----- Original Message -----
From: Gaja param
To: lankanstudentassociation melbourne
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:05 PM
Subject: Who are Sri Lankans?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58036852103&ref=mf

[Dear Organisers,

LTTE ! RELEASE THE CIVILLIANS - PEACE rally by ALL SRI LANKAN NATIONALITIES
Basic Info
[Invitation to All Sri Lanakns ( Sinhaleese, Tamils, Muslim, burger etc.. there are 32 nationalities in SRI Lanaka) in Melbourne to get together for a peaceful rally against LTTE and it`s Brutalism using the civillians as a human shield. Will be held in front of Victorian Parliament on 04th of April 2009 @10.30 AM to 1.00 PM.
Check the events calender --http://snni.brinkster.net/slevents/index.html
Please spread the word among community and lets step forward as a one nation under one flag.
Dont forget to bring your national flags , banners.
Dress in a white or similar top to resemble peace.

Remember our country needs us more than ever at this special moment.]


Gaja wrote:

A Sinhalese wrote as follows about us Tamils at http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2009/3/41668.html

[``Well, Gaja and Thivya and other terra supporters, it is time for you to go there and support PTTE``]

I give below a communication with a fellow Tamil and ask whether the above is fair and just. If not, do you promise to include in your agenda a public declaration that every person of Sri Lankan origin who denies another of Sri Lankan origin - the status of Sri Lankan but without evidence calls us terrorists - is a terrorist? My responses are in red.

Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam


----- Original Message -----
From: Gaja param
To: lankanstudentassociation melbourne
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Who are Sri Lankans?

Thank you Malaka for responding. I will respond in the body of your email

Regards
Gaja

----- Original Message -----
From: lankanstudentassociation melbourne
To: Gaja param
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:43 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Who are Sri Lankans?

[Hi Gaj Param

Thanks for your e-mail...

Your statement is bit complicated to me. Pardon me for my lack understanding.
Could you please make a little bit simple.

Questions :- What is PTTE ? - ]
Sinhalese using pseudo names call Eelam - Peelam. Hence LTTE is referred to as PTTE as a label of condemnation
[ What is your question exactly in a simple way ?]
I have not supported terror or criminal activity in any form. But I do believe that Tigers believe that they are fighting for independence. I got to know this by direct interactions with them - not by agreeing with them but largely by disagreeing with them. That `sense` is accumulated by being true to oneself. Hence I cannot identify with the `terror` labels by Sinhalese. To call me a terrorist is to call Gandhi a terrorist.
In summary, it has become habitual for unsupervised Sinhalese to claim that they are Sri Lankans and that Tamils do not belong in Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers have promoted this through their push for a separate country rather than a federal structure.

Hence my question is whether your rally would address this through affirmative action? If you are seen to be the winners who facilitated the Tamil civilians to come out - then Sinhalese extremists are likely to claim that they liberated Tamils from Tamil extremists. This is not true. We have all contributed to the wins and losses in this war. I carry myself with dignity as a Tamil and I brought my family out of the war zone through personal efforts and prayers. They are now in detention due to suspicion by the Government.
Anyone who asks the Tigers to release civilians in Vanni also has the moral responsibility to ask the government to release the detainees. I do not see that in your agenda.

[I`m a independent sri lankan and I do not know all the politics..]

In that case you need to take a `project` based approach and not a program based approach. Through that project you must produce a definite outcome that could then be added to the program of ethnic harmony.

[I think we all have suffered from war what ever the cause.]

Most Tamils don`t need to think. They know that they have suffered. Their feelings must therefore lead the solution and not the thinking of those who have not had the direct experience.

[This war started even before I was born]

Likewise with many Tamil youth - and hence my response to Dr. Easwaran. Are you pready to hear your elders irrespective of their race? If yes, then there will be positive value in your work. You may give our sharing your own form. But our wisdom must be part of your solution if we are to develop lasting harmony.

[SO we as Melbourne Lankan youth are gathering to plea LTTE to release the human shield ( Please correct me if thats not how you see it)]

I do see it as stated above. I therefore have problems with it because you are not pleading with the Government which is also keeping civilians under detention. Your actions therefore would disadvantage Tamils unless the rally is seen to be led by Tamils.

[To make it simple I`m neither arguing nor trying to do a root cause analysis. This is to free the civillians trapped in the war zone]

If you really believe that - then you ought to be able to outline how that is likely to happen. Would the Australian government send its troops to release the trapped civilians?
If they did, would that be Dharma to you? - given the low level investment made by Australians of Sri Lankan origin, in governance of Australia? Do you for example feel for the Australian soldiers who suffer from psychological trauma after working in Iraq? That is the test. If we feel hurt through the suffering of another whose background we do not know - then we are truly universal. Then we have the moral right to draw on common global resources. Otherwise we are limited to the common pool we have contributed to. If you did not plead for Australian victims - at least through your prayers - then you do not have the moral authority to access Common Australian resources. Australian Government may get involved for its own purposes but if you ask - then you get indebted and therefore Sri Lanka gets indebted to Australia.

[AS A SRI LANKAN
WE go to a match and cheer to MURALI as well as SANATH.]

So according to you One Tamil in the team is proof of racial equality? You may not have influence with the cricket board to ensure that merit basis is used and that they seek and find Tamils to be in the pool, before applying the merit basis. Nor would you have influence over Murali being part of the cricket board in future. Aravinda De Silva is related to me through marriage and I appreciate his work in coaching young Tamils. My question for you is - do you make up for that imbalance through more effort to cheet Murali than Sanath to whom you would feel naturally connected.

[WE go to sinhala shops enjoy a ` fish bun ` as well as eating ` Ulundu wade, Thosa ` in tamil shops.]

Do you bring the persons and their cultures into you with the food? Do you bring more Tamils into you than fishbun makers?

[WE have shared the lunch in school with our tamil friends and they have shared ours]

How many of the mothers who made those lunches are in you - as part of your experience of a mother?

[I do not want to argue beyond that as a independant ordinary civilian.]
It`s not argument to me. It`s seeking clarification.

[Please keep in touch.]

I will - to the extent you respond.

[Best Regards,
Malaka]

Thank you
Gaja