Midweek Politics: The Struggle For Liberty
By Dharisha Bastians -February 6, 2013
Dharisha Bastians
“The rise of the Nazis was made possible because the elite of German society worked with them, but also, above all else, because most in Germany at least tolerated this rise. Human rights do not assert themselves on their own; freedom does not emerge on its own and democracy does not succeed on its own” - Angela Merkel on the 80th Anniversary of
Hitler’s rise to power
On the 80th Anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power as Chancellor, Germany declared open a new exhibit at its Topography of Terror open air museum, located at the former headquarters of the Gestapo, or Nazi secret police. The exhibition entitled, “Berlin 1933. On the Path to Dictatorship”, traces the Fuhrer’s early days in power, largely through newspapers, posters and historically stunning photographs. The exhibit also showcases an iconic poster dated 1 April 1933, one of the earliest Nazi propaganda notices against the country’s Jewish community. “Germans, defend yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews,” it reads, urging Germans to boycott Jewish shops and services.
Sri Lanka, in the recent past, has seen the rise of very similar propaganda material largely targeted at enterprises run by Muslims. The posters and banners paraded through the streets of certain towns by Sinhalese extremist groups, urge the Sinhalese to stand up to defend their race by boycotting Muslim food products, clothing chains and restaurants.
It might be called premature and hyperbolic to draw comparisons between Nazi propaganda and the type of Muslim paranoia being created by the Sinhalese extremists groups in Sri Lanka today. Since the ugly incident in Kuliyapitiya, where protesting groups carried offensive images and paraded them in front of Muslim places of business, there has been a lull in overt anti–Muslim activities being reported.
It might be called premature and hyperbolic to draw comparisons between Nazi propaganda and the type of Muslim paranoia being created by the Sinhalese extremists groups in Sri Lanka today. Since the ugly incident in Kuliyapitiya, where protesting groups carried offensive images and paraded them in front of Muslim places of business, there has been a lull in overt anti–Muslim activities being reported.
Fires started
But fires started are not so easily quelled. Hate is a universal language and hate speech has a way of catching on. The internet is exploding with anti-Muslim sites created by purported Sinhala Buddhistorganizations. Facebook pages are sporting deeply offensive pictures, in a language that does great harm to trust and respect between communities of people. There is still talk of impending destruction of sacred Muslim shrines and allegedly ‘unauthorized’ mosques. The campaigns against these sites are gaining ground on social media networks. This anger directed against the ‘other’ and the extremists’ perception of being usurped, Sri Lanka well knows from the experience of its very own Crystal Night in July 1983, can wreak irreparable damage on a nation’s psyche.
Often it does not even take a ‘night of broken glass’ or communal riots to break the hearts of a minority community. When fires engulfed the iconic Jaffna Library, that beating heart and cultural root-spring of Northern Tamil culture, they did not merely burn age old manuscripts and hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable books. The fire also seared human hearts, tore apart communities and stoked different fires, of nationalism, separatism and ethnic strife.
The propaganda parallels therefore, seem apt, and even necessary, if vigilance is the price to pay to prevent a tragedy of such magnitude again.
The propaganda parallels therefore, seem apt, and even necessary, if vigilance is the price to pay to prevent a tragedy of such magnitude again.
The Muslim Council wants to play down the rhetoric. On 3 February, the Council defended the justifiable right of the Muslim community to celebrate Independence, with their political leaders having fought as hard for Sri Lanka’s freedom from colonial rule six decades ago. “Our population is not growing. Talk to the Department of Census, we were 9 percent 1000 years ago. We are still at that number, we will never be the majority,” the council’s representatives, pleaded against the extremist rhetoric that is warning Sinhalese Sri Lanka will be a Muslim majority nation in a few years. The pleas were profoundly indicative of how desperately Muslim moderates sought to allay the fears of the majority race.
