Monday 30 August 2021

 

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

30 August   2021

 

 

PTA Covers Terrorism by Virus

Wikipedia presents Terrorism as:

‘Terrorism is, in the broadest sense, the unlawful use of intentional violence to achieve political aims, especially against civilians.’

As per my knowledge, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) continues to be law in Sri Lanka. There has been some discussions regarding legality of some of the Government’s actions against the pandemic. The political editorial  of Sunday Times, dated 22 August was brought to my attention by the Tamil Diaspora:

[During the first wave of the pandemic, the Government effectively imposed a lockdown and effectively reduced the number of cases, while at the same time certain politicians and legal experts questioned the constitutional legality of the lockdown and the response of the Government. To this day, the Government has not initiated any legislative process through Parliament to legalise and regularise some of the actions taken and need to be taken. Most democracies have acted swiftly by passing legislation in their parliaments, sometimes recalling their legislature on grounds of public health emergency.

Some have chosen to older legislations and/or some amend existing ones. Most except Sri Lanka have acted by legislating their response to this pandemic. IMF policy tracker summarises the key economic responses governments are taking to limit the human and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tracker includes 197 economies. Last updated on July 2, 2021, it clearly reflects the gaps between countries where pandemic response was handled through a systematic and legalised process in contrast to Sri Lanka where the response was haphazard. In Sri Lanka, powerful officials could wake up one morning and decide to impose night-time curfew or regional lockdowns. These actions if challenged in a court of law could expose the lack of legality of some of these random actions.]

 

If  such questions of legality had been raised in relation to alleged Terrorism we would have prevented war-crimes allegations. Then there is also Buddhism foremost article 9 in the constitution – according to which action of Dharma protected . The power to so declare is vested with any governor who has no executive power in that area.

 

My special attention was drawn to the following:

 

[There is a much worse development due to the exploding COVID-19 pandemic. There was a Tamil diaspora group that arranged for 200 respirators for the Government. However, the Government could not accept them. The reason – this organisation is one of six on which the Government has imposed a ban. It was just this week that former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appealed to the Government to import 200 respirators to prevent deaths in the provinces. Here is a story of how the bureaucracy worked:

Respirators and ventilators are in short supply in the country, particularly in rural hospitals. Some main Teaching Hospitals too lack capacity. The daily growing numbers in hospitalisation if continued will even further expose the lack of capacity in hospitals all over Sri Lanka. Members of a prominent Global Tamil diaspora organisation organised some 200 respirators from a European donor country. Each respirator cost $13,000 which makes the total cost to be $2.6m. The country concerned also offered to transport these respirators to Sri Lanka as an emergency assistance.

Experts from the Health Ministry, the respirator manufacturer company and other specialists met up remotely to demonstrate the respirators to senior members of the Health Ministry of Sri Lanka during late June 2021. The Director General of Health Services – Dr Asela Gunawardena, Deputy Director General (Planning) – Dr S. Sridharan, Deputy Director General (Bio Medical Services) – Mr. S.A.J. Karunathilake and as an expert – Dr. Nilmini Wijesuriya (MD, FCARCSI, FRCA) ERC and UK ALS Instructor, National Coordinator Working Committee on

Resuscitation, College of Anaesthesiologists, and Intensivists of Sri Lanka Kids Save Lives – Sri Lanka Project Coordinator, all professional medical doctors, except the Deputy DG (Bio Medical Services) participated on behalf of Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka. After an hour-long demonstration and consultation, Ministry officials agreed to discuss internally and revert. Three days later, the Deputy Director General (Planning) – Dr S Sritharan wrote back to say that the Expert Anaesthesiologist Dr. Nilmini Wijesuriya has decided that there is no requirement for these respirators in Sri Lanka and the donor country should consider donating these respirators to “very resource poor countries”.

The actual content of the correspondence is below:

Greetings from Sri Lanka and thank you for assisting us in this challenging time.

