{"id":89224,"date":"2019-05-22T22:47:42","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T04:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=89224"},"modified":"2019-05-22T15:01:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T22:01:25","slug":"why-does-the-un-cry-wolf-concerning-sri-lanka-and-the-european-union-bleat-in-unison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/22\/why-does-the-un-cry-wolf-concerning-sri-lanka-and-the-european-union-bleat-in-unison\/","title":{"rendered":"WHY DOES THE UN CRY WOLF, CONCERNING SRI LANKA, AND THE EUROPEAN UNION BLEAT IN UNISON?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This is a\nconcerned ordinary Sri Lankan\u2019s response to two statements coming from the West\nregarding Sri Lanka. No sane Sri Lankan would deny that the country has been\nbrought to the brink of disintegration and destruction, to the boundary (the\nevent horizon) of a black hole from which no return is possible. These are the\nNote to Correspondents: Joint Statement on Sri Lanka by UN Special Advisors on\nPrevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect\u201d, New York, 13 May 2019,\npublished in the official website of the UN (https:\/\/www.un.org\/sg\/en\/content\/sg\/note-correspondents\/2019-05-13<\/a>) and the EU\nstatement of May 16, 2019 issued by the Political\nand Commercial Communication Section of the Delegation of the European Union to\nSri Lanka and Maldives in Colombo on behalf of the governments of France, UK,\nItaly, Switzerland, Romania, Germany, Norway and Netherlands, and the European\nCommission (https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/files\/resources\/190516_-_joint_statement_-_sin_1.pdf<\/a>).\nThe ideas expressed here are my personal opinions, for what they are worth. I\nthink they are shared by many other patriotic Sri Lankans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN Special\nAdvisors\u2019 Joint Statement authored by Adama Dieng (from Senegal), United\nNations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, and Karen Smith (from\nSouth Africa), United Nations Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect\nclaims to be on \u2018attacks against religious minorities in Sri Lanka\u2019. To make\nsuch a claim is exceedingly misleading. It only refers to certain belated\nartificially created violent incidents in the Kurunegala and Gampaha districts\nalmost three weeks after the ISIS terror attacks on churches and hotels in\nseveral places in the country. Sources in the social media and even some in the\nmainstream media suggest, with or without justification, that the government\nitself  is behind the violence that the\nbiased West is focusing on in order to push its own agenda involving Sri Lanka.\nIn his weekly column  in the Sunday\nIsland\/May 19, 2019 under the title \u2018What the Muslim community lacks,\u2019 veteran\npolitical commentator C.A. Chandraprema makes this observation: \u2018The furious outpourings on Facebook,\naccusing those involved in the violence of being pro-government conspirators\nprobably had more to do with putting out the fires ignited by a few organised\ngangs than the curfews and arrests made by the government\u2019. (President\nSirisena\u2019s unthinking, rather habitual imposition of a ban on the social media,\nwhenever violent incidents are reported in which Sinhalese are falsely\nimplicated, is counterproductive. It seriously harasses the hundreds of\nthousands of poor Sri Lankans (at least 90% of them are from the majority\ncommunity) employed abroad, especially women who work as domestics in the Gulf\ncountries. Such a ban always adds to the suffering of these people by depriving\nthem of the cheapest means of frequent communication with their loved ones back\nhome. What Chandraprema describes as \u2018furious outpourings on the Facebook\u2019\n(presumably against reported attacks on Muslims) are from these poor people as\nmuch as from other young netizens. Social media banning is adding insult to\ninjury as far as these humane minded Sri Lankans are concerned.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I found this\ndocument (the Joint Statement of UN Special Advisors) elsewhere (that is, in a\nsource that is not connected with the UN), I would have thought that it is a\nlibelous piece of propaganda against Sri Lanka in the form of a rather clever\nforgery that has nothing at all to with that august world body and that it has been\ncomposed by some naturally irresponsible hireling of a terrorist organization\nhell bent on deepening the current crisis in the country out of some ulterior\nmotive. That impression was created in me by the palpable falsehoods that it\ncontains; the deliberate untruths seem to be designed to cry wolf or raise a\nfalse alarm about non-existent dangers emanating from perceived deficits in\ndemocracy and good governance allegedly inherent in the Sri Lankan political\nsetup, for which the blame is hypocritically attributed to so-called\n\u2018nationalist extremism\u2019. What these UN advisors implicitly assert as undeniable\ntruths about Sri Lanka are flagrant falsehoods