Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

  

03  July 2017                                          

Satan Preaching Vedam

Which Project do we give priority to – law & order issues; livelihood or prevention of war?  More importantly, should prevention of war be a ‘project’ or program? In the case of the Sri Lankan Diaspora, in addition to the above in our local community, we need to focus also on developing our own generation’s settlement & support structures in our new home nations.

Sad and ugly as it is – Vithya Sivaloganthan’s rape and murder are strong indicators of the inner needs within our society with deepest focus being needed by the Tamil community of North.  Sunday Leader has reported as follows in this regard:

[Chilling details emerged last week over the rape and murder of Sivaloganathan Vithya when the case was heard in the Jaffna High Court.

A Trial-at-Bar heard from the Attorney General’s Department, the suspects and the family of Pungudutivu student Vithya Sivaloganathan who was killed in 2015.

It was revealed in court that the main suspect ‘Swiss Kumar’ had arrived in Sri Lanka with the intension of video recording the rape and murder of the girl. The girl had been abducted by one of nine suspects, arrested over the incident, before being raped and killed.

The three judge bench was told that ‘Swiss Kumar’ had wanted to sell the video of the rape and murder to a contact in Switzerland.]

One can view ‘Kumar’ as a stand alone individual or as part of the global system. The main suspect being from Switzerland, we have the need to ask ourselves whether the above tragedy was due also to the neglect by Tamils of Switzerland in making efforts to merge the two systems. If we merge before outcomes are produced – we would prevent the need for reconciliation.  I know of at least one other case where a member of the Switzerland Tamil Diaspora, remitted money to build a memorial hall in honour of his father but that building was built on someone else’s land. Mr. Wigneswaran, the Chief Minister of Northern Province – was the Chief Guest at the opening of the Hall. That was due to direct exercise of power that the Swiss system promotes. In essence that Hall is a good motivator for other emigrants from that area to repay their debt to the community. The original owners are not known. I now realise that our Temple land also would have been taken over, had we not been maintaining it continuously by paying the ‘locals’ and later after such ‘takeovers’ during post-war development in that area,  became part of the larger development program, my physical presence prevented such takeover of our Temple land. When power is taken over by those with lower mind-structures, the boundaries of the higher pathways are damaged and hence the basic protection needed to maintain the higher values of civilization.

What is the best system that suits today’s Northern Sri Lanka? As per Wikipedia:

[Direct democracy (also known as pure democracy) is a form of democracy in which people decide (e.g. vote on, form consensus on) policy initiatives directly. ..... Depending on the particular system in use, direct democracy might entail passing executive decisions, the use of sortition, making laws, directly electing or dismissing officials, and conducting trials. Two leading forms of direct democracy are participatory democracy and deliberative democracy.]

The above forms of Democracy are practiced by us at various times at various places especially under the influence of the Diaspora, the needs of which group are much more complex than the needs of the folks in Sri Lanka. The more global minded section of the Diaspora, influences votes along the lines of participatory democracy while the section that uses the Sri Lankan structure or smaller,  tends to use the system of deliberative democracy. If Mr. Wigneswaran uses that section of the Diaspora and the International Community contributing through the pathway of participatory democracy, he has the duty to do likewise by participating through his side of the Government,  at the higher or wider level. That is when his contribution becomes complete in value at his level of society – the level at which society has invested in him.  

TNA MP - Mr. Sumanthiran is reported to have stated as follows:

[“TNA’s stance is that North and East should merge. This may not be achievable immediately but is possible in the future.” He said TNA hopes to continue with the discussions pertaining to the merger and blamed the Chief Minister of hindering such discussions.

Stating that the reason for TNA to back the government was its intention to introduce a new constitution which will provide for a better political solution to the Tamil people he went on to say that if the government fails to address these issues in their new proposed constitution, it will decide whether to continue with extending their support to the government.] Sunday Observer

In my contribution dated 29 June, under the heading ‘Confidentiality or Transparency?’ I stated on the basis of 13^th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution :

[As per my interpretation of the above, Northern  & Eastern provinces could be united through Parliament. The challenge is whether Tamils have strong enough Administration to effectively manage and produce outcomes to confirm self-governance of a Unit that is more valuable than the sum of the individuals making up the body of that Unit.]

When I read the report  about Mr. Sumanthiran’s statement, I felt positive about root level Energy in this regard being strong. At the Body level,  Northern and Eastern provinces would continue to be minority power. But if we stay connected to the Vedam/scripture  applicable to Sri Lankan Tamils as per our  true contribution to self-governance through various pathways we would be a stronger force than majority race that has the official power to form government. As per my own study of myself:

When we forego earned benefits – we develop structures which protect us from getting distracted by easy benefits;

When we become independent of the benefits and are not at all conscious of the visible outcomes except to the extent needed by others in our environment – the essence of our contribution becomes our Vedam.