Dr Nilmini, Consultant Anaesthetist informed that unfortunately, there are no requests for this machine from peripheries. The clinicians managing these units will not increase ventilation at the moment. Then they may be able to divert them to very resource-poor countries. Anyhow look at the possibilities of donating Bipap machines, oxygen concentrators, and manikins etc.

Thanks for your contribution and understanding

Dr S Sridharan

Deputy Director General (Planning)

Ministry of Health

Colombo – 10

Mob: +94 714 xxxx

In Sri Lanka there were nearly 70,000 cases just on June 21, another 50,000 in July 21 and nearly another 50,000 in the first 17 days of August 21. There were approximately 1,500 deaths each month in June and July and another nearly 2,000 deaths recorded in the first 17 days of August.

After intervention from a high-ranking leader, the same Deputy Director General (Planning) sent an official request this time stating that Sri Lanka is in desperate need for these respirators. A similar formal request was made by S Janaka Sri Chandraguptha the Additional Secretary (Development) to the Ministry too on the same day in August. However, when the donor country’s Head of Mission contacted the Ministry to organise the transportation and the relevant clearances, unfortunately the Deputy Director General (Bio Medical Services) who is reportedly in charge of receiving donations and aid relating to this pandemic, possibly without realising that formal requests have been sent to the capital of that country, in his freewill yet again, discouraged the Head of Mission, stating that Sri Lanka has sufficient capacity to deal with the emergencies. With such incompetence, lack of empathy prevailing within the Health Ministry, it is surprise that the President decided to reshuffle the minister concerned to another portfolio.]

 

To me – both sides seem to be anxious about legal actions similar to war-crimes allegations. Added to this is the concern in this particular matter – the report that ‘former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appealed to the Government to import 200 respirators’.  Is it coincidence that Ranil would ask for 200 and the ‘Global Tamil diaspora organisation organised some 200 respirators from a European donor country.’?

 

Transparency is needed here. We need to know the name of the donor and the reason why it is working towards the Global Tamil Diaspora group? This is not the time for political games. On personal basis – we have been contacting the folks in Northern Sri Lanka with whom we have working relationships and advising them to keep their confidence levels high during this period. They express much gratitude because they consider us to be their seniors. This confirms a relationship. Tamil culture as realised by me provides the base for such supply and demand – to be on the basis of relationships within a sovereign unit.

 

Those pampered by handouts turn out to be less intelligent than those who earn benefits through firmly regulated structures.  Hence I wrote in my review of my granddaughter’s writeup on multiculturalism as follows

 

The declaration: what a privileged lifestyle I am living

 

My Review: First it is important not to take junior or senior positions with other cultures in appreciating multiculturalism. The above indicates ‘senior’ position. The word ‘privilege’ in this context denotes ‘good fortune’. This is where Daddy’s bogan analysis comes in. One who is born in a bogan community should not be assessed by one born and groomed in a highly structured part of society. We have bogans in our Sri Lankan community also. Our family temple is in such an area. Once when Appappa tried to discipline a guy who was walking across the temple corridor with his thongs on, I said to Appappa that he lacked the authority because he was conscious of his higher caste. I said I was not and I was grooming them to merge with mainstream. Hence if I did not discipline the guy – Appappa who had less authority than I had no jurisdiction.

In your case the privileges came through hard work from your father’s side of the family. I forewent earned benefits for a long time – towards developing my family in a highly structured part of our community. I continue to do so even now at community level. Hence at least half of you did not ‘happen’ out of good fortune. It is your turn to pass on that structure to your juniors. That is how you complete your duty to the community you are a part of.’

Like Bogan in Australia, Terrorism in Sri Lanka is a stereotype. As highlighted yesterday, An Australian of Sri Lankan origin referred to LTTE as Maverick and as being effectively Equal to the President. That is the power of belief in one’s own sovereignty.

