Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

16 October  2017

 

Picture Courtesy Ceylon Today

Victory for the President in Northern Sri Lanka

In 2015when Mr. Sirisena became President of Sri Lanka, I identified with it through the structure I had developed up to then. Later, when the President and the Prime Minister formed Common Governance despite their Political differences – my respect for Mr. Sirisena went up. It is not easy to maintain such a partnership in the current disorder in Sri Lanka.

When I read the following passages in the Ceylon Today articles, my respect for Mr. Sirisena went up many notches:

[President Maithripala Sirisena took his security detail by surprise after he threw caution to the wind and abruptly alighted from his official vehicle to confront a group of protesters in Jaffna yesterday. The President was in Jaffna to inaugurate the National Tamil Language Day celebrations at the Jaffna Hindu College when the incident took place.

"If you stage protests against me and I am weakened, the devil will get an opportunity," President Maithripala Sirisena told a gathering in Jaffna yesterday.]

The Devil within the Tamil Community is the Emotional person who lacks respect for Intellectual Discrimination. We may use different rules to other cultures – but if they are not regulated by Common Values particular to a minority group, that group becomes more and more disorderly. Sadly many parts of the so-called educated sections of the Tamil Community also lack the determination to use Common values. They seem to need emotional confrontation to awaken their thoughts. Once we burn up our Energy through emotions –the system would lack the power to raise itself to the higher intellectual level which would include respect for others’ Energies also. Administration in Northern Sri Lanka is weakening due to such frequent use of emotional outbursts.

The stated reason for the  recent protest is explained in  Ceylon Today’s report as follows:

[President Sirisena was heard as saying: "Come let us discuss and see how the matter can be solved. The Tamils voted for me, you must remember."

Sivajilingam replied: "So how do you pay back your gratitude to the people who supported you."

Sivajilingam told the President that 160 Tamil prisoners held under the Prevention of Terrorism, Act (PTA) are languishing in prisons without trial.]

The question is ‘Are Tamils as a Community asking the President to be influenced by Mr. Sivajilingam who officially represents only a fraction of the Tamil Community?’

The answer to my mind is a clear ‘NO’.  If Mr. Sivajilingam looks within his own experience – he would know that Tamils who are genuinely committed to Tradition and/or  Merit based assessment demoted him to his current level.

If the President did get influenced by the Protestors – then the President would be letting down the educated Tamil who uses Intellectual Discrimination to regulate emotions. Indeed, if emotions rule over intellectual discrimination, then Tamils would be promoting within the President – a system that would uphold majority rule in Administration – the very habit that we opposed in the process of which we endured much pain. Members of our community being in prison is a reminder of our own excessive use of emotions over experience based knowledge and wisdom to regulate our expressions of opposition.

Mr. Sivajilingam was defeated by Mr. Sirisena who has endured and continues to endure pain to remain in that marriage with a party that has been for a long time, the Political Opposition in his mind. My Energies are with Mr. Sirisena in this issue. Since I believe that  I have completed my Jaffna Life by serving and sharing credit – my vote has exponential value. Likewise the votes of  all Tamils who held highest positions at National level – including two Chief Justices the late Justice Suppiah Sharvananda and Justice Kanagasabapathy Sripavan. As an individual, I endured much discrimination pain in Australia and hardly any in Sri Lanka. I was also effectively a political prisoner but no Tamil group came to protest against the Administration of the University of NSW that had me arrested for peaceful assembly. I concluded that they were all ‘protesting’ against the Sri Lankan Government for their own selfish reasons. My experience is my Guru.

If Mr. Sivajilingam truly cared about the educated Tamil – he would consult with such intellectuals within the Judiciary before protesting to rouse emotions of the less educated. Those of us who accept such methodology would damage our own order through investment in higher education. The more we are rewarded for such protests – the less inclined we would be to develop our intellectual abilities.