Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

05 September   2016

Missing UN Owners

I have been facilitated to provide advisory services to the local Sports Club in Thunaivi. The oldies in the club kept lamenting that there was a time when they were outstanding in their performance but now they seemed to have no motivation to play. I quickly cut-short and said that we would have a fresh start with the aim of showing results before getting sponsors and hence there was no need for hierarchical committees. This was well accepted by the young ones. I restructured the form of our own sponsorship to rewarding those who regularly came for practice. This brought to my mind, an Australian University system of awarding marks for class attendance and then for participation, in classes where majority were foreign students. This takes us to zero base in terms of allocating status as per conduct. At the University of NSW itself – Senior Administrators claimed that Academics with Administrative responsibility attended and participated largely when they ‘saw’ funds. At other times – they were ‘absent’.

Past ownership grade is not directly allocated but rather it helps us to connect to minds and motivate from within, those at the coalface. Hence Dutugamunu to motivate Sinhalese fighters and Ellalan for Tamils. I ‘advised’ the above Sports Club members to openly attribute credit to their  predecessors at that place. They do go through the motions of silent prayers for 2 minutes. My advice was to add to it - the express ‘thanksgiving’ to the predecessors who made them feel good. I likewise advised one of our  former trainees now working in a well-known Tourism related organization. I said to start with that and confirmed that they would know the current heritage value of that past contribution to them as per their faith in those elders. To that extent they become heirs of that heritage as it would be today. It is on that basis that today’s reality needs to be related to for purposes of merit. That’s when those of us who are local and  not global would feel confident in global issues.

Cleverness alone does not have ownership value and hence heritage beyond local borders. Cleverness needs to be transformed into Goodness for ownership and heritage purposes.

Like the above mentioned elders in Thunaivi, the Sri Lankan Government that defeated the LTTE did so by invoking the certificates of the past rather than completing the real contribution of past Governments including those who gave us the Laws common to all communities and thereby becoming the heirs of that Common heritage. Likewise the UN Administration. As per article Daily Mirror headed ‘Ban dodges query on presumption of War Crimes’ :

[When questioned as to why the UN did not agree to a ‘ homegrown solution’ with regard to the ethnic conflict, Moon said that although a ‘gap’ did exist between the present government and the International Community, it had improved from his previous visit in 2009.

“It has been rather difficult sometimes, even for me to talk with the government and the leadership. There was a gap between the expectations of the international community and the level of government help. Even though I think we are not fully there the level of gap can be reduced as soon as possible,” he said.]

The UN is official the leader of that International Community. In terms of UN – the Sri Lankan Government is the parallel of the above mentioned young members of the Sports club. If the 2009 defeat was through UN rules of play – and/or the Truth realized by the Government of Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka would now be a world leader in terms of elimination of Terrorism. It’s not and hence has been demoted in status at the International level. Had the UN awarded grades only for attendance and participation – the Sri Lankan Government would have been saved this demotion. Effectively, the Sri Lankan Government did to the UN – what it claimed was done to it by the Tamil Tigers.

Any UN Administrative leader becomes an heir of the original only to the extent he brought with him, into the position, the heritage of others in that position. When we attribute credit to the original UN leader/s who carried the creative value of that position – the current heirs own the whole through the vertical system. This becomes global when such an heir converts to democracy.  Such an heir would include at each stage all heirs of the problem or opportunity and not just those who seem currently active. To the extent we are subjective, we need to use our past but do so confidentially to generate internal motivation.

The above gap mentioned by the UN Secretary General represents the ‘missing UN owners’ in the Sri Lankan issue. To the extent the Sri Lankan Government sought  UN’s support – it had the responsibility to show global outcomes of LTTE actions and not falsely elevate local to international. Sri Lanka is largely a beneficiary of  UN services and hence needed to attribute credit to the UN when they claimed victory of the LTTE. The gap happened due to such failure to attribute credit, once their use of the UN was over.

