{"id":50751,"date":"2016-01-04T14:29:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T21:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=50751"},"modified":"2016-01-04T14:29:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T21:29:33","slug":"the-communalist-constitution-and-the-existential-threat-to-the-sinhala-state-what-must-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/01\/04\/the-communalist-constitution-and-the-existential-threat-to-the-sinhala-state-what-must-be-done\/","title":{"rendered":"THE \u2018COMMUNALIST\u2019 CONSTITUTION AND THE EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO THE SINHALA STATE:\u00a0 WHAT MUST BE DONE"},"content":{"rendered":"

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The persons who are pushing the new Constitution and the forces behind them (i.e. the US, UK and India) have anticipated almost all contingencies.\u00a0 Unless something drastic happens to derail their plans, here\u2019s what I predict will happen:\u00a0 On the 9th<\/sup>, the government will convert Parliament to a Constitutional Assembly, and over the next 6 months or so proceed to generate a new Constitution.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an Opposition will grow to challenge the Constitution, and, just before the vote in Parliament, it will seem as if this Opposition will prevail.\u00a0 At that point, the President will give one of his signature televised addresses to the nation, where he will solemnly promise that, whatever ramifications the new Constitution will have, he will never allow it to divide the nation.<\/p>\n

The above will be enough as far as Parliament is concerned:\u00a0 the Government will get its 2\/3 majority and the draft will be approved.\u00a0 It will then be submitted to the People at a referendum, and the following will happen:\u00a0 the Tamils and Muslims will vote en masse<\/em> in favour, the UNP vote-base, reportedly 30% of the national electorate, will follow suit; finally, a very small fraction of the Sinhala-Buddhists will also be cajoled, bribed or intimidated into voting \u2018yes,\u2019 to cross the 50% mark.<\/p>\n

The new Constitution, dubbed a triumph of \u2018consensus-politics\u2019 by the \u2018Free Press,\u2019 will be enacted into law with congratulations pouring in from all over the world, including Barack Obama, Ban Ki Moon, Zeid Al Hussein the Human Rights High Commissioner, and others.\u00a0 Champaign corks will pop in Toronto, London, New York and other Diaspora hubs, as throngs of sweaty Tamils dance in the streets.<\/p>\n

The Sinhala-Buddhists, roughly 49% of whom will have had their franchise made a mockery of, will retire to their dens to lick their wounds, if not their pride.\u00a0 But, it will be no consolation, because they will have lost their country.\u00a0 A civilization that has lasted roughly 2500 years will come to an end.\u00a0 Is there any way to prevent this debacle?<\/p>\n

A MODEST PROPOSAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my view, the only way to prevent the said debacle is to form an Opposition based explicitly and brazenly on an assertion of Sinhala-Buddhist identity, and implemented through an Organization whose name contains the explicit words \u2018Sinhala-Buddhist,\u2019 for instance, \u2018Sinhala-Buddhist Front,\u2019 \u2018Sinhala-Buddhist Alliance\u2019 or some such thing.<\/p>\n

Since the entire point is to unite the Sinhala-Buddhists in terms of their ethnic or civilizational identity, the Alliance will be ineffective if it doesn\u2019t contain the words \u2018Sinhala-Buddhist\u2019 in its name.\u00a0 Those two words are in effect its best recruiting-tool, or rather, they convey automatic membership on all Sinhala-Buddhists, and it is up to each individual member to only decide if they support the program of action of the Alliance and if so to what extent.<\/p>\n

At present, though there is a growing Opposition, as far as I\u2019m aware it is comprised of various groups with differing agendas and ideologies.\u00a0 True, they share a commitment to the Sinhala-Buddhist civilization along with the territorial integrity of the country.\u00a0 Nevertheless, in my view, the impetus that brings them together is logistical and political convenience than an animating principle deriving from the Sinhala-Buddhist identity.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the enemies of the Sinhala State have figured out a way to undercut coalitions such as those mentioned above.\u00a0 The tactic, to repeat, is to use the minority vote aggressively and systematically against the Sinhala-Buddhists, and to exploit political differences among the Sinhala-Buddhists to peel of a sufficient number of the latter to vote with the minorities:\u00a0 in other words, to make communalism the be-all and end-all of Sri Lankan politics.<\/p>\n

In a situation such as the above, coalitions of the Sinhala-Buddhists based on logistical or political convenience can\u2019t compete against persons and\/or forces that can command the minorities to vote en masse<\/em> based on ethnic, linguistic or religious identity because the latter categories are more elemental, which makes the voting blocs more reliable.<\/p>\n

