Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

11 July  2020

Memorial Flames for Politicians – NOT for winners in armed war

09 July was the anniversary of the bombing of Church of St. Peter and Paul in Navaly  Today is the birth anniversary of Krishna Visvanathan – great grandson of Brown Kathiravelu of Penang about whom Mr Rajasingham Jayadevan wrote as follows on 07 October 2017:

[My father was the descendant of well-known Penang (Brown) Kathiravelu and Gate Mudaliyar Nicholas and my mother was from a much humble Samuel stock. Brown Road in Jaffna is a representation of Brown (Penang) Kathiravelu.]

I responded as follows on 08 October 2017: (http://austms.blogspot.com/2017/10/gajalakshmi-paramasivam-08-october-2017.html)

[The above valuation was to my mind, confirmation that my tribute to my uncle earlier yesterday, had been received by my ancestor. Belief in Ancestors is a deeply  hidden positive value. Abuse of history as if it were of heritage value is a hidden negative value. I responded to Mr. Rajasingham Jayadevan as follows:

[ My birth home was Penang House. My mother’s sister married Mr. Visvanathan. Your brother also has shared as follows:

“Penang House on Brown Road was inherited by Viswanathan a second son of Brown Kathiravelu from his second wife. The eldest in that family was ‘ Blacker’ Ponnambalam, the former MP for Killinochi. I do not yet know how the inheritance chain thereafter evolved.”

Mr. Visvanathan (known as Aiyah to us) fathered five children. The eldest Dhanalakshmi Thavasingham lives in the UK. Second  - Kathiravelu passed away this year  in Kilinochchi. Third, Ramakrishnan lives in the UK. Fourth Rathi Arulnayagam also lives in the UK. Krishna (Rathakrishnan) was butchered by the militants in 1985. I was very fond of him. Blacker Ponnambalam’s son Yoga committed suicide after Krishna died. I met his elder brother Rajan Anna in 2003 while on the UNDP project.

Do you know how you are connected to Aiya? Aiya was also a beautiful person and I think of him fondly even now. We moved from Colombo to Jaffna after the 58 riots because Aiya wanted us to.  But he had that terrible accident and got killed. My mother and Periammah became very close due to Periammah’s need thereafter.]

As per my ancestry – I oppose armed rebellion due to which Krishna was killed. It is therefore understandable that I would get upset by the following expression published at https://www.pathivu.com/2020/07/panakatan10.html:

[1947ல் தந்தை செல்வா தலைமையில் அத்திரவாரமிடப்பட்ட வீட்டை, மீளக் கட்டியெழுப்பியவர்கள் விடுதலைப்புலிகள்]

(Translation - Liberation Tigers resurrected and developed the House that was founded under the leadership of Father Selva)

I responded as follows:

[The Franchise is to exercise our right to express our Belief. It is NOT to win nor lose. I am not able to identify with the above:

If the Tamil Tigers developed the Political Party founded by SJV – why did they kill Mr Amirthalingam who is an heir of SJV? and one who inherited the Belief based value of Vaddukoddai Resolution?

Each one has the right to vote as per their belief. There are those who believe through the intellectual pathway and others who believe through habitual / customary pathway. The latter would include intellectual politics  OR arms based politics. Sumanthiran would not fit the latter any more than VP would have fitted the former. Belief alone can invoke the powers of our ancestors. Belief would make perfect logic. To state that the Tigers resurrected the political pathway founded by SJV is extremely illogical. It is sad that we Lankans have allowed ourselves to become so illogical.

Gajalakshmi]

The armed militancy was beyond the control of civilian Tamils who were driven by intellectual pathways. But the emotionally driven would tend to be driven by the ‘seen’ and the ‘heard’ in their home environment. I am yet to hear any such statement as the above from the locals – including in Vaddukoddai where the first claim of political independence was made in 1976.

I do not know Sumanthiran personally. But I would be very upset if he endorsed ancestry of armed militants instead of ancestry of intellectual Politics. Our  belief in ancestry is confirmation of our heritage. It is also confirmation of our ownership in that land area. The more we respect our elders the deeper our ownership becomes. From a certain point it leads us.

The claim that ITAK – Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi – the main political party within the Tamil National Alliance was resurrected and developed by the Liberation Tigers is a serious lie that would damage the value of our Franchise. Separation of powers  is a natural claim only to the extent of our true Belief. When Nature accepts that claim – Divine Powers would protect and support us.

