H. L. D. Mahindapala
Imagine for a moment Gunadasa Ameresekera,
last of our novelist in the great tradition, writing a tirade against the
Muslims, giving it the title F*** you, Mr. Rauf Hakeem”. Imagine if it is
published in a leading Sinhala newspaper. Can you imagine the reaction? The
entire phalanx of the NGO moralists would come out screaming like bats out of
hell to condemn it. In one voice they will argue that this is not the language
for reconciliation, peace or to maintain common decency. Prof. Savitri
Gunasekera, Prof. Arjuna Aluvihare, her side-kick, Dayan Jayatilleka, Paki
Saravanamuttu, Jehan (Pacha) Perera and their fellow-travellers will denounce
it from roof -tops. Even
NGOs, Ingos, Yasmin Sooka, ICJ et al will front up before international media
to brand it as virulent Sinhala nationalism, a century-old phenomenon one
could trace back, to name just one person, to Don David Hewawitharane, also
known as Anagarika Dharmapala”, or weep saying the Muslim is today’s object of
Sinhala nationalist war of terror.”
The quote above was written by Prof. Quadri
Ismail, who teaches English at the Minnesota University, USA. He didn’t stop
his accusations against Sinhala-Buddhists at that. He went all out to
hurl abuse at President Gotabaya Rajapakse. He told him: F*** you, Mr.
President!” He labelled Sinhala-Buddhists as a***holes”.
Sinhala-Buddhist had said many things about the minorities but I can’t recall
anyone of them spitting foul obscenities on any Tamil or Muslim leader. Nor can
I remember Tamils or Muslims being called a***holes” by any Sinhalese. The
minorities may have been called pariahs” at worst by the Sinhalese. But that,
of course, is a Tamil word used by Tamils to describe their own outcastes
The Professori’s article was carried in the
on-line publication, GROUNDVIEW— the micro-mini organ of Pakiasothy
Saravanamuttu. At all times he parades as the high priest of public morality.
He also claims to provide decent alternatives to indecent politics. His Centre
for Policy Alternative has been pontificating on the need for
decent discourse on public affairs. But when it comes to
Sinhala-Buddhists and the Rajapakses he delights in abusing them with no-holds-barred
obscenities. Obviously, the Professori and Paki” seem to be birds of a
feather who suck together! What is equally obnoxious is that the Professori has
nothing new to say in demonising the Sinhala-Buddhists and, in particular, the
President. In his piece he has been vomiting the same old anti-Sinhala-Buddhist
venom expectorated earlier by his partisan hacks in the NGO circuit.
Apart from that, he has brought the English
Department of the MU into disrepute by abusing those whom he hates with the
four-letter words. It is not the lack of refinement that is worrying. After
all, the F-word” has many uses. One of them has been to release the frustrations
and anger of pompous professoris who have failed to find the mot
juste to target their bete noirs. At a higher
level, it gained a celebrity status when D. H. Lawrence used it in Lady
Chatterly’s Lover. The use of it was challenged in courts and it passed
the test with flying colours at the trial. In the Lawretian sense, with shades
of Freud kicking in, it acquired an earthiness and respectability.
Lawrence picked the F-word appropriately to
express the rawness of Lady Chatterly’s sensuous relationship with her virile
gardener – unlike her paralysed husband — watering her grassy patch. When
Lawrence uses it, it is literature. When our Professori uses it, it’s an
obscenity because it is packed with hate. Anything packed with hate is an
obscenity. When our Professori used the cheapest word in the richest language
of the world to express his anger it means that he has either to (1) go for
some training in anger management or (2) go for a refresher course in English
to express his anger with a more effective and elegant verbal punch in keeping
with the declaration of the English Department of MU: enlarging our
understanding of the human condition and power of creative imagination.”
What is offensive is the Professori’s
inexcusable crudity which arises from his inability to express his anger in
measured tones and tempered terminology. That is appalling. It is possible to
tolerate it if it came as an explosion of anger at the sophomoronic level but
not from the professoriate of the English Department of MU. By using that trite
obscenity, he is obviously trying to emphasize his anger with what he thinks is
the most effective weapon in his verbal armoury. In other words, he is trying
to impress that he is master of the English language who put the U” in KCUF!
His use of the four-letter word is a
reflection on the standards maintained by the English Department of MU. It
boasts that by studying or creating literature in English we enlarge our
understanding of the human condition and power of creative imagination.” This
statement is inspiring and incontrovertible. But in what way has the MU
Professori contributed to its ideals? Leaving aside all other considerations,
it is only fair to judge him by the ideals outlined by MU.