Many of us who are writing the last chapters of our life in this current form feel the urge to share our truth which leads to permanent freedom from desire and fear. If the current government does what it does to itself – it is immune to desire and its other side – fear. That is the basic tenet of Buddhism known to the Common Non-Buddhist Sri Lankan. So why fear legality? On 28 January 2005, Magistrate Pat O’Shane read out the following passages from my communication to the Court – through which I upheld my dignity as an individual and also as a Sri Lankan:

"I consider these bail conditions an obstruction in my path of justice as per anti‑discrimination laws and equal employment opportunity policies for which I have paid the government, the University of NSW and the police through my own work practices and through my taxes, and I believe they are being imposed to intimidate me, subdue me and break my spirit so I would crawl back to my Sri Lankan ghetto or go back to Sri Lanka."

 

"The police still have not gotten the section right despite my submission in Court that section 4(1)(a) relates to prescribed premises which UNSW is not.  The Maroubra police who tried their best to make me sign these bail conditions and who said that I will not ever get employed by the UNSW but said I should be looking for employment elsewhere.  I said it is more painful for me to be intellectually intimidated than to be physically punished, because I am an intellectually driven person and my dignity comes from upholding the truth." 

My Sri Lanka does not take handouts but welcomes transactions that confirm structure based relationships.

Sunday 29 August 2021

 

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

29 August   2021

 

 

Nanri / Thank you

In his sharing of appreciation of Tamil, Professor Jonathan Ripley stated that when he said Nanri in Tamil to someone in Madurai – for passing him a plate – that person had said not to say thank you – for in a true friendship there is no room for such expressions.  But most of our relationships are yet to merge at that destination. As per my discovery, we need gratitude to be expressed to confirm completion of service in any structured family, community or nation.

Today when I read the email from Rupa Siva which referred me to the indigenous song dedicated to the Hon Mangala Samaraweera, (mangala samaraweera niwansuwa viridu - YouTube) my heart melted.  I responded to our Australian High Commissioner as follows:

Like me, you may not understand the words . But the feeling is awesome.’

I was saying Thank you to Mr Samaraweera for his immense contribution to commonness. By showing that publicly I believe that fellow Sri Lankans would relate more strongly to their oppositions of various forms.

As if in response, Mr Trevor paid tribute to LTTE leader as follows, with copies to UN missions:

[I don't think that any one knows the former President MR  better than his college friends. He is a maverick like Prabhakaran and the two sides of the same coin.

They were a fine match in the battle but MR is a Escapalogist (Hudini) unlike Prabha who was by birth only Good 'Malli'  and a 'Family Messenger' and took up the  whole Tamil cause on ( with hard core numbers and theatre diminishing fast ), carrying heavy armour and military hardware (Tanks and Cavalry charge), and large number of 'Human Shields' to take across made his WILL to warp like what happened to Napoleon who escaped to Paris under night cover and the Brits let him go., not MR.

Thats the way of the 'End Game' it just happened in Kabul. Terrorism is not the solution its a 'DEAD END' and sudden death. War is a mind game and compromise and at the end all are Winners. Mountains will move if the Power of the Mind is strong. Hard Hearts must melt as D day is not far away due to Pandemic to be followed by a Geological Correction of Man vs Nature, by mid Century (circa 2050).

Love and regards to all,

Trevor]

Thank you Trevor. There is no more need for reconciliation.

Saturday 28 August 2021

 Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

http://austms.blogspot.com/

28 August   2021

 




National Status for Tamil in Sri Lanka

Tamil Equality in Sri Lanka, in the language of  Saint Yoga Swamy is ‘Eppavoh Mudintha Kaariyam’ / ‘Matter Completed long ago’. It was achieved through the intervention of India at the request of then President – J R Jayawardene. Yet not many of us appreciate its significance – probably due to wanting some kind of separate identity instead of the Higher Common status.  The Senior member of Australian Tamil community who forwarded the above message from the Royal College Alumni, sent also the following about which I had very little knowledge:

