(March 10, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) There is much talk about ‘Accountability’ and ‘War Crimes’ in regards to Sri Lankan war issue at the global level. There are credits and debits of Accountability being attributed as per the side taken. What does the Balance Sheet say? How is this activity geared ? Is it through Onwership Capital, Loans or short term credits? This Balance Sheet is our history. A Balance Sheet needs to present a ‘True & Fair View’ of the state of affairs of an organization.
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke in his article ‘Misapplying the Middle East model & mode’ (Sri Lanka Guardian) states as follows:
‘Prof. Nira Wickramasingha, now holding the Chair of South Asian History at the University of Leiden, reminded me of a point she had made sharply in her slender book ‘History Writing’. Sri Lanka, she had remarked, was one of the few countries in which mainstream newspapers carried pieces on history by those without any credentials or formal training in the disciplines of history and historiography. This, she wrote, would never happen in India for instance, where any incursion into history in the quality press would have to be backed up with credentials in order to secure publication.
What she said of history is just as true of politics. Sri Lankan newspapers and websites are replete with pieces that go beyond intellectually legitimate critical commentary to the pontifically prescriptive and hortatory -- almost in inverse proportion to academic training and testing in the domain of political studies or any of its sub-fields.’
History is also a Balance Sheet when it is a true account. On that basis I am able to identify with the difficulty in drawing up Balance Sheet from chaotic writings/bookkeeping. . Accordingly to an article in Lankaweb.com for example ‘According to the 2006 Census there are 73,852 Sinhalese and 8,897 Sri Lankan Tamils living in Australia.’
I am not able to identify with that through my direct experience. Hence the rest of the article was of little value thereafter. The ‘accounting system’ through which this was published was faulty. Likewise in Politics.
The following statement published in 2007, when Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke was Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United Nations, also is about transparency:
“Talking the battle into the adversary`s territory, its ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Dayan Jayatilleke, said his country did not want to be `preached` by states whose human rights record was `far from perfect`. Sri Lanka would take advice from international bodies only when these had `transparency of funding` and when their agendas were `not donor driven`, he declared brazenly”.
How reliable is the above statement by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke ? Does it reflect a true and fair view of Sri Lankan Government’s status in Global Funding? Has Sri Lankan Government practiced transparency in terms of Accounting for lives in its custody? Does the Sri Lankan Government therefore reject ‘advice’ / long term loans - from its seniors in Global Funding?
Like with any organization, benefits are derived through positions within United Nations and other global bodies of governance. Any transaction outside this position needs to be strictly confidential between the two parties concerned. Ideally they need to be subconscious towards supporting each other – as in family. Hence for all activities within the jurisdiction of UN’s Governance, decisions need to be as per each country’s position in that issue, within the United Nations. As Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke then and Dr. Palitha Kohona now, had/have the responsibility to raise the position of Sri Lanka, through various activities and interactions at ambassadorial level. This is where personal wisdom becomes important. Diplomatic services rely heavily on this. This was the role of family and community elders in our cultural systems. This ought to have been the only role of our Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka. The mere presence of such persons would influence the minds of true seekers – as if they are lovers. If such persons produced a Balance Sheet – there would be perfect balance at that level. Hence it is important to include such persons. They are our governors at global level. Those who govern at local level, need to be honored through such diplomatic positions. Commanders of armed forces who by the very nature of their jobs would be strongly driven by wins and would need to ‘show’ those wins to their cadre, are not likely to be seen as good governors by those who are intellectually driven. We do not need war crime allegations to disqualify such people. All we need is to present a better alternative – which was the responsibility of the Tamil Diaspora. The Tamil Diaspora failed because of its haste. It needs to structure within itself a strong administrative system of global standards. If this is not possible in the immediate future – the Tamil Diaspora needs to show structures through which their actions and reactions could be observed. That would confirm autonomy.
We are all diplomats of our families, workplaces and countries when we are outside the boundaries of our respective Administrations. Positions and their influences are as per our conscious observations and calculations. Where the administrative system is weak, decisions made on the basis of official status would also be weak. It is to make up for this weakness and unreliability that we have the diplomatic services. Even at social level, people seek out such persons of wisdom towards Peace and Happiness in their circles.
