Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
14
May 2020
Australian
Prayers & Sri Lanka’s Alms Bowl
In October 2004, I responded to a speech celebrating
Gandhi, by Justice Weeramantry.
[….Months later when searching through
Google – I came across my response (Appendix
16) to Justice C. G. Weeramantry,
former Vice President of the International Court of Justice, published by the
Daily News (Sri Lanka) on 01 November 2004 – the day Dr. Peter Vaux above
stated that I was like Gandhi. I wrote
the response in October when I went to Sri Lanka at the invitation of Airlanka
and was accommodated at Galadari Hotel. Their vehicle was sent to pick me up
and I included my conversations with the driver (a Buddhist) also in my
response. To me that is the way to share
Gandhi’s values. I was able to, through
my interpretations of the message of a Judge of International standards, take
Non-Violence message to the ordinary folks.
To me this is also what I was doing in terms of workplace and laws to
the common Australian. ] – Chapter 25, Naan Australian
Today, I
received email directing me to Sri Lanka Guardian article ‘On Law and Religion’ through which I learnt that
Justice Weeramantry was also ‘President
of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms.’ To my lay mind,
bioweapons and nuclear weapons are in the same group in which the attacks are ‘Acts
of God’. Hence I concluded that Australia was not as seriously affected by
Covid19 due to genuine prayers at our National Parliament. I believe that my
belief in Gandhi intuitively connected me to the international power of justice
and it was as if Justice Weeramantry was speaking through the Australian
Doctor Peter Vaux who ‘told’ the
Magistrate to release me from the false charges of Trespass. Punishing the true
contributor invokes nuclear power and this did happen at the University
of NSW which suffered a major blow to its reputation.
[….One of them is the hadith of the two-deck
boat which is a wonderful statement of what humanity is doing to itself which
applies here and now as vividly as when the Prophet* said it. He*said: imagine
there is a boat with two decks. There is the upper deck and the lower deck. As
is the human custom, quarrels break out on the upper deck, and as is the human
custom quarrels break out on the lower deck; people have a tendency to quarrel
with each other. Then what is worse, there is a big quarrel between the lower
deck and the upper deck. So what can you do? The lower deck can’t have any
interaction with the upper deck but now a situation arises where the lower deck
desperately wants water. They can only get that water if they go to the upper
deck but they can’t go to the upper deck because of the quarrel. So there is a
huge discussion on the lower deck about what to do about this and then a hot
head in the lower deck says: “if the water is what you want I will get you any
amount of it”. He takes a pick axe and is about to make a hole in the bottom of
the boat. So he says that is what humanity is doing itself. Isn’t that a
beautiful description of the nuclear bomb of today? We have huge quarrels
between different sections of the world and brilliant people who will say they
will solve it, and how will they solve it? With a pickaxe and drown everybody. So that is the situation in which humanity
is placed today. Why? Because we are not taking heed of the teachings of the
great religions. Why? Because we are not interlinking this with international
law; so international law remains an avid discipline: just the letter of the
law and does not have the spirit of the law, the wisdom, the mercy, the
justice, all of which can be brought into it by religion.]
I do not know whether there are International laws
that regulate Bioweapons or if they were in existence, how effective they are
in practice. But by effect, the Coronavirus proved to be exponential in its
spread and could only be controlled through the Spirit of any discipline –
including the written law but not limited to the written law. The prayer for
the ‘flattening of the curve’ is to bring it to simple relative terms. To my
lay mind Einstein’s theory of relativity confirms the exponential power of
Energy. This energy could be as positive as god or as negative as the devil. Both
are sovereign and have their independent ways. Hence at the moment we need
god-power to offset the sovereign power of the coronavirus.