The first question that comes to mind is: How
can a member of the MU’s professoriate enlarge our understanding of the human
condition and power of creative imagination” by spitting the
anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology he had swallowed from the hate-mongers of his
ilk. Among the Sri Lankan literati he is known to have circulated in circles
that lived on a diet dished out by anti-Sinhala-Buddhist NGOs – a diet that
consisted mainly of the grass that came out of the other end of bull. So, it is
not surprising that there isn’t a single original thought in his bitter attack
that can elevate him to the ideals laid out in the laudable declaration of MU.
Second, how can anyone enlarge our
understanding of the human condition” when it is laced with only venomous hate
– all of which is encapsulated in F*** you, Mr. President”? He would also know
that when he spits at the President he is also spitting at the nation – in
particular, the Sinhala-Buddhist voters who elected him. He should also know
that in the overheated inter-ethnic environment of Sri Lanka his vulgarity can
be explosive. It is provocative and the Professori has no moral right to act as
a pyromaniac throwing verbal sparks into a field saturated in Wahabist/Arabic
fuel.
For the sake of those who had not read his
bitter bile let me summarise it. The first thing to note is that the Professori
too has joined the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist queue that is raving and ranting
against the newly elected President, Gotabaya Rajapakse, who won the
Presidential election on November 19, 2019 exclusively on the Sinhala-Buddhist
vote. It is a victory that has stunned Professori’s mob, the Muslims, who
claimed that they were the makers-and- breakers of governments with their
minority votes.
The victory of the Sinhala-Buddhist majority
has thrown off balance the two major minorities – the Tamils and the Muslims.
The Muslims who always had a share in one or the other governments in the past
have suddenly found themselves without even a toe-hold in the present
administration. The loss of political leverage by not being in the government
is unbearable to them. Their reaction to the majority winning on its own is
predictable: they are crying that the Sinhala-Buddhist majority is overpowering
the minorities. This, however, is only fear-mongering – a common game played by
minorities against majorities. But in case it happens who is to be blamed? The
minorities boastfully joined the anti-Rajapakse side hoping to dictate their
terms and conditions as king-makers. But when they lost the election they also
lost the power to manipulate power at the centre. Their next move was to cry
foul and complain that majoritarianism is threatening the minority – an
allegation which is yet to be proved. Well, as in all politics, those who make
the bed can’t refuse to lie on it, can they?
On top of losing the political clout they had
in the past, the Muslims are facing the anger of the nation for breeding
covertly the multi-millionaire Muslim terrorists who, for no reason arising
from local conditions, blew up Churches on Easter Sunday (2019) killing 270
Tamils and Sinhala worshippers. Our Professori is now angry that there is a
backlash against the Muslims as a result of the brutalities caused by some of
the richest terrorists of the world, next, of course, to Osama bin Laden.
The angry reaction that has stirred the
nation against Muslims is predictable. The aggressive and provocative actions
of a minority trying to impose their will on the majority ineluctably causes
friction and tensions. The government has kept the lid on it preventing any
violent reaction against the innocent Muslim civilians. No mass murders of
Muslims have taken place despite the angry reaction of the Buddhist monks and
the public at large against the Muslims in the wake of Muslim terrorists
blowing up innocent civilians. However, when the Professori points a finger at
the Sinhala-Buddhists he fails to realise that the other four are pointing at
him. He paints all those whom he hates (mainly the Sinhala-Buddhists) as
a***holes”. He also declares that they should be effed” from the President
downwards. In the same breath, he proclaims that he considers dissent a
virtue”. If so why does he label dissentients whom he hates (mainly the
Sinhala-Buddhists) as a***holes”? He even insists on penetrating forcibly
his bete noirs with circumcised sausages. What is the
virtue in that, eh Professori?
He is also
bitter that the Buddhist monks and the majority have reacted angrily at the
Muslims by staging public protests against the Muslim leaders holding public
office – leaders who are being investigated for maintaining close political
links with the Muslim terrorists. The Presidential Commission of Inquiry
probing the Easter Sunday morning bombings was told that Rifkhan Bathiudeen,
brother of former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, had assisted National Thowheed
Jamaath (NTJ) Leader, Zahran Hashim in fleeing to India by sea in 2018. (The
Island).
They launched
the Arabification of the East with the fanciful notion of creating a Wahabist
caliphate for the Muslims. Also, with Saudi money, madrassas mushroomed to
radicalise young Muslims. Books were distributed to school children instructing
them to kill Muslims who change their religion and cut the hands off of those
who steal. In November 2018 they killed two Policemen in Vavunathivu,
Batticoloa. In a provocative act, Muslim radicals vandalised Buddhist statues,
a la Bamian barbarism, in central Mawanella. Muslim leaders are accused of
raping the virgin forest of Wilpattu to plant Muslims who destroy the
environment. These and other violent acts have roused fears and suspicions
about the next move of the Muslims.
