{"id":111682,"date":"2021-02-14T16:20:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T23:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111682"},"modified":"2021-02-14T16:20:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T23:20:58","slug":"may-the-unhrc-respect-the-common-humanity-of-all-sri-lankans-before-seeking-to-punish-them-for-human-rights-violations-uncommitted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/14\/may-the-unhrc-respect-the-common-humanity-of-all-sri-lankans-before-seeking-to-punish-them-for-human-rights-violations-uncommitted\/","title":{"rendered":"May the UNHRC respect the common humanity of all Sri Lankans before seeking to punish them for human rights violations uncommitted"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The\n73rd anniversary of independence was officially celebrated in Colombo on\nFebruary 4 with some of the accustomed pomp and pageantry associated with the\nevent. Faced by the still rampant Covid menace and the looming economic and\npolitical crises, the current regime, which is still struggling to reach its\ncruising altitude, couldn\u2019t have done better in the circumstances. This is so,\nparticularly, in view of the fact that today the relevance of celebrating the\n1948 dominion status independence to the emerging Sri Lanka is increasingly\ncoming into question. The independence anniversary has become a virtual political-cultural\nanachronism that keeps Sri Lankans religiously reminded of the eminently\nforgettable fake independence grudgingly offered after the humiliating\nexperience of one and a half centuries of rapacious British colonialism, whose\nevil legacy is still blighting their beloved motherland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile\none could see that the occasion was observed in different, but ultimately\ncomplementary, ways in two particularly significant venues apart from Colombo\nwhere the national independence anniversary was perfunctorily observed. Let\u2019s\nfor the moment forget about various other places that may have held customary\nannual freedom day functions. The two centres meant here are Jaffna and Kandy.\nA group of young Tamils including women and school children (as reported in the\nmedia) marked the day in Jaffna with a march displaying national flags and\nplacards calling for national unity and peace and expressing opposition to\nconventional Tamil politicians who, they alleged, were working to create\ndivisions and disharmony for narrow party political ends. The group was led by\na young Tamil known by his birth name Arulanandan Arun or his alias Arun\nSiddharth, who claims that his grandfather was a toddy tapper, fiercely\ncriticises the entrenched Tamil political elite of the north . (He revealed\nduring a subsequent TV interview that he was not so young being forty-three\nalready.) He has gained some popularity among ordinary people in the south as\nwell as in the north as a sincere critic of the existing reactionary political\nelite of the north who reside in clover in Colombo or live in and\/or operate\nfrom Europe, while doing nothing to improve the lot of the suffering Tamils in\nthe north. His criticisms of prominent northern Tamil politicians are so\nauthentic that one feels that he should be able to play an important liaison\nrole, if he wishes, with similar minded young southerners of all three\ncommunities that will ultimately contribute towards forging national unity.\nOrdinary Tamils don\u2019t want separation; what they want is development and jobs,\nfree from interference from India and the West. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nhas long been argued that ordinary Tamils in the north actually suffer from\ncasteist discrimination among themselves, and not from any Sinhalese\nmajoritarianism as falsely alleged by separatists and their ignorant backers\nabroad. This is a truth that Arun has clearly pointed out. The same news\nsources reported that a supposedly anti-government protest march which had\nstarted from Pottuvil in Ampara in the east the previous day (February 3), was\nplanning to finally arrive at Polikandi in Jaffna on the 7th after a five day\ntrek.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though\npolice had obtained a court order against the protest march, it went ahead,\nnevertheless. These demonstrators were demanding a halt to what they called\nencroachment of \u2018Tamil lands\u2019 under the pretext of archaeological excavations,\nfulfilment of the promised Rs 1000 daily pay for upcountry estate workers and\nfor a relaxation of the mandatory cremation order in respect of corona-dead\nMuslims, etc. (Important: These are fake demands; there are no Tamil, Muslim,\nor Sinhalese lands in Sri Lanka; the whole island belongs to all the\ncommunities; archaeological sites come under the archaeology department, and\nlawful excavations are done under its supervision; the extensive archaeological\nrelics of the country are now the common heritage and property of all Sri\nLankans; much of the tourist industry depends on these, and as such, they are\nalso a big economic asset to the country; the Rs 1000 daily pay demand is duly\nbeing met; the decree to burn corona-dead corpses is a scientific decision, not\na political one; the PM revealed in parliament February 10 in reply to a Muslim\nMP\u2019s query that burial will be allowed hereafter, implicitly because it has now\nbeen established that the virus is not transmitted through water.