FRONT PAGE
 NEWS .
 CLASSIFIED .
 DHAMMAWEB .
 SANDUN UYANA .
 ANTENNA .
 EVENTS DIARY .
 LONDON DIARY .
 FEATURES .
 LETTERS .

Resurgent Christianity in a Devitalized Nation.

R. Chandrasoma.
5th April 2002

The new synergy between militant Christianity and Tamil Terrorism makes the future bleak for the Sinhala-Buddhists of Sri Lanka.

Opportunistic infections rampage through our bodies when our natural defenses are down - when micro-organisms and other pathogens which are, ordinarily, kept at bay through the strength and vigilance of the protective mechanisms of the body find a welcome disarray that encourages their proliferation. Like a living body, societies, too, are plagued by periods of weakness, of irresolution and a disastrous loss of confidence in their ability to conduct affairs in a way conducive to the welfare of the bulk of their citizenry. At such times, there will always be 'opportunistic infections' - attempts by those groups at the periphery to wrest power, to take over a body-politic wracked by weakness so as to advance an agenda that is openly inimical to the best interests of the majority of the people. The danger is especially great when those at the periphery have the ability to unleash forces that would prove unstoppable if allowed to gather momentum - i.e. if allowed to gain a little ground while those at the center are pre-occupied with seemingly more urgent matters.

Friends, does all this ring a bell? It should - unless you belong to the mass of inert and complaisant drifters that, alas, constitute the bulk of our Sinhala-Buddhist population of Sri Lanka. Is it not true that our beloved country presents all the classic signs of a terminal political illness - with opportunistic 'political infections' laying waste an already debilitated body? Our leaders - nominally Sinhala-Buddhist - speak openly and without remonstrance or pangs of conscience on the need to hand over a goodly part of our country to an erstwhile bloody tyrant. One who makes no bones about the fact that his irredeemable wish is to drive the 'Sinhalayas' from his 'homeland'. It is more than a mere wish - his armed minions exult in victory and our beaten population is forced to witness the unsavoury spectacle of our 'leaders' bending over backwards to placate every whim of a racist thug who nor so long ago gloriously murdered all those who dared to extend a tentative hand of friendship.

There is more to this richly despicable saga. Who stood by the tyrant with unrelenting steadfastness - in times good and bad? Who whitewashed his villainy and accused the Sinhala-Buddhists of racial hauteur? Who campaigned with indefatigable vigour to convince the outside world that the Sinhala brutes were massacring the Tamils? Who financed the 'peace movement' that subtly transmuted patriots into maudlin cowards - making our poor fighting men the laughingstock of professional fighters everywhere?
Is it necessary to answer these questions? Amazingly, yes - because the truth has been buried beneath a farrago of irrelevant nonsense about 'human rights', 'peace', 'love' etc. Here is the naked truth - the Christian Church (in all its manifold forms and ramifications) has deemed it fit to coddle terrorism as a matter of high policy and in consequence has been a principal instrument of destabilization of the Sinhala-Buddhist State in the last two decades of its tortured existence. In an astute cost-benefit analysis, the aggrandizing leaders of a collective church that claims to be inspired by Jesus Christ, have made the wonderful discovery that a moribund Sinhala State is the ideal pabulum for the spread of the religious contagion that they 'market' by means fair or foul. From the point of view of these unscrupulous zealots, the rise of the Tamil Tyrant Pirapaharan cannot but be the handiwork of divine providence to advance a cause that seemed lost a few decades ago. In that brief summer Sinhala Buddhism was restored to glory - so it seemed - and the routed monotheists were seen fearfully licking their wounds.

The last few years have witnessed an eclipse and a monumental reverse. Militant Christianity rides high again. The Marxists spoke of the necessity for the State to control 'the commanding heights of the economy'. In the last few years, the 'commanding heights of governance' have been lost - nor merely to non-Buddhists, but to dedicated revilers of the Sinhala-Buddhist heritage of Sri Lanka. In a great feat of Machiavellian cunning, the rot in the fabric of the state has been speciously attributed to 'Sinhala-Buddhist extremism' and the way has been cleared for Christian enemies of our indigenous culture to ride rough shod over its remains.