that have acquired a kind of\nGoebbelsian authority through repetition by the racist Tamil separatist propagandists\nover the years, nay, decades. This would be obvious to any impartial observer\nwith a correct and clear idea about the history of Sri Lanka with its glorious\nancient Buddhist civilization and the treacherous ground realities that its\nphilosophically highly cultured people must tackle today under conditions of\ninglorious intervention in its internal affairs by external geopolitical\nplayers active in the region. It is most likely that the two aforementioned\nSpecial Advisors believe that they are reflecting the truth about the\nprevailing situation in Sri Lanka. We need not blame them for that. But it is\nclear that they have been seriously misled by the sources of information that\nthey implicitly trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the\nSpecial Advisors\u2019 Statement, they<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018\u2026..  noted a recent spate of attacks against\nMuslim and Christian communities in Sri Lanka, a majority Buddhist country\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a\ndeliberate misrepresentation of facts. Why this unnecessary reminder that Sri\nLanka is a Buddhist majority country? Isn\u2019t it an attempt to incriminate\nSinhalese Buddhists, by implying that it is they who  are committing violence against the minority\nMuslim and Christian communities?. TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran, in a knee jerk\nreaction to the bombings, seemingly justifying them, said that the attacks were\ndue to Sri Lanka\u2019s failure to address minority grievances! The suicide bombers\nfrom the ISIS-sponsored National Thawheed Jamath (NTJ) who detonated bombs in\nthree churches and three hotels in different places in the country were from\namong the Muslims (the only ethnic community identified as such in Sri Lanka\nexclusively on the basis of religion). The attacks on churches directly\ntargeted Catholics, but those on hotels were indiscriminate ones; the dead and\ninjured included foreigners as well as locals. So, on the whole, the vast\nmajority of the victims of these attacks were Sinhalese. This fact was evident\nto the Sri Lankans themselves at once. But there was no sign of any revenge\nattack by the Sinhalese on Muslims. Instead, everywhere it was the Sinhalese\nwho led voluntary rescue work including blood donation and the cleaning up of\ndamaged churches. One young Sinhalese businessman offered to rebuild one of\nthose churches at his own expense, which however, the Cardinal politely refused\nto accept (source: a video on the internet). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Islamic\nterror attacks brought all the grieving communities together as when the final\nassault on separatist terrorists was in progress in the first few months of\n2009. It now appears that the reconciliation mongers want to wreck the steadily\nemerging calm despite the discovery of suspicious hoards of weapons such as\nswords and knives in or in the vicinity of mosques as shown in local news\nchannels.  Social media say that,\naccording to the local residents, the attackers involved in the recent violence\nin Kurunegala and Gampaha districts (committed more than three weeks after the\nbombings) were from outside areas. It is certain that agents provocateurs were\nat work at the behest of someone. Colombo district MP of the UNP Mujibur\nRahaman says that the government must accept responsibility for the attacks on\nMuslims, and is threatening to leave the government unless the problem is\naddressed soon. It is interesting to point out that he is one of the four prominent\nMuslim politicians (others being Eastern Province Governor Hisbullah, Western\nProvince Governor Azath Salley, Minister of Industry and Commerce, All Ceylon\nMakkal Congress (ACMC) leader Rishad Badiuddeen) that the Opposition is\naccusing of complicity in the Wahhabist terrorism that inspired the attacks on\nApril 21. Even a motion of no confidence (NMC) against the last named had been\nentered in the Order Paper in Parliament by the time of writing\/May 20. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN Special\nAdvisors note that   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2018The attacks committed on this weekend of 11\nMay follow deadly attacks carried out on Easter Sunday of 21 April 2019,\nagainst churches and hotels in various parts of the country in which more than\n200 people were killed and hundreds were injured.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then they\nobserve that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2018The recent violence in Sri Lanka has\nhighlighted a growing influence of nationalist and extremist views of identity\nin the Asia region, putting religious minorities at risk.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subtle\nimplication here is that the Catholic community who were the target of the ISIS\nattack are not to be suspected for the violence that was committed three weeks\nafter that attack, because if it was revenge \nfrom them, it should have come much earlier. These dishonest brokers\nimply, without any real evidence, that the blame should be attributed to\nalleged nationalist extremists (of the majority community).    