Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

16 July  2019

Eliminate Drugs & Eliminate Executive Presidency

I must say that  I was rather shocked to read the headlines ‘Drug gangs behind Sri Lanka Easter bombings, president claims’. If the President is of such mind structure – then one is entitled  to conclude that majority Sri Lankans are also of that mind structure. To me that is essentially the message in the saying ‘When in Rome, do as Romans do’. I needed to therefore become the opposition at that level of mind structure.

I learnt about this by living in Toddy Tapper village of Thunaivi. Initially our cultures were very different. But for every positive step they took to meet me I took many more to meet them. Due to isolation being the easier way out for them to escape discipline by seniors in the community – they placed a ceiling on their mental development. But many in my educated group continue to pretend that this separation does not exist.

Recently when reading through a speech by Mr Wigneswaran at Chulipuram not far from my base in Thunaivi, I realised that Mr Wigneswaran was demonstrating greater  awareness  of the problems of sections of the Tamil Diaspora from that area than the problems of locals. Education was his suggested recommendation to this area – which includes victims of rape by their own relatives. I learnt by living in Thunaivi that education without belief in those who gave us educational structures leads to abuse of information. It is when we respect those who developed those structures that we take knowledge with that power to discipline ourselves. Sharing structures requires common belief.

Chulipuram’s Victoria College is the alma mater of  the Hon Appapillai Amirthalingam as well as that of Mrs Ananthi  Sasitharan – who was promoted to Ministerial position during Mr Wigneswaran’s  leadership as Chief Minister of Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The question that comes to mind is – When Mrs Sasitharan was promoted, did Mr Wigneswaran require an elected representative to demonstrate commitment to higher thinking – through education ? As per the outcome one is entitled to conclude that he did not.

Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan’s credentials in this regard are presented as follows:

[Ananthi was educated at Victoria College, Chulipuram. Whilst at school she met Velayutham Sasitharan (alias Elilan) who was active in the political wing of the rebel LTTE. Ananthi fell in love with Elilan but Elilan told her to concentrate on her studies. After school Ananthi studied accountancy but gave this up in 1992 after getting a job at the Jaffna District Secretariat]

In his speech, Mr Wigneswaran blames the 30 year war for the backward movement of the Northern folks. This therefore includes LTTE leadership as a causal force. There is clear evidence of this from the records in Jaffna ledgers (mental  libraries) – confirming  that the LTTE distracted youth from schools. One of them actually killed Appapillai Amirthalingam 30 years ago. His details are as follows:

[Rasiah Aravintharajah alias “Visu” hailed from an upper-middle class family at Vathiri in the Vadamarachchi sector of the Jaffna District. He abandoned higher studies and joined the LTTE after the anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983. Visu obtained weapons training as part of the LTTE’s second batch of recruits from the Indian military at Juwalamukhi in Himachal Pradesh,  NorthIndia. After training, Visu returned to Sri  Lanka and worked under Gopalswamy Mahendrarajah alias Mahathaya who was the LTTE commander for the Wanni region at that time. ] DBS Jeyaraj

By killing the Hon Appapillai Amirthalingam who raised his mind through higher education from a humble beginning, LTTE killed education energy itself. Yet Mr Wigneswaran refers to LTTE leader as Thambi – younger brother. When we become dependent on younger relatives we promote reverse autocracy. In contrast, I  distance myself from juniors who indicate such tendency.

I find the parallel of the above in President Sirisena who is reported to have stated that ‘the leading Buddhist monk Omalpe Sobitha had advised him to resume hangings and not to abandon his war on narcotics’

The stand that the Ven Omalpe Sobitha took in this regard is presented as follows:

[Sobitha Thero played a key role in bringing a new government to power in 2015 by defeating Mahinda Rajapaksa. He supported the common candidate Maithripala Sirisena for the presidency, and Ranil Wickremesinghe to form a new government and campaigned for the release of Sarath Fonseka. The Thero was an ardent campaigner against the executive presidential system of Sri Lanka and acquired a reputation for his stand on social justice and for educating the youth on the dangers of drugs and alcohol abuse.] Wikipedia

If  the Buddhist monk was Mr Sirisena’s guru then Mr Sirisena ought to have renounced he powers of Executive Presidential system and used governance powers of transformation instead of threats of  Death Penalty which are part of the Executive Presidential system which resulted in the deaths of civilians in the ethnic war.

Truth is the basis of Good Governance.