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nprotest march organized by some TNA-led Tamil political parties and NGO\nelements provoked a negative response from the young enlightened Tamils among\nthe northerners in the form of  counter demonstrations. These northern\nTamils held rallies against the seemingly anti-government march at the old bus\nstand in Vavuniya (February 6) and at Murungan in Mannar (February 7).\nAccording to them the march that started on February 3 from Pottuvil was\ncompletely unjustified. It was organized only to promote the exclusive\ninterests of some regional political parties, and to hoodwink the common\npeople\u201d. Of course, the march had little to do with independence day \ncelebrations. It may be suspected that its actual aim was to further undermine\nSri Lanka at Geneva in two or three weeks\u2019 time. TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran\nexpects India to support West-sponsored anti-Sri Lanka resolutions at the UNHRC\nat its 46th session there next month, according to The Island\/February 13.\nHowever, as public security minister Sarath Weerasekera says, more countries\nthan before are likely to support Sri Lanka this time since the country has\nwithdrawn from co-sponsorship of the those baseless resolutions under the\npresent government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back\nto the Pottuvil to Polikandi march, going by media reports, no one can deny\nthat a fairly large number of Tamils and Muslims (strange bedfellows, no doubt,\nwith conflicting long term ambitions) took part in the protest march though\nobviously it was well short of the highly exaggerated figure of 60,000 that MP\nGajendra Kumar Ponnambalam mentioned in parliament on February 9, 2021. He\nhowever claimed that the march was not something against the government. GKP\nstated what he called \u2018the four core demands\u2019 of the marchers: 1) recognition\nof the north-east as the Tamil and Muslim Tamil speaking people\u2019s homeland, 2)\nthe recognition of Tamils as a distinct nation, 3) the right to\nself-determination of the Tamil nation, and 4) the referral of Sri Lanka to the\nICC and other international accountability mechanisms to look into and\ninvestigate the acts of genocide that happened and that continue to happen that\nis being committed by the state\u201d. GKP\u2019s risible  nonsensical definition of\nalleged \u2018Tamil genocide\u2019 as dismantling the identity of Tamils\u201d belied his\ncharge. Listening to his loud speech in the House, I remembered the lines a tale \/\nTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,\/ Signifying nothing\u201d in the\nShakespeare play Macbeth<\/em>, and thought that probably he was himself in\nneed of a referral letter from somebody to a specialist. But he was treated to\na curative blast from MP Pramita Bandara Tennekoon who described him as a\npopular LTTE sympathizer\u201d. PBT pulverized him point by point and reduced him\nto silenced embarrassment. No need to say that the tired, backward, Tamil old\nguard are still bent on avenging the defeat of the terrorist LTTE, instead of\nlooking forward to building, together with the rest of the communities, a\npeaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka for all its citizens as PBT urged, and as the\nyoung generation Tamils and their fellow Muslims and Sinhalese across the\ncountry are now focused on doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless\nI personally believe  that these actions and reactions in the north and\neast demonstrate, instead a revival of the dead terrorism, a healthy democratic\ntrend that is developing among Tamils, particularly the Tamil youth, who are\nset to work with their counterparts in the south in together creating a unitary\nSri Lanka without allowing outsiders (geopolitical, military and economic\npowers with axes to grind) to get involved in our internal affairs in pursuit\nof their own selfish ends at our expense. They need to be mindful of the new\nreligious dimension of the growing overall threat to pan-Sri Lanka unity: The\nvulnerability of peaceful, non-violent, and non-extremist multiethnic Sri\nLankans (including the majority Buddhists and Hindus) who form 98% of the\npopulation, is being aggravated by various extremist fundamentalist sects of\nboth types (Christian and Muslim), through their intensified activism by\neffectively adding to the anti-Sri Lanka arsenal of interventionist powers\nwhile the country is engulfed in political and economic crises amidst the\ncorona pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile\nthe independence day was remembered with a twist in Kandy on February 4, that\ntoo, only by default, when a small group of white clad, mostly young people led\nby a hitherto unknown Buddhist monk named Medirigiriye Sikhi, prepared to hoist\n\u2018the flag of Sinhale\u2019 at the Dalada Maligawa premises, but were prevented from\ndoing so by the police acting on a court order issued prior to the event. Two\nseparate You Tube videos of the episode that I came across showed what happened\noutside and inside the Sri Dalada Maligawa that morning. Ven. Sikhi agreed to\nobey the court injunction after the head police officer on the scene explained\nto him that it was illegal to hoist his Sinhale flag in the Maligawa premises\nbecause it is not what the existing constitution decrees as the national flag,\nand that, besides, displaying a lion flag as the national flag without the two\nvertical bands is prejudicial to some sections of the society and so cannot be\nallowed even in terms of the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and\nPolitical Rights) to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. But