If you seek to connect to Mr. Obama as a person – first you need to step out of your official positions and wait until he steps out of his or do so now only mentally. On the basis of investment in Global systems of administration, I believe that I have priority right to those powers which would come to me naturally as through other genuine investors. It’s like in Love. When we truly love – we love our own ‘other side’ which may or may not fit the person occupying that side of the position. True love is always returned in various forms or in the one form at various times.
by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam
Dr. Victor Rajakulendran
Former resident of Jaffna
Presently of
Sydney
AUSTRALIA
15 April 2011
Dear Victor,
We are All Presidents
(April 15, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I respond to your open letter dated 12 April 2011, to His Excellency Barrack Obama - President of the United States of America. I read it this morning in Sri Lanka Guardian where it was published under the heading “A Responsibility to Act”.
I bring to your attention that my article ‘The President Within’ was also published yesterday in Sri Lanka Guardian as well as Tamil Daily News. I sent you a copy of the published article via email. I have been sending you similar emails for sometime now at the rate of about one a day. I have more than 10 groups who receive my emails regularly and yours is in the list with other Tamil Community leaders such as Donald Gnanakone, Raveendran Selvadurai, Sambavi Parimalanathan and Suren Surendiran.
Our two responses in relation to the President of America, are strong indicators of how we tend to think as part of the Tamil Community on the one hand, and as part of the Global Community on the other.
Just before reading your letter, I read the article by Brian Aloysius published under the heading ‘Coming out of the unknown past/mystery’. I note that you sign off as ‘Former resident of Jaffna Presently of Sydney’. I made the connection between that and the following statement by Brian “The Sri Lankan Tamils say that they are the decedents of the pre/proto-historic Nagas and Damilas who lived in the island even before the Sinhalese (Vijaya) arrived and the Muslims say that they are also in the island for more than thousand years and are the decedents of Arab traders (not South Indians Moors from Tamil Nadu/Kerala).”
Victor, to my mind, legally speaking, you do not have official status as ‘former resident of Jaffna’. Hence what we needed was some sharing of your personal experience in Jaffna, Northern Sri Lanka to strengthen the power of our official status – which is smaller than the status of Sri Lanka at the moment. We may, as a community carry stronger powers due to our work, sacrifices and losses due to Government’s negligence of our deservedness to be global citizens. But officially when you state that Jaffna is more important to you than Sri Lanka – you are disassociating yourself from millions of Jaffna Tamils to whom Sri Lanka is the only home country. Sri Lanka is my Mother country too. Within Sri Lanka, I am Jaffna Tamil, my husband is Vattukkottai Tamil and our children are Colombo Tamils. Through my current work, I am Batticaloa Tamil as well. Through my grandmother and uncles who lived and died in Tamil Nadu – I am Indian Tamil also. A governor would use the highest common factor to summarize. A voter would use the lowest common denominator to ‘see’.
My mother is my mother and as a mother myself I would love the occupier of the position of my mother through myself. To me this feeling is strong protection against me causing the very harm that many are claiming is being caused by Americans in poorer countries. To me President Rajapakse is not yet Sri Lanka. I am already Sri Lanka. I am Jaffna and I am Australia. When the CEOs of these entities fail to fully represent us – I fill the gap through my own work at that level. Natural Forces support my work in filling the gap. The less interested I am in the filling the position, the more of my work gets allocated to the real forces that give life to the position.
Unless therefore you loved the Hon Ranil Wickremesinghe who is the current occupier of the position of official opposition of the President of Sri Lanka, your disassociation / divorce is not from the person but that structure itself. That is then not America’s problem but one that needs the attention of the UN.
To me, when we share the essence of our experience with the heads of powerful States, they would feel more powerful in their own positions. For example when we share the essence of our experience with the Office of the President of USA, they would be able to add our pain and loss to theirs and raise the whole to the global level. Our pain and loss on its own does not have enough credit to raise itself to the highest official position of the democratic world. That is the way the hierarchical system works.
