Devolution or Separation?

In any relationship, it is important for us to ‘complete’ our experience as per our position. This position could be through birth and therefore beyond our apparent and conscious control or it could be acquired through our current life – such as in jobs. Minority and majority status in country of birth is through birth and is therefore beyond our apparent and conscious control.

by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam

(July 21, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) In response to the question whether "ultimately you are responsible for this whole fiasco?", News Corporation’s Chief, Mr. Rupert Murdoch is reported to have said to the UK Parliamentary Committee in relation to the phone hacking scandal – ‘No. The people that I trusted to run it and then maybe the people they trusted.’

To my mind, they would be only if power had been devolved to them to operate as an independent unit. Otherwise the Chief is still responsible. Had powers relating to armed forces been devolved to the various Provinces of Sri Lanka, the actions of the LTTE would have been the responsibility of the Tamil leaders. But given that they were retained by the President, the actions of the LTTE were the responsibility of the President as the Chief of the Armed Forces. In turn if LTTE had sought separation to confirm devolution that has already happened then the Government of Sri Lanka had the responsibility to become a facility towards this – just like parents do when children begin their own independent life.

A parent who places her/himself in the child, would devolve power when the parent becomes conscious of the child needing to take up leadership role to bring out the parent in her/himself. In a family, this usually happens when the child gets married and is ready to become a parent. These days, in majority cultures children start their independent life away from the parental home. Where this separation is to help them not depend on their parents, it is healthy and qualifies as devolution. To qualify as devolution we need to have completed our previous chapter as a child and take the essence of the experience and leave behind the form in which we had that experience. It is like rebirth.

In any relationship, it is important for us to ‘complete’ our experience as per our position. This position could be through birth and therefore beyond our apparent and conscious control or it could be acquired through our current life – such as in jobs. Minority and majority status in country of birth is through birth and is therefore beyond our apparent and conscious control. Minorities are the parallels of children in a family. In strong families, parents (majority force) would devolve power when children are ready to start their own branches of the family. From then on – parents need to see their children as their equals. A child who is ready for true devolution would also treat the parent as an Equal even if the parent were poorer in status and money after the devolution.

Likewise, in Governance of a Nation. Like with News Corporation, the chiefs of many large organizations are reluctant to devolve powers to the younger generation/minorities. In terms of a country like Sri Lanka – majority race with a large margin is the parallel of these large Organizations where the Chief continues to control power. Like with News Corp Chief blaming the apparent person directly connected to the breaches of the law, the Sri Lankan Presidents also blamed the LTTE. In both cases they establish that they separated themselves to continue to play the role of parent instead of getting ready to be grandparents or equal members of wider community/society. As grandparents we are facilities from which our children need to draw as per their contribution to the common pool. Parents who have not completed their roles as parents find it difficult to become facilities. Likewise, Presidents who are attached to their citizens and their votes, fail to mature into Governors. If we grow too tall for the next in line, it means we are hoarding status.

Children, like employees also often do not complete their relationship with their parents. Hence their physical separation becomes real separation to the extent of that shortfall. Employees who complete their job in one organization would take the essence of that experience with them into their next job. Those who do not complete the experience – would tend to separate themselves and are likely to get scattered – as happens to migrants who did not complete their citizenship in their countries of origin. Completion leads to independence. A migrant who has completed the experience of citizen at the level of the Government available to her/him would be an independent migrant in any other country. One who has not – would continue to depend and replace old with new.

In the case of Sri Lanka, as per my observations, both sides to the ethnic war have failed to complete their respective roles and hence we keep hearing history about how good each side was in past governance. One who was a good governor in the past would be a good governor anywhere anytime. If Tamils believe that they have earned self governance and therefore devolution – they must demonstrate that in their current environments. Weak Governance by majority on its own does not entitle minority to form governance. If weak minority also formed government it would separate and weaken both sides. Majority members of Minority group need to believe that they as a community are equal in power to majority. The way to test it at the individual level is to meet and know the parallel in the Majority community.

The Sri Lankan Government has the duty to facilitate this at various levels. That would lead to natural devolution with or without separation.