27 June 2023

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

 

 

THE AUSTRALIAN VOICE & JAFFNA ELECTIONS

 

Australian parliamentarians are currently playing the Ethnic game through the ‘Voice’ proposal. In essence, it is about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders having a special ‘Voice’ in National Parliament. The proposal is presented as follows:

‘ In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:

(i)  there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;

 (ii)  the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;

(iii)  the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.’

The University of NSW newsroom presents includes following in its presentation of the Voice:

 

‘This is consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which says Indigenous peoples have a right to participate in government decision-making in matters that affect their rights, through their own political institutions’

 The UN Declaration’s article 3 states:

‘Article 3

Indigenous peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.’

 

The Sri Lankan parallel is presented as follows:

 

‘The private member’s Bill that has been presented by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran to amend the Provincial Council Elections Act is in a way an attempt to test President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s integrity. It would be interesting to note how the President would respond to it.’ Sumanthiran’s Bill on PC election: A waste of time? – by MSM Ayub.

Given  that Mr Sumanthiran represents Jaffna Tamil voters, one is entitled to conclude that this Bill is a proposal from Jaffna voters.  As per the article by MSM ‘The Bill seeks to annul the highly controversial amendment that was introduced to the Provincial Councils Elections Act in 2017 in order to introduce mixed election system for the provincial councils and revert to the Proportional Representation (PR).’

‘In September, 2017 the United National Party (UNP)-led government was to adopt a Bill called 20th Amendment to the Constitution which provided for the elections for all nine provincial councils to be held on a same day’

To my mind, this contributed strongly to the October 2018 Constitutional crisis, with two Prime Ministers holding office at the same time.

The article also indicates the karmic connection as follows:

‘A delimitation commission for provincial councils was then appointed under the chairmanship of K. Thavalingam, the former Surveyor General which handed over its report to Minister Faiszer Musthpha in August, 2018. However, since Parliament failed to ratify it with a two thirds majority vote, a review committee headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as per the law.’

As per my study, majority Tamils known to me fail to understand the effects of the PR system. If we accept that the purpose of the 2017 amendment to the ‘Provincial Councils Elections Act 1988’ was to introduce mixed election system for the provincial councils and revert to the Proportional Representation (PR), then it would be easier to work out why the Constitutional crisis happened 2 months after the review responsibility was handed over to then PM , Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe.

As per my discovery, positions also accumulate positive and negative karma. Karma itself is like the assets and liabilities reflected through a Balance Sheet. The oldest values, like Elders/Indigenous (1)  folks are in our deepest mind.  This is most difficult to change. Out of the cumulative karma, the immediate past karma drives our current life/operations(2). Then there is our current contribution to the Assets & Liabilities.(3)

The 2017 karma is in category 2. If left isolated, it is likely to polarisation that would lead to rebellions against Colombo’s common government. Hence Sumanthiran’s bill is an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to TNA’s partnership in negating the 2018 crisis becoming a more difficult karma to redeem.

As for Australians, the ‘Voice’ cannot be ‘given’. In reality, it is an undemocratic order for non-indigenous Parliamentarians to ‘listen’ more seriously and favourably to indigenous as elders. Does not apply to those of us who already respect indigenous folks as Elders and/or have become so in our own respective communities.