Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
22
May 2020
Tiger Headache for Tamils or Lion Nightmare for
Buddhists?
[What if — as
Thomas Jefferson said — the blood of patriots should be spilled on the tree of
revolution at least once in every generation? What if we nullify the government
that has nullified our rights?] Sri Lanka Guardian article ‘What If the
Government Has It Wrong?’ by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano.
For some reason that I was not particularly
conscious of – I started typing Bagawat Geetha in Google. It may have been a combination of my faith in
Bagawat Geetha from which I quoted as follows yesterday:
[You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are
not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause
of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty]
I had by this time noticed in the side column of the Sri Lanka Guardian - the headlines ‘Sri Lanka: Eleven years after Tamil Tigers insurgency’. I did not read the article then but registered the headlines as per my truth.
To me the question as to what this war was about and whether this war was just
or not is a deep seated one – far more
deep seated than the Coronavirus issue. That could be why the following
happened : When I typed Bagawat Geetha I was taken
to Bagawat instead of Bagawat Geetha. I was surprised to learn that
Bagawat meant Rebellion. As a Tamil I already understood that Geetha meant ‘song’.
Until today I understood Bagawat to mean – the Lord. Today I was meant to understand it was Rebellion. In essence
the great war – in the middle of which the Lord gave us Bagawat Geetha was
about Rebellion by minorities against majority who had custody of power through
age based seniority.
Is the Rebellion of Tamils the
rebellion of patriots? As per oxford dictionary patriot is ‘a
person who loves their country and who is ready to defend it against an enemy’
Crucial is the understanding of the word ‘country
one loves’. To my mind, the best way to define would be to start with ‘nation’
which is the ‘spirit of the land that is home to us’. The family parallels of
county and nation are house and home. To the extent Tamils fought to defend our
Home – our pathway was inherited from Pandavar in the great war. Both wars were
not limited to the armed battles. During that great war – many kings switched
sides towards their personal agendas. But they were not part of the leadership
of the war.
Was LTTE therefore the leading power of the war? In
their editorial, Sri Lanka Guardian present their ‘judgment’ as follows:
[Eleven years ago the Tamil Tigers
(LTTE), a major headache for the Tamil people, was vanquished. The liberation
of the Tamil people who had been under the grip of the LTTE was an exceptional
experience in counter-insurgency. Instead of their children becoming child
soldiers, they went to school and started dreaming about the future. They
created the way they wanted to explore the world. Needless to say that the
story of other fraternal ethnic groups is the same.]
If indeed the Tamil Tigers were a headache –
to the Common Tamil – the Sinhala Buddhist government is a nightmare to that
Common Tamil. This was confirmed through the 2009 battle.
The editor goes on to state:
[Hence,
the old lesson we learnt is clear. A true leader, as Douglas McArthur once
says, “has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions,
and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be
a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his
intent.” A true leader does not, under any condition, maintain thieves and
fraudsters. The primary purpose of democracy is to elect such a leader. Then
people will have a good time.]
The only Sri Lankan known to me with all of the above criteria – is myself. Others
may have them but the consolidated value is not as strong as mine. What would General
Douglas McArthur say about the current President who allegedly liberated the
Tamils from the headache?
1. Confidence to stand alone - The current president seems to need his brother Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa
to hold his hand and also has demonstrated that he needs armed men to
administer unarmed civilians.
2. Courage to make tough decisions –
they were made by big brother
Mahinda in relation to the elimination of the LTTE
3.
Compassion
to listen to the needs of others – Tamils had the need to Remember, Mourn and Celebrate their
sons and daughters who died in the war. They qualify as ‘others’. Sinhalese
soldiers who were listened to by the President were ‘ours’ to the President and
not others.
4. Equality of his actions – Overriding civilian leadership
during the Covid-19 crisis – firmly gives this president a bad failure in this
regard.
5. Integrity of his intent – The
integrity of the intent is confirmed by the core purpose of the position –
which is the President of Sri Lanka and not the President of Sinhala Buddhists
only. As with
the coronavirus we do not know the cause but through the effects we know that this
President has failed in his duty to assure all communities that he was their
president through demonstrated commitment to all communities. When the
President took oath at Ruwanwelisaya – he confirmed separatism
between Buddhists and Non-Buddhists. The election was not for the Presidency
of Buddhists only. Hence he confirmed serious lack of integrity in governing
Sri Lanka.
The words of wisdom by Thomas Jefferson go as follows:
[The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time
to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.]
There were patriots and tyrants on both sides. If there were
no tyrants within the Buddhist armed forces – why did Sri Lanka need curfew
with such small number of infections? The virus confirmed that tyrants amongst
Buddhists are greater than the patriotic Buddhists. No Buddhist using arms is a
Buddhist patriot .
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