We need to follow this system until we become independent Equals of the USA - in which case, one of ours would be Equal to the President of USA so long as s/he occupies the position as per our Laws and rules. If we are not ready to add the essence of our work but seek to ‘show’ what happened – we need the fundamental qualification – which is to be independent. Then, our rights and assistance would be through our investments in the UN and not the Government of USA. It’s like in a family. If we do for each other as individuals – that does not get carried to the common pool. Only contributions through positions go directly to the Common Family Pool. Truth of course is a Universal Power and what we genuinely do through as individuals will eventually find its way to the common Universal pool and support us when we are Independent. Likewise, your contribution to Mr. Obama/Mr. America.
You write in your closing paragraph ‘Dear Mr. President, I would like to conclude by quoting what you have said in your speech on Libya; “To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader and -– more profoundly -– our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.” Yes Mr. President, you waited when satelite images of slaughter and mass graves of Tamils were pouring into CIA and pentagon, without taking action and the lesson learnt through that mistake only hopefully made you to take preventative action in Libya now. But Tamils in the diaspora like me still expect you to compensate for your inaction in Sri Lanka by bringing justice and freedom to our suffering brotherens still languishing in open prisons, guarded by an army of occupation in Sri Lanka.”
Victor, this statement of yours portrays your group as being narrow minded and selfish – which my community is not to me. As I said to one of my Resource Management students recently - if we seek to ‘show’ the outcomes of our work as if no one else deserves better, we must remain within our ‘local’ borders for it to be heard by Natural Forces within. If we on the other hand seek to participate at the highest level of contribution, we need to add the essence of our work to the leader - which in this instance is seen as Mr. Rudrakumaran for you.
If we seek to be independent global players, we need to first earn the right to take responsibility in one of many ways ; for example (1) Through official positions (in your case as Australian) (2) Through substantive contribution to the issues at UN standards (3) Through empowerment of resident Sri Lankan Tamils.
On what official basis does the President of USA owe you action in Sri Lanka? You have held high ranking official positions within various formal entities of the Australian Tamil Community. You have spoken many times on National TV on behalf of the Tamil community. When I was incarcerated in 2003, did you use those positions to come to my aid? Did you feel enough for me as a Tamil to be with me – just as a fellow Tamil suffering due to belief that her loss and pain was due to Racial Discrimination – the very accusation you make against the Sri Lankan President? You wrote to discourage me from protesting against the Australian authorities. Now your karma is coming back.
As you ought to know, since the 2002 Ceasefire I regularly go to Sri Lanka – to be with the victims of war and Tsunami. Have you added the essence of my work to yours and shared it with the rest of the Community? On Saturday, 16 April too – I am leading a community gathering to help development of Educational facilities in Vattukkottai District – so we do not lose the connection with our roots. This project is driven strongly by our commitment to eliminate caste discrimination which is our local parallel to race discrimination. To me, until we address the caste problem, we would not have the Natural Strength of Truth to eliminate and destroy racial discrimination at national and global levels.
If you know the reason why you did not use your Community position to show the Australian (NSW) Government that I was not alone – you would know why the President of USA did not use his official position to be with victims of war in Sri Lanka. You would then also know that the way you spoke on behalf of the refugees (Appendix 1) from Sri Lanka – the President of USA spoke in support of Libyan citizens to whose oil money Americans are more closely connected than to Tamil Education monies. It was his duty to do that - as you saw it as your duty to support the refugees who are the source of your position power. These are all statements of common principles – like the scientific theories that you never practice but for knowing which you get paid. Until Mr. Obama becomes the real president even without portfolio – he needs to keep chanting these mantras through which voters relate to the issue.
Beyond that, if you seek to connect to Mr. Obama as a person – first you need to step out of your official positions and wait until he steps out of his or do so now only mentally. On the basis of investment in Global systems of administration, I believe that I have priority right to those powers which would come to me naturally as through other genuine investors. It’s like in Love. When we truly love – we love our own ‘other side’ which may or may not fit the person occupying that side of the position. True love is always returned in various forms or in the one form at various times.
As per my discovery, when I invest in the position of CEO in my natural and/or earned environment – I feel confident to step into the shoes of all other CEOs including the President of USA. That is why I say that we are all Presidents. To the extent you helped the needy from your heart, through one of your Presidential positions, you will be helped by other Presidents which may or may not be President Obama. It may be Mr. Wilson Tuckey – the President of White Australian community in his local electorate or Mr. Rudrakumaran, the president of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam. As we sow, so shall we reap. You seem to be looking away from the tree from which the apple fell.
