“The Silent Majority”: Sharing Some Thoughts

By Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan -April 6, 2013 |

Charles Sarvan

“The majority of Sri Lankans are fair-minded, decent and generous. This majority shouldn’t be silent but, for the sake of the Island, unite and speak out against the extremists.” Such and other similar sentiment are not uncommon, and quite understandable. “The silent majority” is a phrase, a claim and an appeal that one encounters not uncommonly in different countries and contexts, and with different implications. Often, it seems to me, it’s a small group that uses the expression to comfort itself by saying that, though they seem to be few in number, the majority is with them, albeit absent, that is, silent and inactive. For example, one reads alarmed and despondent reports in the British press that church-attendance in England is falling. However, some argue that what really matters is belief, Christian values and conduct. The silent majority hold to the faith, though they are unable, or don’t bother, to attend. But the fact is that the number of Christians, though it grows in parts of Africa and South America, has fallen, and is falling, in England. Is the claim that a silent Christian majority exists in England then denial, self-delusion, or a wanting-to-believe what one would like to be reality? It could also be a move to express trust and confidence in the majority of their fellow countrymen, a kind of compliment: they are not here but, in their hearts and minds; in their convictions and values, they are with us. Perhaps, they are right.

In a different situation, the explanation for the “silent majority” phenomenon is otherwise and simple, for example, under a cruel and efficient dictatorship. I think that, by the very end of the Second World War, most Germans had realized that the World War they had launched, fervently believed in, and enthusiastically supported was, in truth, great folly; a crime, and a “sin” against humanity. But they didn’t dare openly express their opposition. Excluding and acknowledging the few who opposed and paid the ultimate price, one could say the majority of Germans remained silent. Finally, Hitler was not removed by a swelling, German, protest-movement but by the Russian and Allied invasion.

Did these protestors constitute a minority? Did the majority support the Pact but, in the face of that vehemence and violence, remain silent?

The burden of History can lead to the existence of a silent majority of a different kind and nature. I am told by my brother-in-law (German) that most Germans today are of the opinion that the children of immigrants should be compelled to learn German through intense language lessons. If they learn the language quickly, not only will they feel at home sooner but, importantly, it will enhance their employment potential, and thus their contribution to the national economy. Yet the memory and shadow of a dictatorial past makes the majority of Germans reluctant to recommend compulsion, fearing they’ll be misunderstood. They form the majority on the issue but remain silent: a silent majority.
My brother-in-law also wondered whether Aung San Suu Kyi – brave and principled; Nobel Prize winner – would dare urge equal rights and treatment where the Muslims in Burma are concerned. If she doesn’t publicly take a stand, is it because she shares the ethnic beliefs and hegemonic intentions of the majority? Or is it because of a reluctance to go against the majority, not to mention the country’s armed forces? At this fragile stage of a transition to democracy, it might prove politically and tactically unwise.

In Sri Lanka, what obtains is the electoral system, be it termed “democracy” or “majoritarianism”. In German, the word for the vote is “die Stimme”, and the right to vote is “das Stimmrecht”. The first translates literally as “the voice”; the second, as “the right to a voice”. Citizens, the people, “speak” at election through the vote they cast, silently and (in order to safeguard them) in privacy. Their “voices” are heard (counted); the majority wins, and comes to govern for a fixed period of time. To vote is to “speak”, and speech is an action, as J. L. Austin, philosopher of language, argued. Under the electoral system, on major issues it is difficult to claim the existence of a silent majority; a majority that is silent but dissenting. Some countries, if there’s an important matter to be decided, gauge and establish the majority opinion through a plebiscite. Before the Gulf War that destroyed Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair refused to hold a referendum, knowing full well that the majority would vote against military intervention. (I happened to be in London, and took part in the “march of a million”.) “Vox populi“ may turn out to be the voice of the Devil rather than that of God (“vox Dei”) but, under the electoral system, “Vox populi” is supposed to be decisive, and translates itself into law, and then into practice. The people, therefore, cannot exculpate themselves, easily shifting responsibility and blame onto political shoulders. Under a free electoral system, and unlike in a dictatorship, the ultimate responsibility is not with politicians but with the people who choose the politicians.

Let us take the Bandaranaike – Chelvanayagam Pact of the late 1950s. It was abruptly abrogated because of mass and violent protest; and by monks going on deputation to the Prime Minister’s residence. Did these protestors constitute a minority? Did the majority support the Pact but, in the face of that vehemence and violence, remain silent? I don’t know but doubt the former explanation because Mr. Bandaranaike was a populist and very popular politician: I remember the mass outpouring of grief and anger at his assassination.

