Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
26
April 2019
Export not to Sri
Lanka - the Intelligence Failure by Australian Armed Forces
(He was normal when he went to study in Britain, and normal when he came
back. But after he did his postgraduate in Australia, he came back to Sri Lanka
a different man.) – The Australian
Years ago – while travelling from Jaffna
to Colombo by the noon train – a young lady in Muslim robes sat next to me. I
learnt that the young lady was a medical student. The train was not air-conditioned
and got delayed due to signal issues. I
was wondering how that young lady who revealed that she was wearing jeans
underneath her robe could bear the heat. I wonder what she would think about
the hijab being banned by law in Sri Lanka – a topic that was discussed by Ms
Indeewari Amnuwatte with President’s Counsel Ali Sabry at https://www.facebook.com/AdaDeranaLive/videos/vb.1791371124211105/1186578378181823/?type=2&theater
The uniforms we wear give us a sense of
commonness as well as sense of duty. Many wear them as rituals to get brownie points with seniors. I started wearing the
Hindu woman’s hijab – the sari to school – when I enrolled in a boys’ school towards
following a course in engineering at
tertiary level. Later when I was offered a place to serve articles at an
accounting firm where my uncle was an influential client – I was advised by my uncle to wear sari. But I found that
most of the Sinhalese students wore western dresses. I continued to wear the
sari to office but did wear western dresses to the Institute of Chartered Accountants
where I attended lectures. At Air Lanka – the rule was for female staff to wear
the sari. Here in Australia, I wore the sari to work when I felt isolated. To
me that was an act of civil disobedience against those who were failing to
practice the Equal Opportunity laws in employment. At the University of NSW
they did not get the message and it eventually got added to the pain of those
who would take an eye for an eye. Sri Lankan Muslim Nizamdeen who did not do
his search about the negative multicultural karma that the UNSW carried – despite
me having written a book ‘ Naan Australian’ - about it- became a victim of this negative karma. The
NSW Police who participated in the development of that negative karma – shared their
status with Nizamdeen who was suspected as Terrorist by Australian Federal Police. Now we learn from the ABC as follows:
[The Prime Minister has confirmed counter terrorism officers
from the Australian Federal Police will help Sri Lanka with its investigation into
the Easter Sunday bombings.
Scott Morrison says Australia's offer of help was accepted
overnight.]
AFP needs to first
learn from the law abiding Australians of Sri Lankan origin and bring about
closure – to any wrongs by the AFP. The Australian article ‘Sri Lankan bomber
in Aussie terror net’ helps us decide including through the following:
[The
Sri Lankan suicide bomber who studied at a Melbourne university was one of the
subjects of a terrorism investigation by Australian security authorities after
intelligence emerged linking him to Islamic State operative Neil Prakash. The
Australian can
reveal that Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, one of nine suicide bombers responsible
for a string of attacks across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, was investigated by
the Joint Counter Terrorism Team in 2014.]
The following part of the above mentioned
article confirms that Australia leads Sri Lanka in radicalization:
[One of Mohamed’s sisters, Samsul Hidaya, last night
revealed how he had become “deeply religious” in Australia and returned to
Sri Lanka a different man.
Ms
Hidaya said Mohamed had became increasingly withdrawn and intense as he
descended into extremism.
“My
brother became deeply, deeply religious while he was in Australia,” Ms Hidaya
told the Daily Mail.
“He was normal when he went to study in
Britain, and normal when he came back. But after he did his postgraduate in
Australia, he came back to Sri Lanka a different man.
“He had a long beard and had lost his sense of humour. He
became serious and withdrawn and would not even smile at anyone he didn’t
know, let alone laugh.”
Ms
Hidaya said after returning from Australia, Mohamed would berate family members
for religious lapses and would not let his children listen to music.
Another
of Mohamed’s sisters, Fathima Zeenia, told police in a statement seen by The
Australian, that he had completed a “course” in Indian Kashmir, a hotbed of Islamic
radicalism and militant training.
