Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

18 November   2017

Missing Persons – People’s Representatives

There is a Tamil saying ‘Kuttram Paarkil Suttram Illai’ / ‘If you find fault you do not have extended relatives.’ To the extent we can correct wrongs in those whom we consider to be relatives, so we could travel as one unit – such fault finding is of positive value. Where we are bound by common belief  – this faith quietly cures and supports. Hence, when the senior in a relationship has truly invested deeply in an issue – a junior with faith in the senior becomes a natural carrier/heir  of that investment. It is for this reason that the system of paying ‘respect’ to seniors is included in family and institutional processes. To the extent we seek to inherit the mind of a senior – we need to have belief. The express pathway to common belief is through common pain. Like the way we contribute regularly to retirement funds, paying our respects includes a component that goes towards our investment in this common belief.

Recently, our daughter said to me that when she was asked by her senior at the workplace as to how come she (an engineer) was good in understanding finances she had said that I had taught her. I taught them technically to get the British certificate at year 10 level. They did it because at that time they accepted me as their senior. But to my mind – there was a deeper reason why my daughter was doing well in financial management at that place at this time. I worked in that institution and developed a Commercially Oriented Budgetary system which was highly appreciated by the head of finance – Mr Geoff Fardell. The gap between the relative value of my contribution and the money value I received developed a new relationship which matured as ownership Energy. Whoever has faith in me and in that institution will be naturally empowered by that heritage.

In contrast, I did expressly find fault with the extended relatives at the University of NSW and hence ‘lost’ them. But this helped me form new relationships albeit with juniors, as their natural senior. The risk here is that unless we see each other as Equals – meaning no status hierarchy – we could get taken over. That is how parents become dependent on their adult children, especially once the parents retire from work-life. Since my sense of independence has been strong – I usually completed the relationship at that level and then moved on. The last of such experience was at the village of Thunaivi in Northern Sri Lanka. There was detachment pain there also but it left room for the folks there to make the connection between something going wrong and my departure. To my mind, the departure is largely physical but the service continues from my side. One of the guys to whom I ‘sold’ a water-pump at a highly discounted value – few years ago – acted in breach of the processes allocated to him. The water-pump broke down and asked me to use our water through a hose-pipe until he found enough money to buy another water-pump. To many this may seem to be coincidence. But at a place like that – where people live close to Nature – people make the connection more easily through independent manifestations at that time. If at least one side is driven by belief – such manifestations confirm the need to move on.

Yesterday also we recalled with sadness and some pain that the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) who killed others claiming that they were  traitors – ended up killing Tamil political leaders who over long periods invested in true independence through non-violent intellectual pathways.  Those who consider for example – the Hon SJV  Chelvanayakam as Father of the Tamil Nation, would not consider LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as National leader of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE ruthlessly killed Tamil Politicians who had respected Hon SJV  Chelvanayakam – and did so knowing very well that the Politicians had trusted them.

As per Hindustan Times report ‘Court summons Sri Lanka Army chief over disappearance of 24 Tamils’:

[The Jaffna High Court has asked Army chief Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake along with two other state officials to appear in court on Saturday.

Judge Ilancheliyan ordered them to appear in court when a case filed by parents and relatives of the 24 missing persons was taken up on November 15.

The relatives have claimed that the 24 had gone missing since July 1996 when the security forces had arrested them in Navatkuly, Jaffna.

Sri Lankan troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have faced international condemnation for alleged human rights violations during the long-drawn conflict.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in three successive resolutions has urged for independent international investigation into alleged abuses blamed on both sides.]

If at least some of the missing persons were part of the LTTE, then, the parents have to renounce all credit to the LTTE to become entitled to the support of the very system against which the LTTE showed their might. If any of the missing persons are found – then the families of those persons who used the Court system need to consciously move on to the wider common system or go back to the local system. Whilst many who ‘thought’ that the LTTE would win power would have difficulty merging with wider world, as individuals and/or through community grouping, few may now have the motivation to keep continuing. Relatives who use the official system need to commit themselves to following the official system of law and order, independently and/or as per the leadership of their current leaders.

Talking about missing persons, I did find missing in the group of Sri Lankans and Australians who met to discuss Reconciliation and Human Rights issues also – as per Sunday Leader article headed ‘Australia and Sri Lanka discuss reconciliation and human rights’ – the representatives of the People here in Australia who become beneficiaries or victims of excessive-enthusiasm for quick wins by both side Governments. I for one ‘included’ both sides specifically by sharing the Truth I knew at a time when they needed it. I therefore conclude that the said meeting is for the purpose of showing agreement between the governments for their own purposes with little or no contribution to self-governance by the People – for example how to know the feelings of Sri Lankans in terms of major changes to the Constitution currently being considered by the Lankan government. So long as People’s true contribution is missing from government’s decision making, wars would continue in the name of ‘freedom’ but not for real independence.