Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

23 October 2021

 

 

Birthday Present to Mr Wigneswaran

 

Happy Birthday to Mr CV Wigneswaran.

I remember because it is also our lawyer daughter’s birthday. More importantly at community level – it is the birthday of Mr Jeevarasa – son of Pushparasa of Thunaivi – a toddy tapper village. When I learnt that Mr Wigneswaran’s birthday was also on 23 October, and I wished him – he responded immediately. But with time the responses did not come. In the case of Jeevan who was born in the same year as my daughter – he rang me today to get my blessings. After my class with Royal College student from Hambantota – at 5 to 5.30 am Sri Lankan time,  I opened my emails.

So, what was the reason as per my belief that Tamil Diaspora leader Mr Rajendra Vinasithamby referred me on this special day the discussion at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egNIMyu8YUA. That discussion was by IBC London with Tamil Eelam politician Mr Sivajilingam. At first I could not work out the connection between that discussion and my article dated 25 September, headed ‘Martyr or Fighter – Nallur Enlightens’. But later the penny dropped when I read the heading under which it had been presented - முதலமைச்சர் வேட்பாளர் ஆகிறாரா

சிவாஜிலிங்கம்? சுகாஷ், காண்டீபனுக்கும் வாய்ப்பு | பேசும் களம் / Is Sivajilingam getting ready to be the Chief Ministerial candidate? ; There are opportunities for Sugash and Kandeepan also.

 

To the above, Mr Sivajilingam added Mr Manivannan’s name also. I concluded that  my opposition to all of them as possible candidates for the position of Chief Minister was the reason why my attention was drawn to the above discussion.

 

In his discussions, Mr Sivajilingam highlighted lack of cooperation from the Central government in relation to fulfilling the needs  for Nursing staff and English language proficiency. Mr Sivajilingam may not know of my services in this regard but Mr Wigneswaran and many other local Tamil politicians, as well as the Tamil Diaspora have been included in my email communications. When they did not respond to them or at least acknowledge them, I concluded that they were not in need as if that need, was their need and in the case of acknowledgements they lacked the basic structure in Administration even in this day and age of electronic facilities.

 

In the case of Nursing staff I represented a group from North who were desperate for confirmations as promised before the 2013 Provincial Council elections held after a gap of over 25 years. More than 200 women benefited from this. As for myself, I learnt that we can work the system by following all due processes – without taking shortcuts and / or through favouritism. A big part of that force was the hardship I experienced at the Ministry of Health to get approval to go to the camps in 2009, at the height of the war.

 

As per the Administrative processes known to me as Sri Lankan, I had the right to go to the camps as Professor Henry Sathananthan – at whose request I went to the Ministry. But I did not get the level of treatment that Henry got. So I took my turn practically from zero base. It was painful – but later I realised that the credits that I sacrificed, to take my turn as a person without portfolio became the ownership power of One. Ownership power is exponential in value.

 

It is this ownership value that was lacking in Mr Wigneswaran when he was Chief Minister (CM) . To claim political credit Mr Wigneswaran referred to LTTE leader as Thambi (younger brother). This disconnected him from his own investment in the path of law. The LTTE was open about their separation from that pathway. To the extent they believed in it – they were right. But this does not extend to Mr Wigneswaran who unlike me carried the ‘Justice’ status. That is the parallel of Buddhism Foremost article in our Constitution. Both are relative and not exponential powers. One who believes in the Judiciary cannot believe in Politics and v.v.

 

The good current example of the outcome of this indiscriminate mixing is the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC )inquiry based resignations by three premiers of the State of NSW  - which is the parallel of Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The Premiers were elected by their party and the group was elected by the People. Both are taken to be on the basis of Belief and not merit. That belief is developed through the subjective pathway – based on proximity within the electorate.  Hence if the voters as per their conscience think they are right the MP is also right for that electorate. But in judicial system  this happens as a last resort through the discretionary powers of the Judge as provided for in the law.  This is because the Judge needs to be impartial and needs to be seen to be so. Towards this – the law is elevated to a level above that of the level practiced by Common Citizen in a free environment. This is based not on the  belief of the Common Citizen but of the belief Common Judiciary over generations. That is how the balance between the wheels of justice is maintained.

 

ICAC is a mix of the two and seriously damages the system of Democracy where the leader is taken to be infallible – just as the queen is taken to be. The Judiciary has to do its own inquiries and find the evidence. If the LTTE had been limited by law – it would have not had the strength to fight for 30 years against a lawful Sri Lankan Army. Eventually, as Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa declared – his side also were ‘freed’ of the law’s restrictions including by the enlisting  Eastern LTTE  leader on their side to pick his intelligence.

 

Out of the above named persons – Sivajilingam is an heir of LTTE. The rest as per my knowledge are lawyers by profession. Unless they cheated the law to ‘win’ – as Mr  Rajapaksa claimed he did – they would be heirs of Mr Wigneswaran and other Tamil lawyers who could not win Equal rights due to this indiscriminate mixing of the two professions. Out of these, Mr SJV Chelvanayakam forewent Judicial position and became ‘Father of the Tamil Nation’ presented as follows by Wikipedia:

 

 

[A successful career in civil law saw him becoming a King's Counsel and being offered a position on the Supreme Court, which he rejected. As a young lawyer Chelvanayakam was not involved in politics but when the British established the Soulbury Commission to look into constitutional reform in Ceylon he and other Tamil people formed the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) to represent Tamil interests. He was elected to Parliament in 1947 to represent Kankesanthurai, a constituency he would represent until his death]

Mr G G Ponnambalam on the other hand is presented as follows:

[

The Board of Ministers established after the 1936 state council election consisted entirely of Sinhalese members, excluding minorities who together made up 35% of Ceylon's population. This was one of the drivers which led Ponnambalam to make his infamous 50:50 demand in a marathon speech to the State Council on 15 March 1939. He repeated the demand when he gave evidence to the Soulbury Commission in February 1945. Ponnambalam wanted 50% of seats in Parliament for the Sinhalese, 50% for all other ethnic groups]  and about his regional power:

[In January 1976 the Union Government of India dismissed the state government of Tamil Nadu, accusing Chief Minister Karunanidhi of corruption, and imposed President's rule. Ponnambalam represented Karunanidhi at Supreme Court justice Ranjit Singh Sarkaria's commission of inquiry. Karunanidhi was cleared of the corruption charges]

As per my interpretation, this is the Business Unit approach that is promoted in Democratic Public Administration. Unlike Mr SJV Chelvanayakam who relied on belief, Mr GG Ponnambalam used his cleverness to win – both in politics as well as in Courts. If we have similar pair or both in the same person as a leader – we are already leading Sri Lanka. Neither faced the LTTE challenge.

The option available to me and others like me is to strengthen the Administrative system that we Tamils were good at and which led to the Sinhala only policy by Mr SWRD Bandaranaike, followed by the Standardization policy by his wife. We can do this by believing in our ancestors during British rule through which we automatically connect to the Western Administrators including within the Tamil Diaspora but not limited to them. The rest would happen through the system of truth/belief. As per the system of Democracy – this belief needs to be at the level of the citizen with the smallest portfolio. As per our true need – the opportunity to invest at family level has been facilitated through emigration to these nations. But if the Diaspora even thinks of profiting – we need clever folks like Mr GG Ponnambalam to release us from the claws of the smart Justice system.