We make discoveries through our own lives. If the discoveries were made through genuine investment in the protocols and Due Processes of the existing system – which in this instance includes FUTA as part of the University system and our discoveries do not confirm the protocols and Due Processes that already exist then we need to publish our discoveries – for they qualify as Research. Due Processes are the flow of policies/ law. Law/Theory is the current version of yesterday’s discovery. Yesterday’s discovery beyond previously existing theories / laws is given fluid form to assist low investors in an institution/family. Those investors invest from their respective angles only.
l by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam
(03 July, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I write in response to the article“Are FUTA’s demands regarding national policy on higher education within the Mandate of a Trade Union? Shamala Kumar of University of Peradeniya.
I do not have direct investment with the University of Peradeniya. My direct investment in the University system was/is through the University of New South Wales. The Truth is known more quickly by the average human, through direct life in a natural environment. My investment in University of Peradeniya is through my husband and his engineering colleagues and more importantly, through my father in law who insisted that my husband who won the Best Science Student prize at Jaffna College should not accept the place offered to him to study Engineering at Kattubadde campus but instead wanted my husband to try again for a seat at Peradeniya campus. To this day, we are grateful for that decision by my father in law Mr. Nallathamby Subramaniam. Hence my investment to uphold the investments by my father in law would naturally go towards ownership value in the University of Peradeniya.
Ms Shamala Kumar states ‘Three university academics, who are currently under State patronage, Jagath Wellawatta (Chairperson, State Mortgage Investment Bank formerly, National Child Protection Authority, Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau), Rohan Rajapakse (Advisor to the Minister of Higher Education; formerly Executive Director, Sri Lanka Council of Agriculture Research), and Ranjith Bandara (Chairperson, Sri Lanka Foundation Institute and Senior Economic Adviser, formerly, Director of the Financial Service Cluster, Strategic Enterprise Management Agency) discussed the trade union action on the evening of the 1st of June, 2012. It is disappointing to note that FUTA was excluded from this discussion.’
Trade Unions are part of the Democratic system. They are the parallels of Opposition in Parliament. Academics making decisions without an Opposition are therefore opposed to Democracy. By avoiding FUTA these academics have confirmed that they are fearful of FUTA and therefore are desirous of the company of FUTA’s opposition – the Government. In other words – they have ‘sold’ themselves to the Government and thus have let their own institution down. This happens when one desires immediate benefits over inherited higher status. The ‘right’ way to show this self-demotion is to renounce the higher status and become part of the University Council as representatives of the Government. Transparency requires that we ‘show’ our own valuation of our status.
We make discoveries through our own lives. If the discoveries were made through genuine investment in the protocols and Due Processes of the existing system – which in this instance includes FUTA as part of the University system and our discoveries do not confirm the protocols and Due Processes that already exist then we need to publish our discoveries – for they qualify as Research. Due Processes are the flow of policies/ law. Law/Theory is the current version of yesterday’s discovery. Yesterday’s discovery beyond previously existing theories / laws is given fluid form to assist low investors in an institution/family. Those investors invest from their respective angles only. These various angles are the positions in those institutions. Due Processes if they flow from true discoveries – would lead back to the original value of that position. These Due Processes are standard relationships that would lead us to get into the person at the other end of the relationship. Thus we would realize the core value of the position and with it the institution/family. Once realized we would work all parts of the institution through that position at its current value. Its current value is the value we inherited plus the value we added. Each time I took up an Accounting position, I worked genuinely through that position (which was usually lower in status compared to the positions I held in Sri Lanka) and added my own genuine value to it. The value added was the Truth I learnt about all on the ‘other side’ of that position plus my own investment in Sri Lankan Chartered Accountancy (including Accountants) . This usually lifted the position to a higher level. That was how I usually restructured positions that I held – at the workplace as well as within family. In the process, I accepted reduced status to ‘get the job done’. I became more democratic because of that.
The above academics are giving Politics greater status than Higher Education. This naturally leads them to ignore the Opposition (in this case the Union) and therefore behave as if they were the government. The position of Opposition is like the position of Mother in a family. A mother has Equal status in democracy and yet not visible to the outside world.
Ms Shamala Kumar states ‘In Australia, the National Tertiary Education Industry Union campaigns to increase funding for Australian higher education, and in India, the All India Federation of University and College Teachers in their June 2012 newsletter lists their struggles against commercialization of higher education (although this seems minor in contrast to their main campaign for increased pay).’
Australia’s Higher Education Union – NTEU is not yet a Democratic Opposition to University Administration. Like our Opposition in parliament and mothers of the old hierarchical system, the NTEU operates as second management and not Equal Opposition to University Management. As a Senior Academic of the University of New South Wales observed – once these Union leaders get into Administrative positions – they start talking like management. That happens when our status is not truly earned but is worn as makeup. To be a true Opposition the Union needs to have performed close to 50% of the Management’s work and therefore ‘show’ the other side.
Recently, my cousin Ravi Prakash forwarded as a Sai Devotee message the speech by Mr. Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Corporation. The message had the title ‘Respond instead of Reacting’. The following excerpt illustrates the difference between being second class management and equal opposition by making it yourself. Mr. Azim Premji says:
‘The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found. My friend was sharing me the story of his eight year-old niece. She would always complain about the breakfast. The cook tried everything possible, but the child remained unhappy. Finally, my friend took the child to a supermarket and brought one of those ready-to-cook packets. The child had to cut the packet and pour water in the dish. After that, it took two minutes in the microwave to be ready. The child found the food to be absolutely delicious? The difference was that she has cooked it! In my own life, I have found that nothing gives as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. In fact, what is gifted or inherited follows the old rule of come easy - go easy. I guess we only know the value of what we have if we have struggled to earn it.’
I do not identify with the last part – about easy come easy go inheritances. Some of us value our inheritance by surrendering our current work to the old system. I did that here in Australia – at workplace as well as family level – especially after my children got married to white Australians. I had to ensure that my grandchildren carried the real values of my Sri Lankan heritage. Hence the way I included my Sri Lankan Chartered Accountancy minus its status as per Sri Lankans – I included my Jaffna-Sangarathai family values minus its status from the Community, into my positions freely allowed and accepted in Australia.
When we strip ourselves naked of all benefits – including status – what remains is our true value – as Mr. Nilantha Ilangamuwa , Editor, Sri Lanka Guardian, often says – our nudity. Truth has no status. It is wholesome. Hence when only our values merge – it matters not whether I am a Mentally Ill Australian challenging the Vice Chancellor or Smart Sri Lankan Chartered Accountant developing Chartered Accountancy in Jaffna with Jaffna Tamil status ONLY.
As the records would show, our sponsored relatives – once they started wearing the ‘Australian’ makeup would use even ‘mentally ill Tamil Tiger supporting - opposition’ label if they are not allowed to play the immigration game – Aussie style. Our relatives are not alone. Most parents sponsored by children are in this category and their children – like the Unions are taking up second management positions as Australians to demote anyone who shows signs of ‘made in Sri Lanka’ status. They are no longer in touch with their Sri Lankan heritage and they are very remote from the Australian heritage. If they were true refugees – their national values – naked of their Sri Lankan status would have naturally merged with Australian values to validate their current legal status as Australians.
If Sri Lankan Unions blindly follow Australian Unions they would also be like these refugees and start dictating to anyone who ‘shows’ true ownership in the old system. The Vice Chancellor of the University of NSW who had me arrested in the first instance – is the parallel of these refugees at the higher level. Likewise the above academics who sidelined the Union - FUTA
