TRANSFORMATION – SRI LANKA

Asia News report headed ‘United Nations accuses Sri Lanka of war crimes’ was shared with me also. The report begins published on 14 March 2022, introduces the subject matter as follows:

by Arundathie Abeysinghe

“United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet calls for sanctions against Sri Lanka for its failure to identify those responsible of killing 40,000 civilians during the 1983-2009 civil war.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – For United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, sanctions and international prosecutions for war criminals are needed in Sri Lanka as Sri Lankan authorities have repeatedly failed to ensure accountability for wartime atrocities committed during the country’s 25-year civil war, which ended in 2009.

According to Bachelet, the island nation has drifted towards “militarisation” after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former lieutenant colonel, took office as president in 2019.

She expressed her displeasure with regard to militarisation of civilian government functions, including in law enforcement, as military officers facing allegations are placed in high positions in government administration.

The high commissioner also noted that many military checkpoints remain in place in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, which is predominantly inhabited by Tamils, pointing out that there are “complaints of discriminatory treatment or harassment… particularly of women.”

For this reason, she has urged the UN Human Rights Council to invoke universal jurisdiction in order to prosecute Sri Lankan officials facing credible allegations of war crimes.”

Around the same time, an LTTE supporter from the Australian Tamil Diaspora declared as follows about his leader:

[As Prabakaran said on many occasions after his demise the struggle will continue in a different form not by carrying arms.]

This, if true, to my mind, is prediction of ‘transformation’. So how do the armed groups like the LTTE confirm transformation?

The best example of transformation, in relation to Diaspora communities such as Sri Lankan Tamils is the way we show our integrated cultures. The fundamentals of way we relate to the other would change.  That change has been confirmed by the escalation of the conflict to UN level. At that level any ‘wins’ or ‘losses’ through armed forces would need to change into Assets & Liabilities and not be made active as current benefits or losses. The above mentioned indicators by  the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights confirm that the Sri Lankan government has not ‘transformed’ itself but continues to use war victory as a current benefit. Likewise, the section of Tamil Diaspora which uses that as if it were current costs, instead of Liabilities that need new Assets to balance them. When we transform, the net value of  costs and benefits / wrongs and rights becomes Balance  item. Those who continue to use the old costs or benefits in their mutated forms confirm lack of heritage structure. They confirm readiness to extend the armed war through other seniors. In this instance Tamils would join the West led by America and Sinhalese would join China and Russia.

Each one of us can transform ourselves by writing our own Balance Sheet. To the extent we did that we accepted ‘defeat’ as prior period/birth transaction. This has resulted in the financial crisis that is affecting the Sinhalese voters more than Tamils who have learnt to live with less than they had prior to the war. This is the Asset known as Resilience. We have brought that forward in our Community horoscope. It was no coincidence that in 1976, through Vaddukoddai Resolution, we caused the effect of  Equal status in National Parliament in 1977.

This time we Sri Lankans suffered the military defeat in silence and have effectively demoted the government at financial level. The Believer identifies with the effect that s/he caused through non-cooperation. To non-believers, it is coincidence.

As highlighted recently by a Tamils Diaspora intellectual - Sir Albert Einstein said – ‘Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.’

Belief & Coincidence, like Nirvana, may look the same. One is zero and the other is Absolute.