{"id":108345,"date":"2020-11-04T17:29:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T00:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108345"},"modified":"2020-11-04T17:29:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T00:29:26","slug":"have-the-sinhalese-been-struck-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/04\/have-the-sinhalese-been-struck-blind\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Have the Sinhalese been struck blind?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A\nsimple solution to the tyranny of minoritarianism. This is just a personal\nopinion for what it\u2019s worth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-independence\npolitics in Sri Lanka has been characterised by a continuous struggle between\nexclusive minority communalism and inclusive majority nationalism, in the form\nof roughly thirty years of cold war between the two and another thirty years of\nopen conflict, which ended with the defeat of armed separatism in 2009.\nMinority communalism has gradually acquired a religious dimension with intensifying\nfundamentalist Christian and Islamic subversive activities targeting Buddhists\nand Hindus; Islamists have been active particularly since the early 1970s. On\ntop of this, Sri Lanka\u2019s strategic geographic location has led global and\nregional superpowers to be actively engaged in exploiting these anti-majority\nmovements to their advantage, thereby condemning Sri Lanka to constant\npolitical destabilization, economic stagnation, threatened national security,\nsovereignty and independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntitle is an English rendering of a line from a \u2018freedom song\u2019 written by\nTibetan Buddhist monk S. Mahinda Thera (1901-1951): \u2018aesgedivalata hena\ngahalada sihalunne?,\u2019 lit., \u2018Have the eyeballs of the Sinhalese been struck by\nlightning?\u2019. As an author and poet writing in Sinhala, he made a passionate\ncontribution to Ceylon\u2019s independence movement in the 1930s and 40s decades by\ninspiring nationalism among the Sinhalese, whom he criticized for what he\nthought was their ignorant indifferent laid-back attitude towards the grave\ninjustices they, especially as Buddhists, were being subjected to under British\ncolonialism. Current happenings in the Sri Lankan political scene brought this\nstriking line of verse to my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis a fact that in Sri Lanka there is a simmering problem of religious\nfundamentalism, which is an incubus that takes away the peace of mind of the\nmajority population and disengages their attention from the more vitally\nimportant problems that the country is facing as a nation. It is being used as\na weapon of destabilization by the powers that be that want to exploit Sri\nLanka\u2019s strategic location in the Indian, lately Indo-Pacific, Ocean. \nThere are numerous fundamentalist Christian and Islamic sects that have been\nactive in the country for many decades. Fortunately, they are not of the type\nthat is likely to set the mainstream Christians and Muslims against Buddhist\nSinhalese and Hindu Tamils. Apparently, religious fundamentalists are a problem\nto the respective mainstream Abrahamic religions as well, giving rise to\ninternecine doctrinal disputes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike\nin the case of traditional Christians and Muslims, the fundamentalist attitude\nto Buddhists and Hindus is not one of peaceful coexistence. They treat the\nlatter as spiritually misguided subjects  ripe for conversion. The twofold\nfundamentalist  menace shows no sign of abating in the near future. The\nmost virulent form of religious fundamentalism that is posing a formidable\nchallenge to Sri Lanka\u2019s intercommunal unity and peace right now is Islamist\nextremism. Activist Buddhist monks and their lay followers claim, based on\nevidence, that Jihadist agents have already infiltrated practically every\ndepartment of life in the Sri Lankan state. (It is upto the authorities\nconcerned to check this evidence.) The problem is worsening because politicians\nof both the main parties seem to be following the Three Wise Monkeys\u2019 example:\nSee no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil where evil is seen and heard, but\nnothing is said against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An\nonline Sinhala news website, Lankacnews, reported October 24, 2020 that,\naccording to government sources, there was a possibility that state minister\nportfolios will be given to two of the nine MPs of the Opposition who voted for\n20A. I, for one, originally believed that this was not true; the website could\nhave been reporting an unfounded rumour or somebody\u2019s fabrication. But, another\nonline publication, Colombo Telegraph, which is usually critical of the present\ngovernment, lamented in a headline: \u201820A Once Again Proved: Muslim Political\nOpportunists Are Up for Sale\u2019. Meanwhile, the more authoritative and reliable\nwebsite referred to at the beginning, Lankacnews, again reported (26) that\nDiana Gamage, one of the nine SJB MPs who voted for 20A with the government, as\nsaying