Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

22 January 2019

Democracy a Foreigner in Sri Lanka

[These words, ‘where every prospect pleases and only man is vile’ written long ago about our country by Bishop Reginald Heber, were resented by me when I first read them, as a schoolgirl, as I felt they were unfair. But when one looks at happenings today, I feel he was a visionary far ahead of his time in his thinking and writing. Our country is among the most beautiful in the world, we have been called Emerald isle, Pearl of the Indian Ocean and other most descriptive adjectives. Our nation’s beauty is reflected in nature’s incomparable canvas created by God, our creator in the verdant varying shades of green of trees and foliage, sapphire blue into turquoise of the ocean, the glorious vibrant sunsets, the golden sands.] Ms Ilica Malkanthi Karunaratne in her Daily Mirror article ‘Ingratitude, hypocrisy brought the worst traits of our national character.

The statement ‘our country is among the most beautiful in the world’ is denial of Sove

reignty. The Sri Lankan National Anthem does not relate to other nations and rightly so. As a Sri Lankan, Ms Karunarantne ought to be offended by the above expression by Bishop Reginald Herber.  Gandhi was and responded as follows:

["My own experience in my travels throughout India has been to the contrary ... [Man] is not vile. He is as much a seeker after truth as you and I are, possibly more so"]

Gandhi is our Independence heritage. Gandhi renounced earned opportunities to live comfortably, to identify with majority Indians – who were poor in status and/or money. One who becomes an heir of Gandhi will produce more heirs of  Independence. An independent person would not relate to those outside her/his circle of belief. Those with dual citizenship are prevented by law from representing Sri Lankans in government due to the risk of indiscriminately relating one country to the other. Truth morally authorises us to be governors of both in common as well as individually within each country. In the Sri Lankan context in terms of communities governors are entitled to represent both individually and in common. But not executives.

The Provincial governors for example are actually appointed executives. The Chief Minister is both governor and executive. The higher the position, the greater the governing power needed to develop natural harmony. Governing power develops natural pathways to sharing strengths and weakness. The more a person in governor’s position seeks and/or uses administrative powers – the stronger the confirmation of weak governing power – as President  Maithripala Sirisena demonstrated recently.

If Mr Sirisena is elected President again, to my mind, that confirms that majority Sri Lankans are not self-governing. By 2015, we had not manifested the true characteristic of Mr Sirisena in that position. Had Mr Sirisena been self-governing prior to 2015, he would have been comfortable in the governing part of the position of President. But the manifestations since October have reliably confirmed that the person above him is the law  to Mr Sirisena. That comes from dependence of express votes to get to the high position. The greater the dependence on express votes – the greater the need for a senior intermediary between the law and the official. This was Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa for Mr Sirisena. The Truth  we need to face is that to majority Sri Lankans including Tamil politicians, Democracy is a foreign system.

Being Truthful does not mean that we are Democratic. Recognizing the other’s right to read us as per their Truth confirms Democracy. As a democratic person I assess Mr Sirisena as an undemocratic person. Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mr Sampanthan are more democratic than Mr Sirisena because they did not use the law prematurely. They facilitated the truth  to manifest Itself by the directly affected persons and that is the value of democracy.

Ms Ilica Malkanthi Karunaratne using Bishop Reginald Heber’s conclusion, to my mind is in breach of the fundamentals of the Constitution that blocks Dual Citizenship holders from contesting elections. As per those fundamentals – we cannot inter relate but only intra-relate. Most Sri Lankan politicians with active knowledge of English law, but  promoting traditional pathways have dual citizenship mind-structure instead of common mind. Hence their policy contributions would lead to getting the user nowhere.

Recently, the Daily News presented as follows  through its report headed ‘No to Federalism, NE amalgamations’:

[Eventhough Tamil parties have not extended any support towards Sri Lanka’s constitutions, expressing their ideas regarding various proposals for the formulation of a new Constitution is a welcome democratic feature, State Enterprise, Kandyan Heritage and Kandyan Development Minister Lakshaman Kiriella said.]

Tamils did contribute actively to maintaining the Sovereignty of Sri Lanka – which is the core purpose of the Constitution. Prior to 1972, Tamils contributed as Equals to the British. After the British who also failed to appreciate the value of minority contributions – especially, the 50:50 claim by the Hon GG Ponnambalam  Tamils have contributed to the real constitution by confirming that they reject the Sinhala only law, followed by Buddhism foremost article - which structures denied the true self-governance path that many Tamil leaders had followed.

The presence of  two contradictory articles in the one constitution confirms the risks of dual-citizens making policies in one country or the other.

Daily News reports further as follows:

[For the first time in the country’s history, the TNA had accepted the unitary state concept and Article 9 of the Constitution which offered a pre-eminent place for Buddhism.

“What had been presented in Parliament was not a Constitution but constitutional proposals made by various parties and individuals and eminent persons for clause by clause discussion only.

“It was after then that a draft constitution would be formulated.

“Although some quarters alleged that there were attempts to divide the country, the UNP would never agree to any such underhand moves since they loved the country,” he said.

“Had we implemented power devolution immediately after independence, the country would have never experienced a cruel 30 yeas war. In the 1950s the Tamils demanded only language rights rather than separation.]

Those who accept Article 9 of the Constitution confirm that they are not democratic and that they are not self-governing. Whoever accepted that from within the TNA is a traitor – at community as well as national levels. TNA’s job is to Oppose through its own Truth experienced through a path independent to that of the Government. That is the power that  elevated Tamils to Equal Opposition in National Parliament –through also Sinhalese voters also, confirming the invisible powers of Truth that recognizes the common value of Tamils who endured hardship in that part of the Earth, called Sri Lanka. If TNA did accept Buddhism foremost article – then they invoke internal separation between Tamils as:

Those who are junior to Buddhists and those who are Equal to Buddhists. Mine is certainly with those who are Equal to Buddhists.

If the above presentation  by Mr Kiriella is false – then TNA’s first duty is to take action against Mr Kiriella for promoting separation.

Otherwise we would conclude that Democracy is foreign to Tamil National Alliance also.