Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

07 November  2020

 

 

 

 

Sri Lankan Electoral College

I was thinking of similarities between Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa,  Former President of Sri Lanka and Mr Donald Trump. Soon my eyes were taken to the picture on the left from a Kamala Harris fan in the Tamil Diaspora. I read the picture at the level of my own mind structure and came across the picture on the right in the Island article headed  ‘VC reads riot act to lecturers’.

My background check revealed the following:

[Srisatkunarajah holds dual Australian and Sri Lankan citizenship]

Professor Srisatkunarajah was elected by the current President of Sri Lanka who was himself a Lankan-American dual citizen and whose changes to the Sri Lankan constitution have paved the way for his brother Mr Basil Rajapaksa who is also a Lankan-American dual citizen to enter parliament through the National list. The National list entries are the Sri Lankan parallels of Electoral College system except that it gets reversed at the top. As per my understanding of that system which has its origin in Germany, the core purpose was for the head of State to have the support of nobles:

[An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to particular offices. Often these represent different organizations, political parties or entities, with each organization, political party or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way.]

The pathway through which Professor Srisatkunarajah became VC is presented as follows by Wikipedia:

[In August 2020 the University of Jaffna's council nominated Srisatkunarajah along with K. Mikunthan and T. Velnampy to be the university's new vice-chancellor. Srisatkunarajah was chosen by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa]

Election by voters of Equal status is an essential feature of Democracy. The acceptance of many of equal status makes the person common representative. But this may not be enough to manage those who are clever and hence the vertical process of elimination so that the plenary powers are at the higher level.

Jupiter & Mercury are independent planets but are vastly different in size. The higher the standard, the more inclusive the structure becomes.

Up to the point when University’s governing council elected the above mentioned candidates – that process was democratic. But when the President ‘appointed’  his choice – it became autocratic. The next step ought to be for the members of the University Grants Commission (UGC)  to vote. There is a government representative in the UGC but majority are academics. When a single person makes the appointment it is an autocratic process. When such a person is less qualified in that field – in this instance - the management of University – than the person s/he is appointing, the process is reverse autocracy. That is like Jupiter shrinking to Mercury’s size.

As per my experience with the Australian University system, most of them are poor resource managers. I once had a debate with the then head of research at the University of NSW (UNSW) – over whether reporting is to be  through Expenditure only or both – Income and Expenditure – as I chose to do. If the former is chosen – then that is confirmation that the University is dependent on the resource provider. That was the way with the Cash Accounting system. Accrual Accounting system is like a democratic Parliament with equal Opposition. That equality is facilitated by  law which plays the role of Electoral College.

The  UNSW was strongly driven by Income. As per my discovery when we resource at the higher level including through our intelligence, then the Income also happens at that level. I usually recall the words of wisdom of Australian Radio personality Mr John Laws who shared his experiences with his listeners – that the more he took care of his children the more income he earned. I myself know this through my additional ‘intellectual skills’ whenever I was unjustly denied money and status benefits on equal footing. This is the reason why Mother is known as Energy.

Professor Srisatkunarajah ‘read the riot act’ due to acceptance of army leader as his senior. Professor Srisatkunarajah’s predecessor – Professor Ratnam Vigneswaran was appointed by President Sirisena who was a ‘yes man’. Both VCs ‘show’ Hinduism foremost – as Mr CV Wigneswaran also does. They therefore lack the blessings of merged minds that have acquired global powers by respecting elders from diverse  cultures. When we respect we inherit their mind.

If Mr Basil Rajapaksa  comes to Parliament and takes China’s side – the risk of Americans punishing him increases. If we do not take control of one way autocracy – through equal opposition as facilitated by democracy – we promote polarisation. Bi polar problem  is time based in the same mind. Polarization happens when one mind gets the benefits and the other pays the costs, including through shared intelligence. Happens all the time within Tamil Diaspora which empowers many academics within the University of Jaffna.