| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
I write in response to the Sri
Lanka Guardian article ‘Another Example
of Army Rule in Jaffna’ by Professor Laksiri Fernando.
( December 4, 2012, Melbourne,
Sri Lanka Guardian) It is good to note
the response from wider community against apparent injustice in Jaffna. I
believe that every caring person who adds her/his credits with Natural Justice
would influence the minds of the people concerned. Influencing the mind, without direct position
power, requires us to have insight into the psyche of the person/s needing to
be influenced. Professor Laksiri Fernando states in relation to the University
of Jaffna incident on Karthigai Theepam day ‘There were undoubtedly oil lamps
that were lit. The Lord Shiva is supposed to appear in the form of flame to
dispel evil.’
Karthigai Theepam is the
celebration of the birth of Murugan who was born from the fire of the Third eye
of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is the presiding deity at the University of Jaffna.
Yesterday, I added the following passage to my book ‘Who am I?’ which is
largely for those who have faith in me, starting with my children and
grandchildren: ‘By seeking from within I learnt that when I believed, my intuition prevented me from taking actions
that would make me feel bad later. This
I feel needs to be experienced. Most wrong-doers are not punished and the
apparently punished are not always the wrong-doers. Unless therefore we rely on
ourselves the effects of our actions and thoughts would be as what others ‘tell’ us and ‘show’
us. When we rely on ourselves – we are in control of our own destiny. In this
instance ‘destiny’ is not what happens on the outside. It is about the picture
in our mind – seen privately by our mind’s eye – the Third Eye.
Some academics at the University
of New South Wales said that I had strong ‘insight’. I identify with that. I
believe that this insight is the sight through our Truth and happens when all
outer senses are stilled. Hindu elders have denoted this through the Third Eye
of Lord Shiva – the Lord of the Mind. Like in Christianity, we Hindus also have
our Holy Trinity. Brahma the Creator;
Vishnu the Protector/Regulator and Shiva the Destroyer of body
consciousness. During funeral
ceremonies, we chant Sivapuranam – to invoke the powers of Lord Shiva. To me
the reason for this is to help release from
the combined force of body attachment, the spirit towards the Lord. The combined force is ours
plus that of the person passing away.’
To me this addition in my
book at this point of time was due to
the urge I felt within. Some of this urge I believe, happened due to my
investment in University of Jaffna through Lord Shiva – the presiding deity at
the University temple. I went to the temple after my meeting with the immediate
past Vice Chancellor – Professor Shanmugalingam. I felt that Professor Shanmugalingam was very
agitated over the delay by the President
in appointing the Vice Chancellor. Three candidates were elected through
a voting process – the current Vice Chancellor Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam,
Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole and Professor Shanmugalingam. I met Professor Shanmugalingam during a
conference in relation to post-war development - the invitation to which was extended by Dr. Noel Nadesan. During the conference, Dr. Ramanathan
Narendran who was very kind to our family when we were recovering from the
effects of a serious accident here in Sydney, introduced me to Professor
Shanmugalingam. To me these ‘caring connections’ come with the spirit of the
person who makes the connection of her/his own free will. Professor
Shanmugalingam did meet with me and promised to arrange for me to conduct a
seminar on resource management. Towards this I went to meet with him during my
following visit Jaffna and that was when I found Professor Shanmugalingam in a
very anxious state. I advised him to the extent I could and beyond that I went
to the University temple and prayed. I prayed to help the University and to
help Professor Shanmugalingam feel more settled in his area of expertise. After
participating in the midday poojah I sat down on the steps of the temple, ate
the sweet rice from the poojah and
contemplated. Then a lady walked over to me and talked to me. This lady who was
also at the poojah, said she was a member of the staff. I now feel that that was the indicator that
the successful candidate for that position was going to be the female
candidate. The physical looks of this lady is similar to that of the current
Vice Chancellor. I felt that from
Professor Shanmugalingam’s side it was more a race between himself and
Professor Hoole which when aggravated was negative energy for the University
and therefore for him also. Later I wrote publicly in support of Professor
Arasaratnam whom I am yet to meet in person. It was more a process of
elimination to get the best elected person. After Professor Arasaratnam was
appointed I learnt at Yoga Swami Poojah here in Sydney that Professor
Arasaratnam was a close relative of
fellow devotee of Yoga Swami. I felt
that all this confirmed that Professor Arasaratnam was the best suited out of
the three candidates. I did contact Professor Arasaratnam through email and
offered my services (as I had done with
Professor Shanmugalingam) but that offer is yet to be taken up.