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is\nabsolutely no need to invoke the UN\u2019s Responsibility to Protect (R2P)\ncommitment in respect of Sri Lanka. We the sovereign people of Sri Lanka comprising\nthe three main racial\/ethnic groups of Sinhalese (75% of the population\/2012\nCensus), Tamils (15%), and Muslims who are a mixture of Tamil speakers (the\nmajority of them), and Sinhala speakers, can manage this crisis by ourselves.\nThe religious breakdown of the population is roughly 70% Buddhists, 12% Hindus,\n10% Muslims and 07% Christians. These different ethnic and religious groups\nhave always lived in peace and harmony for centuries. No more proof of\ninterfaith and inter-communal  harmony in\nSri Lanka, \u2018a Buddhist majority country\u2019, is necessary than the fact that all\nordinary Sri Lankans, without an exception, look up to His Eminence Cardinal\nMalcom Ranjith for protection at this critical moment. His brave, nonpartisan\nand just criticism of the powers that be including the government in view of\nthe current situation, has gone down well with the masses. He has become a\nnational icon. For years now, His Eminence Cardinal Ranjith has been robustly\ndefending the Budddhist cultural foundation of Sri Lanka, particularly, in the\ncontext of attempted international threats to it, for he recognizes the fact\nthat that foundation ensures the peaceful flourishing of other religions as\nwell as Buddhism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there were a\nfew occasional conflicts between the communities, they were invariably of a\npolitical nature, but not of any racial or religious significance. Communal\nharmony remained intact even during the three decades of civil war (that was\nended in 2009) amidst devastating terrorist bomb blasts and indiscriminate\nattacks on civilian targets killing hundreds of innocent citizens belonging to\nall ethnicities. The peaceful and humane ethos of the pan-Sri Lankan society is\nno doubt mainly the result of the unobtrusive influence of the age old\nSinhalese Buddhist  culture of the island\nsupported by the traditional Hindu religious values of kindness and nonviolence\namong the Tamils, who form the largest minority community. It is up to the\nSpecial Advisors, if they so wish, to check whether this statement is a biased\nassertion of a racial or religious zealot, by consulting truly authoritative\nsources (But please exclude the mercenary NGO intellectuals, and the few\nmembers among the eminent emigrant Sri Lankan Tamil intelligentsia domiciled in\nthe West, who being human, but forgetting their native cultural heritage of\nhumaneness and belief fair play, succumb to baseless anti-Sinhalese Buddhist\nprejudices, and make it their mission to distort history in order to lend\nintellectual and moral  support to the\nunjust cause of separatism\/federalism in the island). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as there is\nno conflict between the diverse ethnic groups, there is no evidence of any\nreligious disharmony among them. Even the most uneducated Buddhist never looks\ndown upon people who follow other religions for that reason. They don\u2019t care\nwhether non-Buddhists reciprocate that attitude so long as they do not try to\nimpose their beliefs on them by force or encroach on their ancient places of\nworship or vandalize them. If any person among the Buddhists wants to embrace\nany other religious creed, they recognize that person\u2019s right and freedom to do\nso. There is no concept of apostasy, which is punishable with death in some\nreligion. Buddhism is not your typical religious doctrine. In fact, it is not a\nreligion at all.  Buddha endeavoured all\nhis life to save people from religion and help them follow the path of\nenlightenment, which is an inner process independent of supernatural help. Of\ncourse, the ritualistic Buddhism that is the shell that protects its ethical\nphilosophical core among the ordinary followers has much in common with other\nmajor religions. Proselytizing zeal is something alien to Buddhism. Sinhalese\nBuddhists get unfairly denounced as extremists when they react to the\nunacceptable activities of certain small fundamentalist groups polluting the\npeaceful Christian and Muslim mainstreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhist monks\nand lay Buddhist activists have been pointing out what these unacceptable\nactivities are those that certain Christian and Muslim fundamentalist groups\nrichly financed from outside are carrying out and they have been trying hard to\nengage the attention of the political authorities about them. However,\nSinhalese politicians in power fear to do anything about these complaints for\nfear of losing the block votes that these communities represent; those out of\npower take care not to commit themselves to the necessity of finding solutions\nto the legitimate grievances of the Buddhists against religious fundamentalists\nbecause of the same fear. So, the handful of Muslim politicians who are able to\ncommand support among the Muslims in the form of a block vote through the\npatronage of small fundamentalist groups who are held in fear by them become\nkingmakers under the existing electoral system. The survival of the\npresent  government depends on the\nparticipation of the few Muslim MPs who are being accused of sponsoring Islamic\nterror. This is not to say that all Muslims are religious extremists, or that\nall Muslim politicians are supporters of terrorism. The vast majority of\nMuslims (who account for nearly 10% of the population) want to live in peace\nwith the rest of Sri Lankans. This is a matter of vitally important for them.