Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

25 May  2019

Did Australia contribute to Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings?

The truthful and proud story of 30-year war victory should be revealed to the future generation as well as to the world- President Sirisena to soldiers

Outcome can be controlled in the short run but in the long run the root causes should be eliminated. – caring citizen Harsha Gunasena in his Colombo Telegraph article ‘Attacking The Outcome Without Addressing The Root Causes’

The two contradict each other . That is the inner conflict that Sri Lanka carries in politics. I feel that recently Mr Mangala Sameraweera gave us a clue to reconciling the two – his sharing in Parliament presented by Daily Mirror under the heading ‘ I won’t call myself a Buddhist, but one who follows Buddhist Philosophy: Mangala’

The Defence parallel of Mr Sameraweera’s declaration  would be ‘I do not fight to possess but to feel ownership. It is also the difference between Sri Lanka the land and Sri Lanka the nation.  The more we think as nation, the less we would need to possess.

If the 30-year war was indeed a heritage – then Easter Sunday bombings were the opportunity needed for the Sri Lankan Defence forces to go global. More civilians died in the 30 year war than in Easter bombings. To be spiritual – both Opportunity and Problem must exist in the One mind. When the Sri Lankan president pleaded with foreigners to ‘leave his country alone’ he confirmed that his forces were not capable of addressing global terrorism. The reason is in the very 30-year war – which was fought not on global policies, not to protect Buddhism but as a tribal war. Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa – the architect of the victory of the war  himself  referred to it as Jungle warfare  when he stated that he was from the jungles of South and that Prabhakaran was from the jungles of North. Born in Sri Lanka, we are entitled to celebrate our indigenous heritage through such jungle culture from time to time. But then we must not do business with outside jungle territory. That would be the parallel of Veddhas claiming the right to rule today’s Sri Lanka and Aborigines claiming the right to rule today’s Australia. Neither is valid during current times.

As quoted in my yesterday’s article – the religion of Veddhas is Animism which is presented as follows by Wikipedia:

[ Animism (from Latin anima, "breath, spirit, life") is the religious belief that objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork and perhaps even words—as animated and alive. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many indigenous peoples especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organised religions.]

The parallel of that in Hinduism is Shakthi / Energy worship. The homemaking traditional woman depended on herself to know right and wrong in the privacy of her home. There was no visible reward for her work relative to the man who brought home money for his work. To the extent the woman worked as much as man but was rewarded less by others the woman developed Energy which is another term for Ownership or Love or Truth.

In the Tamil community militants were a minority force. Hence their exceptional cleverness. But the moment they came out into the official path they lost that advantage. If we take Sun Tzu’s quote as presented by Professor David Kumar : “If you know enemy and know yourself, no need fear hundred battles. If you know yourself but not enemy, for every victory you suffer one defeat. If you know neither enemy nor yourself, you succumb in every battle.”

 the LTTE did not know the Politicians on the other side. Sri Lankan armed forces who were Buddhists did not know themselves nor the enemy and therefore actually succumbed in real terms. They would succumb again and again to ‘jungle forces’ as has been proven by the Easter bombings and the reaction by the President and his forces.

In 2017 – two years before the bombings, a joint press release was published under the heading:

‘A Joint Press Release by the Australian High Commission and the Ministry of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs’

Included in it was the following:

[On 1 March 2017, Australian High Commissioner Bryce Hutchesson, together with Minister for Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs the Hon John Amaratunga, launched the Market Development Facility (MDF) to support inclusive growth of tourism and related sectors in Sri Lanka.

Under MDF, the Australian Government is contributing up to 1 billion rupees over four years in business grants and development services.

Speaking at the event Mr Hutchesson said “the private sector is the engine of growth and of job creation. Australia is extremely proud of its

competitive tourism industry. We are launching MDF today as one way of sharing our know-how and experience with our Sri Lankan friends.”

Minister Amaratunga added that “travel and tourism is the largest service industry in the world. This collaboration between Australia and Sri Lanka has great potential to create many new jobs and to further improve industry standards and the tourist experience in Sri Lanka.”]

This came at a time when Tamil civilians were still grieving due to losing their homelands to the armed forces and not knowing where their loved ones who disappeared during the 30 year war were. Even one Australian Tamil feeling with these indigenous Tamils with little knowledge of organized secular ways would return that karma to sender. Those who live and enjoy ‘tourism’ at that time disconnect with these homefolks. But those of us who felt with the victims have the power to return the karma to the Christians who did not oppose tourism during this recovery period.

Tourism-Christian is the parallel of Secularism-Buddhism combination. When we discard the rules and laws particular to our group that were not used for commonness – and keep going, we would find that Natural Spirit that animates us all as one human race. I learnt about this power through Coogee which confirms Indigenous heritage in this part of Australia. We moved to Matraville which was named after a White American migrant. We thought we needed more space. But we were isolated there and my husband and our daughter were seriously damaged in an accident. Eventually it led to great financial difficulties. Some did say the Vasthu was not good for us there. Back then I brushed it aside. But after my deep experience at the University of NSW I felt more and more like an Indigenous Australian. I began recognizing the power of the earth and water to heal me. Vasthu Sastra is the Indigenous version of modern architecture. As a victim I combined forces with Indigenous Australians who were displaced from Coogee towards an ‘amusement pier’ on Coogee Beach. Such combination was natural and not through conscious relativity as per rights and wrongs. Later when the Bali bombing claimed highest number of victims from Coogee – I felt that as a Hindu I could help balance that karma through my natural ownership of Coogee.

The Earth stores Truth of its experiences as Energy. When we are in need – and we believe in that land – it rises to protect our dignity. To the extent Sri Lanka was entertaining tourism and Buddhist government celebrates armed victory, while indigenous Sri Lankans were grieving we need to learn that Sri Lanka is becoming a haunted place. Militancy in Sri Lanka, during our generation began with the JVP and not the LTTE. To the extent the government ‘forgets’ this and celebrates victory – it confirms invasion and not ‘defence’. One who defends does not win or lose. One who defends protects. The Easter Sunday tragedy is the Australian parallel of Bali bombings. It was from 2015 that ANZAC day is being celebrated on Coogee Beach to honor those who gave their lives and comforts to protect our dignity. In Sri Lanka – all  communities need to be facilitated to celebrate those whom they believe are heroes who gave their lives and comforts to protect the dignity of the community and therefore the individual member to whom that community is family. This is not limited to the government forces. When it is – the karma returns with interest.