The only way to counter the persons and\/or forces manipulating the minority vote in this way is to beat them at their own game, which is to say, to form an alliance based on ethnic identity, and nothing else.\u00a0 If the Sinhala-Buddhists coalesce according to their ethnic identity, they can\u2019t be pulled apart as easily.\u00a0 Given the fact that they are the numerical majority, in any contest with the minorities, even with a nominal Sinhalese element thrown in, the Sinhala-Buddhists will win hands down every time.<\/p>\n

COMPOSITION AND PURPOSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Alliance or Front I\u2019m proposing will be comprised of three primary components:\u00a0 first, Sinhala-Buddhist public intellectuals, professionals, artists and other specialists who will provide the intellectual stimulus as well as advice and guidance; second, the Sangha<\/em>, which will provide the Alliance with the backbone and the moral authority; and finally, the Sinhala-Buddhist populous organized into manageable groups based on the principle of absolute democracy.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. B. Rambukwelle, one-time Principal of the Sri Lanka Law College, but also at different times in his life a practicing attorney, judge, among other things, and a life-long student of history, has observed that the three constants of Sinhala-Buddhist civilization until 1815 were the Monarchy, the Sangha<\/em> and the village-collectivities (See, P. B. Rambukwelle, Commentary on Sinhala Kingship<\/em>, 1993). Though I\u2019m hardly an expert on Sri Lanka history, Rambukwelle\u2019s observation seems to me reasonable.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The three components I have described as the main planks of the proposed Alliance are intended to reflect the historical categories identified by Rambukwelle.\u00a0 The monarchy and the village collectivities no longer being viable, the public intellectuals, professionals etc, on the one hand, and the Sinhala-Buddhist populace on the other, will fill in for those missing elements, with the Sangha<\/em> providing the unwavering constant.<\/p>\n

    The point is that the three components are intended to fit naturally into the civilizational structure of the Sinhala-Budhists, so that the Alliance is an organic outgrowth of such structure, rather than something artificial or contrived, imposed from outside.<\/p>\n

    Meanwhile, to the above three pillars will be added a fourth:\u00a0 the vast population of expats around the world who, if I\u2019m not mistaken, are seething with frustration and rage at what is happening to the Old Country.<\/p>\n

    This fourth pillar will provide logistical and financial support, advice and guidance, and also most crucially promote and defend the cause of their brethren in Sri Lanka before the governments and other influential circles in their home countries, much in the way the Tamil Diaspora is dong for their own \u2018people.\u2019<\/p>\n

    The Alliance will have two primary goals, that go far beyond resisting the Communalist Constitution.\u00a0 Resistance to the Constitution is obviously the impetus for the creation of the Alliance, and will allow it to flex its muscles, but the two real goals are:\u00a0 First, to establish Sinhala-Buddhist sovereignty over the entire Island, which in practical terms means re-populating the North and East, especially the North, with significant numbers of Sinhala-Buddhists, at least to the levels that existed circa 1980.<\/p>\n

    And second, to give a vital spark to the political, social and cultural life of the country, which in turn will lead to a renewal and resurgence, infused with creative energy, of all the components of civic life, including the law, letters, science, and the arts, and reflected objectively, as is always the case with civilizations in their youth and vibrancy, in an heightened and more refined aesthetic sensibility.<\/p>\n

    In short, the purpose of the Alliance is nothing less than bringing about a complete renewal and resurgence of the Sinhala-Buddhist civilization, in order to consolidate the victory of the armed forces in May 2009 in gaining physical control over the entire country, by incorporating the civilizational infrastructure that would ensure Sinhala-Buddhist predominance in the island for centuries to come.<\/p>\n

    OBJECTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I anticipate that there will be three main objections to the proposal above:\u00a0 one, it is racist and\/or chauvinistic and will alienate the Christians, Muslims, and \u2018Moderate Tamils\u2019 who still remain friends with the Sinhalese; two, if successful the Movement will turn Sri Lanka into a Buddhist Theocracy; and finally, it is so contrary to the interests of the Indians and the Americans that they will do everything they can to destroy it, which entails plunging the country into another round of internecine war.<\/p>\n

    First, will setting up an Alliance that brazenly advertises itself as \u2018Sinhala-Buddhist\u2019 alienate Christians, Muslims and \u2018Moderate Tamils\u2019 still friendly to the Sinhalese thus depriving the latter of much-needed support at this crucial juncture?\u00a0 In my view, the Sinhala-Buddhists are facing cultural and civilizational annihilation:\u00a0 they have to think first and foremost about their own survival rather than the feelings of their friends.<\/p>\n

