Self Appointed Leaders

by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam

(February 22, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I refer to Mr. Masilamany's article published under the caption ‘In search of Leadership Excellence among Tamils’ in today’s ( Feb.18) Sri Lanka Guardian. I recall through your earlier article ‘God has spoken who said there is no God’ I got the impression that you are yet to seek and find God within yourself. Hence I conclude that your expressions are driven by ‘external factors’ rather than internal faith.

You state in today’s article, ‘Among Tamils we have been lacking leaders and leadership for at least two generations. We need a leader who has the charisma and courage to reach out to both sides and tell them all the good things so that we have the mandate for a unified country. At this time that fertile will is not on either side, let us build that. We can have separate states not separated people, we are all connected’

I have followed many good leaders belonging to the generation before mine and I am leading many good followers of the generation next to mine. The best political leader I follow is Mahatma Gandhi and given that I do not know of a parallel amongst Tamils, I lead myself in Politics above family level. As you would appreciate, there is politics in most families. Politics is about faith based distribution of power and benefits or costs. When we are successful political leaders at family level, we would naturally lead at our respective social levels. Democracy, with its Doctrine of Separation of Powers facilitates self-governance at various levels. Hence, without having at least mentally led ourselves and a particular group, we do not have the right to criticize any leader parallel to or above that level.

You say ‘The Singhalese proclaim that they won the war with Tamils, but then why do the Singhalese behave like the vindicated second class subjects? They want to talk with us but who among us are to talk with? None of them have the courage to say lets talk’

I do not know about them. But I do talk to all those whose work on this issue I come across in the course of my regular work. Some of them do respond. Many others show respect. I do not need any person higher up than the level at which I work. I believe that through that work, I have demonstrated all the leadership qualities that you seem to expect: i.e. ‘Tamils must behave like world-class citizens having the courage and greatness to sit and negotiate as equal partners. But we lack self esteem, self respect, self determination and dignity’ Unless you are able to find evidence of lack of any of these qualities – you have to not include me in the above ‘we’. Given that I am a Tamil, I conclude that we Tamils do have all of the above qualities of leadership.

You say ‘My position is, instead of asking what the Singhalese can give us; I will ask the Singhalese what is that we Tamils have to do to live with them’

As a self-governing Tamil, I say ‘Be warned that I am an independent Tamil living and working in my homeland of Sri Lanka. If you believe, you are a Sri Lankan, I will respond to that Sri Lankan through my own faith as a Sri Lankan and we do not need to calculate rights and wrongs, within that circle of common faith. Beyond that if you seek to discriminate – you need to use merit basis as per the law, or risk appropriate action by me at the global level’

I have not had to say this to anyone so far. Young army officers sometimes tend to go in that direction but in all instance in my case, their supervisors would show good faith. When I help others who feel less Sri Lankan than I, I am their natural leader. Hence, at my levels, there is no need for negotiations. I have enough faith to cover others.

You say ‘We must ask the Singhalese what should or what can the Tamils do to live in Sri Lanka with Dignity, Freedom and Justice.’

We don’t need to ask anyone. Just live and they would know. Gradually those driven by faith would respect and value those of us who do live with Dignity, Freedom and Justice from within.

You say ‘If we ask among our Tamil population and among our presumed leaders, who is in charge? The answer is nobody home’

I do not recall you ever asking me. You need to Divide and ask each one as per their expertise. In military matters you ought to have asked Prabaharan. You still would get the answers from him if you are a military person and you ask with faith and ask for the sake of the community. But if you knock on Prabaharan’s door for Political issues or worse for Public Administration, you are knocking on the wrong door. If Pranaharan were honest and he knew that you were after Political or Administrative leadership, he would say ‘not me sir’ ! Full stop. In Public Administration, if he had listened carefully to his people, he would direct you to Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam, to whom his very administrators said ‘Acca, we do not know administration; we know to fight’.

Above all else, Prabaharan would appreciate that like himself in military affairs, I have taken on the leadership – so that there is no vacuum. When you come to me I will say to you ‘Unlike Prabaharan, I am committed to Non-Violence – physical as well as mental’.

You say ‘It is the people who produce the leadership, we had S.J.V. Selvanayagam, who represented the psyche of the people of the post independence era, and then we produced Prabaharan the man needed to fend of Singhalese aggression, now we need a leader who can guide us to the next stage.’

There is a fundamental error in the above statement. SJV was elected by the People. Prabaharan never had the courage to seek to be politically elected. Without that first step there is no Democratic Politics.

You say ‘The leader has to be a Doctor of Science, so to say, so that there is some edge in him or her worth looking up to.”

Tamils who seek to be ‘pure Tamils’ as in Tamil Nadu – need someone like SJV for political leadership. Tamils who seek to be global and therefore multicultural need someone like Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam – committed to preserving the real values of our elders; committed to Democracy and Equal Opportunity for the current and next generations and be the bridge between Tamils resident in remote parts of Sri Lanka and the western world to which most educated Tamils have migrated.

A Doctor of Science is likely to be depending on ‘certificates’ and theories above reality. It’s a disqualification to lead those Tamils who accepted Prabaharan’s leadership. The gap is too wide.

You say ‘Let me give a simple advice to my Tamil leaders, dress appropriately, it is your attire, your facial expression, your body language are seen, heard and felt louder than your voice. Please cut your hair clean, shave and put on a suit. Tell the audience that we belong to a group of civilized people..’

Suit??? I thought you would say ‘Veshti!’ Looks as if you are trying to steal the mandate of the Tamils living in Sri Lanka’s North and East as well as in Up Country, to bring back Western Colonialism!!!! No takeovers please.

You say in conclusion ‘When a new recruit ask me what to do, I tell them go find your own niche and find your own vocation and find your own quest and answer that call. Our enterprise will never fail’

That is exactly what I am saying in terms of Sri Lankan Tamils. I have found mine. Like the new recruit you seem to have just started looking. One rule I apply in this process is not to criticize anyone in positions higher than myself until I have invested more than they at the level of their position. For example, I do not criticize President Rajapaske in issues where I have not invested at presidential level more than he. Investments here are through active work as well as pain and loss of earned benefits and opportunities at that level. In the case of the IDPs – my investment includes my work and sacrifices to be with them during their most needy time. When I did what I could at the administrative level available to me (for which I had to not show status above them) the path opened for me to be with them. To me getting the job done was more important than showing them that I was better than them. That little sacrifice – which was largely ego sacrifice – helped me be with the IDPs and feel with them. Until then I did not have the authority to take up position above the President. It is my belief that if I did, I would be damaging my earned opportunities to that position and its parallels in various environments including here in Australia. That position is most important to me because of my own investment at the highest levels of Public Administration. In this regard, I shared as follows with a fellow Tamil:

‘I do appreciate that there are problems within the Institution - the same way there are problems with the presidency of MR. I want to make sure that I add my credits with the side to preserve the dignity of the position. In this instance it is the CEO’s position. It's not about the individual. If we let the position be deteriorated through him and the facts may support this, then we lose the value of our fundamental claim. Similarly - MR in terms of the CEO of Sri Lanka. To me, I am the CEO of this Institution and I am the President of Sri Lanka. That is the way we keep our struggles at the global level. Otherwise we are likely to lose our ticket to participate at that level’

To me Tamils – especially those living outside Sri Lanka without finding a way to repay their debt to Sri Lanka – need to not exceed their investment through natural paths in any leadership position – when they criticize leadership positions.