Most of the writers in LankaWeb keep on stressing the “Importance of a United Undivided Sri Lanka”, whilst a few promote rather jaundiced racist lines of Sri Lanka on Divisive by Race – Creed – Ethnicity.
\nA Broad Question to Readers of LankaWeb & Beyond!
\nShould the division of Sri Lankan or Ceylonese be based on such principles?<\/p>\n
Or should the honour of being a Sri Lankan be awarded to any human who has the Right to Vote and to hold a Sri Lankan Nationality either by Birth or by Naturalization, loyal to Sri Lanka?<\/p>\n
Many a time I have noticed that the main criteria of Sinhela is to be a Buddhist.<\/p>\n
With respect I beg to disagree.<\/p>\n
May I respectfully add that, any person, irrespective of Race-Creed-Ethnic origin, who behaves in an un-patriotic and hostile manner, does not deserve to remain as a Sri Lankan.<\/p>\n
Buddhism as a Faith, is as foreign to Sri Lanka or Heladiva or Serendib or Taprobane, as much as Hinduism, Islam or Christianity.<\/p>\n
Specially after the recent Presidential election, a few writers jumped into conclusion that because the Christians & Catholics allegedly voted for President Maithri Sirisens, those who voted against ex-President Rajapaksa are not deemed Sri Lankan. Totally biased and irrational, incorrect thinking, since both MS & MR are devout Buddhists.<\/p>\n
The only leading Catholic Minister in the current government, (correct me please if I am wrong) is John Amaratunge.<\/p>\n
Strange as it seems, ex President Rajapaksa and the First Lady (a Catholic) paid a traditional courtesy call to the Vatican, and invited His Holiness Pope Francis to visit Sri Lanka, as the Head of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n
Lo & Behold! When the day when HH Pope Francis visited Sri Lanka, the good ex-President Rajapaksa was relegated to the side-lines, out of the picture.<\/p>\n
According my recent statistics which I collected on a random sample of 1000 Sinhela voters from predominant Catholic-Christian provinces such as Chilaw – Negombo – Moratuwa – Modera – Kotahena, the division was 55% MS & 45% MR.<\/p>\n
The Sinhela Christian community were equally dissatisfied with MR.
\nIt is totally incorrect to divest the non-Buddhist community as non-Sinhela, as against Sri Lanka or anti-Sinhela. It so happened that their ancestors, who were Buddhists, were converted by the Portuguese to Catholic Faith, done by sibling of King Asoka who hailed from India, with a Bo sapling.<\/p>\n
Here is an impartial assessment of the Introduction of the four main Religious Beliefs to Sri Lanka:<\/p>\n
“According to traditional Sri Lankan chronicles (such as the Dipavamsa), Buddhism was introduced into Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC by Venerable Mahinda, the son of the Emperor Ashoka, during the reign of Sri Lanka’s King Devanampiya Tissa.” – Wikipedia<\/p>\n
“Roman Catholicism was introduced by the Portuguese in 1505. There were conversions by Dutch persons in the 17th century, which resulted in a percentage of church members in excess of 10%. This figure decreased. The Christian population of Sri Lanka includes members of both the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups.” – Wikipedia<\/p>\n
“The 5th century Pali chronicle, the Mahavamsa, refers to Brahmin Purohitas or palace advisers in the courts of the early Sinhalese kings before the advent and after the introduction of Buddhism. The Mahavamsa notes a Tamil presence in the island at an early stage be they invaders from South India, merceneries, traders or court officials. The earliest Hindus were the indigenous Tamils who were traditional worshippers of Lord Shiva and followers of Saiva Siddhantam, the oldest existing Hindu school of thought.”- Wikipedia<\/p>\n
“Islam was introduced to Silandiv (Sinhala Island or Serendib in Arabic) in the 10th century by South Indian migrants who illegally settled along the western coast of the island nation. They never confronted the locals and conformed to local traditions and Buddhist identity retaining only the religious aspect of Islamic teachings. Arabic traders and travelers also contributed to the community but as traders and travelers, they moved on without settling in the island.”<\/p>\n
Ethnic cleansing is a Dirty Word. So is any disrespect to any religion, as done in France, Denmark & Belgium, now the French publication provoking Islam purely for commercial gain.<\/p>\n
The Bottom Line, I suggest that, those readers who bring about Faith as a criteria to gain the Nationality and Dedication to Sri Lanka, should think again.<\/p>\n
Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
\nThe Independent Interactive Voice of Sri Lanka on the Internet.
\nPlease visit -: http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prof. Hudson McLean Most of the writers in LankaWeb keep on stressing the “Importance of a United Undivided Sri Lanka”, whilst a few promote rather jaundiced racist lines of Sri Lanka on Divisive by Race – Creed – Ethnicity. A Broad Question to Readers of LankaWeb & Beyond! Should the division of Sri Lankan or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hudson-mclean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40956","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=40956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}