[Politicians are politicians. One must not forget when Sinhala Only Bill was presented in Parliament, Dr N M Perera and the 14 members of the LSSP opposed the bill, walked out of Parliament in protest , during the debate  commenced his speech by saying we are first all Ceylonese before we are Sinhalese or Tamil, Dr Colvin said two languages one Nation , one language Two Nations. ]

Last year KKS Perera wrote as follows in his Daily News article ‘Colvin the fighter’

[During the debate on Official Language (Sinhala only) Bill in Parliament in 1956, he stated, “… Do we want an independent Ceylon or two bleeding halves of Ceylon which can be gobbled up by every ravaging imperialist monster that may happen to range the Indian Ocean? These are issues that in fact we have been discussing under the form and appearance of the language issue… One language, two nations; Two languages, one Nation…”]

They are all our Common ancestors. When they were invoked their positive karma also went towards Tamil being elevated to National language status. Today, Rupa Siva forwarded the link https://youtu.be/nEMfEu4bzio  - which is a sharing by Tamil Language - Havard Tamil Chair – Professor Jonathan Ripley. Professor Ripley highlights that Tamil was the national language of State of Tamil Nadu, as well as in Sri Lanka and Singapore. I then felt deep within me that it was the culmination of all our fights to keep Sri Lanka common to all. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution confirms this effect of our struggles.

Sri Lankan leaders such as the Hon Mangala Samaraweera is an heir of this achievement of Commonness 

Friday 27 August 2021

 Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

26 August   2021

 

 

American Forces & IPKF

The more I learn about American troops pulling out of Afghanistan, the deeper I dwell on Indian Peace Keeping Force’s role in Sri Lanka. This has been highlighted by some sections of the Tamil Diaspora.

As per Economy Next report - ‘Sri Lanka recognizes Taliban authority in Kabul, accepts ‘amnesty’ – one is entitled to conclude that they are also of similar views as Tamil MP Sritharan who referred to the Taliban as ‘Freedom Fighters’. Given that Mr Premadasa of the UNP was the then leader who partnered the LTTE to eliminate the IPFK. The IPKF’s actions were no different to that of the Sri Lankan Army accused of war-crimes. The reasoning from Wikipedia is as follows:

[From October 1987, the IPKF commenced war on the LTTE in order to disarm them. During this conflict, the IPKF raped thousands of Tamil women. One IPKF official excused these rapes by stating the following: "I agree that rape is a heinous crime. But my dear, all wars have them. There are psychological reasons for them such as battle fatigue."]

This was because like the American forces in Afghanistan, IPKF was a foreign force in Jaffna. It was LTTE that failed to pass on that intelligence despite their training in India. When there is no common belief each side takes its benefit as it thinks fit.

But it was the same India that would come to the rescue of Sri Lankan Tamils if the conflicts are not managed internally. If Tamil militants had recognised Indian government as their senior in politics – the war would have been over in 1987. But those who desire separation so they can rule – would not easily give up that freedom to rule as they liked. The result is jungle – due to jungle  

Thursday 26 August 2021

 

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

26 August   2021

 

 

China’s Army’s De Facto Relationship

The Easter bombing happened during the previous regime headed by SLFP President and its permanent Opposition – UNP’s Prime Minister. The root reason is in that equation of relationship between cause and effect. To balance it – we need to forget the known pathway of law, and take the de facto pathway. When  Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa – declared about his relationship with the LTTE  leader – he confirmed that they were both jungle leaders for that project. When someone is law-abiding and they sacrifice that higher status due to irreconcilable differences in logic, one has the choice of separation or confrontation of the enemy as per the enemy’s standards. In the former – the sacrifice travels as Energy,  with the person/group that made the sacrifice. In the latter it generates the energy to fight on equal footing.

According to Economy Next – ‘Sri Lanka Army gets 300,000 vaccines from Chinese military’

The question is whether Chinese Military has jurisdiction to bypass the government that has the duty to make the vaccine available to all in need – on Equal footing. The above is on de facto  basis rendering advantage to Chinese to access Sri Lankan army above their Sri Lankan parallels.