The author of the above article states:

[சுமந்திரனைத் தோற்கடிப்பது வரலாற்றுக் கடமையென்றும், துயிலும் இல்லத்தில் சுடரேற்றுவதற்கு ஒப்பானது என்றும் மூத்த போராளி பசீர் காக்கா விடுத்துள்ள வேண்டுகோள் நிச்சயமாக சேர வேண்டிய இடங்களுக்கு சேர்ந்திருக்குமென நம்பலாம். ]

(Translation – One is entitled to believe that the militant elder Basheer Kaka’s request  to ‘Defeat Sumanthiran as an ancestral duty and that it is equivalent to lighting the memorial flame in war memorials’ would have reached the necessary targets)

The Coronavirus has taught us that we need to maintain our sovereignty to not become its victim. Professor Chandraguptha Thenuwara stated in this regard, through his article “We destroyed their memorials and earned hatred.” at https://thecatamaran.org/?p=8540 :

[We have a past of preserving the memorials of our enemies. King Dutugemunu did so. We ended the story of King Dutugemunu at the place he killed King Elara and we forgot the aftermath of Elara’s death. We forgot to teach society that King Dutugemunu built a memorial to King Elara. We must keep up this discourse to prevent the efforts of politicians who try to capture power unscrupulously. 

The provision of economic and social facilities are not sufficient. We must share duties and responsibilities in a political framework. Present society does not exist without political power. Each ethnicity must have powers that can be utilized for their benefit. Mahinda Rajapakse promised powers beyond the 13th amendment but then forgot about it. No one even dares to implement the existing provisions of the constitution. Even the forces that have majority representation refrain from doing what is necessary to do in fear of losing their popularity. We boast about Sri Lankan identity but we have not started the project to build the Sri Lankan nation. Some try to seek political mileage from the context. For example, men wearing saffron robes appearing as Buddhist monks while not following Buddha’s philosophy are like that. People love them. They propagate a religion of war. I discuss this in my art. There are pious monks who appreciate the discussions that happen in art. Such discussions do not happen within institutional Buddhism. ]

Likewise, Truth seems alien to  institutional Media. King Dutugemunu sought the blessings of Hindu Lord Muruga at Kathirgamam to defeat Tamil King Ellalan (Elara). But since he did it for ‘victory’ – he lost the power to be Just – the power that King Ellalan elevated himself to. This resulted in King Dutugemunu not being able to view the completed form of Ruwanwelisaya which is also a war memorial:

[The Ruwanwelisaya is a stupa and a hemispherical structure containing relics, in Sri Lanka, considered sacred to many Buddhists all over the world. Two quarts or one Drona of the Gothama Buddha's relics are enshrined in the stupa, which is the largest collection of his relics anywhere. It was built by King Dutugemunu c. 140 B.C., who became King of all Sri Lanka after a war in which the Chola King Elāra (Ellalan) was defeated. It is also known as "Mahathupa", "Swarnamali Chaitya", "Suvarnamali Mahaceti" (in Pali) and "Rathnamali Dagaba".]

During our times, Hambantota which is in the area of Kathirgamam was invaded by Chinese due to lack of belief. As per recent report by The Economic Times:

[The Mattala airport was funded through high interest Chinese commercial loans. The airport, built with the capacity to handle one million passengers a year, was officially opened in March 2013.

Mahinda Rajapaksa said he and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have asked India not to press ahead with seeking a joint venture to run the airport in his hometown.

During campaigning in the southern district of Hambantota on Thursday for the August 5 parliamentary election, Rajapaksa charged that the previous government headed by Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe had sold national assets to foreign governments.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government in 2018 said they were having talks with the Indian Airports Authority to enter into a possible joint venture to operate the loss-making airport.
"They (the previous government) sold the port, but the airport could not be sold...During my recent visit to India (in February) and also by the President I told them please do not take it (airport). It is located in my village and it is only our second international airport. They (India) heeded our request, so we were able to save it," Mahinda Rajapaksa said.]

The above is as illogical as the claim made by the Tamil Diaspora medium about Tamil Tigers’ political ownership.

All those who invoke the powers of either King for ‘victory’ will lose ownership of the whole which is spiritual – as in Holy Spirit. Believers would already identify with true owners. If there are no such owners in politics – we would separate from politics – especially if it gets polluted by ‘stolen’ benefits – including through the media.