Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

08 September  2017

Abuse of Common Wealth

A Senior Officer of the Armed Services of Sri Lanka who is now retired, forwarded to me the article ‘THE SHADOWS IN THE CB SCAMS’ by SHIVANTHI RANASINGHE at http://www.ceylontoday.lk/print20170401CT20170630.php?id=27641

The article to my mind is  a good outcome of investigative journalism work that adds value to our governance system, confirming that the media is also an alternate government – largely through social order that we all contribute to. The email carried a picture of Kathirgamam shrine with Vel and Minister Ravi Karunanayake praying at Kathirgamam confirming  a Common mind structure.

The email referred me to the report at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICl5U2qVW_4.  When watching that report – my eyes were caught by another heading ‘Blockade to building memorial at the resting grounds of war hero in Kilinochchi at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrYJXQcWXHE

There the conflict was between an officer representing the Pradeshiya Sabha (Municipal Council) of that area and a person who seemed associated with the guy who claimed that the memorial was for his brother. With my Thunaivi experience still fresh in my mind, this land-grab was more important to me than the Bond Scam which is about ‘distant’ players. Through my experience in Thunaivi, Vaddukoddai, I was able to identify with the core purpose of the guy who was finding fault with the Pradeshiya Sabha officer. The guy who was shouting at the officer seemed very much like a militant supporter. His parallels at Thunaivi are the young guys who were trying to ‘occupy’ our temple for their own purposes. They carry the genes of their parents and ancestors who occupied ‘other people’s lands and claimed prescriptive rights sometimes lawful but mostly natural acceptance of others in the area. The parallel of that in Public Administration is - where the Government Administrators are  not visible at the primary level the positions are assumed by those who consider themselves to the most natural leaders in that area. Kilinochchi, was under LTTE rule for longer period than Jaffna. The reason to my mind, is that Kilinochchi lacked the power of the educated mind that drove Jaffna – including to elect the current Chief Minister the Hon C.V.Wigneswaran – a well educated professional minded person. The above argument therefore could be taken to have been between the educated Chief Minister and LTTE leader Prabhakaran whose forces did  occupy other people’s homes by force. This included my close relative’s home in Jaffna, whose brother was killed by militants.

Taken as a whole, if Tamils occupy properties that they know to be lawfully others’ - the heirs of such occupiers – are not entitled to claim compensation for unlawful occupation from custodians of authority of the  law. That is the path of Dharma/Righteousness as per the system of Natural Justice. The Chief Minister who is lawfully occupying that position, has the duty to eliminate from the list of those on whose behalf he is claiming to redeem occupied lands all those who are heirs of the militants. This includes elected members of the Provincial Council who carry the militant genes. It’s the educated Tamil genes of Jaffna that drove the current powers to elect Mr. Wigneswaran towards becoming the Chief Minister. His first loyalty needs to be to that Education and the higher mind structure that education renders.

Mr. Wigneswaran was invited to declare open a cultural hall that was built in Thunaivi out of funds from a member of that village who migrated to Switzerland. That building was built on someone else’s land and without the approval of the authorities. It was claimed to have been in honour of his father. The authorities did not prevent the construction and thus diluted their own investment in law and order.

The protestor in the Kilinochchi incident keeps asking the Pradeshiya Sabha officer as to why he did not protest when the Official Army  built memorial for its officers. In other words the protestors recognized that land as ‘theirs’ – as if there was no government other than their own. Like the above mentioned member of the Diaspora who built the memorial  for his father on someone else’s land – this protestor is/was  proposing to build memorial for his associate’s brother on common land. That is an insult to the brother who died – just as much as the above mentioned Thunaivi building opened by Mr. Wigneswaran is to the father of that member of the Diaspora who died without blemish at the public level. I who donated land to the People  was punished by the heirs of the very people who asked me for that donation towards a pathway to the main-road and later towards an office for the officials. The above Kilinochchi incident confirms why those officials never came. They feared the militants and their heirs. The expectation that they would come is merely imaginary – on the basis that money could buy authority.

In my mind, now that I am not a direct participant in that management – the price paid by me for the improvements in that area was denial of reasonable respect to one who is a Higher Common investor. Where the line of Commonness is shown at the level lower than mine, I become an outsider to that group that draws that line. Taking that ‘outsider’ position explains to them that I would invoke Police powers which are also alien to that group as it is to the Kilinochchi protestor. The question I ask is – who are the outsiders within the Northern Provincial Council – an institution that draws its authority from the laws of Sri Lanka ? – those who follow the law or those who override the law through physical  powers driven by emotions?

If it is the latter, then let us not claim that Tamils are an educated Community – still hurting due to the burning of the Public Library in Jaffna. When Common knowledge is burnt everyday through emotionally driven brawn power – there is no moral authority for such grievance nor to protest against the quota system to enter the University which is claimed to have been one of the reasons why militants used arms to oppose the Government. The wisdom in the carried by us as a community is our eternal library. Any representation that depicts more is false.

The more we lie to ourselves the more mentally disorderly we become. This is a problem in Northern Sri Lanka – as highlighted recently by a  Vaddukoddai relative. What a mess! Here in Australia, we claimed to have been offended by the inclusion of Lord Ganesh in the pro-lamb campaign. Lord Ganesh is believed to be the remover of obstacles due to His stronger intellectual powers on the basis of belief in parents and ancestors. All Hindu Tamils therefore have a duty to oppose at least in their minds, conduct that is disrespectful of this pathway. Those driven by the physical pathway have the duty to go global and separate themselves from the ancestral pathway but not enforce themselves on Ganesh followers. The Tamil militants competed not only with majority power  of the Sinhalese but also the intellectual power of higher thinking Tamils. The right to mourn publicly is with the victim and not the perpetrators and their heirs.