the other hand is structured to start with the Truth of the People it represents through Common Belief. The decision of one may look very different to the decision by the other even when both are right relative to their own positions. Often where Politicians keep changing laws, Judiciary would not have enough time to adjust its mind-order – and thus they become two separate entities – like Sinhala only and Tamil only groups. In the case of the Rajapaksa Government – this resulted in very weak memory of the Judiciary – when the Government  was in Administrative mode. In addition the Executive colluded with the LTTE for selfish purposes and hence they were no longer Separated but under One rule. This in turn weakened the LTTE’s independence.  The 2005 negotiation was the beginning of the downfall of the LTTE – for it cheated the very Tamils whom it claimed to represent.

They say that all is fair in Love & War. This is because in both – one is in Truth. In the battlefield it is between two individuals and no last minute orders ought to be given to lower ranks for this reason. They write the war-exam as per their studies until the test. When they take last minute orders – they are writing someone else’s answers in the test – under their name.  

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe states [that local field commanders had carried out the shooting without being fully aware of the negotiations between the Rajapaksa regime and Puleedevan, a fact that is well documented by United Nations diplomats who were involved in the process.]. Those who fired are not wrong because they are entitled to act as per their thought at that moment. It is difficult to override ‘Terrorism’ with ‘Surrender’ at the last minute where it is a question of kill or get killed. All of them in that ‘negotiating’ group – and this includes Australian Dr. Palitha Kohona – are guilty at the global level.

At the local level, once the LTTE ‘negotiated’ – any action against them has to fall within disciplinary action and not external punishment by the Judiciary. Only the leaders who agreed to the negotiations could be tried by the Judiciary.

The following words I wrote today, to a fellow Australian mother seeking to take loving care of her child – would help appreciate the value in the Sri Lankan conflict:

“Sadness is as sweet as happiness when we are in Truth. It naturally gives you a share of those who are happy. This is what Gandhi discovered. If  your child is happy – and you are sad – you would be wholesome together. That’s when there is completion.  Likewise when you are sad that will help the needy be happy in issues where there is just the two of you – in your mind and in the other’s.”

If LTTE is still considered a Terrorist group – then those who surrendered are Sri Lankan Government’s children and cannot be tried independently. The rest are LTTE – and could be tried – not by the local Judiciary in which they declared no belief – but by an international court where the Sri Lankan Government also need to be summoned. The laws applicable to the two sides have to be the lowest common laws as per  Human Rights values practiced by Tamils of Sri Lanka in whose name the LTTE acted.  It’s as simple as that!

As per  Ada Derana.lk report ‘Foreign involvement in mechanism a political decision – Paranagama’

[The Chairman of Sri Lanka’s three-member probe commission says that certain isolated incidents that may have occurred outside the activities of the war should be investigated in depth to come to conclusion. He said that whether to permit foreign involvement in the mechanism, more than observing, is a political decision. “Those are political decisions we never wanted to tread,” Maxwell Paranagama told Ada Derana in an interview. ….

But there were a few incidents that were of very public importance, incidents like the Channel 4 video, the white flag case and surrendees going missing, Mr Paranagama. 

“Those are isolated incidents that may have occurred outside the activities of the war which we say they should be investigated in depth to come to conclusion,” he said.

“At no time have we come to conclusion those wrongs have been committed by our security forces. We can also say security forces always acted for the safety of civilians. They took all precautions. They created No Fire Zones. They always acted in defence of the civilians. Sometimes they had to shoot to save civilians. In the midst of this crossfire some civilians may have died.” 

“We have applied that humanitarian principle proportionality and we have analyzed to what extent it can be justified in regard to the number that may have died and what the army achieved by doing so,” he added. 

“I could say we have set out a balanced report also when you overall take into consideration our forces have done a humanitarian operation sometimes you cannot have nil casualties because it’s a war with both sides dealing with arms.” 

“We have also suggested a mechanism,” he said, adding that if someone had done wrong - be they LTTE or our security forces – “how they can go through a process of freeing themselves.” 

“We have said setup a special High Court so that if some soldier is alleged to have committed crime may go before the High Court and proving his innocence by going through the process of law,” he said.

“At the same time we have recommended to set up a truth commission where if anybody – LTTE or security forces - can go before the truth commission and say ‘I did this wrong under these circumstances please have amnesty.’ So the truth commission will consider.” 

“Putting into operation what we have suggested is not a difficult task.” We have recommended the process, he said. 

“We have said setup a special High Court so that if some soldier is alleged to have committed crime may go before the High Court and proving his innocence by going through the process of law,” he said.

“At the same time we have recommended to set up a truth commission where if anybody – LTTE or security forces - can go before the truth commission and say ‘I did this wrong under these circumstances please have amnesty.’ So the truth commission will consider.” 

“Putting into operation what we have suggested is not a difficult task.” We have recommended the process, he said]

It may be attractive to those who were with their respective side largely for monetary / benefits purposes. But LTTE carried a large doze of Belief – and this has been overwhelmingly acknowledged by the Tamil Community taken as a Total. It would weaken the Independence value of Sri Lanka – if such members of the LTTE to whom that fight for Independence was the only life  - were influenced to give it up for something less. Leaders who ‘negotiated’ do not carry this value. Those who continued with their belief – need to be honored by the Tamil Community and this must be facilitated by Tamil leaders like the Hon Wigneswaran who continues to counsel them in his own way – through the Provincial Council structure. The above recommendation by the Paranagama Commission would not suit Tamils. It should NOT be imposed on Tamils.