| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
( November 23, 2012, Melbourne, Sri
Lanka Guardian) I write in response to the Sri Lanka Guardian article ‘The
Struggles of Identity in Sri Lanka’ by Celina Cramer
First of all I seek to confirm that my
struggles for identity in Australia were much more serious and far more painful
than my struggles in Sri Lanka. The reason was my education. Most of my
schooling was in a Catholic institution – Holy Family Convent – and most of
that schooling was in Jaffna. Majority
in Jaffna are Hindus but due to their belief in education – they were able to
override majority power with discriminative thinking. I was not only
outstanding in my academic grades but was also Prefect. Likewise our son
Pradeep who studied at Waverly College and our daughter Gayathri who studied at
Brigidine College – both Catholic schools here in Sydney.
Ms Celina Cramer states/asks ‘Among the language barrier that was created
in some schools, was religion. A very shocking example is the “Prefect system”
in some schools in Sri Lanka. In one of the schools that I attended, the title
of “Head Prefect “was given only to an all-rounder who belonged to the school’s
principal religion. This clearly made those of other religious conviction seem
‘less better’ than those who followed the principal religion in the school. But
when did anyone’s religious convictions have anything to do with their academic
strengths?’
A school that is not confident of its
merit based status would need ‘belief’ based status and therefore ‘majority’
power to keep the balance. Likewise, a
country. If merit based power was far greater than the belief based power in a
community – high performers group together and separate themselves from the
group that is driven by belief based
power. This happened during British rule in Sri Lanka. Then the divide
was between English speaking Ceylonese and local language speaking Tamils or
Sinhalese. But this system was accepted by the citizen to whom economic status
was more important than national status. To most migrants known to me – their
first priority here in Australia – is economic independence. This is the reason
why at the collective level – there is no threat to the Australian government
from migrants of Tamil or Sinhalese origins. At the lower levels of Australian
society – that threat is felt by more senior migrants who rely on their Anglo
ancestors. Most Tamil as well as Sinhalese migrants accept this just as they
accepted British rule. I did not. Hence
I fought as an individual to maintain my ‘free status’. It was painful at that time but I am now able
to appreciate the value whenever I find someone who needs the partnership of
Independence - including members of the
ruling community.
When the British left Ceylon – without
an appropriate structure that would help Ceylonese leaders manage without them
– majority status was used to suppress merit based status. This happened due to
desire for ruling power but without the confidence of governing on merit basis
those outside the circle of belief of the rulers.
Most of us use subjective influence in
preference to discriminative thinking, unless we want to put on a solo
performance – for whatever reason. When
I applied in Colombo to register our business name ‘Australian Tamil Management Service’ the
Registrar asked me why the word Tamil – whether I was going to serve only
Tamils? I said since the use of ‘Muslim ladies’ college’ had been approved – we
had every right to use ‘Tamil’ in our name. Some of my professional colleagues
in Colombo had difficulty appreciating this. To the registrar I explained after
he approved the name – that it was to draw to us, Tamils who had isolated themselves and would
not seek common services unless they saw some kind of ethnic identity. But the fact
that I felt Sri Lankan – would have helped remove their fears of the unknown.
Ms Celina Cramer states ‘Now just watch
a rugby match and you’ll hear National anthem of New Zealand, it is sung in
Maori and English. And so is the national anthem of South Africa. Both these
countries are multiethnic like Sri Lanka and have managed to allow every
citizen, regardless of their ethnic origins, to feel “included” and not so
“excluded” as one would feel singing “Sri Lanka matha”.’
The National anthem of Australia is
still sung in English only. Compared to Australia – New Zealand’s status at the
international level is much smaller. Likewise, compared to India, Sri Lanka’s
international status.
The leader who helped me appreciate
diversity and unity is Sri Sathya Sai Baba of India. Millions go regularly to
Puttaparthi. Today, millions all over the world specially celebrate the birth
of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Sometime back I included the following in a submission
to our Australian Government in relation to Boat arrivals:
[In this current context, majority
Tamils including those aboard Jaya
Lestari 5 as well as senior Sinhalese
ministers in the government of Sri Lanka, are likely to identify with the
following message from the best known Spiritual Leader of the Indian
Subcontinent:
"Let the different faiths exist,
let them flourish, let the glory of God be sung in all languages in a variety
of tunes. That should be the ideal. Respect the differences between the faiths
and recognize them as valid so far as they do not extinguish the flame of
unity."]