\nMuslims are associated more with trade than anything else, though they enjoy\ntheir fair share in every other sphere of national life as well, for example,\nin education, administration, justice, communication, sports, and what have\nyou. The majority of Muslim politicians are good patriotic  politicians like Kabir Hashim of the UNP, and\nMohamed Musammil of the National Freedom Front led by MP Wimal Weerawansa\n(Musammil is NLF\u2019s media spokesperson). Personally, I feel that Musammil is fit\nto be the prime minister or the president of the country.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two UN\nSpecial advisors have \u2018offered  their\nsupport to work with the Government on inter-faith and inter-religious harmony\nand inclusivity\u2019.  They conclude by stating that Sri Lanka has a\npluralistic society. To be a Sri Lankan is to be a Buddhist, to be Hindu, to be\na Muslim, to be a Christian. All these communities are entitled to their\nidentity, to freely exercise their religion and to live in peace and security\nin Sri Lanka, as recognized by the country\u2019s Constitution. We call on all Sri\nLankans to respect one another.\u201d This is redundant advice to perhaps the most\nancient and the most peacefully multicultural nation in the South-Asian region,\nif not in the whole world, except for temporary disturbances introduced by\nforeign intruders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reply will\ngo for the statement from the European Union (May 16) as they also harp on more\nor less the same themes against Sri Lanka. They are more straightforward about\ntheir real concerns than the UN Advisors. Their focus is their own national\ntrade interests, not Sri Lankans\u2019 human rights including the right to live.\nWhile adopting foreign policies based on their own respective national\ninterests, these Western nations denounce Sri Lankan nationalists as extremists\nwho ill treat  the minorities.  Sinhalese nationalism, over the millennia,\nhas been territorial. \u2018Sinhalay\u2019 was the ancient name of the country. The\nEuropean name \u2018Ceylon\u2019 is derived from that. All those who made it their home\nwere regarded as members of one nation, though it was recognized as the\noriginal and only homeland of the Sinhalese race. The Buddhist culture that\nevolved in it from about the arrival of Mahinda Thera 2300 years ago made it\npossible for people speaking different languages and having different religious\nbeliefs and ritual practices to live together in amity. Prince, later King,\nDutugemunu (161-137 BCE) launched his long drawn war that he concluded\nvictoriously against South Indian Chola invader Elara, said, according to the\nMahavamsa or The Great Chronicle, written in Pali in the 5th<\/sup> century\nCE: My endeavour is for ensuring the survival of the Buddha Sasana for\nperpetuity (in the land)\u201d; he did not speak about aggrandizing his own\nSinhalese race. His decree that all music must stop when processions pass by\nthe grave that he had built for king Elara, the invader enemy he defeated, out\nof respect for him, is honoured to this day as a somber tradition. It is those\nsame values that inform the dominant Buddhist cultural foundation of Sri Lanka.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nEU calls \u2018on political, religious and other community leaders to continue to\nspeak out against violence and all those inciting unrest and distrust and to\nmake every effort to promote understanding and harmony between communities\u2019.\nThey do, without being admonished by any outsider, except the ones who serve\nthe interests of antinational elements. If you let us mind our own affairs\nwithout interference, we can easily resolve these unnecessary problems that\nhave been foisted on us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala This is a concerned ordinary Sri Lankan\u2019s response to two statements coming from the West regarding Sri Lanka. No sane Sri Lankan would deny that the country has been brought to the brink of disintegration and destruction, to the boundary (the event horizon) of a black hole from which no return […]<\/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-89224","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\/89224","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=89224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}