Ms Kishali Pinto Jayawardene, in her article  ‘ That great betrayal and institutional accountability’ highlights this gap as follows:

[Visiting United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s assertion that ‘much needs to be done in order to redress wrongs of the past and restore accountability of key organizations, particularly the judiciary and the security services’ raises an interesting question…..

….Lest we mistake the matter, these failures predate the grievous Medamulana affliction upon this land. Rather, every political party along with every political leader, living or dead, has to bear responsibility for the same.
But to be fair, the Government is responsible for this myopic framing of core questions only up to a certain extent. The issue of systemic accountability is a ‘hard question’ that any political regime will prefer to leave undisturbed if allowed to by citizens. This is precisely what has happened in Sri Lanka’s frantic rush towards the tempting glamour of ‘justice in transition.’]

The above attribution of Responsibility to past occupants of that position also – confirms the use of the hierarchical system. To the extent credit was allocated to the current occupant of that position by excluding the past leaders in that position – there is no space now to allocate responsibility. In terms of those responsible in the current system – they have to be Equal in position.  As per my mind, there was/is no Equal Opposition to the position of President. The creator of that position did not want an Equal Opposition. Hence to the extent the person in that position acted – s/he did not have the support of democracy within Sri Lanka. Hence the Opposition is the heads of countries with Presidential structure -  that are part of the UN. That was how the USA become the Leader of the Opposition to Sri Lanka at the Presidential level.

The local alternative would have been the Head of Judiciary. But by interfering with the Judiciary to dismiss the then occupant – Sri Lanka lost its right to such internal options. Every person who feels ownership in Sri Lanka will contribute to the solutions. Mr. Ban Ki-Moon himself is contributing to it by connecting to  Sri Lanka’s Truth through his own. Every Tamil who likewise acknowledges in that part of Sri Lanka that is their home – the crimes committed in the name of freedom – purifies the contribution by the community to enable the younger generation to carry forward a purer heritage that would support independent life in the future. The place and time anniversaries activate these ownership powers to support the true seeker.

This morning for example, I tried calling a Landlady in Colombo who was avoiding refund of deposit to an emotionally driven person of Vaddukoddai origin. My attempt of last night failed. Likewise the one earlier this morning. Later around the time I was successful last week – I sat at the same spot as last time – looking at our family temple and tried again. The person did not answer and I decided to send a message. Even as I got ready – the lady rang and apologized and said  she would pay the rest of the money also in installments. In addition, the lady asked for my help in relation to a problem with another tenant. From the way she spoke I felt that she attributed her further problems to the negative forces in relation to the system followed by her. Had the Vaddukoddai tenant continued to deal with the matter – that Colombo person would have not had this realization. Like the UN outside Sri Lanka and the Sinhala-Buddhist, Sri Lankan Government - they would have continued with the hide and seek game. A true owner in both institutions would invoke the response at the higher level.  The Colombo person did not feel ownership in Vaddukoddai and v.v. Likewise – there is very little ownership lost - between Tamils and Sinhalese Administrators.

Like the UN Secretary General, the Chief Minister of Northern Province also connects to the Truth of Jaffna when he is in Jaffna. But when he is in Colombo the connection gets weakened by expectations from that wider system. Only one who has sacrificed the benefits ‘gap’ would carry the feeling of ownership-goodness beyond local borders. That was how Rama owned Sri Lanka by defeating Ravana – then the king of Lanka. Every true UN owner who steps foot on Sri Lanka purifies Sri Lanka and the current UN.  A true UN owner is one who carries the original values -  of UN – in whatever form – and not necessarily through official position only. If Ms Kishali Pinto Jayawardene is one of them – then her work would continuously clean Sri Lanka of its impurities – and given that the lady enjoys high status as legal expert this purification is more likely to be through the Judiciary and less through Politics – especially in relation to the Office of the Missing Persons Bill which is a step towards shared responsibility for Sri Lanka defeating herself in the eyes of wider world through her divide and rule leaders on both sides of the ethnic border.