by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam
Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke says ‘Truth & Accountability’; Dr. Dayan says ‘The truth about the Darusman report, reviews by Gaja Lakshmi
(August 20, Melbourne,Sri Lanka Guardian) The former is like saying ‘Soul & Relativity’. The latter is like saying ‘Soul of Indonesia’. I am not able to relate to either. MARGA which is the institute through which Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke is largely identified is not United Nations – the organization through which Mr. Darusman is identified. As I said recently to someone – Lord Muruga in the altar of Nallur Temple in Northern Sri Lanka and Lord Muruga in the altar of Westmead / Mayshill-NSW in Australia is the same. But once we come outside the altar the two temple systems are different and are governed by the secular system based on merit. Nallur is far larger/higher than Sydney Murugan Temple. Likewise, United Nations is far larger/higher than MARGA or Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry.
Let’s take the specifics in Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke’s analysis – as picked up by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke ‘“[…] The root of the problems in the report lie in their outrageous interpretation of the government’s military strategy as designed at the extermination of Tamils without any humanitarian intention or effort at rescuing hostages. With this interpretation the panel puts on the blinkers that distort all their perceptions of the government’s actions. The report also gives a deliberately truncated view of the government’s action by excluding what would have provided a different and more positive explanation of these actions. This deficiency is seen in every part of the report that deals with government actions.” (Conclusions, pp.28-29)
Interpretations of the Government’s military strategy would vary as each person’s need and purpose. Individuals acting in their own rights as civilians are entitled to interpret as per their experience. That experience is the Truth. Those who are acting on behalf of an organization – have the responsibility to interpret as per the positions they hold and the principles governing those positions. Every person who interprets as an individual but is still in an official position has effectively vacated that position. Likewise those who have officially vacated the position but speak within the limits of that position are effectively living in their past.
When interpreted on behalf of an organization the interpretations would be relative to the common values and principles that that organization officially shares with Sri Lankan Government. The person in charge of the military attack – may or may not have actually had intentions of saving the hostages. When soldiers had to face a situation where they suspected civilians in Vanni to be supporters of Tigers – they are not likely to have applied discriminative thinking but are more likely to have fired to save themselves. Even the Government Agent of Kilinochchi was sent to prison after the Battle of Vanni. If he was considered a Terrorist supporter on the basis of merit – then the Government had failed to Administer him, through regular measures. If not, the arrest is to be taken as having happened on the basis of individual opinion and not as per Government Administration. The current Government Agent of Jaffna – Ms Imelda Sukumar – was known to have contradicted herself when giving evidence to the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission). At the time of the battle – Ms Sukumar tended to act as an individual. At the time of giving evidence – Ms Sukumar was acting as per her position. Both are important for their respective purposes.
The Commander of the Armed Forces was responsible to act on the basis of Common Principles of his position and not as per his personal thinking. If the principles are acceptable to the United Nations they are to be taken as being the reasons why the actions took place – until there is proof to show otherwise. If we have no record of the principles and the instructions based on those principles – we need to measure as per the ‘facts’. These facts confirm what happened. Each one is entitled to interpret as per their experience in that issue. To that extent they are entitled to express and say it in their local environments and not beyond. Armed forces are likely to say that a civilian got killed due to living physically close to the LTTE. Tamils are likely to say that the armed forces killed because the civilians were Tamils. We need to give interpretations to our belief to help closure.
To me, many of Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke’s as well as Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke’s expressions are seen to be very local – to the Sinhalese Community. These could be used in local ‘Sinhala Only’ villages to bring about closure to those who believe that the Tamil Tigers were terrorists. The ordinary Sri Lankan does not have the discriminative thinking to know the difference between a Terrorist and a Freedom Fighter. They copy their masters/leaders. Unless therefore – the leaders themselves relate through Global Measures – their thinking is likely to be the collective thinking of the commoner to whom the one that ‘shows’ most benefits is the winner – as in majority vote.