I would suggest for consideration that, within a population, there are three groups. The first is made up of “extremists”, proud of and publicly proclaiming their right to dominate the ‘Other’; to exclude and subordinate them. They have but contempt for concepts such as justice, universal human rights and equality; for the ideals of compassion and fairness. Theirs is a ruthless racist Darwinism.

The second group consists in turn of two sub-groups: those who are indifferent and resigned, and those who wish things were different. The latter do care, but not to the degree that they are unafraid to speak out or to act. The price to be paid, they feel, is too great. The public good is not worth the damage to private life; to oneself and to one’s family. Combining the two, in some cases it may be fear that leads to resignation; to a throwing-up of hands and saying, “Who am I? What can I do? Nothing”. One must also remember those to whom bare existence is an arduous and daily struggle, leaving them with no time, strength or energy for political participation – even though their condition is the consequence of uncaring and failed politics. To point out in such cases that the etymology of the word “idiot” leads back to “individual”, and thence to “one not interested in public matters” would be cruel. Majority or minority, those of this second group are silent and inactive.

The third group is formed by men and women who openly, fearlessly, oppose the powers-that-be, conscious of the risk they run, and the price that may be exacted. (“Fear” must be distinguished from “cowardice”. The former is a healthy, life-preserving instinct.) Whether they are seen either as mistaken and foolish, even traitorous, or as being courageous, decent and principled is a matter of (differing) opinion.

I don’t know what proportion each group forms within ‘the Island of the Moral and Compassionate Doctrine’ but, to return to what I wrote earlier about the vote being the voice and opinion of the people; the barometer of their thought, feeling and wishes, successive election results in the Island seem to indicate emphatically and repeatedly that the first group has, by far, the greatest support. Here, one must have in mind the majority community: according to Wikipedia (2012), of a population of about twenty million, the Sinhalese constitute 74.9 %. Whether silent or vociferous, the Sinhalese form the overwhelming majority, and it’s they who determine the nature of political and public life in Sri Lanka – remembering that the political and the public finally affect the social, the personal and the private.

One should not assume that the “silent majority” is made up of “moderates”; that the so-called “lunatic fringe” is a fringe, and not at the centre: one must first ask whether such a belief coincides with facts and reality. Before we build a structure of argument leading to a conclusion we must make sure that the foundational premise from which we start out is valid. The challenge is much harder because, at present, a silent majority of moderates believing in equality and inclusion seems not to exist. If so, the Herculean and daunting task, one that calls for intelligence and political skill; for courage, determination and patience, is first to alter people’s thinking, attitudes and values. The silent majority of moderates must first be created. This can be done through dialogue and discussion; through the media (particularly in Sinhala), and through education. I don’t mean “education” narrowly, relating to school and university, but in the broad and best sense of that term: the word “education” comes from the Latin verb “educare”, meaning, “to lead out”. To alter Biblical words: Knowledge shall set you free.

I recall in one of the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (a work I read as a child) Sinbad, young and strong, agrees to carry an old man. However, once on his shoulders, the ugly old man grips Sinbad around the neck, forcing him to be his slave. Now I give that tale a figurative application: certain countries, newly independent (“new” not in human but in Historical time) are young, strong and possessed of goodwill. But they are in the grip of ancient, centuries-old, tales and beliefs; of anachronistic and pernicious ideas. Newly independent nations must shake them off, mentally and emotionally; liberate themselves, and enter modernity.

Finally, once moderates have become the majority, there will be no need to appeal to them: under the electoral system, even if literally silent, they’ll “speak” effectively at election-time.

5,000 Tamils marching in London reject LLRC, demand Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 April 2013, 19:45 GMT]
More than 5,000 Eezham Tamils, from all walks of life, took to the streets in London on Friday, demanding a UN referendum to determine the creation of Tamil Eelam. “We want action, not words,” the protesters said rejecting any solution based on Sri Lanka's LLRC. Demanding the United Nations not to support the genocidal Sri Lanka, the Tamils in the UK said they are with the students of Tamil Nadu and thanked the Tamil Nadu State Assembly for passing a historic resolution demanding a UN referendum on separate Eezham. Earlier, in a referendum initiated by an independent group of British Tamils, held two years ago, 99.33% of 64,692 Eezham Tamils had voted in favour of the formation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the contiguous north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. 

