Majority Vote & Pada Yatra

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

( April 02, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I write in response to the article ‘Traitor Or Patriot? ’ by Ms Niranjala Ariyawansha, published in Sri Lanka Guardian.

The article to my mind is about Majority Power. Niranjala says in her article ‘In the years 1990 and 1991 Mahinda Rajapaksa, an opposition member of parliament went to the Geneva Human Rights Commission to complain against the abductions taking place under the then government of President Ranasinghe Premadasa. …………….The second major political move by Mahinda Rajapaksa was in 1992. He began a ‘Pada Yatra’ from Colombo to Kataragama when the then government of President Ranasinghe Premadasa was feared as much as today’s government. The main slogan was to hold the Premadasa regime responsible for tens of thousands of people who went missing during the 1987/89 JVP uprising. The agenda also included opposing privatization, calling for the suspention of the war and to provide a political solution to the ethnic crisis and bring down the cost of living.’

It’s interesting that this writer would connect the two events. To my mind also they are connected to each other through Mr. Rajapaksa’s karma. To the extent the ‘other’ side held a position that Mr, Rajapaksa is holding now, the two events are also connected through position (position of president) and the system (system of government) that that position is a part of. The deeper reader would connect the cause that happened back then to the effect that is happening now –for the person Mr. Rajapaksa the position of President and the system of Government of Sri Lanka.

The system of majority power, to me is what Pada Yatra is all about. Tamil - Pada = foot and Yatra = Pilgrimage. Pada Yatra is therefore about Ground Reality. Kataragama (Kathirgamam) is the Holy Shrine of Lord Muruga in Sri Lanka. Majority who worship Lord Muruga are Tamils. Generations of belief cannot be overpowered by current physical presence. Similarly deep rooted traditions cannot be overridden by majority vote. Power (not necessarily votes) of majority needs to be greater than the power of One to work the system naturally. Vote without faith is not power but just part of the surface of the picture that depicts group power. Administrative / Judicial outcomes could be overridden by majority belief for which one needs numbers. The moment Tamils of Sri Lanka genuinely joined forces with Tamil Nadu, their majority power became far greater than that of the Sinhalese – not only due to numbers but due to common belief in Hindu religion – especially Tamil Deity Murugan.

Lord Muruga is known to be the Lord of Kali–Yuga which to my mind is the era of Democracy. The Hindu mango legend illustrates that Lord Muruga went physically around the world to entitle Himself as the King of His empire – the Tamil empire. His elder Brother Ganesh instead went around His parents and had their approval to be the King of their empire. This success through democracy is confirmed further by the Six Faces of Lord Muruga – providing 360 degree / Global view. To my mind, the six faces represent our five physical senses and the consolidated memory of past events as the sixth sense. Hence all those who give majority weight to past events over current ones, are not travelling along Lord Muruga’s path. Usually parents/elders don’t. Last night, a senior Tamil who genuinely appreciates my work said to me that some men in his seniors’ group had said that my husband was an innocent (Appaavi) and quiet man. I mentioned this to my husband and he asked me to send back the message through the question ‘where in Australia did the person assessing me work? and was he sponsored by an independent Australian to migrate to Australia?’ If my husband were an Appaavi – he would not have worked hard to come to Australia and would not have been sponsored by the University of New South Wales to migrate to Australia – nor would he be working in a University now. That response was due to faith in Lord Muruga and therefore blessings from the system of Democracy which gives greater importance to current events over past events in assessing merits of our experiences.

I learnt about Pada Yatra through devotees of Yoga Swami of Nallur who walked from North to Kathirgamam in South. To us Yoga Swami devotees, Swami and Muruga of Nallur are One. Hence I contemplate on Pada Yatra through Yoga Swami’s Service. The Guidance given by Swami is to know the reality by physically being with the People along the connecting route. Hence wherever I worked to serve the needy, I became a part of them – my previous identities becoming only one part (one sixth being the ideal) part of my observations. When we observe five sixths of our current environment, the sixth sense from within would complete the picture.

Votes based on the above principle would lead us to be free. If people do not physically travel to have the current global information, they need to divide appropriately to have five different electorates and give form to their past experience on the issue, as the sixth electorate. Hence majority vote would work only when we are able to include the outcomes produced by all current participants. The way the eye is independent of the ear, each observer covering specific part needs to be independent of the other and not express for the other. Hence Equal Opportunity and Privacy laws.

Mr. Rajapaksha going to Geneva back then was stated to be for the purpose of eliminating the practice of State sponsored abductions. Given that Mr. Rajapaksa as well as the then President Mr. Premadasa were both Sinhalese Buddhists – the issue was very much ‘local’. Given that Buddhism was/is given first place in Sri Lanka’s Constitution, Mr. Rajapaksa’s avenue as per Dharma was prayers to Buddha and not to Geneva. On the other side was President Premadasa who was dealing with one form of his own karma – opposition through brawn power instead of intellectual power. The rebels themselves followed their leaders and expressed themselves physically – thus setting aside/dismissing the voting system. This would have resulted in those driven by brawn ruling over all including the intellectuals. All intellectuals accepting this would have lost power in democracy. Unless therefore Sri Lanka’s voting system was flawed, there was no just basis to this and it was against majority power as was the LTTE’s until they became TNA.

If we look beyond the ‘shown’ and receive what happened through our own Truth – we would identify with facts that go towards a complete picture being drawn. One way to help us achieve this is not to ‘see’ beyond our local environment – at anything from a person/group that does not participate currently in the issue. UN was a very low level participant in Sri Lanka, except for academic/grades purposes. Buddha was an active participant – through Buddhist devotees who were producing majority outcomes in Sri Lanka. By using UN through hearsay / academic activities – Mr. Rajapakse created a karma for himself personally because he was not representing himself through an official position through which others invested in the issue through the structured path.

