Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

17 January   2021

 

 

S

EDUCATIONAL MONUMENTS DAMAGED BY MILITANTS

 

Recently, my Facebook pal and member of our family  Mrs Narayani Arabinthan posted the above on her Facebook page. I identify fully with the essence of it. This means we are  our Ultimate Reality through any relationship. Often we use positions instead of the persons in the positions when traveling towards that Ultimate Reality. This helps us to preserve our investment in the whole structure,  through our position.  The excess goes towards the whole.

Democracy is successful where this ‘surplus’ from juniors is strong.

One who takes benefits that have been tested through their position relative to the ‘other’ tends to be more independent than one who freely takes benefits . Seniors are taken to be custodians of powers of those who structured the relationship. When we pass benefits through positions,  they get energized by those powers.

In Hindu literature, we refer to positive Energies as Divine powers / gods and negative Energies as animal powers / Asuras. Divine powers are developed largely by foregoing pleasures that one has earned. Where necessary, they form common structures.

This morning, I joined the online meeting of the Consortium of Tamil Associations – NSW.  The Agenda was as follows:

CTA January 2021 Forum

Aha Vanakkam                                                               11:00 am

Introduction                                                                     11:02 am

 

The current situation regarding the UNHRC                                               March 2021 session on Sri Lanka and in which                                          way the diaspora can contribute                             11:05 am

 
Mr. V Ravi Kumar (Root Ravi) General Secretary, British Tamils Forum (BTF)
Mr Shan Sutha   Human Right Activist Europe
  Current situation in Jaffna University                    11:40 am

 Mr Sugash Kanagaratnam
Human Right Lawyer and former student union leader
  Q & A                                                                               11:55am

  Close of meeting                                                            12:15pm

The above schedule was adhered to. To me , the first section re the UNHRC was about global politics. My participation was to ‘listen and register only’ as per my position in that structure. I raised through the ‘chat’ section – the question as to how many female participants were in the forum? I am yet to get a response back – but no female participate actively participated in today’s meeting. That confirmed to me that within the Tamil  Diaspora females are a minority. I therefore took my place as Tamils in Sri Lanka would take their ‘given’ positions with the Sri Lankan government.

 

Finally Mr Logathasan who is mature and genuine spoke a few words during the time allocated to the general audience. I identified fully with Logathasan’s question which in summary was :

 

[If we knew that the war monument  would be demolished, why did we erect the war it in the first instance?  ]

Mentally, my husband and I  applauded Logathasan. I wrote in the chat section that his was the best contribution of all. Victor Rajakulendran came next – sharing his reality that in Australia, only a  few  Tamils would gather to influence politicians.

 

I have raised the question – as to the value of the meeting,  to grassroots in Vaddukoddai.  One of the participants vaguely disciplined  Mr Sugash Kanagaratnam about Due Process. I considered this to be inappropriate in view of the diverse nature of participants and their diverse needs. There are no seniors or juniors in forums.

 

Later, a male member of our Vaddukoddai staff complained that a female member had ignored his ‘instructions’ .  I heard him and asked him to bring any complaints to me. This is because the female staff is mild mannered and humble. As per my training – she states that ‘she needs to ask me’. I am like the clearing house for both of Equal status. Otherwise, like the above mentioned participant using Diaspora power to ‘tell’ Mr Sugash Kanagaratnam about Due Process, the male staff would ‘tell’ female staff.

 

Tamil Diaspora needs to be conscious of Equal status of various groups in the global context. This automatically entitles us to Equal status in Sri Lanka wherever we are not covered by a firm structure. When we take our place as per our contributions to commonness, the Universal power of Truth brings us the support when we need it – in the form we need it in.

 

That is when we live with the government we make. Then we take senior or junior or equal position as per the needs of the whole. When we take senior position above one who has stronger ownership Energy than us we demote our own structures. Hence we need to restructure from time to time to develop a structure that would preserve our heritage – especially our investment in higher education. The deepest pain in this was felt by my generation who are now in their 70s. Juniors in Sri Lanka as well as with the Diaspora need to respect that and own that before fighting to preserve war memorials for those who damaged that heritage. Now we will never know what would have happened if militants had not damaged our educational monuments.