Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

18 November  2020

 

 

 

Sri Lanka & Electoral College System

From time to time something happened to confirm to me the value of Belief. I had many such confirmations during my experiences with the University of NSW(UNSW), followed by those with the State and Federal governments. When Pauline Hanson asked migrants who could not assimilate to ‘go back home’ I felt very upset and resigned from my position at the University of NSW.  Now I realise that I resigned also because Sri Lanka needed me – heritage and all. I became a common citizen by belief in both nations. This gives me voting power with the system of Truth at global level. When I identify with a global problem as my own, my vote is naturally allocated to one whose true position is closest to my true position.

Recently when a law academic at the UNSW asked me to unsubscribe her from my email membership, I wrote:

“Sorry, as per our policies we do not oblige as per likes and dislikes – more so when it comes from UNSW which carries negative karma”

 

This was followed by the following conversation:

UNSW: Please send a copy of those policies.]

Gaja: Our policies are formed by our true experiences. They can be identified with in our articles at the website.

UNSW: I imagine that not unsubscribing me from your email list will only intensify the 'negative karma' you think comes from UNSW. Certainly, the time put into this correspondence could've been better spent.

 

I will continue to block these emails and delete them en masse as 'junk' as I've done for many years.

 

Gaja: I have institutional rights and obligations with UNSW. They are as per positions and yours is one of them. No, the karma from me is to offset the negative in UNSW. My communications resulted in my book Naan Australian which was taken to the National Library of Australia via Congress Library without any effort on my part. That is the way of belief which balances the Universal system of governance. If you consider it a waste – then you would become a victim of the negative karma at UNSW which has suffered many consequences after failing in its duty to me. I attach Appendix 2 as an example if you really care about being just. If you ignore the truth my work gets wasted on you and you would allow your ignorance to become sin that spreads itself exponentially.  But there would be many more who would benefit and make UNSW a better institution and do so exponentially.

 

 

The above academic was acting like Pauline Hanson did in 1998. Both assume that we assimilate and therefore could be ‘told’. If I were an assimilator I would have been deaf to Pauline Hanson. But as per my belief I am an integrator. The difference is explained as follows by Immigration Reform.com:

[Assimilation is generally defined as adopting the ways of another culture and fully becoming part of a different society. Whereas integration is typically defined as incorporating individuals from different groups into a society as equals. The difference is subtle but significant.]

I would have seemed to have assimilated until 1998 whenever I felt discriminated against but did not express it at the workplace. But when I heard Pauline in August 1998, I was already upset with UNSW Administration which continued to use the old system of Accounting even though our group was recruited to move the University towards Democratic Accounting systems. But in 1998, after being recognized by some Academics at the Medical Faculty – as the best suited person for the above purpose – I felt the need to express my truth and take my position as an Equal in a democratic structure. Hence I expressed it by resigning from the ‘given position’ and then acting as per my True position as I believed it to be. I could not have done so if I had accepted the ‘given’ positions and downgraded myself. From then on, it is my integrated power that has worked here in Australia . This to me is the parallel of the Electoral College system.

Recently the Washington Post published an editorial opinion under the heading ‘Abolish the electoral college’

 

Included is the following:

[But why should Iowa’s biofuel lobby get more of a hearing than, say, California’s artichoke lobby? Small states already have disproportionate clout in our government because of the Senate, in which Wyoming’s fewer than 600,000 residents have as much representation as California’s 39.5 million.]

The reason is the exponential value of Belief based votes which would draw on the powers of ancestral lawmakers and owners of the small electorate (in the above instance Wyoming) once they are self-governing which is likely to happen more quickly than the larger electorate (California).

That was how Tamils who were 12% of the Sri Lankan population became Equal Opposition in national parliament in 1977. In 1976, Tamil Political leaders declared Equal status through Vaddukoddai Resolution 1976. In 1977, Mr JR Jayawardene (JRJ)who was leader of the UNP that won government took the credit for the massive defeat of Sinhala Opposition onto himself and changed the Constitution.

