Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

18 December  2020

 

 

 

WHY DID MINISTER WEERASEKARA NOT SEEK

THE BLESSINGS OF THE JUSTICE MINISTER?

We watched Funny Boy film on Netflix, introduced as follows by Wikipedia:

[Funny Boy is a 2020 Canadian drama film, directed by Deepa Mehta. An adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai's 1994 novel Funny Boy, the film centres on the coming of age of Arjie Chelvaratnam, a young Tamil boy in Sri Lanka who is coming to terms with his homosexuality against the backdrop of the increased tensions between Tamil and Sinhalese people before the breakout of the Sri Lankan Civil War]

The scenes that took me to virtual reality mode were the ‘riot’ scenes – in which Sinhalese mobs went from house to house to attack Tamils. It happened in 1977 as well as 1983 in Colombo. Tamils in North & East got their turn when the Armed Forces had their turn. That was when mass exodus started happening.

I was pregnant with my youngest daughter in 1977 when the riots broke out in Colombo. As per the laws of Universal Franchise – the believing citizen empowers the leader and v.v.  The deeper believer leads the relationship. We were in a small annexe along Gregory’s Road - Colombo 7 – not far from the Catholic hostel where I lived as an Accounting student. The owners lived in the main house and they were Tamils. Our maid was Sinhalese. Each time we heard unusual noises we experienced anxiety. I kept going to work because I believed in Colombo’s multiculturalism that I had contributed to.  I stopped only when a Tamil friend married to Sinhalese asked me to not go. To me, the word of such caring friends is message from god – personification of our Common belief.

Later Accounting friends of mine (Sinhalese) came over to ensure that we were ok. The husband was supporter of LSSP whose supporters were also targeted:

[Prior to the 1977 elections, JR Jayawardene promised that he would give the Police a week's leave so that his supporters could attack members of opposing parties. After his victory, his Government launched unprecedented state violence against the opposition, targeting supporters of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, and the People's Democratic Party. In particular, some 9,000 families of supporters of LSSP leader N.M. Perera in Yatiyantota were driven from their homes, many of which were destroyed.] Wikipedia

The ethnic angle was presented as follows by Edmund Samarakkody in Workers Vanguard (New York):

[The outbreak in mid-August (1977) of the anti-Tamil pogrom (the third such outbreak in two decades) has brought out the reality that the Tamil minority problem in Sri Lanka has remained unresolved now for nearly half a century, leading to the emergence of a separatist movement among the Tamils. As on previous occasions, what took place recently was not Sinhalese – Tamil riots, but an anti-Tamil pogrom. Although Sinhalese were among the casualties, the large majority of those killed, maimed and seriously wounded are Tamils. The victims of the widespread looting are largely Tamils. And among those whose shops and houses were destroyed, the Tamils are the worst sufferers. Of the nearly 75,000 refugees, the very large majority were Tamils, including Indian Tamil plantation workers...]

A true believer in Sri Lanka would therefore be able to extrapolate and know the numbers affected during the 2009 battle when the government forces were empowered to act as per their own ‘free’ thoughts invoked also by the declaration of freedom by the LTTE.

Prime Minister JR Jayewardene (JRJ) is reported to have responded to the Tamil Opposition Leader , the Hon Appapillai Amirthalingam as follows:

[People become restive when they hear that a separate state is to be formed. Whatever it is, when statements of that type are made, the newspapers carry them throughout the island, and when you say that you are not violent, but that violence may be used in time to come, what do you think the other people in Sri Lanka will do? How will they react? If you want to fight, let there be a fight; if it is peace, let there be peace; that is what they will say. It is not what I am saying. The people of Sri Lanka say that.]

One who for political purposes freed the Police (law enforcement officers) of their duty -  would naturally leave it to the People to Manage  without the discipline within the boundaries of law, when s/he is not sure of winning through the lawful pathway.  That is exactly what JRJ did. If JRJ had respected the Sinhalese Opposition – as an Equal status group – he would have not made the above mentioned election promise – to use his supporters as seniors to punish opposition as if they were juniors. This was extended to Tamils  who were by now culturally autonomous and this was confirmed by the July 1977 election outcomes. Tamils by then had achieved the status of self-governance and this was eventually confirmed through the July 77 election outcomes. They were ignored by JRJ – confirming that he did not believe in democracy and therefore Equal status  for opposition.