    In my view, the reality is that the bulk of the minorities are firmly in the enemy camp.\u00a0 The Christians, Muslims and Tamils who remain the friends of the Sinhalese because they truly empathize with the plight of the Sinhalese, and also appreciate the danger to the minorities themselves in the long run if present trends continue, will remain friends through thick and thin.\u00a0 Besides, once the Sinhala-Buddhists grab power, they can compensate their friends adequately, for hurt feelings, etc.<\/p>\n

    To repeat, the issue is not about alienating<\/em> the minorities.\u00a0 The minorities who have already been alienated are beyond redemption; those who remain with the Sinhala-Buddhists will go the distance.\u00a0 In short, the Alliance will not suffer from brazenly and aggressively advertising itself as \u2018Sinhala-Buddhist.\u2019\u00a0 In fact, it will be its greatest source of strength.\u00a0 When the minorities, or anyone else, cries Racist!\u201d Chauvinist!\u2019 all that a member of the Alliance has to say is, \u2018Proud of it.\u00a0 See you at the Polls!\u2019 End of story.<\/p>\n

    The second objection is that an Alliance of the type I\u2019m proposing, with the Sangha<\/em> at the very center of it, will inevitably end in turning Sri Lanka into a Buddhist Theocracy, a fate not much more palatable than a tyranny of the minorities, or of foreign interventionists.\u00a0 I admit that there is a danger of this happening.<\/p>\n

    Personally, the end result that I hope for if the Alliance is a success is a stable democracy where individual rights are sacrosanct, where every citizen, irrespective of whether they are Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, or anything else, can live in peace and pursue whatever avenues of happiness and prosperity they wish to pursue.<\/p>\n

    What I oppose are attempts by the minorities to claim special treatment because of the fact that they are minorities, i.e. the claim that they have \u2018grievances\u2019 or some such things endemic to them by virtue of their ethnic, linguistic or religious status, and the related claim that they have special historical and moral rights to particular areas of this country, rights not shared by the Sinhalese.<\/p>\n

    But, I recognize that a Movement based on ethnic identity, with its elemental undercurrents, can morph into a repressive and intolerant orthodoxy.\u00a0 I am hopeful that the more reasonable and sensible among the Sinhala-Buddhists, including the Sangha<\/em>, will prevent such a thing happening.<\/p>\n

    Indeed, the history of the Sinhala-Buddhists offers an exemplary record of toleration and amity. I am reminded that the origins of the Muslims in the Eastern Province is that the Sinhala King invited them to settle in those areas when they were being persecuted by the Portuguese and driven out of their homes in the areas around Colombo.<\/p>\n

    Similarly, when the Dutch took over control of the coastal areas from the Portuguese, and began to persecute the Catholics in those areas, the Sinhala King invited them to settle in the Matale district, the very heart of his kingdom, and I am informed that the descendants of those Catholics live in those areas to this day.<\/p>\n

    It is difficult to suppose that a people with the above type of history, a people whose religion has as one of its central tenets the doctrine of Karma (i.e. \u2018What goes around comes around\u2019) along with a commitment to the Middle Path (i.e. a shunning of extremes) will as a rule allow themselves to degenerate into a repressive and intolerant society.<\/p>\n

    In any event, my point is that, the immediate need is for the Sinhala-Buddhists to survive as a civilization, and this must take precedence over any danger that may lurk in the future, as a result of forces unleashed to meet the present need.<\/p>\n

    The final objection is that the foreigners, i.e. the Indians and the Americans, will not like the Sinhala-Buddhists coming to power in the island, and will trigger a second internecine war in order to prevent such a thing happening.\u00a0 I\u2019ll deal with the Indians first.\u00a0 I admit that the Indians will probably repeat the tactic they used in the 80\u2019s if they feel that their interests are sufficiently threatened.<\/p>\n

    As I indicated earlier, however, the Sinhala-Buddhists are at present facing an existential crisis, which is to say, they are facing annihilation as a culture and a civilization.\u00a0 What the objection says is that the Sinhalese are finished if, in trying to survive, they take steps that clash with Indian interests.\u00a0 In other words, the Sinhalese are damned if they do and damned if they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

    Under the circumstances, it makes no sense to give in passively to the Indians out of fear for what they might<\/em> do.\u00a0 The imperative is to survive first.\u00a0 If the Indians decide to set up terrorist camps or whatever else to disrupt the State, so be it:\u00a0 the Sinhala-Buddhists will have to cross that bridge when they come to it.<\/p>\n

