Fighting for freedom

| by Subramaniam Masilamany

(December 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) People are the same everywhere in the world, except the content of their mind and character. It is in understanding the content of their mind that we can understand their behaviour and hence their character. Let us reach out and understand before we are understood- Steven Covey, author of “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”.

Here id my take on freedom; “Total and absolute freedom allows the right man to get elected, a man who can do the right things and take the nation in the right path”.

“I imagine and view the world as one solid spherical electric power centre on which are plugged in seven billion light bulbs of different colors, content, capabilities, configuration, illumination and scintillation, every human being is a shinning bulb on the surface of mother earth”.

I consider and treat each individual live being as an intelligence power centre. We altogether are definitely better than any one of us alone, The era of one man leadership has undergone evolution and metamorphosis and we are at the gate way to team leadership, the world has become and grown to be too complex for one man or two men or a team of few men to manage and lead. It is simply too complex. The best leadership is no leadership at all, every one become their own leader. I was born in a less educated family where my father could not write or read my mother tongue, my mother was little better she could write a few words in Tamil, but within 50 years I have become a man who can speak, write and read 3 languages. That is incredible; now I lead myself getting clues and cues from other and from my experience. I have created a wonderful family and I help my associates to excel in their families too. The mission in my life is to help people discover their own life’s potential. People build homes, factories, roads and bridges but I build people one person at a time. How do I do it? I teach them to be free and tell them to take life as a gift of an irrevocable period of time. Time is the most important aspect of our life and once it is gone it is gone forever. As Late Steven Jobs, the chairman of Apple Computer Corporation said one day we all will be dead, that death is the biggest motivator to be creative and to leave the wonderful world we inherited from our fore parents in a better form and shape for our generation to come. We individually and as composite group can change the world and we are indeed succeeding in it. We don’t need to be a Mother Theresa or a Martin Luther king.

If every one of us was told at the beginning of our life that we a biological clock with our life span ticking away, in the descending order, second by second, what would have been our life so far? We would not have made any enemies, we would have never wasted our time and we would have made the world a better place. How wonderful a clock like this would have been to Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, a tyrant, who not only wasted his life and but took away the life of tens of thousands if people and he still refuses to learn but continuing his follies. I sometimes wonder who created him, what was the purpose of his presence in this life in this planet. Did you folks get it? Why is God so bad in putting bad apples among good apples?

We are fighting injustice, ignorance, inability, inferiority, insensitivity, incapability and selfishness of the people who take over the power of the people. It is the nature of the beast we are fighting, its inherent nature to be a parasite, a predator on its own kind. Every battle has to be fought and every battle has to be won and every son of bitch has to be tamed. There is nothing called giving up or surrendering because the world is full of timid and cunning human animals among us that live by the rule of the jungle. We see that in the resolve and mindset of the Sri Lankan Struggle. They refuse to accept and allow fairness and justice to prevail. We are not defeating people, but a mindset of primitiveness, cunningness, timidity, ignorance, indifference, stupidity and illiteracy. We are fighting for a newer system of living by equality however much we may differ in our capacity and capabilities. It is to accept the diversity within us strength and to harness all those diverse power to make this world a better place to live. We need something more than religions, governments, philosophies to manage a wor`ld that is unfolding, emerging and demanding better management of the resources, living and otherwise. When freedom. Democracy, equality and dignity are threatened we have to wage a campaign to subdue the beast. We have to discipline and educate this human beast to be part of the civil society. It is an on going battle; it is a work in progress and work in process. Democracy is the sole responsibility of the people. When we create a monster called government which is larger than us and more powerful than us, we better keep it under control otherwise it will control us. But managed well it is the best form of self preservation. Democracy is not for every one. It needs a competent and vigilant population.

Freedom was once upon a time a limited edition only available to some people in selected countries but we have come a long way, we have books, news papers, we have radios, television, we have internet, we have computers, we have social media and we have satellites flying and defying international artificial boundaries and permeating all parts of the world from North Pole to South pole, from East to west and everywhere. Government are becoming ineffective and insufficient to deal with natural Tsunamis to human tsunamis. The Governments have become haven for corrupt officials whose only job is to take from the working haves and give to the lazy have-nots. There are plenty of opportunities but to the politician that is too much of work that takes too long a time period. Nation building is not in their minds, but how to get elected next time is their mission. That is all, it is to government.

There only one simple and one single way to make people to belong to a nation of people, Total freedom. No man wants to leave a domain where he feels comfortable, secure and opportunity to further his God given natural talents. Where did I learn these basic tenets of human nature? Right here in my own home. As the father I never said a word of instruction to my children, my wife showered them with love and affections. Thirty years later I saw the results, two fantastic citizens. No free man will ever think of living an association. When a country is fair and free people want to join not leave. Why do people want to come to Europe and America, think about it? Some people who complain about America must look for another planet, not for another country on mother earth.

Freedom is a simple art of maintaining almost absolute integrity. Children cannot be taught but they learn from us fast and all of what we are they are. Humans are children too; we are the children of Mother Nature. Adults behave almost like children and sometimes not so great like children.

People are also endowed with some great qualities such as Trust, Honesty, Integrity, Compassion, kindness, understanding, hope, faith, love etc. All teachings and all religions preach us to practice these values. These values are the pillars of any prosperous and great societies. Then on the other side of the spectrum are fear, greed, envy, jealousy, avarice, ambition, anger, hatred, inferiority etc. Of all the negative qualities it is fear that is the cause of all struggles among human beings. It is the fear that drives us to be aggressive and make us feel insecure. Recognised that as one of the physically weaker form of living things we have formulated various systems to live as communities. This is where the world today is. Can we live as a uniform community with diversity in gender, age, physical size, mental development etc? This is the struggle we are facing today all over the world. This is where then world today is.