The task of naming and blaming is invidious - but the truth must be stated. We have, effectively, a Christian Government in place today with key ministries given to redoubtable campaigners for the 'rights' of Christians. Let not the sham of public worship at places regarded as holy by the Buddhists deceive us on this score - the zealotry of these agents of global monotheism remains undiminished even if lip-service is paid to the weal of our nation conceived in historic terms. More insidious is the threat posed by key players who are 'Christianized' if not overtly Christian - those religio-political mimics and masqueraders exploiting an assured vote-bank of Sinhala-Buddhists while working hand-in-glove with the enemies of this constituency to belittle them and rob them of their pre-eminence. A most important fact has been left to the last - that a Christianized Government is a Tiger-Friendly Government. Is there any need to elaborate on the disastrous consequences of this remarkable tie-up? Do we not witness the death-throes of a nation directly attributable to this unholy alliance?
What of the larger public - the government, surely, is not all-encompassing in its influence on the character of a polity. Are there not 'movers and shakers' in other spheres of influence that - through their myriad contributions - make our land indubitably Sinhala and Buddhist despite the desperate machinations of its enemies? To answer affirmatively is lose sight of the meretricious character of the society in which we live today - a society in which professionals and intellectuals have a fast-diminishing role to play in moulding public opinion. Who are the opinion-makers? Following close on the heels of the loud-mouthed and utterly unscrupulous politicians are the Media-Men, the Sangeetha-Karayas (Music Men) and the well-paid activists of the Peace Brigade. That the Media (print and electronic) are under the iron heel of Big-Business is a fact that has belatedly filtered through to the understanding of a public hitherto complaisant on this matter. That Big-Business has become a lackey of the Tiger-Christian Combination is less evident but has an irrevocable logic to it given that a globalized commercialism cannot be a great friend of a proud nationalism that seeks to distance itself from the changes wrought world-wide by a mindless consumerism.

To be fair by men (and women) of the 'fourth estate', let it be conceded that they are as helpless as the general population in countering the calculated misdirection of the organs of publicity by those with wealth and influence. This impotence does not diminish the harm done to the image of Sinhala-Buddhism by its Tiger-Christian enemies through a skilled jockeying of the Media at every critical turn in the affairs of our country. We see this right now - when the latter-day killer of Presidents, Prime-Ministers and a thousand other nameless innocents - is portrayed in full colour and on the front page of broadsheets for veneration of its readership.

The entry of Sangeethakarayas may puzzle some. 'Sinhala-pop' has fast become soul-stuff for the masses - including the Sinhala-Buddhist masses. Here is the catch - these songsters (like their journalistic brethren) are largely Christian -and it is a 'Christian Message of Peace' that they intermix with their high-voltage dithyrambs. In an earlier and less sophisticated age, Buddhist themes were routinely woven into song - today the guys who clutch the microphone usually have a gold crucifix dangling from their neck. They sing to vast crowds on the futility of war and the blessings of peace - and the 'Prince of Peace' imported from the West. Has any learned sociologist investigated the bearing of these near-hysterical sessions mediated by smooth-tongued seducers - who have no love for the religion and language of this country - on the morale of an embattled people?

The 'mantra' of 'One Nation, One People' is sung ad nauseam to seep into the lower levels of consciousness of a vulnerable Sinhala-Buddhist population - through the dulcet magic of song and picture in default of rational argument.

On the Peace-Movement sensu stricto, the less said the better. What cannot be reached by persuasive argument can often be attained deviously by exploiting the common venality of the human kind. The Tamil-Christian Connection must have our grudging admiration for the way in which the greed and 'patriotism for sale' mentality of some of our key citizens have been used to inflict defeat, demean a nation and to make surrender an acceptable option for the mass of the people of this country. From the very first day of the Battle against Pirapaharan, the warriors of the Peace Movement have fought by means other than guns and bombs the so-called 'Sinhala Army and Nation' to bring victory to the enemies of Buddhism We say 'Buddhism' with great deliberation - because it is the elimination of our pristine religion that is the chief goal of the parties that have become strange bedfellows in the battle against the Sri Lankan State.

There is a point of no return in the affairs of men and in the dynamics of material processes - a stage beyond which things move inexorably forwards despite the best efforts of those who see peril ahead. Have we reached this point? Does the break-up of Sri Lanka and the sad eclipse of a great civilization seem imminent? The history of the erstwhile resplendent civilizations of Asia offer us no comfort - we have seen - and, indeed, see at this very hour - our religion being trampled underfoot by the ruthless agents of monotheism who beguile the innocent and destroy by means fair or foul the conscientious and the patriotic. We also see everywhere a population of so-called Buddhists who a re prepared to call it a day and succumb to the importunity of those who falsely promise a better world. On this sad note we must end.

Copyright © 1997-2001www.lankaweb.Com Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reproduction In Whole Or In Part Without Express Permission is Prohibited.