    On the other hand, the Indians themselves are not invulnerable:\u00a0 Indian politics is in constant flux; it has been shown for instance that Modi is no longer invincible.\u00a0 A solid Sinhala-Buddhist power-base in Sri Lanka will be able to influence these trends.<\/p>\n

    In short, it may not be so easy for India to meddle in the affairs of this country if the Sinhala-Buddhists consolidate power.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ll now turn to the Americans, who I think are the ones really driving events in Sri Lanka, even more than the Indians.\u00a0 What would the Americans do in the face of a Sinhala-Buddhist Alliance of the type I\u2019m suggesting?\u00a0 In my view, this is where things get interesting.\u00a0 I lived for quite some time in the United States, and flatter myself that I understand something of how Americans think.<\/p>\n

    The urgency with which the new Constitution is being pushed by the present regime, coupled with the fact that top-level American emissaries have been visiting the island almost every month, indicates to me that the Americans have realized the local puppets they\u2019ve put in place are far more incompetent, venal and vacillating than they imagined, and the window of opportunity to hook Sri Lanka permanently into America\u2019s \u2018Informal Empire\u2019 is fast shrinking.<\/p>\n

    One must combine the above with a well-known fact about the way the Americans run the said Informal Empire.\u2019\u00a0 Generally speaking, it is run by putting in place, in the countries that are brought within the ambit of the \u2018Empire\u2019 a local strongman or junta, backed by an Army specifically trained and equipped to be used continually and relentless against the local population, to keep the latter in check and allow US interests to have their way in the country.<\/p>\n

    To digress a moment, Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in their classic study, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism<\/em> (South End Press, Boston, 1979) make a distinction between what they call \u2018constructive terror\u2019 and \u2018benign terror.\u2019\u00a0 \u2018Constructive terror\u2019 is state-sponsored violence by regimes directly subsidized or supported by the US, for purposes of furthering the US\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

    \u2018Benign terror\u2019 is violence by various fringe groups and\/or regimes about which the US is indifferent, either because the victims are not of sufficient interest to Americans, or the regimes though not directly subsidized by the US nevertheless do business with the latter, and therefore policy considerations entail that no feathers be ruffled.<\/p>\n

    Chomsky\u2019s and Herman\u2019s conclusion is that the number of persons killed and brutalized by constructive terror\u2019 is exponentially greater than the number killed and brutalized by \u2018benign terror.\u2019\u00a0 My point is this:\u00a0 what the US is in the process of doing in Sri Lanka is making this country a directly subsidized and supported client State, which means that the next step one can expect is the said \u2018constructive terror.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Unfortunately for the US, the Sri Lanka Army, a war-winning army, which in its very ethos exists as an institution of national defence, is in its present form incapable of being used on a mass scale against the local population, and it\u2019ll take years of \u2018reform\u2019 to turn it into a tool that can be used for that purpose.\u00a0 (It is reported that the said process of \u2018reform\u2019 has begun, with help from Britain, one of the US\u2019s customary agents when it comes to these operations, but still it\u2019ll take years to complete.)<\/p>\n

    To make a long story short, if the Sinhala-Buddhists were to grab power in Sri Lanka, the US in my view will be helpless to do anything about it. \u00a0They\u2019ll have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan to topple the new government, which will not be easy, because the Sinhala-Buddhists will hopefully have learned from their first experience.<\/p>\n

    More important, the US itself is increasingly distracted by more pressing concerns, including on the one hand domestic calamities, and on the other, the imperative to contend with the rising power of China and Russia in regions where the US had for years enjoyed unquestioned hegemony.\u00a0 In short, the present may be the best time, perhaps the only<\/em> time, for the Sinhala-Buddhists to assert themselves and retake their country.<\/p>\n

    Dharshan Weerasekera is an Attorney-at-Law.\u00a0 He is the author of two books:\u00a0 The UN\u2019s Relentless Pursuit of Sri Lanka (2013), and, The UN\u2019s Subversion of International Law:\u00a0 The Sri Lanka Story (2015)<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA The persons who are pushing the new Constitution and the forces behind them (i.e. the US, UK and India) have anticipated almost all contingencies.\u00a0 Unless something drastic happens to derail their plans, here\u2019s what I predict will happen:\u00a0 On the 9th, the government will convert Parliament to a Constitutional Assembly, and over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50751","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=50751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}