Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

30 October  2019

IGP & CASTE SYSTEM

Equal Opposition in Parliament is an essential part of Democratic governance. Democracy becomes important when juniors in a system keep manifesting their own outcomes at their levels. Once manifested, that level becomes the governance level. That is what voting tells us.

Customer review is facilitated not only to identify with how the supplier’s services were received by the customer but also to know the level at which militancy is likely to happen when customers are treated as juniors.

Recently, when I said that I was a little upset that a Brahmin couple gave my hosting services a 4 star instead of 5 star that I get from majority customers – my husband said that that was likely to be due to not demonstrating that they were seniors or that they would not give anyone – other than their own seniors a 5 star rating. That is the way of the subjective system. In families also, seniors tend always to be seniors. But the problem is worsened when their children take senior position over their relatives who by position are their seniors.

The Sunday Morning  highlights this phenomenon  as follows under the heading ‘Gota ready for debate after Sajith’s manifesto: Namal’:

[SLPP parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa today said SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ready to face a debate with New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate Sajith Premadasa, provided Premadasa unveils his manifesto first.

Namal Rajapaksa taking to his twitter handle further said once Premadasa’s manifesto is unveiled, there would be ‘substance’ for the debate.

However, he said if the opposition camp insisted on the dabate, he(Namal) was ready to face Premadasa.]

The above is a strong indicator that Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is intending to keep the seat warm for his nephew Namal Rajapaksa.

Then there is the other example reported by Island under the heading ‘Retired Senior Police Officers condemn govt for parading IGP in handcuffs like a petty criminal’:

[The Retired Senior Police Officer’s Association (RSPOA) has condemned the government for treating an incumbent IGP as a common criminal in public in handcuffs.

The RSPOA has said, in a media statement: "Going by the Parliamentary Select Committee report it is abundantly clear that, apart from the IGP, several officers wielding greater powers and control than the IGP, have to share the blame. To have made the IGP a scapegoat deserves immeasurable condemnation. But for him to be publicly humiliated is outrageous."]

In 2009 when senior government officers in North were taken into custody we were also very upset. A close friend of a relative of such a senior officer commented along the same lines as above – saying that they were being treated ‘as terrorists’. The fact that these officers are now back in their positions confirms that they were ‘false arrests’ at that time and that the ‘intuition’ of the senior subject who made the arrest was negative.  When recently I met one such officer in a more senior position – he could not remember me. I wondered whether he had been artificially induced into a different brain-structure.  After all that is what the Australian authorities were trying to do to me – when they listed me as a mentally ill patient. I have written as follows in this regard:

[On 30 July 2007, I wrote to the Lord Mayor of the City of Brisbane over the difficulties experienced by Dr. Brian Seneviratne – an Activist in the Sri Lankan issue – as follows:

‘When I learnt about Dr. Senewiratne`s case, I related to it through the case of Mrs Florence Vorhauer whom I met in Mulawa prison in May 2005. Florence was prosecuted for keeping poultry in her backyard. The officers who arrested her were reported to have been nasty and Mrs Vorhauer feared that they were spying on her. Mrs. Vorhauer ended up in prison and reported that she was injected with medication for alleged mental illness. Had someone told me this before my own experience with the NSW Police, Courts and Health Service which also threatened me with enforced medication, for alleged mental instability, I would have had doubts about such reports on the Australian system. But having gone through the experience myself, I had little difficulty in believing Florence. I was present when Florence was asked to open her mouth to prove that she had taken the pills given by the prison officers. Florence reported that prior to that she was taken to Prince Henry Hospital where she was held down by some officers whilst others injected her with alleged medication. Florence urged me to sign the bail conditions required by the Police - which was basically to ban me from going to the University of New South Wales and from contacting any of the staff of the University in any manner - before I was similarly injected with medication. I took Florence`s advice given on Mother`s day 2005 as directions from Our Lady of Mulgoa in Whom I have deep faith. I later helped Florence come out of prison.’] – Chapter 25 – ‘Naan Australian’

The subdued mind feels comfortable when it is pampered into thinking at the lower level.  In a subjective system – one needs to consciously renounce the benefits in the custody of seniors if one seeks to be an Equal to the former senior. As per the World Population Review’s report – the median age for Sri Lankans is 31.1 years. Out of the two leading Presidential  candidates – Mr Sajith Premadasa is less likely to suffer from Seniority complex with majority Sri Lankans than Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who relies heavily on the power of his elder brother Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa – including in the Dual Citizenship issue. In public, Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has the duty  to demonstrate seniority over Mr Namal Rajapaksa.

A few years back when I presented my analysis of the impact of Caste system in the militancy – a senior member of the Sri Lanka Reconciliation Forum, Sydney,  who retired as a topmost Government Officer started identifying with that angle in the Sinhalese community also. Then a younger looking JVP supporter strongly stated that that was NOT the case and that the JVP uprising was due to lack of jobs for the youth. When one goes deeper, the two reasons are Common – known as subjective discrimination. But the restless young guy stopped the senior from engaging through the angle presented by me. The reason was not me – but his own senior who held senior position in government – the reason why Tamil politicians were killed by the LTTE. Majority Sinhalese do not ‘see’ the Tamil and v.v. They are ‘shown’ by their leaders.

Often unjust discrimination happens when we use obsolete measures that are easier for us to use than current measures to use which we need new knowledge and in democracy we need to be free of the past forms.  Mr Namal Rajapaksa has confirmed that he finds it more attractive to be the opposition of Mr Sajith Premadasa than being the junior in waiting of his uncle.