Tamil Powers

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

( October 12, 14, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Today, through the Diaspora network, I received copy of the communication dated 10 October 2014, from the Chief Minister of Northern Province of Sri Lanka to the President of Sri Lanka. The first disorder that caught my attention was the title ‘Justice’ used by the Chief Minister. As per my recollection, Mr. Wigneswaran also protested against the dismissal of the former Chief Justice Ms Shiranee Bandaranaike, which dismissal was considered to be in breach of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers between the Executive and the Judiciary. The core reason for the separation of powers is to prevent collusion leading to interference by one type of power with that of another. It’s a kind of Devolution that Tamils are seeking in Sri Lanka. Once devolved the power is Equal in value and status at both sides of devolution.

Use of common cultural belief is anticipated to be heavy in Politics and therefore decisions made by the Executive would be expected to be more strongly influenced by common belief than in the case of Judicial decisions. In turn, the Judiciary is required to use a common threshold above the level of any culture particular to a section of the Public. The authority to use cultural distinction and separation needs to come from the Law and not as per the individual mind of the Judge or the cultural group that the Judge belongs to at the physical level.

The simple example through which the common citizen could relate to this Doctrine of Separation of Powers is the traditional family unit. The mother has equal power in her area of family even though the family is presented through the father’s side family name to wider society. Likewise, Thesawalamai – the Customary Law applicable to Northern Sri Lankans of Tamil origin has equal status as Common Law. One who indiscriminately mixes the two is practicing – consciously or otherwise – collusion between the two powers and is therefore guilty of acting in breach of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers. Once we adopt the system of Democracy we take on responsibility to maintain Separation of Cultures – each group carrying Equal status as the other. Once this Separation is lost consciousness of Democracy is also lost consciousness of and vv.

The Hon Wigneswaran has highlighted in paragraph 8 of his communication to the President – his opposition to a military leader being the Governor of Northern Province. To my mind, such leadership is counterproductive due to the tendency to settle issues at lower level that the armed forces would better understand than higher intellectual path taken by those who use weapons as a last resort. This is also the reason why the Executive Government driven by voters is required to not interfere with the Judiciary. The parallel of military weapons, in Politics are votes and rule by majority power as first option is the parallel of exercise of weapon power. In higher governance, majority vote would be used as the last resort – beyond logical reasoning to show a net outcome of the work done by a group. Using vote before logical reasoning is effectively an invitation for the ordinary citizen to rebel when s/he does not have her/his way. Due to such conflict, the politician who is strongly attached to showing quick outcomes of her/his work in exchange for votes would have difficulty integrating with wider world. This is the core reason why both parties to the Sri Lankan war stand accused of disorderly conduct.

Sri Lankans are continuing to pay the price for Independence from foreign powers. The use of Subjective powers as a first option by a person elected to power through the system of Democracy – is confirmation of dependence on hierarchical Subjective powers – which are foreign to Democracy.

Our current Tamil leadership is as guilty of lacking in independence from such Subjective powers, as the Central government that is being accused of denying recognition of the independence of the Tamil Community. Gandhi said about the then Indian Political leadership – they want to take over power from the British. Likewise in terms of Northern Provincial Council – as per their conduct - this is effectively a name change only and not real Devolution – the right to which is claimed through the communication by the Chief Minister of Northern Province to the President of the Country.

Most of us are prone to addiction to habits. To the extent our habitual thought order is based on high intellectual systems driven by discriminative thinking of the substance - using common measures and/or our Truth – such habitual thought order would be in harmony with other investors in the issue and/or our environment. But where such habitual thought order is based on individual thinking driven by desire to show quick outcomes – it would naturally lead to disorder with other investors in the issue and/or our environment.

One who lives close to the experience loses consciousness of outcomes. Lord Buddha confirmed this through Nirvana – Freedom. Lord Krishna says ‘Do your duty as per your position and do not expect benefits for doing such duty’. I now appreciate more and more that Lord Krishna in essence was saying ‘Have the experience – the Divine experience of Freedom from temporary pleasures towards Higher Happiness’

Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka has a duty to value the experience of war and confirm through their actions that the loss of bodies in that war has been towards higher purpose. If not for those deaths – the Hon Wigneswaran would not be Chief Minister but be a retired Judge. Those souls need to live through us to empower future generations from within. It’s the Experience that becomes the source of such empowerment. One who has had the Experience of Justice would not need to show the status – a benefit from the past. Until Justice Wigneswaran transcends the Judicial system – he would not have the wholesome experience of Chief Minister. The simple family parallel is – until a son loses consciousness of his status as a son he is not ready to have the experience as a father. Son is the past of the Father. Once we have the experience through one position or the other – we are capable of taking either position. One who indiscriminately mixes the two is confirming that the first position was not successfully completed to become Common. Hence one seems to need to ‘see’ the past to maintain the current position.