On Friday, the protesters, braving unusually chilly winds, started the march from Trafalgar Square and concluded it at 10 Downing Street. 

The demonstration against the LLRC solution was in fact a voice against the West and India that harp on the LLRC deceit as means of protecting the genocidal State and regime in the island, Eezham Tamil political observers in London said. 

Raising slogans demanding the creation of a sovereign Tamil Eelam, the protesters also burnt an effigy of the genocide-accused Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Second generation Eezham Tamil youth and women took part in large numbers in the march organised by the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC-UK). 

• Word Wide Tamil Referendum - Full Report

While the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), that polled 233,000 votes in the last parliamentary elections in the island, was gagged from representing the political mandate of the Eezham Tamils at home, in the free referenda held among the diaspora in 10 countries across the world between 2009 and 2010, the creation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam was re-mandated by votes reaching the number of 210,000.

Under the 6th Amendment to the unitary Sri Lankan constitution, Tamil political parties and individuals are restricted from voicing or representing the political aspiration of the Eezham Tamil nation as mandated in the last democratic elections held in 1977. 

Building Peace In Sri Lanka: A Personal Story

By Christie F.J.Richards -April 6, 2013 

Christie Richards

A Sinhala Boy at Jaffna College

Rod is R.D. Perera. We met in 1954 when he enrolled in the University Entrance class (HSC) at Jaffna College.

Before it became associated with the slogan of Eelam, Vaddukoddai’s sole claim to fame was that Jaffna College was located there. Apart from that Vaddukoddai was a cultural desert. There were no good restaurants, shops or other commercial establishments.  There were a couple of thosai kadais and toddy spots under Palmyra trees for those who were inclined to patronize them (some senior students and staff members of Jaffna College included). The most exciting pastime of Jaffna College boarders was to steal the neighbours’ chickens for midnight feasts!

It was the practice those days for parents in the south and particularly Colombo to send their problematic sons to Jaffna schools. They figured that that a change of environment would help their sons to focus on studies without unnecessary distractions. The very problematic boys were sent to St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna famous for its stern discipline meted out by the Catholic priests, most of whom were Irish. The soft discipline cases were sent to the likes of Jaffna College and St. Johns College.

Perhaps Rod, a Sinhala Buddhist boy from Wadduwa, was a soft disciplinary case.

Those days, cohesion among boarders was legendary. Ragging of new boarders was a rite of passage that helped in the bonding of boarders who always acted as one body against the outsiders, the day students. It was not possible for a day student to win any of the elective offices of the schools organizations such as the prestigious Students Council or the various literary associations without some support of the boarders. Knowing this and realizing the importance of holding some of these offices to gain points at the interviews then held as part of the university admission process, I made it a point to make friends with boarders. So when I saw a timid and distressed Rod being ragged by senior boarders, I decided to cultivate his friendship. Plus I felt sorry for him, and wanted to save him. What was I to do? I could not ask the boarders to stop ragging him. So, I pretended to join in the rag. I commanded Rod to stand at attention and then ordered him sternly to march left, right, left etc until I marched him safely from the marauding raggers to his boarding house.

A year later, Rod asked whether he could be boarded at our house since he found it difficult to concentrate on his studies in the boarding house. My mother took him in as a boarder for nine months until he sat his University Entrance class. Both my mother and grandmother grew to be very fond of Rod. My grandmother would prod him to take second and third servings of every meal.

Rod got through his entrance in his first attempt. My mother was sad to see another son leave the house. Such was the bond that had been established between Rod and the members of my family. He was very much a part of us.

Drifting Apart

Rod and I had planned to stay in touch, to meet constantly after graduation. Life unfortunately had other ideas. I followed the path taken by many of my contemporaries who sensed trouble early on; after two teaching stints at Jaffna Collage, I migrated to Canada.

Unlike my brother, who placed a lot of emphasis on making and maintaining friendships, I assumed that a friendship does not need maintenance. I never realized that friendship, like a plant, needs to be cultivated and nurtured.

Busy with my new life, I lost touch with Rod.

In the meantime Rod too had migrated, to the UK. When my brother met him there, Rod had insisted on sending a gift for my mother. He told my brother that he remembered my mother being very musical. She used to sing well and played an old harmonica. She had always wished for a mouthorgan but could not afford one. She had mentioned that to my brother and me many times. Rod may have heard some of these conversations. My brother and I had forgotten my mother’s wish but Rod had not. He had bought a very expensive mouthorgan in London and gave it to my brother to be given to my mother.

