Another Sinhala-Muslim Conflict Brewing: Government Caught Napping!
By Lukman Harees –July 6, 2016
Lukman Harees
Astrologers are no strangers to Sri Lankan politics. Sumanadasa predicted a MR victory in 2015 and later gave some interesting reasons when it misfired. There was another type of astrological prediction recently in a newspaper which was both comical and uncanny. An astrologist named Sameera Chandrasiri from Helabima newspaper in his column, in a crafty way predicted an impending Sinhala-Muslims conflict soon and attributed cattle slaughter during Ramazan time( there’s no cattle slaughter during Ramazan time!), Deforestation (reference to Rishard Badurdeen), illegal settlements (reference to Murichikutti settlements of War refugees) and humiliating/insulting and challenging the Sons of the Soil/ Maha Sangha, as possible causes/ sparks for such a conflagration, and underlined the need to remove them as otherwise it will be harmful to the country’s rulers.
Leave aside the comical aspects of the prediction itself and the possible causes, there is truth in the fact, that there is an impending racial conflict involving the Sinhalese and the Muslims in the brewing and Sri Lanka is sitting atop a social volcano waiting to explode at any moment. There is no need for an astrologer to predict this calamity, as any observer with a fine tuned common sense will and can see telling signs of this gathering storm.
Ethnic or religious clashes or conflagrations have not been anything novel or new to the Sri Lankan Dharma Dweepaya. Modern Ceylon’s first ethno-religious riots targeted not Tamils but Muslims in 1915. Then, ever since Independence, there were many ethnic conflagrations mainly between Sinhalese and Tamils. Many have argued that the rise and institutionalisation of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism in post-independent Sri Lanka bear much responsibility for today’s ethnic conflicts between the majority Sinhalese state and the minorities. Upon the heels of the end of a protracted Sinhala Tamil ethnic conflict which aggravated with the now infamous 1983 pogrom against the Tamils , there came the well-orchestrated hate campaign against the next biggest minority –the Muslims, which culminated in the Aluthgama dubbed by many analysts as a mini-1983. Sinhalese Christians were targeted too.
Drawing parallels between 1983 riots and 2014 Aluthgama riots may not be fair, but few similarities can be identified. One such similarity being not just the inaction on the part of the then-governments to act decisively and firmly on time but also shameful attempts to brand the victims as perpetrators. Post-war period under MR was a time of immense pressure for the minorities. Tamils after difficult times under the ruthless Tigers were thrown into disarray and marginalized due to the arrogant ,supremacist and majoritarian polices adopted by MR. Many were languishing in refugee camps while no plausible solutions were offered to sort out their genuine grievances .International community put Sri Lanka on the dock for the excesses committed by the Armed Forces during the last stages of the War. Muslims on the other hand went through hell when many hate groups with implicit State support, operated without fear or sanction throwing all decencies to the wind, while the silent majority watched helplessly. Muslim politicians were caught napping. Sri Lanka became once again ,almost a pariah state in the eyes of the world.