It is the irrational crimes committed by the
Muslim terrorists that have provoked the wrath of public at large against those
wearing the hijab, nijab, abaya and bisht, the long white robe worn by men.
Besides, the
Muslims have generated fears, suspicions and anger against them through their
own violent actions. It is a global phenomenon. But with his cock-and-bull
theories the Professori tries to make out that the anger against the Muslims is
vicious reaction of only the Sinhala-Buddhists. In support of this accusation
he traces the origins of anti-Muslim anger to Anagarika Dharmapala, who revived
Sinhala-Buddhism as an anti-colonial, anti-Western ideology over a century ago.
Pretending to be a political scientist who knows the undercurrents of the
social forces at play he says: The Rajapaksas, of course, don’t bear sole responsibility
for virulent Sinhala nationalism, a century-old phenomenon one could trace
back, to name just one person, to Don David Hewawitharane, also known as
Anagarika Dharmapala.”
This is
hilarious. He is parroting the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist venom that was first
bruited by G. G. Ponnambalam in the thirties. It was his attack on the Mahavamsa and
Sinhala-Buddhist history that sparked off the first racial riots in Ceylon, as
it was known then. And the Professori wants to be taken seriously for
regurgitating the hatred propagated by an antiquated Tamil politician from the
Jurassic Park.
I do not know whether Minnesota University is
a chunk hived off this earth and fired out to float among the debris
circulating in outer space. But if the Professori’s feet are planted firmly on
our planet he would know that the Muslims should take full responsibility for
the fear they have created among citizens of the world wherever they may be.
The Muslims have brought down the wrath of
the public upon themselves with their violent politics. In Sri Lanka they lived
amicably with the rest until they began to aggressively confront the rest with
their new radicalism, rituals, practices, dress code, and violent
anti-Sinhala-Buddhist politics threatening their traditional place in history.
Even in Kattankuddy the traditional Muslims resisted the violent aggression of
Wahabist radicalism. In fact, Zaharan had to flee from the East and hide in
Mawanella and Kurunegala. Was the internecine warfare between the traditional
Muslims and the Zaharan’s also caused by Dharmapala? Is the global antagonism
towards Muslims also caused by Dharmapala? The vast majority of the innocent
Muslims too have become victims of the ideological fanaticism and
indiscriminate violence of a few suicidal maniacs who are in a hurry to lift
their bisht and go between the legs of virgins – an issue that needs to be
explored by our Professori who is obsessed with Fraud – oops, Freud!
The last thing the nation needs now is
provocative obscenities from a trousered mullah in Minnesota. If he is
genuinely interested in serving the interests of the Muslims should he provoke
the Sinhala-Buddhists with his obscenities? Can he explain how his obscenities
can help the security of the Muslims? Isn’t he merely showing off that he is a
great hero by throwing obscenities at the Sinhala-Buddhists knowing that he has
the freedom to do so in the Sinhala-Buddhist democracy? Since he displays a
serious concern about the Sri Lankan journalists, can he show us how brave he
is by holding Prince of Saudi responsible for the torture and killing of Jamal
Kashoggi? Will he also tell him to Eff-off” for this crime and get it into a
Saudi publication?
All what he has done so far is to rap the
knuckles of the Muslim terrorists who killed 279 Tamil and Sinhalese
worshippers, including 45 children, with a wet tissue. He says that the Muslims
must be understood in a global frame – its targets were Christians and
westerners – represents the antipolitical as such, solicits only antipathy from
anyone on the left or, indeed, any decent human. In their case, suicide
constitutes a passport to paradise. Since Islam prohibits suicide, they conjure
jihad as their visa.” Please note, there is no Eff-off” for the ideologically
perverted Muslim terrorists. He hurls such abuse only at the Sinhala-Buddhists
for resisting Muslim fanaticism and violence.
As stated earlier there is nothing original
in Professori’s anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ravings to convince the readers that he
is a creative product of MU. This is jejune stuff repeated umpteen times by
every Tom, Dick and Ismail. Sadly, he has proved to be nothing more than a
vulgar ventriloquist trained to repeat what his counterparts broadcast in the
NGOs circles. He is, in short, a disgrace to the Minnesota Department of
English.
Last word: Since you are unlikely to bring any kudos to the English Department of the MU why don’t you, QUADRIPED PISMAIL, go forth and multiply, activating your circumcised sausage, if it is not at a dysfunctional state these days?