Until the day she died, almost 2 decades later in 1994, my mother played and cherished that mouthorgan. Whenever my brother and I visited her on our holidays, my mother would invariably play that mouthorgan and say with much pride that it was a precious gift from her third son, Rod.

My mother often asked me to contact Rod. My inevitable answer was that it was not possible to keep in touch with him since I did not know where he lived. My mother would respond that he was in the UK . I would reply that I was in Canada and it was not exactly in close proximity to UK. I was even getting annoyed with my mother. I wondered whether she thought that Canada and UK were in close proximity like Sithankerny (our ancestral home) and Jaffna College, a distance of 2 km.

My attitude would have saddened my mother though she never expressed her disappointment.

By this time, the war had begun. At one time, my mother’s house was right in the middle of a battle zone, with the Tigers on one side and the Indian army on the other. My mother often had to be the peacemaker between these two opposing forces. They respected her and the house was spared any destruction from either party. However, after my mother’s death, events changed.  The Tigers occupied the premises and turned my mother’s room into a goats’ pen.

Memories of Christmases Past

In 2012, my brother took over the property and carried out basic renovations to make the place habitable. I arrived in time to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas was always a very special time for my mother and grandmother. Several days before Christmas they would make various pallakarams (sweetmeats). The house would be colour-washed, furniture varnished and new clothes bought. My mother would get us to cut a branch of the tamarind tree to serve as the Christmas tree. An extensive meal would be prepared and relatives and neighbours would be invited. Pallakarams would be distributed to neighbours. The baker (Vijaya, a Sinhalese) would come with a freshly baked butter cake. Relatives would drop by with gifts of fire crackers, tins of English biscuits etc. The ring of the postman’s cycle bell was music to our ears. He would come loaded with Christmas cards and gifts from friends and relatives. My mother’s first name was Rose and her birthday was on 24th December; therefore there would be several birthday cards as well, most of them sporting roses. The finale was the visit of the Carol singers from the Vaddukoddai Church who would sing Christmas carols and then Happy Birthday to my mother.

As my brother and I sat recalling all these Christmases past and wishing that we could bring them back, we heard the sound of the postman’s cycle bell. We both rushed spontaneously to the gate, as eager as two schoolboys. The postman had just one card for us.

And it was from Rod.

“I have been sending Christmas Greetings every year for the last thirty years.  Your family means much to me….. I would never forget how your mother cared for me, made me study, and discouraged my friends from visiting me as that would distract me from my studies”.

What more could we have asked for Christmas?  Who else would have sent Christmas cards for thirty years, without a single response?

Only Rod.

Old Friends Meet

A month later Rod and his wife came to Sri Lanka for a visit. We met after an absence of more than half a century.

It was a reunion like no other. Rod talked incessantly about how my mother had helped him to pass the university entrance exam. She would wake him up at 3 am every day with a big cup of coffee and make him study. If he nodded, she would gently tap him on his shoulders and say, “Rod, wake up”.

When Rod finally revisited my mother’s house, her beloved garden was once again in bloom. Walking around that garden with Rod made us feel that our mother too was there making an unseen and silent visit. Our mother would not have wished for anything better than to see her natural and adopted sons together at last after over 54 years.

Remembering Rose

My mother was not a rich woman. Often she was in financial difficulties. But that never stopped her from helping many people in various ways selflessly and without advertising her charitable works.

In January 2013, to perpetuate the memory and work of Rose Richards and in recognition of what she had meant to him personally, Rod established a scholarship in her name.

The Christmas of 2012 was very meaningful to us. Here was a Buddhist Sinhala from the South expressing his never ending gratitude to a Tamil Christian family in the North for a very small favour done him decades ago. Does this not represent true Christmas spirit?  For all of us, it is a real lesson on how we could build harmony and goodwill among the various communities in Sri Lanka.  Many of us in our lifetimes would have experienced good will from members of other communities. Some of them risked their lives and limbs to offer help to friends, neighbours and total strangers in tumultuous times. Let us remember such kind expressions of friendships. These are the meat of grassroots reconciliation efforts. Let us remember the likes of Rod and thank God for them.

