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28 October 2023

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

https://austms.blogspot.com/2018/11/gajalakshmi-paramasivam-04november-2018.html

 

HONOURING TAMIL ELDER

RAJAVAROTHAYAM SAMPANTHAN

 

I was directed to the interview by Udaruppu’s  Tamil interview of the honourable  C. V. K. Sivagnanam, chairman, Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka.

 

 

The thrust was driven by discussion on Face the Nation (Sri Lanka), on 18 October 2023, in which Mr Sumanthiran , a Jaffna MP revealed that a group of Tamil politicians had met Mr Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, about a year ago, asking him to step down.

 

‘Out of the 288 days that the current parliament has sat so far, R Sampanthan was present only for 39 days, that is 13.6%. The total payments made to him for this window is Rs 4 million, for fuel, telephone etc, out of Taxpayers money. Corruption of another kind isn’t it?’

In a nation, which has suffered from ethnic war driven by youth of many ethnic communities such a question confirms the lack of ownership of the problem and therefore the lack of ability to prevent wars. In the above forum, the identity of the participants was transparent. Not so, the member of the public who asked the question.

 

Mr Sumanthiran reacted to the question, due also to his lack of wisdom in Democracy. Successful Democracy is driven by belief in elders. In autocracy, respect for elders is required to be overt. In democracy, this needs to be covert.

Mr Sumanthiran failed this test and thereby confirmed as to why he not able to manifest the power of Equal Opposition, as Mr Sampanthan did. Mr Sampanthan entered parliament in 1977, that established that the Vaddukoddai Resolution 1976 had the blessings of  the god of democracy. In that election, Tamils who were about 12% of the population , became Equal Opposition in National Parliament. This status confirmed that in Truth, those Sinhalese Politicians lost the opportunity to be even Opposition in National Parliament. The reason to my mind, is the demotion of Buddhism from Absolute power to relative power in the constitution made by them for political advantage.  Belief is Absolute power. Wins are relative powers.

 

The Vaddukoddai Resolution 1976 confirmed the Separation of powers between Tamils & Sinhalese. This was natural Power-sharing.  In democracy, the investment in Autocracy  becomes silent power. When a democratically elected person ceases to be democratic, s/he invokes the autocratic power in the Opposition. Hence Vaddukoddai Resolution 1976 was invoked by the group that inserted the finished product of ‘Buddhism foremost’ Autocratic article.

 

The challenges faced by Mr Sampanthan, include the following as presented by Wikipedia:

 

‘Sampanthan and all other TULF MPs boycotted Parliament from the middle of 1983 for a number of reasons: they were under pressure from Sri Lankan Tamil militants not to stay in Parliament beyond their normal six-year term; the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka required them to swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state; and the Black July riots in which up to 3,000 Tamils were killed by Sinhalese mobs. After three months of absence, Sampanthan forfeited his seat in Parliament on 7 September 1983. Sampanthan served as joint treasurer, vice president and general secretary of TULF.’

 

Tamils who genuinely mourn Black July pain will naturally  consider  Mr Sampanthan to be a Common Sri Lankan Elder. Like Heritages, Elders come with their own balances. Any remuneration to them is submitted as Thanks giving -  so juniors will become heirs. The benefits are not for work done, but for the sacrifices made to maintain Commonness through law.

 

The picture above confirms the challenge faced by Elder the Hon Sampanthan, who supported UNP. If Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe fails to value this Tamil Elder, he would be a sinner without redemption.