Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

18 March 2019

Same-side Goal in Ethnic Politics

This morning, SBS News reported under the heading – ‘'Nothing will divide us': Faith leaders, politicians unite against hatred after NZ terror attack’

Not every Australian would identify with this unity. Last night, Twitter brought us the following message about Ms Chelsea Clinton on the issue:

[Clinton attended a vigil honoring the victims of the terror attack in New Zealand where 49 people were killed at two mosques. A woman present at the vigil confronted Clinton, saying the massacre was "stoked by people like you and the words you put out into the world."] - https://twitter.com/i/events/1106897599418662912?cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email

I guess, this morning, when I wrote as follows to an engineering Alumni group of University of  Peradeniya, Sri Lanka,  I was in the position of the young lady who accused the ‘Clinton group ’  and the likes of Ms Indira Vasanti Samarasekera OC,  (née Arulpragasam) the 12th president and vice-chancellor of the University of Alberta are in the ‘Clinton group’:

[This group is trying to fool itself and others through this ‘reunion’. Until this ‘project’ the group did not share experiences as if it was ONE body. My brother had to abandon his hard-earned Engineering place in 1983 – after Sinhalese batch mates attacked him. I had to try very hard to persuade  him to complete his university education in Canada.

The Human Energy inherited from this Faculty needs purification before ‘showing’ improvements to visible assets. If the inherited Energy is positive, the system would work itself. If negative – the repeat of 1983 would be added to every future activity initiated by those groups that caused the violence within the University – including through heritage from this group, that failed to take affirmative action over the past 36 years of separatism practiced by this very group. 

The better way would be to go together to High Schools that produce high rate of Engineering entrants. As per current reports Moratuwa University is preferred to Peradeniya University for Engineering – especially by Tamil students. Restore the commonness of Peradeniya through improved  Human Values. If you seek to fool yourselves – that is fine. But please stop fooling the younger generation by pulling the money-cover over Human Values weaknesses in you. The Truth is known through your actual conduct over the past 36 years when the Nation was in ethnic crisis. Truth alone can unite us naturally.

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam]

The ethnic problem of Sri Lanka was globalized and continues to be globalized by both sides to the conflict. When we are global, every other ethnic problem in any part of the world, becomes ours also. It matters not which side we view it from – so long as we use common measures of  global commonness.  

This morning’s mail directed my attention to the story of a former combatant-couple published at https://youtu.be/-R7fpltOw7k

The Truth that I  identify with  in that story is that to those  combatants  LTTE were the Government group. They were the non-State party in the Sri Lankan ethnic war. Tamils also made up two teams – one that supported the militants and the other than supported non-violent practitioners of the laws of Sri Lanka. The above victims belonged in the former team. By expressing expectations of support from the Sri Lankan government, they are confirming that they are expecting the opposition group to support their heritage!  

Recently in Northern Sri Lanka, when we attended Mallakam Local Courts at the request of the Opposition’s lawyer – at one stage I had to leave my husband with the Opposition lawyer to go downstairs and find the 84 year old lawyer who represented our side. When I came back my husband and the Opposition lawyer were missing and by systematic search I found them in the registry room where the Opposition lawyer was writing out the ‘joint motion’. When I asked my husband – he said that he noticed the Opposition Lawyer was in need of light and fan. Hence he also moved in. I said to him – that was ‘same side goal’.

The above ex-combatants were doing similar. In the meantime, TGTE – Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam is getting ready for its next term. The above mentioned story is a vote against the current TGTE  committee. To the extent we claim diversity we need to refrain from becoming ‘common’ in politics and claiming ‘same side goals’ as our victories.

As per my experience, UNP the political party has the strongest heritage in Northern Sri Lanka, through law abiding Tamils who have not expressly joined any non-political Tamil team in the ethnic conflict. This was confirmed when we met the Prime Minister’s group in February, at the North Gate by Jetwing hotel. The way Truth worked – the Hon Vajira Abeywardana, Minister of Internal and Home Affairs and Provincial Councils and Local Government, chatted to us and made the common connection with my husband on the basis that he was an Engineering graduate from Moratuwa University. This was followed by an introduction to the Prime Minister who also demonstrated interest in the fact that my husband was teaching at University of Technology, Sydney. To me all this was confirmation of our positive heritage in the University of Peradeniya’s Engineering faculty which continues to connect us globally. We as a global family paid our respects to that University in 2013. The rest is led by our educational heritage of positive value.

In the process I appreciated the group value of UNP which connected us to a fellow engineer more strongly than we would have anticipated. That is the way of Truth. It lives in us as our heritage.