Sovereignty expressed as law divides into equal
parts. As a rule they are two and opposite parts. Justice Weeramantry presents this as follows
through Islamic leadership:
[ One of the
just Caliphs had lent a suit of armor to one of his subjects and the subject
was not returning it. So the Caliph wanted to get this suit of armor back and
he could have sent one of his officials to seize the suit of armor but he
didn’t do that. Instead, he filed an action in the court of law as an ordinary
subject asking for the return of the suit of armor. On the day of the trial, he
walked into the court as an ordinary litigant. The judge, seeing the Caliph
come in, rose in his seat deferentially. The Caliph looked at him and said: “This man is not fit to be a judge; he does
not know that all litigants before him are equal. I may be the sovereign of
this country but when I come into court I come in as the equal to everybody
else”. He then removed the case from that judge and had it before another
judge. Now, the standard of things like that you will find in every tradition
and we incorporated all of that into a code of universal judicial ethics which has now been adopted by 50 or 60
countries around the world.]
My question is ‘Has the Sri Lankan Judiciary adopted
the Universal Judicial ethics?’
If yes, has any Muslim lawyer sought Judicial ruling in
relation to Cremation of bodies affected by covid19 in which scientific ruling
becomes the basis? If not, Islamic belief is buried under political convenience
and thus the sovereignty of god-power is weakened in Sri Lanka.
Based on faith one would connect the high rate of
infections in Sri Lankan Navy to the forced cremation of Muslim victims of the
coronavirus. The former followed the latter. When Muslim with true faith seeks
the Judicial service as the Caliph in the above legend did – ancestral forces
of Islam would descend upon them to bring cure from servitude.
Such efforts are essential if we are to protect Sri
Lanka from the ghosts of Silk Road. China
Global Television Network reports as follows under the heading ‘China, Sri
Lanka to gradually resume practical cooperation’:
[China
and Sri Lanka should gradually resume practical cooperation in various fields
while ensuring the prevention and control of the COVID-19, Chinese President Xi
Jinping told Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa during a phone call on Wednesday.
President Xi said that the two countries should advance major cooperation projects in an orderly manner and work for high-quality development of the joint building of the Belt and Road, which will help Sri Lanka's economic recovery.
President Xi said that the two countries should advance major cooperation projects in an orderly manner and work for high-quality development of the joint building of the Belt and Road, which will help Sri Lanka's economic recovery.
China will provide Sri Lanka with
firm support and assistance, Xi said, adding that the Sri Lankan people will
surely overcome the epidemic at an early date.
Xi thanked Sri Lanka for its
timely support at the critical moment of China's fight against COVID-19 and
said that China would cooperate with Sri Lanka to support the World Health
Organization to continue playing a key role in the COVID-19 fight.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa appreciated
China's valuable support and assistance to Sri Lanka over the years, saying it
helps to promote the country's economic and social development.]
Given
that the communication is reported to have happened through the phone the above
report confirms the servitude of the Sri Lankan President to the Chinese
President. Then there is this statement:
[Xi
thanked Sri Lanka for its timely support at the critical moment of China's
fight against COVID-19]
Support
through W.H.O. chief who arbitrarily praised
both countries? Is China a reason for this government to want quick elections
despite the option of recalling Parliament? Whatever it may be, Lord Buddha’s
values have been buried by this government. The ghost of economic prosperity
that Lord Buddha gave up. In turn Buddha became wise and those who willingly donated
to Buddha were blessed with that wisdom. That is my interpretation of the begging bowl.
Is Sri Lanka so much wiser than China – for China to donate to Sri Lanka?
At
global level our commitment to Global laws are the basis of our hierarchy. Within
a democratic country a citizen questioning the government needs belief in the common
measure used – which usually is the law. Justice Weeramantry declares as follows:
[These are the
reasons why I think we must mount a crusade and we lawyers, I think, are the
people to blame. If you look at the history of the legal profession, I think it
is a rather dismal history.]
When lawyers are driven by economic prosperity and
status - they lose their sense of sovereignty
and parity with lay litigant driven by her his own conscience which is the
source of her/his natural law or position law. It is equally or more wrong of a citizen / litigant to question the
Government / Judge – without belief not only in why something happened to her/him but also the law of the
position taken by her/him in the environment in which the pain / loss happened. Where there is no structured position,
our conscience becomes the source of our measure.
Placing Armed personnel above medical experts in
Administration confirms that to this government medicine is lower in hierarchy
to Army Rule. Then to be fair to the common citizen, investment in medical
education in Sri Lanka needs to be limited to the level needed by those who
value the army protection above personal health. That is the way sovereignty supports those who support sovereignty.
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