When I went to Puttaparthi I was
initially upset by some of the practices – which seemed to be outside merit
basis. Some of them led to those who queued up first going in after other rows.
But gradually I realized through my own experiences that it was a place of belief and therefore
one needed to identify with that belief based energy which gave us what we
needed rather than what we thought was due to us. Thus a person going in later
may end up sitting in front of a person who went first. What mattered most was
that we needed to connect to the Divine Power and this happened as per our
belief and not as per our merit. I used this lesson to stop ‘judging’ in areas
where there was strong belief. Life is that much more peaceful that way. I use
this regularly in remote areas of Northern Sri Lanka – when sharing donations.
The author of the Sri Lanka Guardian
article ‘Executive presidential system and the judiciary’ states ‘From the
beginning of the executive presidential system, the most important threat to it
was perceived to be the judiciary.
With a four fifths majority in
parliament, J.R. Jayawardene, the UNP leader, made sure that all his party
members in the legislature surrendered their rights to him. He got this through
undated letters of resignation he took from everyone except for a few who
refused to comply. He was therefore certain that there would be no challenge to
his authority from the parliament.’
An independent judiciary using merit
basis – would be a competition and/or threat to any belief based system and
therefore majority power. Sri Sathaya Sai Baba was King – not only in
Puttaparthi but wherever He went. That is the Unity of belief which is far
greater than apparent merit based power in that area. Belief is the foundation
on which merit needs to be measured. That Belief helps us realize that we are
One with the other. An active mind is
not able to appreciate this. Where we do not feel that Oneness with the other –
we need merit basis applied on current work – for the purpose of distribution
of common wealth and opportunity. One
who believes does not fear the unknown. Had President Jayawardene believed in
his party – he would not have feared them. In a belief based system – there is
a natural hierarchy as per the depth of the belief. Sri Sathya Sai Baba for
example communicates in many forms the message - ‘you and I are One’. The language in
Puttaparthi is Telugu and not Hindi. New Delhi is nowhere as Peaceful as
Puttaparthi where Belief reigns over merit.
I believe that God placed the Divine
system in us. Once we believe that God is within us – we would not need to
calculate and divide at the individual level. To the extent we do not believe –
and most of us do not fully believe in our Divinity / Oneness – we need to use
Common Principles and Values to distribute Common wealth and opportunities. One
with high level of belief in the whole, would need only a small doze of merit
for fair distribution. Most Western countries promote their Judicial systems to
limit the excessive reliance in belief and therefore majority vote . To my
mind, this promotes competition and economic progress. This was visible with
the Tamil Tigers who expressly separated themselves on the basis of language.
They demonstrated strong cleverness due to this separation. When power is
devolved towards such excellence – it removes the responsibility to show
national level outcomes in general areas of activity. Those who believe in
themselves work best when they do not have to report to others. Often ethnic
leaders desire the benefits of Central Administration and hence actually seek
Unitary Management – but keep shouting ‘Devolution’ so that they could get the
benefits instead of the Central Administrators. This seems to have happened
with the Sri Lankan Judiciary also – as confirmed in the above mentioned article.
To the extent a leader is elected by
majority vote and that majority are apparently of one faith and at least one
group expresses lack of faith – there needs to be devolution on the basis of
that category of faith – be it religion, language or other categories of common
faith. Majority vote without belief
leads to superstitious thoughts
of fears and desires and leads to chaos even in one community. On the other
hand – true belief without any voting system would bring about natural Oneness.
One who believes through a particular path would naturally accept, respect and
integrate with other cultures.
Given that the ordinary person tends to
accept the seen and gives that form to her/his belief – and thus identifies
her/himself with the higher position that represent the whole – it would be
difficult for minorities who are active in Public Administration and National
Politics to identify with politically driven leaders of majority race. Mr. John Howard was for this reason rejected by ethnic
minorities – especially those empowered by their belief that they are
Australians. Such minorities hold the balance of real power in multicultural societies.
Similarly Tamils who believe that they are Sri Lankans – are far more powerful
in Sri Lankan politics than Tamils who believe they are Tamils. Likewise Tamils
in other countries in the politics of other countries – even if their influence
is not apparent. Communities led by
leaders who believe at National and/or Global level – would perform strongly at
those higher/wider levels.
