Australian Tamils asking ‘How much is a gram of Freedom’?

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

( May 18, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I write in response to the Sri Lanka Guardian article ‘The police as the spoiler of criminal investigations’’ by Mr. Basil Fernando.

Mr. Basil Fernando states ‘The following is a comment from a reader to an AHRC Urgent Appeal on the issue of dowry deaths in India. We reproduce this short comment by the reader because it represents the general perception about the police in all South Asian countries in their role in criminal investigations:’

It was just yesterday that my husband and I filed and served my Affidavit in relation to a matter regarding my complaint against members of my husband’s family, in the Supreme Court of NSW, Australia. This is also about the dowry system which is included in the Law of Thesawalamai, which is officially included as the Customary Law of Tamils of Northern Sri Lanka. To me it is the parallel of the genuinely practiced parts of the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) Recommendations v the UNHRC Resolution. Likewise, actual practice of law based on practicality and expectations by those who work in largely intellectual paths. I studied with interest, the laws of Thesawalamai as they related to the distribution of wealth. I needed to, due to my husband’s sisters denying my husband and I access to the documents of title in relation to the Intestate Estate of my brother in-in-law who passed away in April 2010. As I studied with faith – based on my actual practice of its provisions, I admired the beauty of that ancient Customary system that included the time based form of today’s Democratic policies of Equal Opportunity. I appreciated that they were actually in essence leading to the same goal of Equity. The dowry system for example was to balance the lower status of the daughter who usually got married at a younger age than the son. In compensation for the son’s waiting and responsibility for the liabilities of the par