Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
30
April 2020
Australia
Pinching the baby and rocking the cradle?
These days, I look out the window and thank all
the customers waiting for their turn to buy coffee from the Driver Café across
the road. All of them naturally contribute to social-distancing rule by the
government. I do not physically participate in that process as one of them but
mentally appreciate their ‘good behavior’
as a senior in Coogee community. I follow the rules in my own area of activity –
primarily because I am self-governing. When I make the connection with the
government all those who are led by me connect to the government. That is the
way the system of belief works. It often bypasses the brain. In democracy such
natural faith of the citizen comes
first.
In terms of managing bottom-up, Dr Ravindra
Rannan-Eliya compares the performance of Australia to be of higher standard
than Sri Lanka:
[…For example, if home isolation
doesn’t work, either mandate quarantine or bring in measures to enforce
compliance. Australia realised this, so it made quarantine mandatory. ….If we cannot get self-isolation to work
effectively, like Australia, we need
to quarantine in the first instance. But quarantine has its own disadvantages.
There is no simple answer to this. We have to think about how we get to an optimal
mix of quarantine and self-isolation, which will require many other supportive
measures, and our approach will need to adjust over time….
…Australia and New Zealand, who had much worse initial epidemics
than we did, are both likely to move soon to lifting lockdowns, because they
did all the other things, including aggressive testing.]
– Economy Next article ‘“Blaming
the public is an admission of failure” – in conversation with Dr Ravindra
Rannan-Eliya on Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 response
Health is a very personal issue and top-down
management would not work in this current environment where we know very little
about the causes. Human Rights issues have been of priority to Australia due to
its global consciousness. In the one country one could alternatively have
bottom-up relationship or top-down with the leader.
Let’s take the following disciplinary action by
the ‘West Wing’ President Bartlett as a wishful example:
“While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the
Ignorant Tightass Club, in this building when the President stands, nobody
sits.”
The above would be a virtual reality in the
mind of one who values the Presidency above himself.
In real life, as per my direct experience, the
only current leader who commanded that kind of respect is Sri Sathya Sai Baba. In
2009 – when I felt the need to be with the victims of war in the camps and I
had to get the approval of the authorities to go to Vavuniya – there was a long
wait. Like with Covid-19 there were many who sought to ‘profit’ from the pain
of others and tried to exert their authority unjustly. Then I went regularly to
the Sai Baba Centre at Barnes Place, Colombo. There I consolidated naturally
with the feelings of others who also
felt for the victims. I was intuitively looking for guidance – as there was no clear
demarcation as to who was right and who was wrong. I received it – when the flower on the big
picture of Swami Sai Baba fell at the moment the thought of 13 soldiers came to
my mind. As per my culture – it was disrespectful of the Tamil Tigers to send
the bodies of soldiers to Colombo – as if to challenge the government. Back
then as per my mind structure – the LTTE did not follow Due Process to show respect
for those who died in combat. In 2009,
my knowledge of the war was limited to my sharing through community. Now the information
is more structured. By 2009 many Tamil politicians were assassinated by the
LTTE and as a person who realized self-governance through Democracy, I had the duty to separate and distance myself
from the LTTE in its official form. I got to know many in the group as
individuals – and they became part of me. What actually happened was mixed with
a strong doze of political advantage by both sides to the war.
In Australia – the way I see it– that kind of
structure in which the leader is venerated, does not work because we generally
feel ‘free’. To my mind again – this is
because of the Free-Spirited Indigenous Australians who died prematurely due to
invasion, as well as all those who have realised that Freedom in our own local
cultures and electorates. We are also not over-ambitious to rule the world.
But Sri Lankan structure is more top-down except
when it comes to the Indigenous groups. The Wanathamulla area was very much
part of the 1983 Black July riots. Journalist Gamini Akmeemana highlights their natural ways
through his Daily Mirror article headed ‘Coronavirus Diary- Part 2: Wanathamulla
and Hobson’s Choice’
For the record, Sinhala Buddhist leadership of
Sri Lanka is also Hobson’s Choice to minorities. As Thomas Ward said:
Where to elect there is but one,
'Tis Hobson's choice—take that, or none.
'Tis Hobson's choice—take that, or none.
Hindu Tamils of Sri Lanka express this as – ‘Whether Rama rules or Ravana rules – our plight
is the same’
The LTTE was Hobson’s choice to the People of
Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. It became so due to neglect of lower caste
areas – the parallels of Wanathamulla. In
1983 – it was as if Tamil only indigenous groups were empowering Sinhalese only indigenous
groups . To them Corona and Dengue are more or less the same. The
pre-existing condition / karma makes all the difference.