The other example is the IGP’s declaration in relation to the Easter Bombing.  Adaderana reports:

[Previously, these incidents were probed as isolated incidents, the IGP pointed out, adding that the lack of coordination between the investigating units led to a missed opportunity to reveal the connection between the events. The investigating officers failed to realize that these were the doings of a terrorist organization that was a threat to the national security, he noted.

Speaking further, IGP Wickramaratne said, at the initial stage of the inspections, then-CID officers failed to conduct an in-depth investigation into the incident as they were aiming to identify the suspects soon to wrap it up within a short period of time.

“They tried to conclude the probes assuming that most of the attackers are dead, all who had direct links to the incident were arrested and that all their assets were confiscated.”

According to the IGP, the previous investigating bodies had also assumed that a self-motivated pro-ISIS group in the country had acted independently, without foreign involvement.

Thereby, the investigating bodies of the Criminal Investigation Department, Terrorism Investigation Division, Sri Lanka Police and police intelligence units have been restructured, as new appointments came into effect.]

The manifestation happened during SLFP-UNP coalition at the leadership level. The 2018 Constitutional Crisis confirmed that that leadership was a failure. Taken as a whole – the SLFP carried the Sinhala only separatism karma and the UNP carried its mutation - the separatism article of Buddhism foremost in the 1978 constitution also.

If therefore Muslims who were entitled to separation of powers as stipulated in article 10 of the constitution but were denied that – the consequences are primarily that of the Parliament. The police did not have jurisdiction beyond the common law area. They also need evidence based proof to successfully prosecute in a Sri Lankan court of law.

The restructure as reported above carries the risk of destroying subjective evidence, as relationships have changed. The manifestation known as the Easter Bombing happened through a pathway the causal energies of which cannot be easily unravelled by the current structure. To know the truth, one could take the de facto approach that the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa took and eliminate the opponents confidentially. The alternate pathway taken by the old structure has been described as follows, by the current IGP:

[“They tried to conclude the probes assuming that most of the attackers are dead, all who had direct links to the incident were arrested and that all their assets were confiscated.”]

Any more would have been beyond the scope of common law and hence the judiciary. The police needs to limit its probe to the level within the jurisdiction of the current judiciary . The rest is the responsibility of belief based politics which cures confidentially. That is the core reason for Executive powers of a Military President.  

Wednesday 25 August 2021

 

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

25 August   2021

 

 

The Hon Mangala Samaraweera

The Hon Mangala Samaraweera’s life is to be celebrated. His body is no longer with us but his contribution to our Common Sri Lanka has become nuclear power. I expressed my feelings as follows through Ms Sharmini Serasinghe twitter page:

Dear Hon Mangala Samaraweera ,

You served our country positively and thank you deeply for your contribution to Democracy.

 

To me everyone contributing to the commonness of Sri Lanka becomes positive Energy for Sri Lankans. I wrote as follows about this in my book:

[Messages of wisdom by Saint Yoga Swami of Jaffna include - ‘Eppavoh Mudintha Kaariyam’ / ‘Matter Completed long ago’. To my mind, this means that to be valuable, we ought to observe but not actively participate in an old experience that has been completed by two or more becoming one or one becoming two or more. In other words, when an experience is completed, the visible outcome  is the published ‘effect’ of our karma that cannot be unravelled to restore the old form/s. For example we cannot break down the finished product and obtain the raw materials. The value of raw materials can be calculated and the Energy that went into the making could be identified with. I believe that every manifestation at the physical level is the net value of the Energies that came through relevant media.

If we travel in the opposite direction to the manifestation we experience the cause. The law provides the boundaries within which we travel.

