Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

12 July   2021

 

 

 

 

OUT GO MADARASAS; IN COMECOMMUNIST UNIVERSITY?

 

The demolition of war memorial in Jaffna University sparked protests from many global groups. Tamil politicians in Sri Lanka were either in support of the global protests or they remained silent. Now many are speaking against Militarisation of Universities:

 

[I’m not fazed about being called a "pariah" by the MPs of SLPP/SLFP for talking about the militarization of the Higher Education sector in Sri Lanka. I will continue to speak up for what is right.] The Hon Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, MP

 

What seems right to the mind of politicians has to be belief based. This would then facilitate citizens to empower them through that issue. This empowerment is more important than winning votes. It is this empowerment that binds the citizen to the government or its opposition.

 

Section 3 of the Prescription Ordinance of Sri Lanka requires proof of undisturbed, uninterrupted possession through an adverse title for at least 10 years  to qualify for ownership. There are few exceptions but this is a good guide to test the validity of expressions in Parliament. When we pay our respects to the makers of a law – they come within us and guide us as if they are part of us. That was how I discovered in the case of our Colombo land that the claimant of Prescriptive title did not qualify as per the law. He provided documents that confirmed that during the period another person was occupying the said premises.  The opposition could have suppressed the evidence but they seemed to have overlooked it. As per my conclusion – that is how belief works to bring out the truth in our opposition.

 

One who believed s/he was Sri Lankan and also that a University ought to be based on ‘freedom’ to discover and publish truth would contribute strongly to the Governance value of the University.

 

The University of Jaffna was a balancing ‘factor’ in compensating for the loss of merit based entry to university. The loss happened due to introduction of quota system – through the standardization policy of 1971. This reduced the Energy we put into the merit based system – based on rights and wrongs . The merit lost, was reborn as University of Jaffna in 1974. The political genes were further demoted to military genes during LTTE rule. Hence the war memorial.

 

The parallel of merit system in this instance is the rights and wrongs of this Bill in parliament. The Hon Harini Amarasuriya, MP presents the following in this regard:

[This Bill was first put forward in 2018 by the then Government, but due to widespread protests and criticism, it was not presented to Parliament. The current Government has now placed the same Bill to be taken up by Parliament. At the moment in Sri Lanka there are 16 universities administered by the Universities Act of 1978 and coming under the University Grants Commission. ]

 

University of Jaffna, by law,  is already under Universities Act of 1978.

 Section 45 provides as follows:

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Council shall exercise the powers and perform and discharge the duties and functions conferred or imposed on, or assigned to, the University.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred upon it by subsection (1), the Council shall exercise, perform and discharge the following powers, duties and functions:-

………..

(ix) to make By-laws for any matter in respect of which By-laws are authorized to be made

Given that action was not taken against students when they installed the Memorial for those who died in the war – one is entitled to conclude that the Council of the University of Jaffna was not independent enough to make its laws to protect its sovereignty or that if they did make them –  they are not courageous enough to implement them.

The effect of this was that the University of Jaffna is already a military academy.

 

One then needs to question as to how the system of karma balances its books.

 

As per my discovery, the effects confirm the laws through which the causes travelled to become effects. Actions of the highest level administrators go direct to form such natural  law and if we trace back through them diligently – we would identify with the causal forces. As per that travel, I find that the University of Jaffna is already a Military University.

 

The above mentioned Bill relates to the Defence Academy in the name of Sir John Kotelawala about whom Wikipedia reports as follows:

 

[As prime minister, Kotelawala led Sri Lanka into the United Nations and contributed to Sri Lanka's expanding foreign relations, particularly with other Asian countries. In 1955 he led his country's delegation to the Bandung conference in Indonesia where his performance earned him the epithet Bandung Booruwa (Bandung Donkey) in Sri Lanka, for his lack of knowledge of the presence of the US 7th Fleet in the South China Sea, and his inability to pronounce "Formosan". His uncontroversial first speech at the conference was written by journalists at the Lake House group, However, he had been influenced by the British Government, as well as by his US-aligned permanent secretary Gunasena de Soyza to make anti-Communist remarks. He made these remarks at a press conference, but subsequently withdrew them. He confessed later in Parliament that he had only made these remarks because he was pressured by de Soyza. At the conference he stated his belief that fashionably Marxist anti-colonialist rhetoric ignored Communist atrocities. In a private conversation with the prime ministers of Pakistan, India, Burma, and China, he asked Chinese premier Zhou Enlai if he wanted to bring Communism to Tibet. Zhou replied that it was impractical and undesirable, and that the PRC had gone to Tibet because it was "an integral part of the Chinese state" and because it had been threatened by "imperialist intrigues" from the British and Russian empires

 

The Formosan issue indicates the Karma that Chinese carry:

The declaration has not been preserved in its original Chinese version, although an English version of it was recorded by the American war correspondent James Wheeler Davidson, who was in Taipei when it was issued. Davidson's version reads as follows:

Official Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Formosa.

The Japanese have affronted China by annexing our territory of Formosa, and the supplications of us, the People of Formosa, at the portals of the Throne have been made in vain. We now learn that the Japanese slaves are about to arrive.

If we suffer this, the land of our hearths and homes will become the land of savages and barbarians, but if we do not suffer it, our condition of comparative weakness will certainly not endure long. Frequent conferences have been held with the Foreign Powers, who all aver that the People of Formosa must establish their independence before the Powers will assist them.

Now, therefore, we, the People of Formosa, are irrevocably resolved to die before we will serve the enemy. And we have in Council determined to convert the whole island of Formosa into a Republican state, and that the administration of all our State affairs shall be organized and carried on by the deliberations and decisions of Officers publicly elected by us the People. But as in this new enterprise there is needed, as well for the resistance of Japanese aggression as for the organization of the new administration, a man to have chief control, in whom authority shall centre, and by whom the peace of our homesteads shall be assured—therefore, in view of the respect and admiration in which we have long held the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Tang Ching Sung, we have in Council determined to raise him to the position of President of the Republic.

An official seal has been cut, and on the second day of fifth moon, at the ssu hour [9 a.m. 25 May], it will be publicly presented with all respect by the notables and people of the whole of Formosa. At early dawn on that day, all of us, notables and people, farmers and merchants, artizans and tradesmen, must assemble at the Tuan Fang Meeting House, that we may in grave and solemn manner inaugurate this undertaking

Let there be neither delay nor mistake.

A Declaration of the whole of Formosa.

[Seal in red as follows] An announcement by the whole of Formosa]

 

Unless prevented by Sovereign Borders, the Formosa karma, together with Sir John’s own bias towards military rule indicates a high risk of this proposed University becoming a stronger version of the disorderly University of Jaffna. In other words, in Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port City – which to the extent it is beyond Sri Lanka’s sovereign borders the Formosa karma is likely to manifest itself – especially if  QUAD of which Japan is a member – becomes active.

 

The way to prevent such Balance Sheets getting reopened is through strong laws that would ensure the Freedom of Academics to research and to teach and academically diffuse the negative karma through global studies. Otherwise the risk is high for this University to become a Communist University dominated by Chinese.