Mohamed
travelled to Syria and joined Islamic State before returning to Sri Lanka.]
That brings to mind an uncle of mine who
started singing the ‘Separatism’ song after he came to Australia and joined the
‘seniors group’. My uncle said it was Seetha who went after Ravana and that
Ravana did not kidnap Seetha. That is how we allow ourselves to be brainwashed
when we have idle minds.
In any religion, the priests are allocated
high status. But if those priests undertake secular education – they are likely
to forget which pathway they are following. The other day my husband ‘told me’
something about this issue instead of submitting to me as his senior in this
issue. I said to him that he was not even my equal in this issue – leave alone
my senior. My husband apologized – stating that he was still in ‘teaching’
mode. My husband teaches Maths and I usually listen when he says something
about Maths. If in doubt I ask.
The sister of Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed
– with an independent mind – recognized that she lost her brother in Australia.
The Priest in Mohamed who was born in Australia, was telling her and others in
the family how to show respect for him – possibly because he wanted to live the
intellectually idle life like his
Australian counterparts. My uncle was not the only one. I was shocked to hear
similar interpretations by another LTTE supporter who was elevated in status
due to such following. They could not have actually believed in their ancestors
who gave us the Ramayana interpretation that I am familiar with.
We do not know whether the events of the
original Easter happened. But even if there is one believer after all these
years - then the value is true. In
addition, this is a common avenue through which we bring order into our family
and community lives. Many Australians – including Prime Minister Scott Morrison
indulged in sports activities on Good Friday. But we did not operate our Opportunity shop in Northern Sri Lanka –
where Good Friday is respected as a day of
mourning by most Christians. At family level – we abstained from little
pleasures that we otherwise would have enjoyed. As our daughter said after the
Sri Lankan tragedy that one of the deepest lessons they were taught by us was
to respect all religions. They know through common life that we have
multi-religious representations in our home. No, I do not have any Muslim representation
but I do pause before a mosque when I am walking. I did this many times in
Melbourne near our son’s home.
Active respect may
be difficult for those who grew up in ‘no religion’ homes. Those who are
separatists in religion – be it Buddhism only - Christianity only or Islam only
– groups would need to stay away from groups. There are many Australians
without commitment to particular religion. Our Australian armed forces have their
fair share of that category. Our police are notorious for unlawful arrests
which are upheld as lawful by the Judiciary in the case of migrants who seem
insignificant. I was ‘shocked’ to learn this through my experiences here in
Australia. Those officers listen to their masters’ voices and
indiscriminately damage the boundaries
of their own institution to please
custodians in power.
If Mohamed was
linked by AFP to Islamic State – why was this intelligence not shared with the
Sri Lankan Government? If the arrests without
belief are greater in value than the arrests with belief – the Nature demotes
their self-confidence in this migrant issue. They become dual personalities –
one being official to get the grades and the other personal – individual to
individual – involving no external subjective power.
If the Australian
Federal Police failed to prosecute Mohamed within Australian shores – then they
are disqualified from participating in this global operation which would lead
to punishing Sri Lankans. Likewise other Defence forces participating in this
operation. They may confidentially provide support to their Lankan counterparts
– but not openly take the ‘telling’ position – not after they told me by
unlawfully arresting me and labelling me as Sri Lankan when by law I was
Australian and I openly stated it. We Sri Lankans are ‘cheap’ to Australian
Armed Forces. They have no right to participate in this sacred mission.
To us the People
real problem is accumulated at the People’s level. That is the part we have
control over. The Sri Lankan Defence Minister/President who opposed ‘Foreign Judges’ to inquire into
the war crimes issue – in which many more deaths happened and due to which
ongoing pain is being experienced by Tamils. The President has to be impeached
since he passed the buck on to his defence secretary who heard only his master’s
voice. The master needs to be dismissed first – as per the rule of Dharma.
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