Those who genuinely invested in the UN through their genuine work through positions and practices without position requirements, generate positive karma that confirms UN structures and values. Mr. Rajapaksa if genuine would have given strength to that structure back then through values and not through structures. Now years later, that value is still valid and the structure is now available for UN karma to return – albeit as the Opposition to Mr. Rajapaksa’s current position. Hence to the extent Mr. Rajapaksa complained against his President, he complained against himself and his people holding that position in later years. If he was genuine in 1990 he would accept reality now and deal with it by including those with the good guna/quality in his team to strengthen that position. The good quality that matches abductions is - respect for privacy of others. If Mr. Rajapaksa was not genuine, but was using UN for an inferior reason, then he would naturally blame others for his defeats.

This morning’s mail brought the following news which if true indicates strongly that the latter was the case: ‘The President has decided to appoint Additional External Affairs Ministry Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne as Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Paris to replace Dayan Jayathilleke with immediate effect.'

While we ‘show’ others, we accumulate karma even if the ‘other’ side and/or the medium through which we ‘show’ our side, is strong in the quality that would produce the picture for which we are taking credit through the showing. The underlying forces manifest themselves to uphold their system. We cannot suppress them forever. If we show someone with weak karma – it is just an event. Otherwise it becomes an experience at least for the other side and hence invokes those deeper forces. It is for this reason that juniors are advised to not speak in the presence of seniors. Under the hierarchical system, they were required not to speak in public unless spoken to by a senior. I also opposed the Vice Chancellor of the University of New South Wales who had me arrested. In turn the Vice Chancellor was dismissed after accusations of fraud against one of the academics more like himself than like myself. I believe I invoked the latent powers including of the UN – due to deep investment in eliminating unjust discrimination. It confirmed that my investment in the University Administrative system was greater than that of the Vice Chancellor – an academic acting like a politician.

The the second event – walk to Kataragama during JVP uprising - confirmed Mr. Rajapaksa’s karma in relation to juniors speaking out of turn. To be truly successful and to feel it inside, Juniors need to invest more in the system than the person they are opposing and also deep enough to reach the forces that gave birth to that system and/or the wider common system that that system is a part of. In the above instance for example, Mr. Rajapaksa to be successful, ought to have invested in governance more than Mr. Premadasa who was president at that time and also deep enough to work those who elect the President. If it was just enough to impress the JVP and its followers, then it would not be deep enough to reach the electoral system through which Mr. Premadasa became president. In this instance, by going to Kataragama, Mr. Rajapaksa was invoking the powers of Tamils who believe in Lord Muruga and His path of Governance – whether they understand the path or not. It required to include Tamils as Equal participants. There is no record of Mr. Rajapaksa having done the Pada Yatra for Tamils during punishment of JVP’s Tamil parallel – LTTE - happening during the time he walked for the JVP. By using Kathirgamam Mr. Rajapaksa invoked those lateral democratic forces which were his opposition in waiting once he became the president. Likewise TULF leaders who joined forces with LTTE and other armed groups that are not tolerant of multiculturalism and democracy. They invoked back then their own opposition that is manifesting itself now. Otherwise, they would have found the solution in Kathirgamam instead of the temporary answers in Geneva.

Diaspora Tamils have to invest deeply in UN values if their work is to reach Tamils residing in Sri Lanka. Otherwise they need to go back and live as locals and share with those locals. Otherwise their contribution needs to be through belief in Lord Muruga – the Lord of Democracy.

To me Pada Yatra is working with the people as part of them so we get the full current picture that suits that environment. The path that majority People walk in harmony is the true Law and this was called Thesawalamai by Tamils of Northern Sri Lanka. The rest is merely for employment purposes – including by the Government – to show high employment figures. If used against a high level practitioner of that system, it would invoke the true forces against the abuser of power. Only the true part of law/principle would work to support us in our own path. The true part is the part actually practiced by us as individuals and / or groups through faith. The rest is ‘business’ of law/government. When these benefits are taken against a true practitioner the true forces manifest themselves – first against the person who tried to cheat them. This I believe is what happened to Mr. Rajapaksa who through his position promotes Buddhism but walks to Kathirgamam instead of to Maha Bodhi. Patriot or Traitor? – structured Patriot overstepping his position limits by using the names of other religions/faiths. If we seek to be local – and be like Ganesh we need to stay around our parents/ancestors to know through our faith the fullness of our experience. If we go beyond our local borders which happened for Mr. Rajapaksa when he went outside his position to Geneva in 1990 – we need to be ready to share current world with others – especially those from whom we seek support to maintain ourselves and do so freely – without fear – and hence transparency.

I believe that my genuine investment in eliminating racial equality here in Australia, through UN Policies and values, and the sacrifices I made towards this, contributed to the Geneva outcome against any side practicing racial inequality – consciously or otherwise. Truth never fails. I did not have the support of majority power – even from Tamils who often practice the very racial discrimination that they condemn the government for. I had to ‘wait’ until the issue went to UN – to identify with my returns combined with others’ investment in Racial Equality – delivered through official custodians of those powers. Similarly I identify all the time with my investments and returns through those who have official positions becoming my opposition in reality. Then the common system gets naturally restructured.

All that we Tamils have to do to govern ourselves in Sri Lanka is keep praying genuinely from our hearts to Lord Muruga. The system would naturally restructure itself on the basis of our investment. This was the value of Gandhi’s non-violent non-cooperation. The special festival of Sydney Murugan Temple started on 27 March and the consolidated power would work to support all those who are genuinely global – even if they are not Tamils. Others who in real terms seek to be ‘local’ would not be able to identify with their outcomes through the path of democracy. Their contribution would return at a local level or remain in waiting for the next generation after democracy.