Truth & Justice

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam 

( November 24, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I read with interest the interview of Fr. Emmanuel by Sri Lanka Guardian Editor  Nilantha Ilangamuwa,  published under the heading [“I remain a friend of the Sinhala people and of Buddhism” An Exclusive Interview with Fr. Emmanuel] Fr. Emmanuel says ‘With the defense ministry’s web page portraying me as a key-supporter of terrorism, I too have fears.’

To my mind, whether it is ‘right or wrong’ for the Defense Ministry of Sri Lanka to so portray and whether it is ‘right or wrong’ for Fr. Emmanuel to be fearful of such portrayal is what Justice is all about.  Australian Tamils often ask me whether I am not fearful of going to Sri Lanka’s North and East.  Similarly, a white Australian said to me that she was fearful of Tamil demonstrators coming into her area. To me both are due to the other group not being our ‘home group’.  Hence the measures through which we attribute rights and wrongs – i.e. – measures of Justice would be different at the common level compared to the local level. Truth is the common measure for all. Until both sides are within their Truth  the outsiders  need to be objective and insiders need to be subjective in their measures. In terms of Public Service – the former needs to be approached  on ‘project basis’ and the latter on ‘program’ basis. A project has a distinct beginning and end. Program is ongoing until the server and the served become One. It is due to Governments operating mostly on Program basis that they used Cash Accounting system as opposed to Private Sector driven by profits and hence the  use of Accrual Accounting systems.

Applying the above to the Battle of Vanni – when taken on ‘project’ basis – the Government of Sri Lanka has confirmed that it is  identifying the outcome as a victory / profit rather than as an improved process.  To that extent  Tamils are ‘outsiders’ to the Government. If that was taken as part of a program – the Government of Sri Lanka would keep going – and consider the Battle of Vanni to be part of a normal process of governance in that country where armed rebellion is not unusual. They would not list particular individuals as enemies any more than they list those of their own ethnicity doing parallel work against the government. If they used outsiders in the armed forces to defeat LTTE – they had the obligation to use Global Measures and not their own subjective internal measures.

 Fr. Emmanuel states ‘Forgiveness is due to those who acknowledge their crimes. That is why we demand an independent international inquiry which will establish the truth of what happened on that island and will identify the crimes and their perpetrators.

This is by no means a revengeful act.’

Forgiving is an internal healing process. Once outsiders were hired by the Government to fight – and recruited by the Tamil Diaspora – global standards need to be used to measure both sides. From then on there is no question of forgiving. It is not anyone’s private issue from that point onwards – to forgive and/or forget.  Once it becomes global – we have to fight to uphold Dharma / Righteousness – through the side taken by us – irrespective of whether they are the winning side or the losing side.  If the Sri Lankan Government had appreciated its work within – this matter would not have gone global. But their Truth came out – that their own citizens were their enemies and hence the current dilemma. If we do our best and leave it to Time – all wrong doers would punish themselves. But work we must – without expecting fixed returns. The returns happen through Natural Justice. At the moment – I am not able to see a system that works close to Natural Justice.

Fr. Emmanuel states ‘But, we of the GTF and many others have been saying from the beginning, that both sides must be investigated and we hold on to it. Without justice there is no true reconciliation.’

To me it is reconciliation between judgments  through two different systems or  one justice as per  Common Global system or Truth. The latter does not need reconciliation.

I have written as follows in my book about my Australian experiences:

‘What is Justice? To me Justice is knowing which Truth within me makes me feel good and which does not. The more I feel good – the more I am able to live with myself – in Peace and feel happy about it. If I am able work on, the Truth that does not make me feel good, and convert that also into good value – I start living in Truth that makes me feel good most of the time. Taking the Truth that makes us feel good as good health and the Truth that makes us feel bad as disease we could identify with Justice at group level.  At family/ institution/ community / society level – the group that manifests evidence of curing work plus the disease to equal  good health is a stable group. One that has more Truth that makes it happy is able to expand to include other groups and this to me is merger towards universal feeling of Oneness.’

If therefore Global Tamil Forum is seeking to reconcile – it is accepting that we are using two different systems of judgment. We could then only judge ourselves and not others. Once we judge ourselves and produce our own judgments respectively – that becomes the foundation for reconciliation and development of a common system and/or devolution in areas where the two are irreconcilable. Given that neither side has done this – we are being hijacked by outsiders who would go to the next project that would produce more profits and we would be left to the value of our idle talk.

The more we ‘think’ for others but without believing that we are One group – we are acting in breach of  the doctrine of separation of powers. Any government elected by us in a free environment would  carry our weaknesses in it and v.v. Once we see more fault in the other than virtues – we would block the path of bringing them into us. Hence it’s best we separate but do so as per our own true earnings – starting with our minds. Natural Justice / Fate would do the rest of the work.  It’s the primary responsibility of the system of Natural Justice to uphold Truth  and manifest that Truth where majority are true to themselves.