The book Experiences of a Relocated Community in
Colombo : Case Study of Sinhapura, Wanathamulla, by the International Centre
for Ethnic Studies, presents the following picture: https://ices.lk/publications/6002/
[This report is about a relocated community in Sinhapura, in
Wanathamulla, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sinhapura is a government housing complex in
two phases, each with 60 apartments built for relocating residents from two
shanty communities in Colombo, namely 54 watta in Wanathamulla and 186 watta in
Colombo 7. These relocatees have been displaced from their watta communities
due to developmental projects undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka.]
The
nature of the relationship between the indigenous groups in Colombo and the current President is
strongly indicated by the following report:
[Protest
against abduction met with force
A
white van abduction has taken place this morning in the Wanathamulla area in
Colombo. A resident from the Wanathamulla housing scheme, Sunil Aiya, was
abducted this morning in a white van, a day after Defence Secretary Gotabhaya
Rajapaksa and a senior Army officer had paid visit to him demanding that he
vacates his residence.
Residents in the Wanathamulla housing scheme have posed a problem to the Urban Development Authority (UDA) under Gotabhaya since they have refused to accept the eviction orders issued by the UDA. The residents have instead resorted to legal action and have even taken the matter before the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.
Residents in the Wanathamulla housing scheme have posed a problem to the Urban Development Authority (UDA) under Gotabhaya since they have refused to accept the eviction orders issued by the UDA. The residents have instead resorted to legal action and have even taken the matter before the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.
Gotabhaya
and a senior army officer had visited Sunil Aiya yesterday and asked him to
vacate the premises along with the others in the area.
Sunil Aiya has however refused to give in saying that none of the residents wanted to vacate their houses since there was no purpose in them giving up their houses to live in rented flats, which are not suitable for people to live in.
Sunil Aiya has however refused to give in saying that none of the residents wanted to vacate their houses since there was no purpose in them giving up their houses to live in rented flats, which are not suitable for people to live in.
Following
Sunil Aiya’s abduction, the residents in the Wanathamulla housing scheme took
to the main road protesting against the abduction and demanding the authorities
to find him and bring him back alive.
Traffic
on the Baseline Road was also affected due to the protest.
It
is learnt that the authorities are trying to level various allegations against
Sunil Aiya.
However,
JVP politburo member K.D. Lalkantha who pledged support to the protestors said
that people cannot be abducted according to the whims of some people. “There is
a law in the country and if there is any issue, the law has to be applied,” he
said. He also called on residents in housing schemes in Colombo who face the
threat of being evicted to join the Wanathamulla residents to protest to
safeguard what is rightfully theirs.]
We
learnt through Daily Mirror report headed ‘Don’t
belittle Navy personnel: Defence Secretary’:
[Defence Secretary Maj.Gen. (Rtd)
Kamal Gunaratne today requested people not to belittle Navy personnel who were
infected with COVID-19 while being engaged in rounding up virus-infected drug
addicts and taking them to quarantine centres.
He said according to reports some
Navy personnel and their families were being vilified in some villages, and
requested people not to do so as they had fallen ill in the line of duty in
efforts to prevent the spread of the virus not considering the health risks.]
If
the abductions in the Indigenous area due to the power of the ‘Defence
Secretary’ is true – then the current Defence Secretary from the same political
side would naturally inherit that karma, when s/he fails to follow the current
law. The Indigenous dwellers would relate through their own experiences.
Likewise Sri Lanka as per its own and not as per Australia’s experience which
happens though a totally different structure. The connections between various
positions in our true structures are our laws. The law of the Navy officer is
as per her/his Navy law.
On 22 April News 1st
reported about the above officer:
“Our military has already shown their expertise and professionalism in
handling the emergency situation created under coronavirus threat,” Kamal
Gunaratne, a retired major general, said in a statement.
But then yesterday, Adaderana reported:
Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka
David Holly and Australian Defence
Adviser Group Captain Sean Unwin handed over Australian supplied Personal
Protective Equipment (PPE) to Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Head of
National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak on Wednesday
(29).
At the handover ceremony, High Commissioner
Holly said “Australia expresses solidarity with Sri Lanka as we both face the
impacts of the global COVID-19 crisis together. In particularly, the Australian
Department of Defence is pleased to support Sri Lanka’s armed forces in their
effort to counter COVID-19 by providing much needed equipment to protect those
on the frontline in Sri Lanka”.
Is the Australian Defence Force hijacking the Australian
People’s credit in their desire to please the Sri Lankan Defence Force led
government? If there is a war between China and America, whose side would
Australia take? As per the above – it would be China’s side due to this
government being pro-China.
The connection between the Federal Leadership of
Australia and the High Commission in Sri Lanka is the Natural law that applies
here. As per that law, the Aid ought to have been handed over to the Health
Minister who is senior to the Lieutenant General who participated in the war
that resulted in boat arrivals in Australia. Pinching the baby and rocking the cradle?