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The spirit of thepin thaliya and social justice

I believe that any discussion on human rights and gender must be accompanied by a spiritof selflessness, giving and simplicity. All three aspects are demonstrated in Mario PererasnovelAmuttha (Stranger 1997) where a young man ponders the value of an ancient customof Lanka:

I recalled the significance of the moon as the provider of water, which reminded me of our discussion about thepin thaliya or the meritorious gift of water in earthen pots placed in a shady place, be it a tree or an ambalama,where strangers and weary travellers could rest. ... no one was expected to humble himself by asking for such avital necessity as water, and ... no one might exalt himself by giving it on demand. That was the significance ofthepin thaliya. Shelter, the ambalama and waterhad simply to be anonymously placed at the disposal of those inneed, especially of strangers and wanderers...

This custom was selfless because the identity of the giver and the receiver were not of theessence. The community had recognized the need and also recognized that drinking watershould be freely available to everyone. There was giving because there were no termsattached to obtaining water. It was unconditional. The simplicity lay in all these things andthe direct yet skilful means adopted to provide the service. It was also efficient because

there was no unnecessary communication and no intermediaries.

The pin thaliya also illustrates the principle oftrust. This issomething that a personal andcommunity based enterprise must develop with a large number ofstrangers who come torely on a particular product or service provided by it. In the case of the free gift of water thereis mutual trust between the provider and receiver. The receiver relies on the suitability of thewater to drink and its availability and the provider looks to the receiver not to waste, damageor steal what is regarded as community property. In the modern world we have seen vendingmachines that dispense beverages and snacks on the insertion of cash. These are kept inpublic places and there is a community consensus against misuse. This is an effectiveadaptation of the principles epitomised by the pin thaliya. There are many other examples.Thus we can assume on sticking a postage stamp and posting a letter that it will be

delivered to the recipient.

Now there is a higher reason than the monthly pay for the postman to faithfully keep his partof this arrangement; a reason that goes deeper than trust. This is goodwill or the mutualaffection that makes people happy to serve each other with some degree of realization thatall of us help to keep each other fed, clothed, housed and gainfully occupied in the largerscale of things. Mankind is in fact one great inter-dependent network that ensures livingtogether. In some ways this is not a mere ideal but a living reality. The primary object ofeconomic activity is the satisfaction of basic needs of all.

But over the last few centuries this was challenged by a different object commodityproduction for profit maximisation. The old value of simplicity was replaced by complexity

and custom was replaced by law. Today the greed driven profit ideal ensures that one of sixhuman beings on this planet live in a permanent state of severe malnutrition. (Jean Ziegler former UN Rapporteuer on the Right to Food). This includes one out of three children under5 years in Sri Lanka. Within this paradigm there are movements the world over that seek tointegrate a different and more realistic way of life based on needs (not wants) and respect(not exploitation.) Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka have formulated ten basic needs for humanbeings.

1. A clean and beautiful environment2. Adequate provision of clean drinking water3. Minimal supplies of clothing4. Adequate and balanced nutrition5. Simple housing

6. Basic health care7. Basic communication facilities8. A minimal supply of energy

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9. Holistic education

10. Satisfaction of intellectual and cultural needs

We make ordinary people pay dearly for what should be accessible to them freely or at acheap and affordable price. When a need is eventually provided, the three main upholders ofour framework of exploitation whom I designate as the 3 Ps the professional, priest and

politician feel that they are superior and magnanimous beings. The ordinary people fortheir part feel thoroughly inferior. As Hitler once said:

We do not want to do away with inequalities between men, but on the contrary, to increase them and make theminto a principle protected by impenetrable barriers.

The law is one such barrier. If we place the basic needs mentioned above and thefundamental rights chapter of our Constitution side by side and ask a lawyer to explain howit can help our deprived communities achieve a higher standard of living he or she would behard pressed to give a clear answer. Social inequality, the distance between judges andlitigants and a difficulty on the part of the former in relating to the latter, the high cost oflitigation and delays are not modern dilemmas. They were the same issues that Cameron

faced when he designed our Judicature in 1833.

It seems to me that we have overlooked a vital phase in our journey from a feudal to amodern nation state, and that is social justice. We have put the cart before the horse.Instead of clarifying our human values and building relationships we have imitated laws andinstitutions found in the West and placed more and more communication barriers betweendecision makers and the people. It is the dogged intransigence of the 3 Ps and theirinstitutions that made our youth feel that armed rebellion was the only option to obtain theirrights.

Legal justice cannot provide answers where families and communities have broken downand there is no political commitment and social vision to include and take care of the most

vulnerable. Yet this is what the legal responses to both child abuse and domestic violencehave unsuccessfully attempted to do. The state intervenes after everything has happened,not to protect the victims but to punish and restrain the offenders. These processes help usto disengage from the real day to day issues that face victims and construct a duel in whichthe state plays the role of the hero and rescuer.

The superficiality seen in the learned discourse on human rights and gender is the result ofidentity politics, the inability to see anything other than your preferred subjects. Ourdualistic and partial understanding of human rights is a result of our forgetting our nativevalues epitomized by thepin thaliya. These values also find a sympathetic chord in Article 1of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscienceand should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Emphasis added)

This is a revolutionary call to see each other as human beings and help each other ashuman beings. Before we name ourselves with our exaggerated identities we are first andforemost a human being. This is the selflessness we must reach for when helping others. Inpursuing the ideal of human rights using the fundamental rights jurisdiction and the HumanRights Commission we grabbed hold of the first sentence and completely overlooked thesecond. We pursued rights without consideration of our relationships; sought justicewithout making those essential sacrifices for building peace.

As a further reflection of this bias we have given much attention to the public realm, politics,personalities, institutions laws and procedures and ignored the personal realm that plays acritical role in shaping personalities, behaviour and close relationships.

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The dis-oriented professional, priest and politician must challenge himself or herself to re-discover and re-connect with the public service roots of his calling. Underneath each one ofthem is a social worker who needs the provocation, encouragement and opportunity to relatedirectly and humanely to his fellow men and women. The modern need for an approach thatis open, grounded and realistic and one that does not claim and monopolize the solution tointer-personal problems is supplied today by the idea of social work. The fundamentalstrength that professional social work will claim if at all, is skilful communication with itsclients.

In the spirit of thepin thaliya, this is something that every selfless mother knows. As adultswe react negatively to negative statements and behaviour and we seldom relate to thehuman needs and causes that lie beneath. The mother who is attuned to reading the babysemotions will instinctively know what the needs are. The baby is free to express herselffreely without fearing a negative reaction. This is the golden key to building relationships, asocial vision and social justice in our society.

Sajeeva Samaranayake Attorney at Law