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke highlights further from the analysis by Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke‘“...The LTTE had deliberately integrated the civilian population into their military effort and turned the NFZs to battle fields. By the mass conscription of civilians for military activity in the NFZ the building of fortifications with civilian conscripts and the use of all means available for military purposes, the LTTE had effectively blurred the distinction between civilians and combatants. How is intentionality and proportionality of army actions to be judged in such a situation? The LTTE was refusing to surrender. It was becoming clear that the defeat of the LTTE and the rescue of the hostages would entail heavy human cost- deaths of the LTTE combatants, conscripted civilians, soldiers and non combatant civilians. At this point the army after weighing the options available and their likely consequences had apparently decided that it could not halt the offensive and had to go ahead and put a speedy end to the resistance of the LTTE. It has to be noted that the government would have had to take into account that the LTTE in their desperation might resort to acts of the utmost brutality that might involve deaths of civilians on a massive scale.”(Conclusions, p 33)
Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke and through him Dr. Dayan Jayatiolleke, first states on behalf of the UN panel ‘The report also gives a deliberately truncated view of the government’s action’ and then says also about the LTTE ‘The LTTE had deliberately integrated the civilian population into their military effort’
Words such as ‘deliberately’ confirm that the speaker/writer is expressing on behalf of others. This is in breach of ‘privacy’ laws and is in effect an attack on the humanitarian needs of the person being spoken about. The Truth we keep to ourselves is ‘private’ to us and no one – not even our parents have the right to express on our behalf within that area. It was on this basis that it was understandable that the Sri Lankan Government would exercise its sovereignty in managing this situation. If that claim of sovereignty had been genuine – the Sri Lankan Government would not worry about what others outside their circle of belief had to say. The fact that it is showing that it is worried – confirms that it did not really believe that it had sovereign rights to take action in this regard. It is like in Prescription Laws of Sri Lanka – according to which the physical possessor must establish ownership independent of the legal owner and title adverse to the legal ownership. Sri Lankan Government showed both – lack of independence of the UN and actions on the basis of its cultural/majority opinion – than the belief that Tamils in its custody were its civilians. To me, based on my own experience with the Australian Government – the Sri Lankan Government was showing fear of being defeated by the Tigers and their supporters. Hence the excessive force. If this was inevitable – that is acceptable to the extent it was used in Defence. But the subsequent actions in claiming ‘victory’ and propagating it beyond the area where it used Sovereign rights to kill – i.e. – Vanni – the Government confirmed that it was actually using force beyond the level needed to Defend its civilians and itself. In fact, the Government was effectively doing the same as the LTTE – using civilians as its shield and cover to ‘show’ and ‘tell’. Now the world is saying ‘If you can tell we can tell better’.
Like with the individual – there are private areas in every relationship. Within this area this relationship works naturally to not only keep the balance in unexploited areas but also to naturally elevate the person with higher investment to represent the whole relationship. No one has the right to intrude into this area of privacy. Having taken the ‘sovereign’ approach, the Government of Sri Lanka needed to stay inside this private area and mourned in common with Tamils. Some parts of the Tamil Community also has failed to mourn and join in the release of the souls of its dead. To that extent they are also failing to ‘preserve’ the value of all those died – at the highest level available to them. The highest level available is the global level towards which we need to rise above the bilateral level of tit-for-tat. We Hindus say Sivapuranam and other prayers to Lord Shiva – the Lord of the Mind – when someone passes away. The mind can expand to Universal level or shrink to individual level as per our belief. Those of us who are true Sri Lankans or are true Global citizens – would naturally elevate the work of the side we are adding ourselves to – to the level at which we have invested. In turn we automatically share in the value of their good karma/actions. At the time of death and thereafter - there are no rights and wrongs but only consciousness. Given that more Tamils have died than Sinhalese – the consciousness of Tamils about the Truth is greater than the consciousness of Sinhalese. When this is given ‘form’ it is belief. Anything within this area of belief would measure up as ‘right’ through any good system. When Dr. Dayan becomes true Sri Lankan he would have admittance into this area of belief and when Dr. Dayan becomes true global citizen – he would know through his belief that the Darusman report is through the sovereign rights of the UN – which is beyond the Administrative area of the Sri Lankan Government or any other Sri Lankan using position titles instead of substance from zero base.
Here in Australia, I myself realized that I could not go beyond a certain point in the Australian work hierarchy without fooling myself. My Spiritual Guru – Sri Sathya Sai Baba – helped me complete that cycle – so I would not be enjoying benefits from positions reserved for White Australians. By compromising and going along with my supervisors – I could have continued until I was physically not able to work. But then there would have been no closure of my paid work in an environment that was NOT practicing racial equality. Like with the UN report – my claim of racial discrimination may not be identified with by others including Tamils who hold positions similar to the ones I held – and beyond. It was painful for me to stay and it was painful for me to not stay. This was the battle between my mind and my heart. By staying – I would have covered up my pain which I believed was racial discrimination – each time I felt discriminated against. It might have been for other reasons for the other side. But if I could not see a merit based measure and the law/ government shows through its anti discrimination laws – the strongest reasons – I have the responsibility to use the best fit out of those reasons. This did result in imprisonment and worse.
But today – I am free of all racial discrimination benefits. Every individual who favors and accepts benefits on the basis of race (intuitive or conscious) is actually guilty of practicing racial discrimination. There are many Tamils who do accept such benefits – beyond the merits as per their positions – by helping custodians of power ‘look good’. To the extent they help others do their jobs as per their positions – they do not discriminate. Beyond that if they ‘obey’ blindly – they are contributing to subconscious racial discrimination. Likewise Tamils in Sri Lanka working in Sinhalese environments without firm application of merit and v.v. Most of the higher positions are tainted with unjust discrimination where a system goes beyond its circle of belief, without commitment to common principles and values.
Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke, ‘Truth is NOT accountable. Actual actions are accountable.’
UN Darusman’s privacy/truth can only be known through a believer – which Dr. Dayan is not. Intruder would be intruded into.
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