What’s in a name?

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

( June 08, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) We continue to have debates about whether the Sri Lankan war was war against Tamils or war against Terrorism? Did Romeo and Juliet die due to their love or due to family feud? "What's in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell assweet." – Shakespeare.

With any pleasure or pain we could use the common description or what it means to us as individuals. I call the former – ‘institutional’. This institutional description gives us common understanding thus confirming that at least in that respect our minds have come together. To be counted at public level through one’s individual description, one needs to have performed beyond one’s position duties.

I went through more personal pain due to what I described as Racial Discrimination pain here in Australia than I experienced in Sri Lanka. I did not give my pain the Racism form even to myself, until after I had reached the highest position I felt I could reach with my Sri Lankan qualifications and after that too I ensured that I knew that I ranked high on merit basis in that high position. Once we give form at the lower level – it is difficult to merge our work with higher level work of others who give their institutional work and pain general form to cover all. The levels at which we genuinely commence giving our own special forms would vary as per our capabilities and the official positions we hold in those environments. To my mind, the level at which the LTTE gave form to the Tamil problem was lower than the level at which I gave form to my pain in Australia - as racism. Similarly, the level at which Tamil politicians gave form to the problem was higher than the level at which armed rebels gave form. If as a community, Tamils could not ‘see’ a way forward – then the LTTE level is accepted as our level of Public Administration and Management.

On the side of the Government – by recognizing the LTTE more and more as its opposition, the Government is also stagnating its level of Public Administration and Management to that level. Recognizing the problem as being ethnicity based – is essential to prevent future wars due to racism. It is not necessarily only due to Sinhalese in power. It is also due to Tamils who submitted to such subjective powers for quick benefits – a trait that some Tamil leaders are being accused of even now.

This morning I wrote to a young Australian Legal Professional as follows in this regard:

‘I challenged the Central Administration on the basis of Racial Discrimination Act 1975. My experience in this might help you appreciate how other qualified migrants like myself would feel. In all my positions here in Australia, I did work harder than my predecessors and to a degree I was rewarded with higher income for that. But higher status beyond a certain point was not that forthcoming. Some said that they also had to face similar problems and hence it was not racism.

There is a form that we give our pain. Some are institutional and others are individual. I do believe that where Equal Opportunity laws are part of an institution’s Administration - we need to consciously give it form. Most Australian institutions do not give it positive form at the level of the individual worker. To me compromising and submitting to subjective thinking of another culture outside institutional boundaries - amounts to racism.

Often migrants themselves are guilty of this To my mind, one needs to have established highest level of performance through merit basis - before giving it 'special' label. It's the difference between GP and Specialist Doctor. I have become a specialist in eliminating racial discrimination and it was possible only because I was a high performer at the Common level. I believe that this is the best heritage I am passing on to the next generation. It is important - to accept how the person with lesser status describes the pain. Towards this it’s best not to accept the form given by others about a person - especially by mainstream about a migrant worker. Some suffer due to institutional excesses. Hence when someone gives their pain the form of unlawful discrimination all managers have the responsibility to acknowledge it and investigate and inquire through that path. It may never be proven but the travel would certainly reduce the level of subconscious subjective discrimination outside institutional boundaries. This in turn will help the manager place each one in their natural position where they are at their best. Then the path - like the scaffolding could be put away/lost consciousness of. As a manager / parent - you must help others find their own natural areas so that you do not see yourself at all. This happens when you feel ownership.’

Dr. Laksiri Fernando who to me is the parallel of white Australians who claimed that it was a General problem - says in this regard ‘if we try to see everything and everyone in racial or ethnic terms then we create subjective barriers to resolve problems between us. This is apart from whatever discrimination that she has gone under the Australian public administration.’

It took me 13 years of accepting the pain as being generic. I do believe that I am entitled to 13 years to describe it as racism. That way I improve both Commonness as well as Diversity. I need to feel that I have given equal status to both in my life.

We would describe our pain in different ways and we would all be right as per our environments. Due to this ‘name’ problem – we do not seem to get past the surface of the problems in Sri Lanka.

I believe that where there are institutional requirements, they must be given preference in describing our pain – as we do in Courts – using the language of the law. But where there are no such institutional requirements – we are free to use our individual descriptions. The consequences are also naturally ours and not the institution’s. In essence, I believe that one has to work beyond the position duty to given one’s individual form to the pain or the gain. It’s like saying that one has to be a General Medical Practitioner before becoming a Specialist. Likewise, only those who have followed the general laws against crime and violence have the right to describe their Sri Lankan war pain as ethnic war and that too only that part of it. Others have to for public purposes, accept the description of their respective governments – including Australian Government for Australians of Sri Lankan origin.