Mr. Abbott & Channel 4

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

( September 05, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) This week, a lady Real Estate agent rang me about a business arrangement. Having heard from my husband that I had been away in Sri Lanka when she rang in July – the lady asked me about my work there. We got talking about the Refugee problem and identified with each other’s true feelings in this regard. This gave me inner satisfaction and added inner strength to motivate me to keep doing what I was doing. The lady asked me what value I derived from the work? I said inner satisfaction – that it made me feel good. I said that I was able to find my own value from the work I was doing. Otherwise I would have stopped doing it. The lady said in the context of Refugees – that we all have something valuable to offer. The feeling with which that lady said it – was genuine and I identified with it and felt really good. Being able to truly feel that way – is a huge achievement.

With this at the back of my mind, I thought about the issues discussed at the Sunday meeting of the Sri Lanka Reconciliation Forum, Sydney, after Dr. Michael Roberts made his presentation on ‘Ideological Currents restraining Reconciliation in Sri Lanka’. My heart went out to a member who said that it was not ‘right’ that someone felt that they did not ‘belong’ in the only home known to them. That went straight to my heart due to my own experiences here in Australia. I may not ‘look’ like a refugee or a war affected person. But to me – my loss was deeper than that of any refugee from Sri Lanka – known to me – because of the damage to my sense of ‘belonging’. Intellectually speaking this was especially cruel because it happened at a time when my country of origin was struggling with the civil war. The Real Estate lady said ‘those who have not had the experience would not understand’. My Australian pain helps me appreciate and identify with genuine refugees. When we strip ourselves of all the outer make up – we stand in our Truth which naturally identifies with the Truth of another.

Intellectual discussions and structures can ‘show’ us the solution, but unless we ‘feel’ the problem and accept it as ours – we would not feel the solution. Just because we lose property and are physically injured, it does not mean that we ‘feel’ pain. We feel pain only to the extent we genuinely invested in the institution / source which was the root cause of our wealth and comforts. Humanitarian service needs to go to that depth. We do not need to ‘see’ or ‘know’ that there has been loss of property and/or life to identify with the pain of damage to the sense of belonging.

As per current news, our Opposition Leader the Hon Tony Abbott said ‘Sri Lanka had a civil war. The civil war is long over’. The war could be assessed at a combination of three levels:

the ‘seen’; the ‘known’ and the ‘felt’. The level at which we relate to the war would be as per our investment in the issue. Given that the root cause includes ethnic problem, those Australians who still carry ‘white only’ policies and/or their architects would naturally reject ‘Tamil only’ values and those who personify them. According to the reports, only one Sri Lankan has been deported this year. This does not mean that the others are genuine refugees. It does however, confirm that the way politicians identify with the issue is different to the way administrators identify with it. At the moment, the actual decisions seem to be more in favor of the asylum seekers. To my mind, a major reason is that there are not enough Politicians with deep investment in both countries – Australia as well as the country from which the asylum seekers come. Relatively speaking, administrators invest in the issue through their everyday work. A genuine administrator would therefore gradually develop intuitive wisdom in the issue to the extent of her/his ‘ownership’ work. Ownership work is work for which one has not received money and/or status benefits.

These administrators would also assess at a combination of the three levels of assessment. The way politicians ‘see’ and reject – some of the administrators would ‘see’ and accept. They could be ‘wrong’ as per given set of rules. But if the asylum seeker is genuine or if the ethnic group to which the asylum seeker belongs is a strong investor in Australian values – then the refugee is likely to be accepted by a genuine administrator. Clever administrators may not be genuine administrators. Similarly, clever asylum seekers may not be genuine asylum seekers. Over emphasis on an administrative system could lead to the clever ones coming into the country instead of the needy ones.

Amongst Sri Lankans (including those of Sri Lankan origin) the investors in the war issue were/are categorized largely as ‘extremists’ and ‘moderates’. To the extent someone is passionate about being ‘Sri Lankan’ (not Tamil nor Sinhalese) that person is also an extremists. Similarly Australians. Extremists tend to have strong attachments to the physical boundaries and representations – such as language and religious forms – beyond functional purposes. That is like hoarding money. Lots of money is good when it is used for the higher purpose of bringing human minds together. Extremists isolate themselves and gradually lose confidence to function in the world outside – as individuals.

As was discussed during the Sunday meeting – we could have Sinhala Nationalism; Tamil Nationalism and Sri Lankan Nationalism. When we forego the pleasures we enjoy through the body, we raise our enjoyment to the higher level – through our mind and into our heart through which we feel the universal connection. If we eat only for the pleasure of taste – we would end up with disease. As per the law of nature – every benefit/gain comes with equal and opposite cost/pain. The higher mind, is conscious of this and therefore moderates the taste pleasure. This helps raise the quality of our life. Similarly, our attachment to the physical form of the country / place/ethnicity we belong to, comes with both sides – pleasure and pain. It’s when we forego some part of the pleasure that we raise our thinking to the higher level. It is by not going to work to earn money after high school that we invest in tertiary education. Those who take excessive pride through a physical form as per their environment, therefore would have nothing left to be raised to the higher national level to feel nationalism and international level to feel global. Those who feel, work the system naturally and therefore they do not need to consciously calculate what’s best for the system. Whatever they feel good about – would be progressive for the system and all systems that fit within their system.

To the extent Australians damage the ‘sense’ of belonging of even one migrant who has upheld the values of Equal Opportunity – they owe the community that the person feels s/he belongs to. Hence to me - asylum seekers from Sri Lanka have legitimate claim in Australia – to the extent of that damage. Likewise every other Australian of Sri Lankan origin who did not get their dues at global standards, after practicing the principles of Racial Equality.

In terms of Refugee issue – Australians are also grouped into different categories – as those who are strongly accepting of Refugees; those who are strongly against Refugees and those who are moderates. Like in Sri Lanka, we all make up the whole. If we are working on the basis of Independence and Self Governance – our diversity would make us attractive to each other. It is when our ‘attachment’ to the physical is beyond the level of our need that we develop separation qualities – which would continue to divide internally when we do not have external groups through whom to allocate blame. As questioned by Vaanavil – a Registered Tamil Newspaper in Canada, ‘who has kept count of the numbers drowning on the way to Australia – with the same energy directed towards war-crimes?’ Those to whom numbers are important to ‘calculate’ the value of an issue – need to do so when people voluntarily undertake risks to their lives. To the extent Tamils who rely on those numbers failed to collect and educate would be asylum-seekers undertaking such risks – Tamils as a community have lost the moral authority to accuse others of killing Tamils. Every One of us needs to do what we can to protect those who are part of us – before accusing others for failing to protect those who are part of us. To the extent we accuse others for failing to do what we are ourselves failing to do for our community – we are claiming that those others are more responsible than us for our community.

If we ‘feel’ and identify with the problem – the deaths in battle or due to drowning – would be part of the solution. Solution to one would be solution to the other in that one environment.