Sunday, 29 July 2018



Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

29 July 2018


Permanent Tamil Opposition

 

Yesterday I voted with my Truth via my article headed ‘African Gangs & Sri Lankan Terrorists’. This morning I identified with the outcomes when reading ABC article ‘Super Saturday: Labor's by-election wins leave Turnbull Government with questions to answer’.
Our real votes are cast when we feel good or bad due to Government policy and practice. Showing our Truth  manifests the opposite within the Sovereign unit that we feel a part of.  Hence we must first ‘own’ to make a difference at the top level. This could happen without us voting at all. When we have manifested our Truth, the other side at that level will happen within that Sovereign unit and we will ‘see’ it.  

Lawyer Harvey says  in the TV Serial Suits – ‘Being a lawyer is like being a doctor. You keep pressing it until it hurts, then you know where to look. Tamils did just that – pressed until we became the Equal Opposition in 1977 elections. The manifestation happened through the 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution that majority Tamils could identify with in their own ways.

 

In 1983, when the Tamil Tigers returned the slain soldiers that action was NOT a manifestation that majority in Tamil community could identify with. It was disrespectful of the individuals’  human rights. Those who claim their soldiers as great heroes – are not heirs of the 1983 leadership or the 1983 leadership was not an heir of those who gave birth to the Vaddukoddai Resolution.

 

One of our relatives who failed to take responsibility for his children would react the moment his pension card was within his sight. As per his conscience – that was his and his alone. So long as he had that – he was being taken care of. Likewise, all of us feel the pain – real pain – at the point where the opposition meets our Truth. This was education to majority Tamil leaders and language to less educated Tamils.

 

In order to be entitled to a structural change at National level,  Tamils need to have both – feel the pain at Policy level, and have the courage to express it independently. Thereafter, the responsibility to ‘show the other side is with the system of Truth which is self-balancing. This happened in 1977 and in 2015 through real votes of true Governors. The Truth whether its manifestation at that time at that place is positive or negative – acts independent of us – including those who manifested the first side. It would be beneficial to those who manifested it despite pain and loss – so other victims will not feel alone.

 

In his Daily Mirror article ‘Lessons not learnt From Black July and aftermath India had stressed that it would not accept a Tamil State near its southernmost State, which houses a homogeneous populace’ Mr M S M Ayub states:
[Every aspect of the proposed new Constitution is branded as an attempt to carve out a separate Tamil State.]

One would expect minorities to have hurt much more through the Buddhism foremost article in the current constitution. If the new structure shows a separate Tamil structure – then at policy level it becomes a balanced constitution workable through intellectual discrimination.

During my Court battles, including against the then Prime Minister John Howard, a Judge of the NSW Supreme Court observed that I would not be ‘told’. Under the hierarchical system our seniors  tell us and we tell our juniors. Too much ‘telling’ or too little ‘telling’ would weaken this system. Former leads to dictatorship and latter to indifference. The system of democracy helps prevent such deterioration by facilitating minority to ‘tell’ ‘majority’ by taking Equal position. Muslims whose first language is Tamil are part of that Equal Opposition.


Mr M S M Ayub states:

[Where would the frustration ultimately lead the Tamil youth in the future? History has the answer. The frustration is already being witnessed by facts such as glorifying of former State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran.  
On the other hand, those Tamil leaders who ran away from the north and the east and hid in Colombo during the height of the separatist war are now drumming up separatist slogans and calling for the revival of the slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.]

There is are two apparently opposing sayings in Tamil :
(1)  Ondru pattaal undu vaalvu (United we stand)
(2)  Kitta pohna mutta pahai (familiarity breeds contempt)

Both would be valid only when one is mentally united but physically not too close.

The fact that Mr Ayub applies Mrs Maheswaran as well us the separatism chanters – confirms the level at which Mr Ayub is capable of maintaining opposition. It is certainly not at the level of  intellectual governors who raised the thought structure of Tamil community. This includes the Hon  G G Ponnambalam of our generation.

When we deal with the issue at that level – educated Tamils of Sri Lanka would become the Royal Family – good looking but dysfunctional.

Mr M S M Ayub  observes [One cannot find fault with the commemoration of people killed in the war and even the sacrifices by the LTTE cadres and also with the struggles for the rights of the Tamils, so long as those events would not reinforce separatist ideology among Tamils.  
But some Tamil leaders still get involved in these events in a manner that creates or toughens separatist zeal among the Tamil youth, just for political gains. ]

 

In democratic politics – we are allowed only to vote for one side or the other. If the community is right in celebrating the life of rebels – then to that mind, Tamil leaders who support separatism are the representatives of Tamils. But TNA being the Tamil Opposition in Parliament, confirms the true net value of  ALL Sri Lankan Tamils to whom Sri Lanka is home. So long as that power is stronger than the ‘telling’ power  - we have successfully defended our ‘home’ powers that we naturally share with all others to whom also Sri Lanka is ‘home’. Taking Opposition as Separatism deteriorates the interpreters own investment in democracy.  


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