Foreigners have no feelings for us.

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

( December 11, 2013, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) These days I am becoming more and more aware of cultural influences that remain with us in old age. Ultimately our real ‘home’ is the one structured in our mind – through the facilities that we freely and naturally surround ourselves with. Our real family are the ones who represent those values that are important to us. It is important to identify and give form to those values when we are able to do so – so that when we are in a situation where we are not able to think – for whatever reason – that structure would naturally protect us from within. We are often fooled by external structures until it’s too late. The real values within could be in the form of others or ourselves. The more objectively measurable these values are – the more global we become. The more subjective these values are – the more local we remain.

This morning I received from a fellow member of the Tamil Diaspora the following email message:

Dear all,

My apologies to all the others who are but innocent bystanders in this exchange but Gaja does not believe in private correspondence. She send us all her unwanted and unadulterated tosh. She even acts as though she is the personal representative on earth of the Hindu deities that makes me sick. She drags my name through her mindless muck and expects to terrify us. We have no time to waste reading such bilge. She started these aberrant emails and it is her duty to stop them when asked. We can ignore her but she could find someone else among the innocent victims of state terrorism to ensnare into her lair. It is because of this, that an anti-social pest must be confronted. She must be so lonely and isolated that she fishes for our email addresses and will not let go. I do not care either for her encomiums nor her abuse. I am strong willed enough to resist her worst vitriol until she learns to behave better in public. Otherwise, I am afraid that the white coats will be after her. It might be what she needs.

Xxxxxxx

I received this person’s email address through a group email. Given that it came to me through the natural process in global communication I included this group in my regular distribution list. The material shared with this group is largely the material published through Sri Lanka Guardian. In other words, this person who is part of a Tamil group is complaining against sharing of that material through the email system. In my recent Sri Lanka Guardian article ‘Are the Tamil Tigers Freedom Fighters or Terrorists?’ I stated in this regard “On a personal basis – some would wonder whether I am a ‘democracy crusader or a nuisance?’”

To the above member of the Tamil Diaspora, I am more than a nuisance – one who abuses the victims of his so called State Terrorism. He concludes ‘I am afraid that the white coats will be after her’ . Is that not what the University of New South Wales also did ? – resulting in me being listed as a criminal and a mentally ill one at that. These labels were used by my relatives in legal matters. To me I am a victim of the ‘system’ just as hundreds of thousands of Tamils became victims of the actions of the Government of Sri Lanka – especially in 2009. Yet, the British government that found fault with the Sri Lankan government, failed to have enough influence over its Tamil Community leaders – for them to question this terrible loss suffered by a fellow Tamil. Hence this above Diaspora member’s threat against his own. Such a person has no moral authority to question the Sri Lankan government over its authority to punish Tamils.

Our deservedness to be supported is earned through our genuine investment in a system. Just because officials in that system fail to provide that support does not mean that Truth does not work. The system may catch and punish only a handful of perpetrators. The rest punish themselves more strongly than if the system had punished them on time. The system that was informed of such breaches of its law but fails to punish the real perpetrators suffers exponentially due to its failure to act when it had the duty to do so. A Canadian asked me recently why I had not taken action against the University of New South Wales (UNSW) through general workplace relations laws, instead of Racial Discrimination Act? My response was that the need of Australians to practice racial equality was greater than the need to improve their merit based workplace performance. In terms of racial equality my actions were based on belief. Belief is universal and therefore would naturally raise itself to national level and beyond. The need was a national need to which UNSW was contributing strongly. 9/11 followed by Bali bombing confirmed that my intuition based on my feelings of ownership was right and that I had contributed to minimizing the damage for Australians and beyond – through global law, despite the high risk of defeat in local courts.

To me the essence of this is captured in the following title ‘If Nelson Mandela Really Had Won, He Wouldn't Be Seen As A Universal Hero’ of the article published by the Sri Lanka Guardian.

A true Universal Hero is driven by Truth. The apparent one/s are parts of that true one – to varying degrees. The author of the above article states:

‘In South Africa, the miserable life of the poor majority broadly remains the same as under apartheid, and the rise of political and civil rights is counterbalanced by the growing insecurity, violence and crime. The main change is that the old white ruling class is joined by the new black elite. Second, people remember the old African National Congress that promised not only the end of apartheid, but also more social justice, even a kind of socialism. This much more radical ANC past is gradually obliterated from our memory. No wonder that anger is growing among poor, black South Africans.’

The tone of the email from the above member of the Tamil Diaspora confirms to me that he sees himself as being the one entitled to ‘judge’ me in place of other governments that have apparently discarded me or to whom I am a nobody. This means that the real leadership of Tamils is yet to be made public. Only the apparent leadership of Tamils has been changed by these self-appointed leaders who tend to work to keep public discussions ‘private’ – so that they could conveniently exercise their power. They therefore accumulate real return karma when they ‘publicly’ condemn other Heads of States - including the Sri Lankan Government, through their subjective local powers – behind closed doors.