The world has advanced so far that we cannot hope to live well without co-operation. To co-operate without losing our responsibility we owe to ourselves, that is the crux of the struggle and finding the answer is the key for the years to come. It is not easy for a man to surrender all his natural abilities and strengths to a common agenda and live within it artificially. This difficulty has been solved by a concept called social contracts whereby we all agree to certain conditions called covenants. A collection of covenants is called a social contract or a constitution of a nation.

What we need is a new world disorder not order. That is what is taking places all over the world and surprisingly Nostradamus predicted this in the 14th century. A disorder that will remake the mosaic of the world. As it is, it is imbued too much into race religion language, class, caste etc. This segregation is causing strife for people who tend to identify themselves as belonging to something. But we must give credence to what we can change and what we cannot change, we cannot change nature, climate, and landscape. Let us give respect to nature based diversities not differences. Do not confuse diversity with differences, they are the same elements but different perspective, we are advanced enough to be more pragmatic and understanding. The power of the king through the gun, power of the priest through Superstition and power of the banker through credit must go.

The effect of nature is very profound, it can instil in people new theories and concepts that can be useful in other regions. So let us look at people differently. Let us look at them as product of the nature, nurtured by nature and let us accept every one as a divine gift. It is in accepting every individual as a unique gift of nature that we are going to make this world a better place to live, but it the duty of the elders to nurture it into the minds of the younger generation. Sri Lanka where I was born and brought up is always in my mind and wonder how we could bring about a change of thinking from one of hatred, violence, abuse of living people and killing of living people to one based on respect, dignity and esteem. I do not know what curse has descended on this nation and how long it will last.

Humans are unlike animals, animals do not do anything that is harmful to them, but man can create his own poisons such as narcotic, hallucinogens, intoxicants etc. We are a mixture of all animals and also we have the computing and configuring capacity so let us put that to disciplined use. Religions and government can play a huge role in it, but is the family and parents that has to play the important role.

As a businessman, my first priority is my associates and their immediate families that is the main focus. Profits are a need but that is a by-product, the main product is people and their development and progress. People are smart and they can smell the motives instinctively and they know the motive of the management. We must harness the power of all us instead of infusing them with our command and control, it worked then, but it does not work any more for there are better systems in play these days making better products and services. The only motive of profit is a need but it is now only tiny portion of the need. Businesses and enterprises may not survive without the profit but profit is the outcome of well organised, people recognised enterprise. The money as the only motivator is insufficient. I have seen businesses fold when the balance sheet caves in.

Why are some nations at an advantageous position and advancing very fast like Norway, Sweden, and Canada, Singapore etc while countries like Somalia, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Rwanda and Zimbabwe languishing behind? I was born in Sri Lanka and moved away since 1970s due to their inability to manage their own nation. A glimpse of the Sri Lanka panorama and Panavision will be an eye opener to rest of the world. It is an expensive experiment and experience from which the world can benefit. The Island is a fantastic country that could have been the pearl of the world, now it is an eye sore of the Indian Ocean. The nation consisted of two distinct people they call themselves Tamils in the North and Singhalese in the South.

They divided themselves along the caste, religion and language fissure lines. All three have nothing to do with humans and humanness. These are not internal or natural lines of division; these are artificial divisions as identified by people and imposed by people. These are unsustainable lines of diversifications; none of these confer or offer any distinct advantage of one over the other. It can only lead to strife and struggle and they did.

Tamils are basically people of inventions, innovations, industry and involvement. Due to sandy soil, saline water and arid weather they have to be proactively industrious, innovative and indulging. There is no other choice. This over the years has acted as a natural selection factors. There is seldom any room or leeway for procrastination, postponement or pretension. Life has thus become a time controlled perfectly executed event. Everything has to work well and everything has to be managed and controlled well. I lived it, now I live in the opposite world of rich soil, plenty of fresh water and fantastic climate.

The so called Singhalese in the south have plenty of water, rich dark soil, and cool nice climate, best combination for high level of prosperity, but the people were misdirected. Like the Argentineans they just live off the bounties of the Mother Nature and the foreign grants, aids and hand outs. Obviously when there is such wealth potential difference people from the north will migrate to the south in search of better and easier pastures, this is the fundamental cause of strife in Sri Lanka. This economic problem has been viewed as racial problem and the corrupt among the people took advantage of it. That is why in Sri Lanka the political establishment is made of criminals, drug dealers and sometimes murderers. Murder is the outcome of problems that cannot be solved by other forms of criminal methods or negotiations. Mahinda Rajapaksa does not believe in second opinion, there is only one that is his. Others are disposed by paramilitaries.

People, who complain about America, sit back and listen to this. In most countries when the political career is over leaders go into oblivion but in America they continue to shine. WHY? Why only American leaders become world makers and ambassadors? Something to think about. Where are the leaders from Russia and china and others? Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are at their advanced age and are globetrotting to give service to humanity. Don’t you think we have a better system for the world? Think about it. There are very many leaders among us what is needed is an American system that brings the best to the top.

People think America goes to war for oil, not really, we want to help the world to freedom so that innocent people are not treated like slaves and prey for the corrupt criminals and tyrants to live off their avail. It is a form of prostitution of the very people who are our brothers and sisters. In the name of superstition and power we mistreat our own kind. We Tamil 70 million strong are endowed with this supreme faculty of humanness and to serve the world as its servants. At the present time we are being abused and we are at the mercy of the mercenaries but it will not last.

We cannot change the course of Mother Nature, what has happened has to be accepted as it is and we have to move on, but we must unite, stay together, work hard and never ever give up. We are winning and the best is yet to come.