*This is an edited version of a personal story that first appeared in the February 2013 issue of the Morning Star under the title: “Peace and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka – Spirit of Christmas 2012″

Arumugan Thondaman has betrayed the plantation workers by signing the collective agreement in a clandestine manner -Mano Ganesan

Saturday, 06 April 2013 

CWC and UNP led LJEWU have signed the collective agreement with the planters association in a very secret and haste manner within four days after the former agreement expired. Generally negotiations are conducted over the period of five to six months to evaluate the expectations and the possibilities of the workers and employers. This allows constructive inputs to be forwarded at the negotiations. Nowhere in the world plantation sector collective agreements are in signed in such a clandestine manner.

But government ally CWC minister Thondaman and UNP’s LJEW secretary Velayutham have taken very hurried and haste steps to complete the agreement. It has raised many eye brows and questions in plantations.

The agreement has increased basic wage from Rs. 380 to Rs. 450. The daily attendance allowance is fixed at Rs. 140. Our studies have revealed the fact only less than 20 percent of the work force receive this allowance. Therefore the wage increase is only 18%. Rs 450 is going to be the basic daily wage until March 2015. This agreement has been made in the interests of privates agenda holders and not in the favoring the working class. CWC and UNP led LJEW have together betrayed the plantation workers said Mano Ganesan, president of the plantation trade union federation (PTUF). Ganesan said further that, representatives the fifteen plantation unions which are coming under the (PTUF) are meeting in Hatton on Sunday to plan the next step and strategy.

Over fifteen plantation trade unions including the unions led by Mano Ganesan, Digambaram MP, Radhakrishnan MP, Praba Ganesan MP, Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Vickramabahu Karunarathna, Sirithunga Jayasooriya, Ashraff Aziz coming within PTUF.

Attacks On Muslim, A New Ball-Game

By Kumar David -April 6, 2013

Prof. Kumar David

When Lanka’s civil war ended in May 2009 with the extermination of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) it was thought that thirty years of strife was over and military victory would usher in stability and economic progress. Events have dashed these hopes; despite victory the government has shown no inclination for reconciliation or to reach a political settlement with the Tamils; barefaced attempts to consolidate an authoritarian regime and have run into determined opposition; the economy which showed a three year post-war spurt, has followed it with a severe downturn – a short boom followed by a bust. Another perilous development that has burst out in recent months is widespread attacks, in many parts of the island, on mosques, halal (kosher) foods, Muslim attire and the burning down of business premises owned by Muslims.

Indian and Pakistani readers are all too familiar with “communalism”. It evokes memories not just of Babri Masjid, Gujarat-Modi, and the horrors of partition, but reaches further back. Communal history is richly textured with brutality. (Though in the sacking of Delhi by Timur (1398), Nadir Shah (1739), and many other ravages, by far the great majority of those slaughtered were Muslims). The Sinhala-Tamil collision that Lanka has just emerged from too, has its historical roots; well marinated with contemporary social, economic and political discord. Memory reaches back to the Duttugemunu-Ellalan war of 161 BC, and Raja Raja Cholan’s conquest followed by a century long occupation (993-1077). The seminal text of Sinhala-Buddhist lore, the Fifth Century AD Mahavamsa, written in Pali, nurtures the notion of Lanka’s Sinhala-Buddhist exclusivity and portrays the Tamil as the “other”.

The ‘then’ roots of communalism

In colonial times, the British favoured Tamils with juicy placements in the public service, missionaries built schools in Jaffna, Tamil shops and businesses cornered the best locations, and so on. This is all true, and underpins the outbursts of anti-Tamil pogroms in the 1950s and 1960s. These mutated into widespread and co-ordinated attacks on Tamils from 1977 onwards (especially in 1983 when the UNP government, the military and the police instigated carnage), though the original causes had long evaporated. The Sinhala-Tamil civil war had roots charged with a nexus of social and economic discord; the roots were organic, if I may use the expression. Political and constitutional dissonances of the last 60 years were a continuation of the past; bigotry found fertile soil to prosper.

The hostility in Maktila and Rahine Province in Burma, in which hundreds of Muslims have been killed and tens of thousands made homeless, too, reach back a long way. The relaxation of military rule has allowed old angers to surface and pent up animosity to take to the streets. Therefore the outbreak of anti-Muslimbloodshed in Burma is another example of these classic socio-economic roots of religious intolerance.

The point I am driving at is that the anti-Muslim outburst we are now witnessing in Lanka, IS NOT LIKE THIS! This is different! I daresay there are business rivalries and Sinhalese merchants would love to drive out Muslim competitors, usually sharper and abler; but this eruption is not rooted there. The Muslims, unlike the Tamils of the past, put up no competition to the Sinhalese in public service employment and promotion, nor in education and university placement. Actually they are terribly underprivileged in these spheres. There is insufficient socio-economic causality to explain this sudden outburst of anti-Muslim mob violence. Rather, the motivation for the flare-up is firmly located in the political and ideological domains, as I will explain anon.