This week I could not help wondering
about the ‘lost influence’ of the international community that the University
was suffering from. The parallel of my offer to University of Jaffna but
without the Community connection - was when I applied for the position of UN
Secretary General. When Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala was nominated by the Sri Lankan
Government for the position of UN Secretary General, I felt the need to have
his parallel from the Tamil Community. I did not know what the due process was.
I felt the urge to express that a member of the Tamil Community would also be
eligible and made my application. The UN Administration did respond and said
whilst they appreciated the spirit in which I had applied, the due process was
for the government to nominate the candidate. So I wrote to Mr. John Howard –
who did not respond. There ended my responsibility to the outer system. Compared to the UN Administration the
Administration of the University of Jaffna had greater responsibility to accept
contributions from wider Tamil Community. Since they did not – I concluded that
they sought to limit themselves to ‘local resources’.
Even today, from a fellow
Chartered Accountant, I received a message about Lord Krishna’s saying ‘Do your
duty and leave the rest to God’. Not many known to me practice this. I myself
did not consciously practice this but by nature I was able to adjust my mind to
living within limited resources available to me. This, together with the
natural commitment to working at the highest possible level known to me –
helped me not to lose faith when the returns did not happen. Gradually this
helped me take public action at the highest level of my work – as if I was in
that position as opposition to the occupant – starting with the position of
Vice Chancellor of the University of New South Wales. This was followed by
actions against Ministers and Prime Minister Howard through the path available
to me – which was the legal path. In terms of the Sri Lankan Government – it was the
application for the position of UN Secretary General. Without this feeling – we
do not have the moral authority to say ‘I am the University/ I am the
Government.’
I now believe that such actions
on the basis of true belief do have the power of influencing the real powers
within an institution. Fellow believers benefit from such influence. In Jaffna
– at the time Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam was elected through majority vote
– Professor Arasaratnam was part of minority power in male dominated Jaffna
Administration. Hence the powers of other minorities such as myself would have
worked for Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam.
Jaffna University Community as a whole
did not have enough credits with the system of Natural Justice to
deserve an intellectually robust leader familiar with international standards.
Professor Shanmugalingam when I met him during the conference and later during
our discussions at his office, failed to fit the position of leadership in
Democratic Resource Management, as per my inner wisdom. At an interview with Business Today,
Professor Shanmugalingam is reported to have stated ‘So to answer your
question, it is our aim to give students a good rehabilitation and
reconciliation and a normal life for them and their families’
Jaffna’s strength lies within its
ability to govern itself. University
students and their families have taken
on their share the struggle for self governance. I believe that education is
the best pathway through which Tamils would achieve self governance. It was for me and hence my destiny too me to
the University of New South Wales to begin the public demonstration of my sense
of ‘independence’ through Equal
Opportunity laws. Hence I expected the chief of University of Jaffna to
demonstrate that strength in Tamils.
Taken as a whole we do not need rehabilitation or even reconciliation.
Traditionally, Tamils undertook higher education towards Financial
Independence. This is the case with my
generation. This is also the reason why a high percentage of Jaffna Tamils seek
to go overseas. Yet, Professor Shanmugalingam failed to demonstrate similar
wisdom.
Professor Shanmugalingam stated
during the above mentioned interview in August 2010 ‘Recently we signed an MOU
with the Management Institute of Northern Province and began the training of
officials in the following areas, Project Planning, Community Development and
English for Communication’.
Professor Shanmugalingam failed
to connect to my wisdom in all of the above and that to me confirmed that he
would not fit the role of a leader of
Tamil University that would carry forward my generation’s traditional values.
Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam seemed to
be the one out of the three with the capacity to influence the community to
‘keep going’. The fact that last week’s
attack did not get more violent than it did confirms that this has
happened through Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam’s quiet influence with the
Government. The incident itself confirms the gap between intellectual pursuit
of ‘independence/freedom’ and political pursuit including through armed
resistance. Like the Parliament of Sri Lanka, the University of Jaffna also
failed to maintain the Separation of Powers between the Academics, Politicians
and Society.
After my own inner judgment of
the University leadership I moved on to other sources available to me towards
sharing my wisdom in ‘Project Planning, Community Development and English for
Communication’ – including through Jaffna College and local groups. Some of
these could be viewed at http://www.austms.org
Maaveerar Day is Remembrance day of brave soldiers.
It is NOT a Remembrance day of intellectual leaders. Who celebrates the death
of the Hon Appapillai Amirthalingam whose humble beginnings started at Pannagam
in Vattukottai? The Hon Appapillai
Amirthalingam qualified as an Advocate
and was killed by the LTTE. Hence LTTE and all its supporters lost the moral
authority to use intellectual forums and institutions through which to remember
their heroes. In addition, University of
Jaffna’s presiding deity is Lord Shiva the parent and not Lord Muruga the son
who defeated the arrogant Soorapathman in battle. Karthigai Theepam is a
celebration of the birth of Lord Muruga. The name Karthigai comes from the
celestial maidens who took care of Baby Murugan. There were six of them
representing the group of six stars that were formed during the time of birth
of Baby Murugan. Hence His other name
Karthigeyan. Those who sought to
remember brave soldiers – ought to have gone to Murugan temples – including
Nallur. Those who were killed by these LTTE Maaveerar include many intellectual
Tamils. LTTE supporters need to respect them and through them their
contribution to intellectual pursuit of
Justice and Independence. Tamil community should not be limited to LTTE
leadership. LTTE played a significant role in the pursuit of self governance by
Tamils. But their contribution through the traditional path of Education was
minimal. LTTE supporters must take their earned position in the Tamil Community
as a whole – beyond time and space borders, if we are to realize self governance
as a community.
Remembering LTTE at University of
Jaffna is the parallel of military
training at the Universities – as proposed by the Sri Lankan Government. One
invokes the other. Hence the conflict here is between intellectual powers and
armed powers. Tamil students who knew about the LTTE supporters ought to have
objected confidentially to lighting of the lamp to remember LTTE soldiers. The
Tamil MP who joined the students ought to have led others in that path –
especially to honor the likes of the Hon Appapillai Amirthalingam of
Vattukottai. One who is not independent of her/his own group cannot lead that
group to become independent of an outside force.
Professor Laksiri Fernando states
‘The evolving events are alarming and perhaps indicate a major political
calamity to come soon. It could be in the form of a ‘quasi-military rule headed
by the Executive President’ sans an independent judiciary and a meek Parliament
which could sanction anything of the ‘military-executive’ claiming to be a
‘supreme legislature.’ What might be crucial is the unity between the
opposition forces in the North and the South.’
I often get asked by Tamils who
have similar fears about even visiting Sri Lanka, as to whether I am not afraid
of going to Sri Lanka? I respond that I
have my people there and to the extent they have the need to live there I feel
the need to go there. Each one of us would ‘see’ through our own ‘sight’. I
feel Sri Lankan and I do not ‘see’ such a sight for Sri Lanka I have invested
in. That is the only Sri Lanka that matters to me. The rest does not. Hence my mind is calm and is not
agitated. Others may have invested in other parts of Sri Lanka and this could
include in senior positions through which they could lead and direct. To me
what happens in those parts where I do not have any portfolio duties are not my
responsibility. I can and I do invest in the substance that influences those outcomes. In other words I
invest as per my insight into the insight of
my parallel in that institution. Beyond that, happenings in those parts that I have not invested in are ‘acts of God’
just like Tsunami. I have not contributed directly to the human efforts to prevent Tsunami. When my people in Batticaloa
feel anxious about Tsunami the contact me and
I pray with them and add my strength to influencing Divine Powers to
prevent damage from Tsunami for my people. Similarly, my prayers are with those
who have faith in me as an intellectual. To the extent the community of the
University of Jaffna and I are connected through Common faith including through
Lord Shiva – my credits with intellectual systems and paths would benefit the
University also.