still, as an\nalternative, the monk wanted to make an offering of the flag to the Tooth Relic\nwhile stating his alleged intentions on the occasion. Police let him display\nthe controversial flag to the media and the few people around, which was the\ncorrect thing to do in the emotion charged context, because it enabled the monk\nto assert his and his partners\u2019 right to freedom of expression. He took the\nopportunity to re-stress the \u2018One Country, One Law\u2019 pledge that the present rulers\ncommitted themselves to during the elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmonk stated that he had concocted some indigenous medicines to fight the\ncurrently raging coronavirus disease, including a medicinal oil called\n\u2018ahivaataroganivarana thailaya\u2019 at his own expense. He offered this \u2018hela\nosuwa\u2019 (indigenous Sinhala medicine) to the rulers, advising them to use it on\nthe local population against the coronavirus disease, presumably as a\nresistance\/immunity builder, and to export it to other countries, which\nincidentally would, in his opinion, ease the debt burden on the country; but\nthey didn\u2019t listen to him, he complained. He expressed his deep disappointment\nthat his medicinal preparations still remain neglected.  We don\u2019t like\ninnocent people dying; we are against extremist activities and the destruction\nof the environment. Many prominent speakers and monks, as media have reported,\nargue that there is no real independence (in the country). This is true\u201d, Ven.\nSukhi said. (Ill-wishers determined to harm Sri Lanka at every turn went to\ntown in the media attacking the government\u2019s alleged reliance on superstition\ninstead of science, when it implicitly allowed practitioners of traditional\nmedicine to try their remedies on potential victims of Covid-19 to boost their\nimmunity. However, its failure to manage the damage done by quacks who\nnaturally exploit such situations cost the government dearly in terms of an\nadverse press in this regard. That was unfortunate. So is its apparent wavering\non the burial non-issue.)   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\nVen. Sukhi offered kirihara (milk rice) and the medicines to the Sacred Tooth\nRelic and all other Buddha relics. Next, he  placed three copies of the\nSinhale Flag on the altar, offering it to the Dalada, though he had been\nprevented by the state authorities from raising it in the sacred\npremises.  The monk exonerated the police officers from any blame for\nthis, explaining that they were just doing their duty, but that they helped him\ndo the offerings before the sacred shrine. His dedicatory words were: I am leaving\none of these flags as a gift to the Tooth Relic, while taking the other two\nback; one of these two, I will hand over to the President, and I will keep the\nother with me. The flag that I am retaining with me is for honouring it and for\ngetting all Sri Lankans to rally round it in unity. I solemnly pledge before\nyou (the Buddha) to do this (i.e., dedicate myself for this solemn\nundertaking)\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsymbolism of the monk\u2019s act is likely to be lost on many who experience no\nempathy with the majority Sinhala Buddhist community. Kandy was the last seat\nof government of the island kingdom of Sinhale, which, by the time of the\nBritish imperial takeover or annexation in 1815 (executed through intrigue),\nwas hemmed in on all sides by the littoral provinces successively occupied by\nvarious foreign powers over the previous centuries. Nationalist movements\ninvariably have the non-political leadership or patronage of Buddhist monks\nbecause of the over two millennia old organic linkage between Buddhism and the\nmajority Sinhalese who built up the uniquely humane and hospitable island\u2019s\nBuddhist civilization. What was brought down at Kandy when the British raised\ntheir union jack on signing the Kandyan Convention of 1815 was the royal\nstandard of the last king of Sinhale, which had only the image of the sword\nwielding lion. This same royal flag was what was raised on February 4, 1948,\nthe arbitrarily chosen day of independence. It remained the national flag of\n(at least nominally independent) Sri Lanka for the first three years before it\nwas modified in 1951 by adding two vertical stripes to represent the two\nminorities (the green for Muslims and the orange for Tamils). It has been\nfurther modified since 1972 when Sri Lanka was declared a republic. Some\nnationalists argue that the 1951 addition of differently coloured bands to show\nminorities was an unnecessarily divisive innovation, because the lion image\nrepresents the whole country of Sinhale with all its diverse communities who\nare well ensconced and secure within its generously accommodating Buddhist\nculture (which is in that respect identical with the very tolerant Hindu\nculture of our big neighbour India that Jawaharlal Nehru described in his\nmonumental \u2018Discovery of India\u2019 as enfolding alien cultures within its generous\nembrace), so compatible with secular democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlion image in the Lankan royal standard is as old as the Sri Lankan state\u2019s\n2500 year written history. However, we have to accept the fact that today\u2019s\nnational flag is a product of historical evolution; an earlier form of it\ncannot be reintroduced a second time as it will be incongruent with the new\nrealities. Historical wrongs cannot be corrected through individual arbitrary\naction. The government cannot allow it since it is against the existing\nconstitution and is also in violation of the ICCPR treaty as explained to the\nmonk by the police officer. Sri Lanka signed the particular covenant in June\n1980. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nrevealed in another You Tube video uploaded on February 4, 2021, something else\nhad happened at Kundasale one day before, that anticipated the monk\u2019s \u2018Sinhale\nflag\u2019 scene in Kandy. Police (from Kandy or Teldeniya) delivered a restraining\norder issued by Additional Magistrate\u2019s court No. 2\/Kandy to Amith Weerasinghe,\nat his residence at Kundasale, warning him that he would be arrested if he\nparticipated in a certain independence day celebration event (different from\nthe officially scheduled ones) in the Maligawa premises to be held on February\n4. Amith Weerasinghe (30) is the leader of a nonviolent (in spite of the name)\nnationalist youth group (known as \u2018Mahason Balakaya\u2019 or Mahason Battalion,\nnamed after an ancient Sinhala warrior) agitating against aggressive,\nunacceptable activities of Islamist extremists. As he credibly claims, among\nhis 275,000 followers across the country are young Tamils and Muslims. His\npopularity makes him a challenge to the entrenched traditionalists among politicians\nin Kandy like his counterpart Arun Siddharthan in Jaffna to his established\nseniors there. He contested the last parliamentary election from the Kandy\ndistrict as an independent candidate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\ndidn\u2019t win a seat though he and his supporters had been sure he would. He\nfirmly believes that he has been robbed of his certain victory \u2018by an unseen\nhand\u2019, and has initiated legal action demanding a recount of the vote.\nAccording to Weerasinghe, his case is to be taken up by the court next\nmonth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weerasinghe\nsays that he knows nothing about the so-called nationalist organisation dubbed\n\u2018Sinhala jatikawadi sanvidhana\u2019 (Sinhalese Nationalist Organization) mentioned\nin the court order, and that he was not due to take part in any independence\nday ceremony or protest in Kandy on February 4. He suspects that this could be\nthe work of some senior politicians who are worried that he might contest the\nupcoming provincial council elections to their disadvantage, and who want him\nimprisoned so he would be neutralised and safely got out of their way. He is\nalready facing twenty-seven cases filed under the ICCPR for his agitational\nactivism against Islamist extremism over many years.To be arraigned under the\nICCPR for opposing Islamist extremism is a sad irony, because it is actually\nIslamists who tend to violate all the five key human rights enshrined in that\ncovenant. Weerasinghe doesn\u2019t want a twenty-eighth case to be filed against him\nfor no reason. The last time he was similarly trapped, he had to serve nine\nmonths in prison. Incidentally, Ven Sikhi who led the protest against what he\nbelieved to be unfreedom called his organization \u2018jatiye peramunagath sinhayo\u2019\n(Lions Leading the Nation), not what Weerasinghe was alleged to belong to by\nthe police. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weerasinghe\ndoes not approve of monks dabbling in politics or going to parliament. He says\nthat he fights for only three key demands, occasioned by the need to neutralize\nthe existential threat posed by religious extremists to the Buddha Sasana: a\nbirth control law, a common marriage law for all, and an anti-unethical\nconversion law. The monks are agitating for the same, in addition to such\nissues as saving from vandals and landgrabbers the overwhelmingly Sinhala\nBuddhist archaeological heritage sites of the country for posterity, the\npreservation of the environment, and protecting innocent citizens of all\ncommunities from the depredations of totalitarian religious extremists. If they\nseem to fight for any political changes, that is incidental, but not central to\ntheir demands. Their methods are nonviolent, though the forces that they come\ninto conflict with in the course of their activism have turned them into demons\nin the eyes of the world through adverse propaganda. The dead silence of the\nVen. Mahanayakes who have so far failed to provide these well intentioned young\nmonks the proper monolithic leadership they need is largely responsible for\ntheir present predicament. But now they are well positioned to facilitate the\nemerging enlightenment and desire for peace among the young of all communities.\nThe fact that the Sinhalese are predominantly Buddhist and the Tamils\npredominantly Hindus is important to recognize. They are the common target of\nmurderous Jihadists as well as fanatical Christian proselytizers. Unity among\nSinhalese and Tamils favourably viewed by peaceful mainstream Christians and\nMuslims will be indispensable for defending themselves against their common\nenemies.       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala The 73rd anniversary of independence was officially celebrated in Colombo on February 4 with some of the accustomed pomp and pageantry associated with the event. Faced by the still rampant Covid menace and the looming economic and political crises, the current regime, which is still struggling to reach its cruising altitude, […]<\/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-111682","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\/111682","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=111682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}