Members of the Tamil Diaspora who do not
maintain their root connections would tend to bypass Sri Lanka and are likely
to feel more strongly connected to other Tamil groups to form global
associations – including with Tamils in Tamil Nadu, Singapore and Malaysia. To
the extent they believe in their religion and/or language above calculated
thoughts – merit based or otherwise – they would influence each other naturally
and intuitively.
Believers naturally respect Independence
and therefore natural separations. Sri Lanka’s Constitution provides for such
devolution on the basis of religion. If leaders of majority religion – Buddhism
– had been true believers in their own religion – they would have not needed
legislative provisions to spell out the need for this separation of religious
powers. Commitment to One God confirms Unity and provision of freedom of belief and practice for many religions confirms Diversity. This
is not challenged so long as we live in our own
ethnic areas practicing Common laws as per our interpretations on the
basis of our belief. Every time a Hindu in Hindu area is ‘ruled’ by a Buddhist (even one using Common Law) the Buddhist is acting in breach of the above provisions
of the Constitution. If both are of one religion – for example – Christianity
or Islam – then such actions are not in breach of the law. Breach of the
provisions of the Constitution naturally dilute the value of investment in Law
and Order by that ‘outsider’. LTTE who fought on language basis – but killed
Sinhalese in Sinhalese areas – automatically lost their right to belief based
self determination to that extent - through such actions. The reason for such
separation is that through belief we intuitively feel that
the other is part of us . This feeling by leaders is defined expressly
to help their followers. Where a group
is obstructed in such a path of belief – its natural rights to function as an
independent group have been damaged.
Under the system of Natural Justice – this damage is shared by both groups – the perpetrators
who interfered with belief processes and the practitioners to the extent
they failed to defend their rights.
Hindus, Muslims and Christians hold the balance of power to punish Buddhists
who have the first responsibility to structure systems that would not interfere
with religious beliefs.
Ultimately, as per my experience – we
complete the cycle of ownership through
belief in ourselves. When our supervisors
/ bosses through whom we give form to our belief in our position – fail to confirm their side
– we fill the gap eventually through ourselves. The other side is a temporary
stage needed in the material world. Those who worked with belief in their
positions would be empowered naturally so that the whole position merges with
the institution and the institution with wider society. The believer merges
with the position.
Likewise at group level – if minorities
are able to believe and give form to their governance work through the
occupants – they would own the whole position and therefore merge with the government and through the government with
wider world. Likewise, members of
majority religion where there is obvious rejection of their authority. As per latest report from Northern Provincial
Council ‘Northern Province GA Chandrasiri had a meeting on 22nd November 2012
with Director General, National Aquaculture Development Authority of Sri
Lanka(NAQDA) regarding the development of the Inland Fisheries in the fresh
water tanks and lagoons in northern
province’
If the Governor had taken up an
Administrative position above a Hindu in that area, expressing through local
belief – in relation to this matter -
that would have been in breach of sections 10 & 14 (1) (e) of the
Constitution which state:
10. ‘Every person is entitled to freedom
of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to have or to adopt
a religion or belief of his choice’
14.(1) (e) Every citizen is entitled to
the freedom, either by himself or in association with others, and either in
public or in private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship,
observance, practice or teaching;
Section 9 places the responsibility to
uphold the above on the Government:
9. The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give
to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the
State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions
the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e).
The Governor as the representative of
the Government (not the People of Northern Province and therefore their belief)
has the responsibility to ‘assure’ the People of Northern Province, their
rights as per their religious beliefs. Hence unless there was scientific,
logical derivation based on common principles – resulting in objectively
measurable merit based outcomes – the above matter would have been made largely
on the basis of personal belief. The belief of the Governor would therefore be strongly on the basis of Buddha
Sasana whilst the belief of Hindus in the affected areas would be strongly on
the basis Hindu forms of belief which
include the belief that Lord Vishnu took the form of Fish to save the
Scriptures from the Great Deluge.
It is to prevent such natural breaches
that devolution based on faith is necessary where at least one group has
strongly expressed lack of faith – as Tamils majority of whom are Hindus have
overwhelmingly expressed.
Devolution on the basis of religious
faith is required by law in Sri Lanka – at the individual as well as group
level – where one side has higher official status than the other. It is not an option as per the discretion of
the Government.
 I write in response to the Sri Lanka Guardian arti...){kind=link}