We can all know the connection by observing ourselves. To know the connection we need to close the borders to local level – the level of One. Time and Space/Place are the agents of change. When we freeze one we are able to see the movement of the other. Place is more easy to control than Time. Hence physical borders – of family, race, institutions and countries. Race on its own is not harmful. It is when it is actively applied to discriminate that it is harmful to our progress. Any subjective discrimination not based on common faith is harmful to progress of the individual and therefore society. Taking the caste factor through which my family usually had majority power in Northern Sri Lanka, when we did not need the services of lower caste people who usually did the menial jobs – for example the Pariahs (toilet cleaners) – we ‘lost’ them from our circles. Those who did lesser jobs usually tended to rely on those who did higher jobs and hence there was a connection in which the lower caste folks tended to submit their work as process rather than ‘show’ the outcomes in the presence of those of higher caste. This hierarchical system is necessary in any system driven by faith. Hence we bow even today to the Judges. I have not seen any other Australian in court bowing to the judge’s chair when it was not occupied. I bow more freely to the chair when it is not occupied. Below is an excerpt from my book ‘Who Am I?’ that highlights my thinking in this regard:
‘Friday 23 November 2007 – judgment day in matter Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam (GLP) v University of New South Wales (UNSW), at the Full Australian Federal Court of Appeal
I walked into room 21A – a majestic-looking room. At the computer below the Judge’s chair was a young man. There was no one else in the room. I bowed to the Judge’s chair and seated myself. I thought of Lawyer Todd Golding (from the Office of the NSW Crown Solicitor) who asked me earlier in the year as to why I was bowing when there was no judge in the chair. I said ‘I am bowing to the god of Justice’. Justice is part of me. Justice comes with me everywhere I go. Hence in a way I was bowing to the god of Justice inside me. Each time I judged as per my conscience I brought into me the god of Justice. The Judge’s chair was the mirror image of the god of Justice within me. I have been trying to reconcile that god of Justice with the ones I ‘saw’ and ‘heard’ on the outside – telling me who I am. This is an account of that reconciliation process. Justice gives me inner balance / peace. When I find it on the inside, others from the outside need me to give form to their own sense of justice. Some did identify but none had the courage to say so publicly on the basis of his/her own conscience. Most needed external verification and therefore confirmed lack of faith in me. Lack of faith in me is lack of faith in justice itself.’
Where we have worked genuinely and the environment in which we live fails to facilitate the benefits due to us – then we have done the work for someone else/ some other group in the world and/or for the same environment to benefit at future time. The more we need to ‘see’ the benefits of our work, the more global we need to become. The more global we become the more Equal we need to feel with others so we would produce the results of our own work without depending on others or interfering with the work of others.
Diplomats, like governors need to be True to themselves and therefore be wise. A true Diplomat would rely least on Administrative structures but would have paid due respect to and followed the Administrative system at its highest levels of application. Such a diplomat would not say anything direct – in relation to rights and wrongs. Both – Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke as well as Dr. Palitha Kohona failed to demonstrate diplomatic wisdom by expressly allocating rights and wrongs. Like a spiritual leader, a Diplomat needs to have the equanimity of mind to take as right every genuine expression / action.
As per the laws of Nature – there is an Equal and Opposite to every action. The laws of Equal Opportunity are based on this natural principle. When they are contained within firm borders, we are able to see the connection between action and reaction; cause and effect. At the physical level we need to see the two sides towards making a wholesome decision. Hence the Balance Sheet concept.
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke quotes in this regard:
‘Althusser’s best pupil Regis Debray realised this while in jail, and ruefully observed in ‘A Critique of Arms’ that historical time is not the same everywhere; the clock of history keeps different times in different places, even on the same continent. This he attributed to the autonomy of the political instance, most especially the specificity of ‘the national’ (the Achilles heel of Marxism, he said in a 1977 essay). He has re-developed the thesis in recent months here in Paris, in an intervention termed ‘In Praise of Borders’.
Administrative structures are facilitated through borders. Unless we are within the same borders, we would not be able to see/know the connection between action and reaction; cause and effect. Once we remove those borders, we need to become conscious of even playing fields in a free world – each one being driven by their own Truth in an uneven Administrative world. If we are therefore truly seeking the Truth in a society without borders or community with weak borders, we need to be driven by our own Truth above all else. Faith of the Individual is the power that drives the voting system. Feeling connected to that individual even when not required by Administrative rules and benefits – is the power of the Governor / Diplomat.
The Sri Lankan war was brought outside the Sri Lankan borders by both sides. Neither side rose above the physical level to seek, find the Truth and become wise in this issue, from within Sri Lanka. It is understandable that all participants would try to complete their cycle by finding the benefits and opportunities at the highest possible levels of their community/society. At the global level, the official levels available to Sinhalese such as Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke and Dr. Palitha Kohona seem proportionately higher than the levels available to Tamils. Yet, taken without the direct influence of the Government of Sri Lanka, the achievements of Tamils at global level seem proportionately higher than the achievements of Sinhalese. When these diplomats shed their local position borders, to become global participants, they are more likely to identify with this picture and share their status with the side that has earned it.
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