This wisdom travels with us and supports us to picture in our mind,  the structure needed by the current environment/s we are part of. We are able to then invoke the positive energy in that area to influence the outcomes to be greater than the sum of the totals visible to us and could be produced in a relatively short period of time.

We sometimes describe a negative situation as -  ‘Saathan vedam othukirathu / Satan preaching Vedam’.  To my mind when the seen outcomes are far greater than total value of our belief – Satan has been preaching Vedam. This risk is high within those who left Sri Lanka / home area, without forming their own independent structures at the local level. They tend to build to show their old environments as to how much higher their status is, relative to the ones they left behind – as the American return Vice Chancellor of the University of NSW demonstrated when I sought to share my practice of participatory democracy which eventually resulted in him getting dismissed – a risk that Mr. Wigneswaran faced during the recent turmoil within the Northern Provincial Council. The appointment of Mrs. Ananthi Sasitharan soon after this turmoil requires greater restructure than would have been needed otherwise.  One Diaspora member wrote in support:

[I am happy to see Ananthi becoming a Minister. For that matter I am happy to see any woman being appointed as a minister in the NPC as it is a must. I am particularly happy because I was the first Junior of the person who appointed her to that position. I have also appeared as a junior to the leader of TNA in certain cases in Trinco courts. In Trincomalee I was the lead candidate of Federal Party in place of Mr.Sampanthan  in the 2000 October General Elections. That was the last elections before TNA was formed. In the next elections I was in the National list of TNA. I know Ananthi as well as her husband Sasitharan as I was a local monitor in Trincomalee in SLMM(Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission) formed by the Norwegians during the so called Peace process. She is an intelligent brave lady who fights tenaciously for a cause. Having been a govt. servant in the Divisional Secretariats in both Jaffna and K'nochi, She has some experience in administration. She was present with many others when her husband and others surrendered to the 'Sri Lankan Army' in the presence of Rev.Fr.Francis. They could not have vanished into thin air. Mr.Sampanthan has also nominated a lady from Vavuniya as a M.P., but she appears to be a dumb case just like many other TNA M.P.s. They seem to be interested mostly in collecting ftee car permits and positions. They don't make much contribution in the Parliament or fight for the cause for which they were elected by the Thamil peoples. Just think of a few Federal Party/Thamil Arasu Katchi M.P.s of the Party of the past era. What a world of difference.]

The above depicts the strong risk of ‘personal’ opinions and assessments being raised to cover the higher common level with a view to participating  in the exciting game of politics. As per my direct experiences with Divisional Secretariats in Vaddukoddai and Jaffna – the system of Administration there is far below that of Colombo which is far below that of Sydney. Even in those ‘local administrations’ Mrs. Sasitharan did not hold senior positions nor has she demonstrated wisdom in Administration through junior positions where she performed at the higher level. Hence, her Vedam would relate closely to militant structure.

The rape and murder of Vithya Sivaloganathan is very much a Women’s issue. It is customary for Tamils to have their own family deities who are accessed first when one is in trouble. As per Mahabharatham legend,  when in trouble, Queen Throupathi  kept calling out to Krishna through many forms but when she said ‘Iruthaya Vaasa’ / the Indweller of my heart – Krishna appeared immediately. The Provincial Council Ministers need to have their own Vedam placed in their people before using Ministers of Colombo Government through the Governor , towards quick outcomes that confirm that Satan is preaching Vedam.

Those Ministers and Politicians who were close to the militants ought to by now be the guarding deities living in the hearts and minds of locals like Vithya’s family – especially considering the likes of Thamilini who had the courage to protect herself from rape and murder. I myself was referred to as the Black Tiger when I returned to Mankerni in Sri Lanka’s east – for follow up service of my Tsunami Reconstruction work. I feel strongly that this status elevation was because I was not judgmental of militants in areas where I lacked wisdom. I just saw them through my Administrative-eye – and most measured up well due to them showing respect for me which brought them in line with my structure. Relatively speaking most in the official system demonstrated lesser commitment to order even when they were under supervision, leave alone when they were ‘free’ of supervision.

The current Northern Provincial Administration needs assistance to write the Master Plan of Northern Administration, by consolidating all true contributions by those to whom North is still ‘home’. Those who do hold high positions but without committing themselves to the core values of their positions are effectively  preaching like Satan.