that she would like to accept, if offered, the post of minister for\nchild and women\u2019s affairs though she did not support 20A in expectation of a\nministerial portfolio or any other reward. This faintly hints at such offers\nhaving probably been made, after all. If that is true, isn\u2019t it possible that\nthe Muslim MPs were enticed with even bigger quid pro quos? The marked\ncordiality that minister Chamal and MP Rishad greeted each other with in that\npicture that shocked us all would not help neutralize such speculation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthere was absolutely no need for horse trading with questionable characters in\nthe circumstances. What is the use of legislation passed with assistance from\nwheeler-dealer politicians who the majority consider duplicitous? (In the case\nof 20A, however, their help was not critical; their votes were actually\nredundant.) Besides, these MPs were (and still are) in a politically vulnerable\nsituation of their own making in which they didn\u2019t know (and still don\u2019t know)\nwhich way to look. The latest news I read about Hakeem was that he wanted to\nlaunch an internal inquiry into why his four MPs violated his party\u2019s policy of\nopposing 20A! This is in spite of the fact that he had given his four MPs tacit\npermission to vote for the amendment. National list MP Diana Gamage of the SJB\ntold a You Tube journalist that her leader Sajith Premadasa knew beforehand\nthat she was going to vote for the amendment, for her husband had phoned him\nand told him the night before about her decision, though, later, like Hakeem in\nthe case of his MPs, Premadasa threatened to take disciplinary action against\nher. There is no doubt that both Premadasa and Hakeem are partly trying to\nsalvage the little prestige that they ever had and that they have now\nirretrievably lost. Be that as it may, until the government establishes clarity\nin this respect, negative reflections will not stop. More important, what about\nthe just anger and frustration that the ambitious MPs of the SLPP and allied\nparties must feel at the danger of some crooks of the Opposition who worked for\nthe downfall of Gotabaya and Mahinda getting ministerial positions that even\nthey were denied?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doesn\u2019t\nthis mean that a government which has got an overwhelming popular mandate to\nrule by restoring law and order, national security, and political and economic\nstability (all of which had appallingly deteriorated under the previous\nadministration) could not even take the first step towards that goal by\nabolishing the controversial 19A and bringing in the stopgap 20A, without having\nto buy over MPs or to engineer desertions from the Opposition benches? It is no\nordinary mandate: it is a doubly confirmed mandate in the form of a president\nelected by 69.9  million voters and a prime minister leading an alliance\nthat won 144 seats in parliament, the kind of huge mandate that is not likely\nto be repeated unless those who have been given that mandate act\nsensibly.  Whenever is Sri Lanka going to make headway as an independent\nsovereign nation?  Seventy-five percent of the voters are Sinhalese, who\ndon\u2019t cast their vote on a communal basis. They overwhelmingly account for the\nabove people\u2019s mandate. The passage of 20A with due amendments was what they\nwanted. If a few anti-majority extremists were allowed to be in a position to\ndecide on its fate, who was to blame for that grievous anomaly? Wasn\u2019t it the\nfault of the Sinhalese MPs elected by their own people to serve the nation\nwhether they happen to sit in the Government or in the\nOpposition?   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nappointment of two more ministers is constitutionally defensible thanks to a\nclause that is being retained in 20A as a salutary feature from the now\nabolished 19A, which set limits on the numbers of cabinet and state minister\nportfolios respectively at 30 and 40. Currently, there are only 38 state\nministers; so, there are two vacancies. The Yahapalana coalition rechristened\nitself as a national government in order to increase the number of ministers\nbeyond these limits until practically every government MP was some sort of\nminister.  Awarding ministerial positions to corruptible MPs as mere\npolitical sinecures just to ensure their mechanical Ayes and Noes on\nappropriate occasions in the legislature is a despicable ruse that must be put\nan immediate end to. If it had to be resorted to particularly at this juncture\n(when the undeniable fact of the majority community being victimized by a few\ncommunalist opportunists is so evident), it was all due to there being not\nenough patriotic Sinhala MPs in the Opposition (Not that all Sinhala MPs in the\nGovernment are patriotic either. What I found as an independent observer living\nabroad trying to penetrate the real motives and concerns that drove them as\nrevealed in their speeches and occasional acts during electioneering prior to\nthe August 5 general election was that nearly all of them, with a very few\nexceptions, were unashamedly narrowly focused self-seekers worried only about\ntheir personal \u2018political careers\u2019, not about their mandatory obligations to\nthe country\/nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nstill there is time for them to think, and support, from wherever they are, the\nonly \u2018philosopher ruler\u2019 that we have got since independence in the\nnon-partisan GR (I believe GR is free from political ambitions that distort his\nvision and that cause him to baulk at taking action when it is necessary but\ndifficult to do so). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communalistic\nbehaviour is out of character for Sinhalese MPs. However, for the time being,\nthere is no alternative for them but to act as if they were communalists\nthemselves. On the contrary, right now, it looks as though most Sinhalese MPs\nin parliament are behaving like willing dupes of some Islamist extremists or\ntheir sympathisers; they seem to voluntarily assist the miscreants in their\nstratagems. Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kirielle has asked the Speaker in\nwriting (as reported in the media October 31) that a special seating plan on\nthe government side be made for the nine SJB members that he claims have been\nexpelled from the party. Seven of these are Muslims, one Tamil, and one\nSinhalese. In effect, the SJB is palming off the extremists that it fostered\nand used to prolong the Yahapalana misgovernance onto the government, in the\napparent vicious hope that they initiate a cankerous relationship with it.\nKirielle and the rest of the SJB hierarchy cannot be expected to take kindly to\nthis criticism, but this is my gut feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State\nminister Dayasiri Jayasekera has long been complaining that the SLFP MPs are\nnot receiving the recognition they deserve within the government. Its leader,\nformer president Sirisena, who was expecting an agrapalaya or an ultimate\nreward got nothing, but the PM was reported to be \u2018creating\u2019 a suitable post\nfor him. Anyway, do these people worry as much about vital national issues\nincluding the Grim Reaper abroad in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic? Are the\ndisgruntled SLFP\u2019ers within government ranks trying to rock the boat? The\nPresident twittered November 1st that he was presented with a locally produced\nLion Flag by state minister Dayasiri Jayasekera. A former provincial Governor\nRajith Tennekoon has complained that the Lion in this flag is holding the sword\nby its blade, not by its hilt! and that this is a grave violation of the\nConstitution, because disfigurement\/distortion of the Flag is a criminal\noffence. Probably, Tennekoon, who is another political activist, is exaggerating\nan apparent shortcoming in the drawing of the flag. A careful look at the image\nof the locally produced flag will reveal what I mean: the cross guard that\nseparates the blade from the grip part of the handle of the sword is not\nproperly drawn; it is as if it is not there. Having said this, it is a big\ndefect that must be corrected. Is it a result of a genuine oversight or of an\nact of deliberate sabotage? Tennekoon\u2019s demand that the circulation of this new\nlocal flag be immediately halted must receive the attention of the\nauthorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfew communalists and religious extremists that there are will try to cripple\nthe government whether they are in it or in the opposition. However, it is\nclear that they get little support from the general public. Foreign\ninterventionist powers are laying siege to the country, but they can\u2019t do much\ndamage if Sri Lankans manage to put their own house in order. In this all Sri\nLankans have a collective responsibility. Each community must be united within\nit and act in solidarity with other communities as equal Sri Lankan citizens,\nand this must be reflected among the MPs in parliament. Partisan politics must\nbe shelved for the time being. People of each faith must take responsibility\nfor and deal with the extremists among them, without giving in to their\nextremist ideologies. If there is any terrorism, let the government security\napparatus deal with that. People of all faiths must be united as a single\nnation. It will be of the strongest support for overcoming religious\nfundamentalism in general and the Islamist terrorism in particular if Sinhalese\nBuddhists and Tamil Hindus, who share similar peaceful nonviolent religious and\ncultural values, overcome artificial divisions and enmities of the past and\ndecide to find refuge in each other as children of Mother Lanka against both\novert and covert aggression and oppression. That will be the end of meaningless\nseparatism as well.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala\u00a0 A simple solution to the tyranny of minoritarianism. This is just a personal opinion for what it\u2019s worth.  Post-independence politics in Sri Lanka has been characterised by a continuous struggle between exclusive minority communalism and inclusive majority nationalism, in the form of roughly thirty years of cold war between the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}