R Chandrasoma

In the recent address to the United Nations, President Sirisena found it strange that the ‘World Community’ – or more accurately, the movers and shakers in the West – interpreted the extirpation of terrorism in Sri Lanka as a camoflaged assault on the rights of a historic minority – the Tamils.

This stance made  a defensive strategy on the part of the Sri Lankan State appear to foreigners as a war against a racial minority that justifiably resorted to rebellion to further its legitimate claim for a fair place in Sri Lanka. The great question is this – how did this so-called ‘World Community’ woefully misunderstand the true nature of Prabhakaran’s murderous vision of a divided and defeated Sri Lanka? Why was Sri Lanka faulted – even ostracized – for its heroic effort to defeat a political killer?

Here is the answer – our leading political heavy-weights – they were nominally Sinhala and Buddhist of course – were in great fear of the possible rise of a form of militant Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism  and foolishly thought that by promoting Tamil Nationalism – going on ‘all fours’ before it – the danger of a Buddhist ‘reconquest’ of Sri Lanka  could be annulled.

The upper classes in this country were in greater fear of of Sinhala -Buddhist hegemony than separatism in the distant Northern Territory. Here is  the foundational issue – our English-speaking political elite in interacting  with foreign heavy-weights whispered anxiously about the political threat of a resurgent Sinhala-Buddhist power- base – one that had ominous implications for the stability of the region as a whole. That a Tamil Terrorist could function as the ‘defeater’ of the greater danger of Sinhala Militancy  was keenly appreciated by Western Strategists who worked tirelessly to dismember Sri Lanka so as to diminish the perceived danger of a truoble-maker in the strategic seaways of the Indian Ocean.

Strangely enough, the key factor was linguistic communication – the enemies of Sinhala Nationalism spoke good English, travelled freely to the Power-Bases in the West and and acted more as enemies of their own country than as ambassadors of goodwill. Some were Ministers – even Prime Ministers. It is a bleak but unforgiveable fact these unfriendly people were in high places – the likes of ministers and ambassadors – who gloried in besmirching their own ‘number plate’ to currry favour with the high and mighty in foreign lands.

Their fear of militant Sinhala -Buddhism may be rooted in genuine fears and apprehensions – but as acts of public betrayal they must face public scrutiny and condemnatio, Let us conclude by beseeching President Sirisena to look at the treachery within before addressing the World on a subject that is nototriously resistent to objective analysis.