Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

27 June 2017                     

Christians Foremost?

My eyes were drawn to the Sri Lankan news by the Australian, under the heading  ‘Sri Lankan boatpeople sent home’.  While reading that report, my eyes were drawn to the more interesting heading by Sydney Journalist Sam Buckingham-Jones – ‘Christians granted 60pc of humanitarian visas’.

I was satisfied that I was able to identify with the connection that  the system of Natural Justice was  showing. Sri Lanka’s majority race,  through the  Constitution has instructed that  ‘Buddhism would be foremost’. A Constitution is Democratic only when it is written to apply equally to all who are bound by it. That Constitution as it is currently worded – reflects the Truth that Sri Lanka is not a democracy but autocracy.

Here in Australia, we do not have any more – the White Australia Policy expressly stated in our Constitution. But those who continue to ‘enforce’ their habits on others tend to ‘invoke’ such ‘protection’ from time to time and rightly so – especially for migrants who rely heavily on financial returns for their investments in fellow Australians.

The recent conflict in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province Governance highlighted the need for connection with wider world if we are to ‘prevent’ internal conflicts between Natives and Migrants. This is also the conflict between Belief based Natural Governance and Intellectually driven Harmonious Government. The two are often enjoyed through different pathways.

The Indigenous Australians who continue to stay within their Beliefs would not have developed the Australia that migrants are attracted to. Within the Tamil community – majority militants are/were the parallels of Indigenous Australians. If any of their descendants / followers are included in the above group that has been ‘sent’ home, it is the DUTY of the Sri Lankan Government to itself to ensure their comfortable settlement in their home-areas.  Otherwise Sri Lanka would be importing the disappointments that these folks carry in their minds which is likely to manifest with compounded interest if there is another war in Sri Lanka which involves their community.

The Conflict here in Australian mind is whether we qualify to call ourselves self-governing when we continue to ‘show’ Christian values above Common values when dealing with secular issues. During my participation in a Court hearing on the basis of Racial Discrimination Act 1975, Justice Gyles asked me towards the end of the hearing whether according to me the alleged racial discrimination was Conscious or Subconscious? I said ‘subconscious’. Then Dr. John Griffiths (not sure if he is the one who later became the judge of the Federal Court) who represented the other side jumped up and stated words to the effect that his client was young and her career would be adversely affected by a ruling against her. When judgment was delivered to ‘dismiss’ me – I went to St Mary’s Cathedral nearby and cried.  The more I got to know the Australian Judiciary – the more disappointed I became. I was also able to better appreciate the challenges faced by Indigenous Australians in a White man’s world even when they express themselves through the White man’s rules.

Strictly speaking, one who follows the White Man’s rules must reach the destination of being ‘Right’ to that White Man. I intellectually followed the White Man’s rules to present my experience and was marked Wrong. But what did surface was the Truth that the White man is ‘foreigner’ to Global Law. That was the real value for the costs I paid through my legal actions. This helped me ‘demote’ the status of those pretenders to the level of the litigants they wrongly judged – in this instance – myself – as allocated by them and mentally I take their position to identify with the validity of the structure that we are both part of – to experience  harmony in my mind. For their part those judges and the lawyers who influence them – would ‘hoard’ their ‘rights’ once they get to the highest position available in their own special environment. Mr. Jerome Doraisamy whose surname indicates some commonness with my ethnicity states:

[86 per cent of professionals would rather suffer in silence than disclose a mental health condition out of fear of being fired or passed over for promotion.]

The need for the above disclosure is confirmed from within the Legal profession:

[In a testimonial, barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, Julian Burnside, says depression has been his own constant (but unwelcome) companion in life.

His only regret in seeing this book is that he did not see it earlier. Burnside highlights the dissonance between the idealism that attracts many to law school and the reality of big law firms. "Many, including the brightest and the best, see their earlier ideals looking more naïve, more unachievable."] - Young lawyer outs depression that is endemic in legal profession – published by Financial Review

When we feel depressed in a particular environment – after getting high grades in that environment – we know that we are in the wrong environment for us. If we continued to endure the suffering due to our belief based expectations, to that extent all those who marked us ‘right’ would be infected by our suffering. Hence the need for Equal Opposition where we are ‘free’ to express ourselves.

When we Believe, that confirms to us that we have completed our experience at that level. To the extent – this is upheld by those who hold positions above us – they are our elders in the hierarchical system or our equal partners in the lateral system of  Democracy.  From then onwards we are self-governing. Often it becomes necessary to have some degree of separation to appreciate this about ourselves.

The place where we completed the experience becomes our home. Those who marked us wrong – are juniors in this home-structure and those who dismiss us – become ‘foreigners’ / ‘outsiders’ to that home that we developed with Truth as the presiding Power.

Christian driven decisions to offset Islamic extremism makes those leaders ‘outsiders’ to Common Australia. They are not entitled to give speeches about Australian Values. The way I take my place as Australian Tamil, now that I use more Tamil Values based structures – they have to take their place as Australian Christians.

As per the above report by Mr. Sam Buckingham-Jones :

[At St Mark’s Coptic Church in Arncliffe yesterday, the Sydney diocese’s Bishop Daniel yesterday reminded Mr Turnbull the Copts in Egypt had “been victim to some of the most horrific form of persecution” and the target of attacks by Islamic State-aligned terrorists. Dozens were killed in bombings on Palm Sunday.]

The Christian influence was shared in that free environment. On that same basis – no non-Buddhist applicant from Sri Lanka should be repatriated until the Sri Lankan Government delivers Common Governance as measured by the UN.