When someone keeps claiming something beyond the level of their real need and/or outside their official position – they start becoming that person in their minds. To me that is the natural judgment we all write for ourselves in our minds. When we do not replace the Government we know through our own-selves but keep expressing faults and/or virtues of that government – even in our minds – one part of our brain rules over the other through majority memory. When we self-govern that part of our brain would be stronger than the side that was written through hearsay. Such persons would be supported by the structures in their minds that were written through their own Truth. Where external knowledge is greater than this internal wisdom and there is none else to ‘blame’, the memory from our Truth is overpowered by the memory from hearsay – and we exercise that very power against which we spoke. That is the way of idle speech. Hence the advice - ‘hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil’. Once we know through our direct experience – we need to give it form and if we do not like that form – we need to include ourselves in the structure of a reliable system of person/s such as Gandhi, who developed such a system based on their Truth.

Mr. Upul Joseph Fernando quotes in his Sri Lanka Guardian article ‘Basil-Chidambaram Spat Over Prabhakaran's Death’:

"It is only we who can solve our issues. This is our country's problem. It is a national problem. Foreigners have no feelings for us. I know that if they wanted to, they could have intervened in our crisis. But they had no interest to do so. Some countries had their own reasons for wanting us to kill Prabhakaran, and those reasons were not in the interest of our people. Now they are shedding crocodile tears. I appeal to the Tamil people and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), let us, being citizens of this country, solve the problem on our own. We treat all people of this country equally. Hence, let us consider this as our problem which we have to solve on our own." (An excerpt of Basil Rajapaksa's speech during the 2014 Budget debate in Parliament – Courtesy: Sunday Observer)”

The above expressions also confirm a conflict between emotions and intellect. Former is individual power and the latter is inclusive power. Those who fail to invest in the latter use the former which surfaces fast in an idle mind. Like the Tamil self-appointed Email Administrator who seeks ‘local’ power which to me is emotionally driven, the Honorable Basil Rajapaksa also seeks to keep the ethnic problem ‘local’. The Sri Lankan problem became global the moment the Sri Lankan Government sought the help of others beyond Sri Lankan borders. Now they have the obligation to use global laws and not local rights and wrongs.

If we look beyond particular personalities – Sinhalese wanted to keep their ethnic power local and hence Sinhala Nationalism. To the extent they did so beyond their actual belief – they naturally created their other side – and hence the LTTE. That is the law of Nature. Once we manifest one side as per our Truth – the other side is already created for ourselves as individuals and/or as groups. This other side would surface when the environment is ‘free’ of stronger powers, due to forceful elimination and/or natural deterioration of opposing surface powers. Had Tamils therefore used intellectual powers and manifested them through appropriate governing structures of global standards – that stronger power would have prevented the emotionally driven powers of the LTTE from surfacing.

Similarly, unless the current Sri Lankan Government develops appropriate governing structures of global standards, the emotionally driven local powers of the Sinhalese would continue to surface itself to overpower minorities. So long as political powers are stronger than intellectual powers – we would continue to face civil unrest in Sri Lanka. Those of us who contribute strongly through Truth that includes the welfare of others beyond our local emotionally driven groups – naturally contribute to the prevention of the manifestation of such unrest strongly contributed to by ‘locals’ on both sides of the ethnic divide.

To me as an individual – my experience with the Sri Lankan Government has been more positive than my experience with the Australian Government that sent me to prison. To majority members of Tamil Diaspora it would be the other way around. Hence at the apparent level – I take my low status in global community and join the ‘voiceless’ group of Tamils who are neither with the Government of Sri Lanka nor with the Tamil Eelam group. But the work I do by sharing my true global skills goes naturally towards raising the investment our group makes in global management. I identified with this contribution yet again – when I read recently that the Sri Lankan Government under the leadership of the Honorable Basil Rajapaksa, with the aid of the Indian Government opened English Language laboratory in Gampaha. We, the Australian Tamil Management Service, opened such a lab in Vaddukoddai, during CHOGM in Sri Lanka. It happened naturally. Tutoring happens through Skype practically everyday except Sundays. That is investment in Distance Education in which I invested through a real part of the University of New South Wales. That part is called ‘Sports Medicine’ headed by Dr. David Garlick and Ms Gwen Harrigan to whom I am a valuable person and not a criminal. Through me their investment continues to be global. As we sow, so shall we reap.

The British Prime Minister was also using his local powers which now includes Tamils of Sri Lankan origin – to find fault with the Sri Lankan President. I do identify with the statement by the Honorable Basil Rajapaksa that ‘Foreigners have no feelings for us.’ Those who have feelings are family. Only they are entitled to share in our subjective powers. Yet, the Sri Lankan Government that used subjective powers as Government made LTTE the foreigners and British Government its relative – when it used subjective powers to enlist the LTTE as Terrorists. Until the LTTE were hurting the British – they had not earned such a label except through the UN and other common Governance bodies. Back then Britain contributed to a surface decision based on hearsay to buy its own status as a global leader. Now it is doing the same – except that instead of the Sri Lankan Government, it is now the Tamil voters in the UK. Both Governments are reaping as they sowed – as did the Australian Government in terms of keeping its Racial Discrimination Act less active than its Anti-Terrorism laws.

Once we know someone has no feelings for us – we don’t need to discard them. We need to develop intellectual structures based on discriminative thinking that includes all in a group. This is what I did at workplace as well as family level through my legal actions once I knew that the other side did not have feelings nor were driven by common principles and values. This structure would help us distinguish right from wrong and when reliable would help us manage ourselves in all parts of the group. If UN had successfully implemented global laws and principles – Sri Lanka would have been saved the suffering. Sri Lankan leaders apparent, on both sides were reactive confirming strong emotionally driven local thinking, while enjoying global benefits.