Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

11 August  2020

 

The Power of Real Lanka

According to my guru – there are three ‘I’s. The Gaja that others think I am; the Gaja I think I am and the true Gaja. In terms of a tree they are (1) the fruits and flowers; (2) the visible and separable part of the tree and (3) the invisible root. The power of the root in management is confirmed through the term root-cause of problems and opportunities which are common at the root level as Equal and Opposite.

On the above basis there are three Sri Lanka’s. Likewise Sri Lankan Politics.  I myself have used the UNP as my measure to identify with Lankan Politics. I believe that this would continue. It would support my contribution to globalization.

In their Channel News Asia article headed ‘Commentary: Personality politics matters more than party loyalty in Sri Lankan general elections’, reporters Dr Chulanee Attanayake and Ms Roshni Kapur evaluate Sri Lankans through the recent Election outcome. They highlight as follows:

[.. the government was strategic in forming a loose coalition with its main mother party, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Despite their internal differences during the preparation of the nomination list, both parties consented that there was mutual interest in contesting the elections as a united front instead of unilaterally.

On the other hand, the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), and its breakaway faction, the SJB, contested separately despite having a similar vote base.]

I highlighted the splits in both major parties as loss of power which resulted in Rebels winning. I highlighted also the demotion of Judicial institutions due to the inclusion of the judicially accused being elected through the party eligible to form government. Following is a highlight of conversation between a member of the Tamil Diaspora who to my mind contributes to separation, and I :

Q: [Chandrakanthan, who is better known by his LTTE nom de guerre, “Pillayan” was elected with 54,198 (the highest among tamil candidates)  preferential votes as the only Member from his party the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (Tamil People’s Liberation Tigers). He was in remand jail for the alleged murder of former Member of Parliament Joseph Pararajasingham during the election.. how did this guy get elected?]

A: Simple – TMVP is the only locally born political party in the leading group. All others including ITAK are ‘foreign groups’ to the Easterners – especially after the LTTE split. If there were no quid pro quos – the message from Jaffna is that they are ready to work with SLFP-SLPP and from Batticaloa is that they carry the heritage value of the war towards self-rule.

Internals ‘know’ the root cause. Externals would identify through their own structure to interpret for their own purposes.  In the case of UNP-SJB, the leader of the SJB kept giving the impression that the split was temporary. The less literate or dependent voter also would have accepted that without knowing the consequences of voting for the younger group. This was quite common within the Tamils after the war where an individual or  group had to ‘show’ support for the rebels to win even a verbal debate.  Thus those who could ‘show’ immediate outcomes were promoted to leadership above those who followed the path of the law – especially law that the members present did not understand intellectually or through belief - while they supported rebels on the basis of ‘fruits’ of rebel actions.

UNP could have and probably would have won many more seats had it covered up the fundamental breaches in the political institution which requires each individual party to be diverse and independent of the other. The ‘national government’ of the previous regime failed due to breach of this core value and this new government which is dependent on fruits would also fail for this reason. The victory that is ‘shown’ has to be belief based if it is to last.

The above mentioned member of the Tamil Diaspora asked:

Q: The current debate in town is this: what do Tamils in SL need now/future? - protection of civil rights or development and growth? Where is the balance? Since the end of war, efforts for the former has produced little. The latter has been thoroughly neglected. Don't want to see Tamils of SL poor and begging for full rights and don't want to see Tamils rich and cosy always afraid and fearing the authority.]

My answer was:

A: My civil rights are determined by the contribution I make to the common civil order in that environment. When I complained about the cutting and stealing of the fence around our temple,  my cottage was stoned in the night. I now do not stay there in the nights but visit during the day. There is no respect for elders in that area due to separation from mainstream Vaddukoddai where folks continue to show respect for authority. First we need to respect each other’s civil rights – electorate by electorate. Towards this I lived in that toddy-tapper village and got to know their culture. Now I manage them through their cultural norms but reward them as per our common work relationship. Former is unstructured and latter is firmly structured. Civil Rights were taken by the junior castes due to elevation of status during the active war. Hence my question to you is – which part of North or East are you talking about in terms of Civil Rights? They are not common to all until we develop a reliable public service structure.

It is for these reasons that I wrote yesterday ‘As for Development work in North – yes as per our democratic rights and not as handouts.’ That includes from the Diaspora.

Emigration from Sri Lanka has seriously weakened law and order systems that our ancestors invested in. Those systems confirm the ancestral powers that support us at root level where the real Sri Lanka is. Anyone who connects to that root will convert problems into opportunities.