In his Daily FT article headed ‘J.R. Jayewardene and the 20th Amendment’ , Ravi Perera presents JRJ’s then frame of mind as follows:

[How we ended up with an executive presidency in this country is attributable to an idea conceived in the mind of by J.R. Jayewardene, apparently first expressed at a meeting of the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science in 1966. For inspiration, he turned to two superpowers with presidential systems of government, France and the US; two great republics, nations which had won their freedoms at a heavy price, countries that had built mega economies, peoples with innumerable individual achievements in nearly every field of human endeavour.

Jayewardene explained his interpretation of a presidential system thus: “The executive is chosen directly by the people and is not dependent on the legislature during the period of its existence, for a specific number of years. Such as executive is a strong executive, seated in power for a fixed number of years, not subject to the whims and fancies of an elected legislature; not afraid to take correct but unpopular decisions because of censure from its parliamentary party. This seems to me a very necessary requirement in a developing country faced with grave problems such as we are faced with today.”]

The above confirms the position of most intellectuals to whom belief based actions and expressions of the less educated become expressions of superstitions. Belief is Exponential in power. Even the highest level intellectual knowledge without belief is relative. Belief is essential to climb the ladder to wisdom.

In terms of Presidential elections JRJ’s system seems close to that of France’s. But in terms of Parliamentary elections, he brought in changes through the 14^th Amendment:

[These Lankan amendments were made through the 14th Amendment in 1988 – about 6 months after the 13th Amendment which recognized Tamil also as an  official language and English as a link Language, and required the  establishment of  Provincial Councils. As per my reading, President J. R. Jayewardene, negated the effect of the 13^th Amendment through this differentiation process.  ] Gajalakshmi Paramasivam - Separatism Laws – 10-11-2020

The proportional sharing system at electoral level seems to have been taken from the USA. The effects in Sri Lanka included Rebels producing their own parallel Presidents in South and North. Their parallel of law and votes in Parliament was arms. In turn, within the government – Presidents who were dictatorial were produced.

Mr Jayawardene’s structure thus produced a unitary constitutional monarchy ruling over a federal/provincial republic.  

Why? – Ravi gives a clue:

[J.R. Jayewardene was intellectually heads and shoulders above the commonness which has been standardised in public life today. Widely-read, intelligent, cosmopolitan; as a young man JR had had exposure to a larger culture, immersion in a rich literature; an enriching upbringing that was then common to many promising youngsters of a certain social class; an upbringing that enriched and broadened the young man’s outlook, through education and association, he would acquire an urbanity that would compare well with any in the world.]

The question is – did JRJ have realised wisdom by actually practicing the above in everyday life? If he did – then he would have appreciated that in democracy, one has to stop ‘showing’ more than electorate’s common cleverness which when disintegrated would become Equal. As Ravi has highlighted – JRJ was intellectually heads and shoulders above the commonness.

The result was his heir in the party – Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe who was modest – was never president. Instead, Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa who was/is  his heir by character through rough intellectual power – became President twice. In North – LTTE leader became the de facto president.

What if we had the Electoral College system in Sri Lanka?

As per my understanding this is necessary where there is a big gap between the culture of the leader and the culture of the voter. In a vertical system, we have seniors and juniors who connect through their respective positions and to that extent there is flow of Energy in both directions. In Democracy one shares exponentially through belief towards which there can be no vertical hierarchy. Hence Equal position. When the vertical flow ceases – the lateral osmosis from the stronger Energy to the weaker Energy happens. In democracy this stronger Energy is taken to be the collective body known as electorate. A leader who shows higher powers than the common voter tends to disconnect with the electorate.

The electoral college system makes this vertical connection through intermediary equals known as Electors – who are identified through a lawful process.

The popular vote would have liberal elements of quid pro quo expectations and hence would not reach the top – especially the cleverer top. Various layers of Equal platforms facilitate the merger of governing powers between the voter and the elected leader. In multicultural societies – the electoral college system helps bring the popular vote to common vote through local cultural thinking, based on belief.

If we had had this system – Tamils would know that they can directly influence the Presidential election outcomes through their cultural electors. We then would not have had the ethnic war between King Prabhakaran & King Rajapaksa assisted by Prince Rajapaksa.

If majority are assimilators rather than integrators, then we do need such discovery of Equal levels between leaders and common electors.  That was how Mr John Howard who failed in his duty to discipline Pauline Hanson was ‘sent home’ by migrant power which accumulated over years of negligence by government and self-governance by migrants.