| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
( September 2, 2014, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Members of the Sri Lankan Diaspora have been discussing the merit of the book “Sri Lanka’s Secrets: How The Rajapaksa Regime Gets Away With Murder” by Australian media personality Trevor Grant.
The conclusion is quoted to be “There is always one thing that despots forget as they go about their business of murder and terror. You can kill thousands of people, but you can never kill the human spirit.”
To me Aborigines of Australia are outstanding examples of this everlasting human spirit. Migrant nations are developed through such democratic process. Given that Aborigines are oldest settlers in Australia the vertical subjective system needs to be led by Aboriginal values. Every migrant using the vertical subjective system has the duty to bring to her/his mind’s eye the Aboriginal elder of that part of Australia or of Australia as a whole. To take over that position as if there was no one else above us is effective genocide. Under the subjective system – the first believer is the head. Many Australians do express their respects to First Australians during Public ceremonies. But this does not extend to Courts and Public Administration where subjective powers are used on the basis largely of British laws. If for example, the Police arresting me on the basis of Inclosed Lands Protection Act 1901 – had paid their respects to Eddie Mabo – the Aboriginal leader who fought through the legal system to uphold Land Rights common to his community – the Police would have found the Vice Chancellor guilty of wasting Public Resources. But because the Police used the subjective powers of White Australian leaders they were denying the claims of First Australians and were effectively committing genocide. Under the time based subjective system – the eldest person is the subjective leader. In Australia’s case this is Aborigines. In the case of Tamils, this is upheld by Ganesh – the Hindu Deity depicting the intellectual path and the first born of Lord Shiva (Consciousness) and wife Shakthi (Energy).
The more progressive alternative for Australia is the 360 degree view assessment through the system of democracy. Under those circumstances – the Police ought to have recorded as their own observations only one sixth of the big picture. Mine, the Vice Chancellor’s the University Legal Officer’s, the Director of Human Resources and the Chancellor’s ought to have formed the rest of the picture at equal depth. The Chancellor’s assessment of me ought to have been the guidance as far as depth was concerned. That picture eventually happened and the Vice Chancellor was dismissed. The Energy needed for the global picture was developed by me through various parts of the University – the Government being represented by the Police.
Likewise in the case of Sri Lankan Government – the big picture is formed through :
(1) The Sri Lankan Government’s actions through its armed forces
(2) Tamil victims’ expressions independent of other groups
(3) The United Nations which listed the Tamil Tigers as a Terrorist group
(4) The Sri Lankan Public
(5) The Global media
(6) The person/s developing the big picture that they seek to show
To an Australian of Sinhalese origin who stated that I was identifying with LTTE terrorists, I responded:
‘In the system of democracy – one needs 360 degree view. This is an approach taken by Germans and later by many Western groups in HR management. Hindus depicted it through Lord Muruga’s 6 faces. (Please see excerpt below from my book). LTTE claimed that they were freedom fighters. The Tamil Community as a whole did not dispute / override this. If you conclude that identification with LTTE means that I am a Terrorist – then you are confirming what Grant says – that you are using subjective force external to me – to judge me – and you would get all the wrong answers in relation to participation in truly global forums.’
Like with Racism, Genocide could be conscious or subconscious. Dr. Pradeep Jeganathan states in relation to this, under the topic ‘Ethos of Ethics’:
“Often, we adults know right from wrong. But we carefully lull ourselves into thinking that some small wrong, doesn't matter, if it benefits us, and doesn't seem to do much wrong to others. And then we continue along that path, as the unethical behavior grows in magnitude.”
To me that is how subconscious genocide happens. Tamils who failed to produce their work independent of the Government also contributed to this. The LTTE and other militant groups that killed Tamils also contributed to this genocide. Subconscious influences need to be diffused through group power. Those with positive Energies in this regard – need to include the perpetrators – be they the LTTE or the Government of Sri Lanka.
The question here is whether Sri Lankans are to educate mainstream Australians or mainstream Australians qualify to educate Sri Lankans? As a member of minority group in Australia as well as in Sri Lanka – I am choosing the confidential path of including the needy (those needing transformation) as part of my world.
Sri Lanka's Secrets
How the Rajapaksa Regime Gets Away with Murder
By Trevor Grant
With a foreword by Geoffrey Robertson QC
Author Trevor Grant in conversation with Julian Burnside AO, QC, and official launch of Sri Lanka's Secrets, 14 August at Readings Bookshop, Carlton, 6 for 6.30pm
As the civil war in Sri Lanka drew to its bloody end in 2009 the government of this island nation removed its protection from UN officials and employees, who, along with other international observers, were forced to leave the conflict zone. President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his inner circle wanted, it seemed, a war without witness.
The end result was the deliberate slaughter of an estimated 70,000 innocent civilians. However, many survivors, and some who died, were able to capture on camera the horrifying conclusion to the war and the cruel deprivations of the internment camps that followed. Today, through their images and testimony, Rajapaksa stands accused of war crimes.
In Sri Lanka’s Secrets experienced journalist Trevor Grant presents the shocking story of the final days of this war, alongside the photographs and eye-witness accounts of many Tamils, including Maravan, a social worker who fled to Australia by boat after being tortured by soldiers seeking his folio of photographs.
Grant also details the continuing torture and abuse of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and some national governments’ ongoing support for a regime that has abandoned any pretense of democracy. Foremost among these enthusiastic supporters has been the Government of Australia, cynically preoccupied with ‘stopping the boats’ fleeing Sri Lankan state terror. At any cost.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Trevor Grant has worked as a journalist for more than 40 years, as a reporter and specialist feature writer for The Age and News Ltd in Melbourne, mostly in the sports arena. He now works as a broadcaster and writer on activist issues in Australia, and as an advocate for refugees through the Tamil Refugee Council and Friends of Refugees.
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