Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

17 September 2018

Refugee Assessment – Truth or Right Answer

Often most of us assume that Truth and the Right answer are one and the same. They are not. Through right answers we would reach the Truth only if the measure used is reliable and consistent. Our Truth resides within us and can be accessed by one who cares about us – as if we are part of them. This may NOT be an Australian official representing Australian Common Values. I was often marked wrong by Australian authorities who were strongly influenced – not by law but by their own supervisors. They may have been true to themselves but wrong by law. Being True to themselves means identifying with their own experienced Truth.

Recently, nine-year-old Queensland school girl, Miss  Harper Nielsen, was reported to have refused to stand up in school for the National Anthem of Australia. Relatively speaking I consciously recalled the words in Northern Sri Lanka on 26 January 2012, before going to Court for the first hearing in relation to the Intestate Estate of my brother in law Mr Subramaniam Yoganathan. On that day – the judge pulled up the lawyer representing our opposition for sending us the papers without Court’s order. The lawyer was driven by his own desires and those of his clients. That judge was senior and more conscious of the laws that we inherited from the British – but which in that form do not suit most of current Sri Lanka. I believe that my prayers to Australia – the Australia realised by me – worked through that judge – due to our common ancestry. Later a much younger judge of the war generation – demonstrated his heritage from the Tamil rebels who had their own sets of laws. That younger judge disrespected my lawful marriage through Australian law. Like in parental genes – the government that our parents are conscious of are also inherited by us. I identify with the criticism by some politicians that Miss Nielson confirmed rising Nationalism within our Indigenous Community – the Australian parallel of Tamil Community in Northern Sri Lanka. Like in Sri Lanka, it was ‘created’ by majority who exceeded their belief based boundaries of authority to ‘ rule’ over those whose ‘sense of sovereignty’ was ‘damaged’ by them. Hence my article headed ‘Did Sinhala Nationalism give birth to Tamil Nationalism?’ – dated 14 September at http://austms.blogspot.com/

We, as individuals, communities, nations – naturally develop structures as per our Truth. I learnt about the wonders of one of them just today about a sports club that was established by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) – using an Australian name. I am not a sports fan or patron but have genuinely invested in that community. A member of the Tamil Diaspora from that area  ‘stole’ my status by showing a culture in traditional arts and held a ceremony where the Chief Guest was the current Chief Minister of  Northern Province who continues to ‘show’ his judicial credit despite knowledge of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers between the Judiciary and the Executive. But Truth prevailed and the players came to me to help them in their current efforts. I thus got the status with the group to whom body sports is of great importance. The money rich Diaspora person ‘took’ mine and I got without any intervention on my part – the real status that the village has naturally developed of their own free will.

The recent article ‘How we decide if asylum seekers lie’ – came to me through a Diaspora network, carrying the same message of Truth. In that article, author Dr. Douglas McDonald-Norman confirms as follows:

[In the five years I worked in refugee law, some of the most common and complicated legal challenges I encountered were questions regarding the 'truthfulness' or 'credibility' of an asylum seeker's claims. Despite examining the same evidence, different decision-makers can draw different conclusions about whether an asylum seeker is telling the truth.]

In terms of immigration, unless the assessor is closely connected to the applicant’s culture – the right measure is global laws. UN’s Equal Opportunity laws are yet to be positive investment through which Australians could become global. Hence we need to use our own Truth and use it positively in favour of Australia known to us. In the case of the young child Miss Nielson, global laws are likely to  lead to the Truth that Indigenous Australians are entitled to sing their own community anthem. But that would not help those of us who came after White Australians – feel young and free. Those who though they were young and free back then – became our parents in immigration and are now old and struggling to reconcile with those whose sovereignty they damaged. The Truth was/is that they thought they were ‘free’. Whether they were or not is another question.

Refugees do not come to Australia seeking Truth. They come here to be ‘right’ for their families and communities – from a country that marked them wrong and/or they marked was wrong for them. An assessor  who is truly Australian – will recruit a migrant who would be ‘right’ for Australian in the eyes of the global community. One who is selfish and is attached to her/his particular community / nation formed by the community – is likely to recruit to please / impress her/his own local community. In other words – they recruit their natural heirs. Hence the test ought to be how deep the investment of the Assessor is in global laws and values. Beyond that one has to accept the decision of the Assessor and not look for rights and wrongs of the expressions by the applicants. Discretionary powers are high in such responsibilities. A refugee applicant may never speak but would be the right one if the Assessor who is truly Common Australian used her/his discretionary powers – to identify with identical genes in the applicant formed in another place.  The subjective power of such an Australian would be global because we are multicultural through a combination of our Truth and laws.

Dr Douglas McDonald-Norman states: ‘There's an old cliché in refugee law that ‘refugees don't come with a note from their dictator’. Asylum seekers don't carry indisputable evidence setting out precisely who they are, what has happened to them and why they fear harm. They will rarely have been the subject of press reports. Their personal experiences may not have been documented. And any witnesses to what they have lived through may be unwilling or unable to testify on their behalf.

Even information that is available, like information about the asylum seeker's country of origin, has its limits. Country information, or even information about the group, sect or party to which an asylum seeker belongs, will usually be in very general terms. It will not be sufficiently specific or detailed to confirm the experiences of any single individual. These challenges become even greater when an asylum seeker makes claims not just about what they have done, but about who they are and what they believe: their religion, their sexuality, their political beliefs.

When governments or the UNHCR carry out RSD, they hence make decisions with extraordinary consequences for the asylum seeker on the basis of very limited information about that person.’

If one is seeking to reinforce the investment made by Australian elders, in immigration system,  one does not need to know the Truth of the applicant. In fact, to the extent one USED global laws largely for status – the little investment one makes during one generation would be used to quickly offset the existing negative karma generated and left behind by those who wanted the best of both worlds – as most young ones seem to want when they think they are ‘free’. Unless we live within our own earnings – we are assured of our ‘genes’ taking over the outcomes delivered through us. This could be for better or for worse depending on the other players involved and the Energies they invoke. Those like Ms Hanson, living off her white-only genes would naturally invoke the indigenous-nationalism genes of those who owned on time basis.

The University of NSW through whom I was listed by NSW Police as Sri Lankan, despite my strong protests that I was Australian by law – carries strong negative karma / genes in relation to immigration. As a migrant from the Indian Subcontinent, I am likely to have subconsciously picked up the threatening genes from that part of the world, more quickly than White-Australians who continue to list me as Sri Lankan for official purposes also. Likewise, in the case of refugee applicants – their community members are more likely to pick up the Truth than outsiders. Successful processing is likely to improve our global status but not bring us the Natural connections that Belief / Truth brings us. Many refugee advocates are driven by ‘showing results’ to their current leaders and/or followers for the same reason that they want the ‘right’ ticks and not the Truth. The pathway to Truth often is blocked by such ‘rights’ through cleverness unsupported by belief.  One who forbears the pain of failures allocated by outsiders, to continue to be guided by her/his inner voice is the ultimate winner in her/his mind forever. One such refugee applicant returned to India when Australia deported him. THAT is a win-win situation for Australia and the applicant. Truth delivers through Consolidated power of all investors in that issue beyond time and place borders. These borders often come in the form of ‘rights’ allocated by non-believers. But one who transcends attachment to such local borders naturally accesses Universal Energies through which the power to work the local system for common purpose is also accessed.