To my mind this could have happened due to JRJ abandoning Democracy to prematurely jump into Presidential structure and thus losing the support of his own UNP ancestors.

Tamil politicians did not have influence over LTTE, any more than JRJ had over ‘Free’ Sinhalese who were armed. The above inability continued to accumulate until it became exponential negative power – a sin.

Wrong is relative and sin is exponential – as has been confirmed by the Coronavirus. The latest manifestation happened in Mahara prison . Ceylon Today report - ‘33 to be prosecuted on murder charges – Weerasekara’ highlights as follows:

[Minister of Public Security, Sarath Weerasekera, told the two Chief Prelates of the Asgiriya and Malwatte Chapters that legal action is to be taken against 33 persons based on murder charges, from among 267 individuals taken into custody by the Police in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks, which caused the death of about 300 persons. 

He said the Police had conducted investigations in relation to eight incidents of bombing and eight files were handed over to the Attorney General. 

Subsequent to worshipping at the Temple of the Tooth, Minister Weerasekera visited the two Chief Prelates of the Asgiriya and Malwatte Chapters and obtained their blessings. 

The Minister discussed at length the present situation in the country with the Chief Prelate of the Malwatte Chapter, Most Venerable Thibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera and the Chief Prelate of the Asgiriya Chapter, Most Venerable Warakagoda Sri Gnanarathana Thera. ]

 

As per Wikipedia,

[Gnanarathana thero is known for voicing his right-wing political proclivities in public. In 2017, he issued a statement condoning the views of the hard-line nationalist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara who was convicted of being in contempt of court, but was released on 23 May 2019 after having been given a Presidential pardon.]

To the deep reader – the above is a manifestation of the wrong that JRJ committed when he promised to let loose the ‘mob’.  Wikipedia throws some light on the karmic reasons for the above conduct by Minister Weerasekera:

[ Following basic officer training at the Naval and Maritime Academy, Trincomalee; he specialised in naval gunnery at INS Dronacharya in India.]

Dronacharya was the Guru of all princes of the ruling family . His favourite student was Prince Arjunan of the minority. But in the big war – Dronacharya fought on the side of majority who had ruling power. Like in the Sri Lankan ethnic war – there were no Hindu priests advising and/or fighting on the side of minority. Dronacharya and the Kirubachariya fought on the side of Majority. To me the above mentioned Buddhist Prelates are their descendants. This is possible if Sri Lanka was part of Bharat where the above war happened and also which was the ultimate heritage of that war.

Dronacharya was a Brahmin / Anthanar. The job of Anthanar was to teach and not to fight. When Dronacharya fell, Bheeman the physically strongest brother on the minority side – declares that Dronacharya exceeded the boundaries of his position and hence died for the side that opposed Dharma by its disorderly conduct.

I believe that when we settle our dues to our elders and gurus – we complete the experience and become independent of them. Then we take their virtues with us as common/shared powers.  Those who fail to pay their dues become indebted and they carry the negatives from such elders. Likewise when we fail to pay our dues to the Land and/or our positions.

Minister Weerasekera’s father is reported to have been the Chief Jailor in the Department of Prisons. There is no public report that Minister Weerasekera sought his father’s blessings in managing the Mahara Prison attacks nor the blessings of Dronacharya.  One is therefore entitled to conclude that he would carry the negatives from both and elevate the Buddhist Prelates who are custodians of benefits in current Sri Lanka.

As per the report :

[Expressing his views further on this occasion, Minister Weerasekera said a group of individuals from among suspects taken into custody in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks are being detained and another group is in remand prison. ]

Given that the victims and perpetrators of the Easter Bombing were / are non-Buddhists – why did the Buddhist Prelates not direct the Minister to get the blessings of the Minister for Justice – the Hon Ali Sabri who is a Muslim also? Is he second class even though he is a Minister responsible for Justice through Secular Law?