Yours sincerely
Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam
Appendix 1
Dr Victor Rajakulendran
C/- Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation
Sydney.
27 October 2009
Dear Victor,
Tuckey's terrorist claims 'vindicated' by Dr. Victor Rajakulendran
I refer to the above news-report by the ABC. My heart sank when I heard you agreeing that there could be terrorists on board the asylum seeker boats of Tamils from Sri Lanka. You obviously are a weak link being exploited by the heartless mainstream Australian politicians such as Mr. Wilson Tuckey who obviously is living in White-Australia of yesterday. To my mind, you became weak because you handed over your birth-right to White Australians with high political status. If they praised you, you got elated. As Gandhi said about Indian politicians, you wanted to get into their shoes to ‘tell’ those over whom you thought you have higher powers/status. You did this with me when you got to know that I was arrested for fighting for racial equality here in Australia. Had you instead, appreciated what I had done, you would have not been trapped by Mr. Tuckey and his supporters in the media. You may say that they twisted your words. But in essence, you also did not believe that the Tigers were fighting for racial independence. If you did, you would have appreciated that I was doing likewise in our common current environment here in Australia. Truth is universal and one who fights for racial equality in homeland – will fight for and/or appreciate it everywhere, anytime. It is not something that is worn temporarily.
Yesterday, fellow member Donald Gnanakone of the Diaspora whose brother was wrongly arrested by the Sri Lankan authorities when Mr. Kathirgamar was killed stated that when Dr. Brian Seneviratne – an open Tiger supporter from the Sinhalese side – advised me to leave Dr. Noel Nadesan alone – it was ‘private’ message which I brought to the public forum. To me it was public because I do not connect to Brian intuitively on the issue of Government v LTTE. I connect more to the Government due to my deeper investment in Public Administration to which millions of Tamils contribute every day. The LTTE did not make enough investment in Public Administration even in Tamil areas of Sri Lanka. Theirs was more for winning through arms – the reason why the American government and its allies are still facing bomb threats in Iraq.
Victor, to me one is family/family-issue when we have lived together, work together or sacrificed to be together. If you had sacrificed more than the benefits you claimed because of the LTTE, you would have felt hurt that they were being called terrorists. That pain would have protected you from such traps that Mr. Tuckey’s side placed for you. In fact, Mr. Tuckey was taking the side of the Government of Sri Lanka in calling the Tigers terrorists. You endorsed it because you lacked faith in racial independence.
It is therefore time for you to step down from all leadership positions representing the Tamil community and instead add your energy to those who have faith in racial independence – whatever form it may take.
You are a good lesson from which all Tamils who used the work and sacrifice of genuine Tamil leaders who EARNED their positions but without paying their due respects – are claiming to represent Tamils. As you would know, it is part of our culture to touch the feet of elders seeking their blessings – as mine were touched when I was in Canada. This symbolizes the surrender of ego by the younger investor and hence the wisdom of the elders would communicate itself to the young ones in free flow of faith. If you have therefore touched at least in your mind, the feet of white Australians who worked and sacrificed genuinely to earn Australia’s higher position in global community – you would have been protected from this trap by one who is Australian by default. In contrast, when I was arrested by University of NSW using NSW Police for Trespass – I prayed to our Australian ancestors who gave us the Inclosed Lands Protection Act 1901, using whose name I was arrested. My prayers brought me the wisdom that if I were found guilty of Trespass that automatically means I have been discriminated on the basis of my national/ethnic origins. That is how Truth was delivered and recorded in today’s Australia. Yet, you were blind to all this. To me that meant that you were claiming separation so you could rule and not racial independence so we could live together.
Likewise Mr. Wilson Tuckey who is seeking separate White Australian state and fears opposition from Tigers. If they are terrorists – so is Mr. Tuckey and the Vice Chancellor of the University of NSW. Through opposition to the Tigers Mr. Tuckey is also opposing you and all Tiger supporters.
Yours sincerely,
Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam
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