They say that as per Aristotle – ‘the value of the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts’. This is obvious in terms of visible goods made during current period. Not so obvious with heritages which include past investments that we do not have direct knowledge of. Whether they are positive or negative – such hidden values when surfaced would spread exponentially. That is the way of Energy. Taken at Energy level – the whole includes the loss of physical identity by the individual parts which become Energy through that apparent loss. Likewise in a family, community and nation. When separated the destructive power – like nuclear power is exponential. We experienced this in Sri Lanka due to attempts to divide the nation that was One nation. ]

Mr Samaraweera’s contribution became common and therefore exponential. Covid is not always negative. When the value of our life in the current form is net positive as per our conscience, and there is no more we can do to contribute to the lives of those who believe in us, to become net positive – we are ready to restructure. Given that Mr Samaraweera had taken both dozes of the Pfizer vaccine, the Sri Lankan government has to find out whether the Pfizer vaccine is effective against the Delta variant. That would also go towards Mangala’s added value to the positive karma shared with us Sri Lankans.

Monday 23 August 2021

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

23 August   2021

 

 

TNA – ASURAS OR DEVAS?

As per Ms Sulochana Ramiah Mohan’s  report ‘TNA hails Taliban as ‘freedom fighters’ :

[The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) hailed the Afghan Taliban, coming down from the mountains, to be ‘moderate politicians’, as a welcome sign. TNA MP S. Sritharan told Ceylon Today on Friday (20) that although he would not welcome the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan, it is vividly seen that they are giving fresh hope to the people of Afghanistan. “For the last 20 years, they were ousted and they had their tests and trials. Now they want a different image of them and are working towards it. ]

That indicates that Mr Sritharan considers them to be the parallels of the LTTE and other Tamil armed groups. Given that I have no knowledge of TNA as a political party or Mr Sritharan as an individual has a relationship with the Taliban – the above is taken as a declaration about the LTTE and other armed groups within the Tamil community.

As per my experience when we change the position hierarchy in any field and it has seriously affected the people in our home environment, it confirms that we have seriously damaged our ancestral Energies. Structures that have withstood the test of time confirm Energy. Actions based on those Energies are beyond the jurisdiction of current laws. Belief in those Energies is the basis of law making power endowed to Parliamentarians in a Democracy. To make just laws Mr Sritharan needs to invoke Ellalan energies. When Ellalan is invoked it would serve the whole Tamil community in Sri Lanka. The older the Energy, the wider the current coverage.

According to the report :

[In the 21st century, if they could recapture the country’s administration for a purpose, the challenge is to sustain the power they wanted. We will be continuing to watch how they perform to bring about stability and good governance,” he claimed. Sritharan also said he did not wish to debate whether the Taliban were right or wrong but claimed that Taliban were the latest example for ‘those who fight for the freedom of their community’. 

“They said that they will have an interim Government and work with the Afghans serving the country. For that, they cannot remain as militants with arms and will have to lay down their weapons. We will see a real change in Afghanistan in the future,” he said. He opined that anyone fighting for their rights and self-determination cannot be condemned.]

Did the LTTE lay down weapons? On what basis would we then conclude that the Taliban would?

It is true that anyone ‘fighting for their rights and self-determination cannot be condemned’. That is due to Energy of belief which is beyond rights and wrongs. If Taliban is fighting for Afghan self-determination – then no member of that society can be killed by Taliban – as if they were the kings of that country. They may discipline but not punish. Likewise the armed groups in Sri Lanka – including the official forces.

In Hinduism – we have legends of Asuras and Devas / gods. So long as Asuras rule their community and Devas rule theirs – there is harmony. Likewise Judiciary and the Executive. When the two groups are mixed indiscriminately, both structures are damaged. If Taliban came to power that damage would become exponential due to their attachment to weapons of destruction. In Asura group – they would fight against each other and settle scores as happened between LTTE and the government. But Devas being gods – have to raise the matter beyond the physical and merge the Energies – as those of us who sought UN intervention did. Now if we assess like Asuras – we have the duty to withdraw from the UN process – as President Rajapaksa did. Can’t have it both ways.