The Sinhala-Muslim concord was even better than that. Sinhalese up to yesterday extolled the anti-LTTE stance of the Muslim community in the war and congratulated it for distancing itself from the “Tamil speaking people” concept much loved of the Tigers. Indeed Muslims suffered more than the Sinhalese at the hands of the LTTE, which in ruthless style, uprooted and drove the entire community – about a hundred thousand souls – out of the Jaffna Peninsula, in 1991, with 24 hours notice. This base act of ethnic cleansing was followed by the grabbing of Muslim homes, lands and shops by gentle Tamils of non-violent renown! Throughout the civil-war, Sinhala state and people had a reliable and consistent ally in the Muslims. Then bang, in an act of incredible madness, Sinhala-Buddhist mobs and sections of the government, started to run riot!

The ‘now’ of communal rioting in Sri Lanka

Or perhaps is there a method in this madness? Is there method, craft, irrationality (more correctly called bigotry), and subliminal fear (Freud’s Madness of Crowds) underpinning it all. To come down to earth and put it in straightforward language: Are the real causes, the political agenda of sections of the government, plus, what is called Mahavamsa consciousness, a revanchist interpretation of Sinhala-Buddhism? I think the evidence is in favour of this hypothesis. It accounts for the lunatic fringe antics of sections of the SLFP, its coalition partners the Jathika Hela Urumaya and chauvinist Weerawansa, and the extremist Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS), or Buddhist Power Army.

The BBS is monk-led, and burst into prominence in recent months; it is like Shiv Sena not the RSS, in that its role is strong-arm thuggery, not any commitment to social service, a reform agenda or a religious world view. It is Lanka’s incipient version of Hitler’s Brown-Shirts (storm-troopers or Sturmabeteilung, SA). It forced halal products off the shelves, burnt down mosques and shops, forced the closure of Muslim shops, and it intimidates women in traditional Islamic attire. No killings have been reported so far, and unlike Maktila, armed monks have not yet been spotted.

We need to understand how the BBS unexpectedly rose to prominence. The obliteration of the LTTE was an epochal event; it is the acme of Rajapakse’s triumph. Nevertheless, how swiftly things change in modern times! Rajapakse’s moment passes quickly. Modern society is networked and complex – economy, class, ethnicity and polity; but the regime has failed on all counts. And the Rajapakses (the plural form is used to denote the sibling led regime) are still struggling, by defeating Lanka’s democratic heritage, to turn war victory into autocracy. Autocracy progressed in the three years after May 2009, but ran into economic and political roadblocks thereafter. Internationally too, the globe is tightly coupled, and Rajapakse has been brought to his knees, maybe one knee only so far, by internal and external happenings.

In this squalid scenario, Muslims pay the price of the regime needing a new enemy; a dragon to slay before its core constituency, a replacement for the vanquished tiger. This is the reason for the exertions of the chauvinists in the ruling alliance. This is the method in the madness of politically rigged communal mobilisation. Incredibly, Defence Secretary and military supremo, Gothabhaya, the President’s brother, has mounted the BBS rostrum and bestowed virtual impunity on these Rasputins. Imagine, if Indian Defence Minister Anthony, or Defence Secretary Sharma, were to visit an RSS or Shiv Sena ceremony and commend it for its good work in protecting Hinduism and Aryanism!

However this is not a one way street; it is not the regime alone that needs the mobs, the mobs too need impunity to sally forth and attain psychological catharsis. There is symbiosis between the regime’s political needs and the mob’s urge for orgasmic relief. After defeating the Tamils, Sinhala-Buddhist Mahavamsaideology required new space. Religious extremism is as phoney and addictive an opiate as racism; of one hemlock we have partaken to the full, we now raise a second poisoned chalice to our lips. It is a mélange of the political ploy of a state sliding to economic and political disorder, and the cravings of addicts for an ethno-religious opiate. The sibling’s political agenda explains why the police force stands paralysed when this mob, the regime’s Sinhala-Buddhist core constituency, runs amok before its eyes. The extremists, for their part, have cathartic urges to fulfil. This confluence, this merging, constitutes the foundation of anti-Muslim mobilisation; this alone explains the unexpectedness of the eruption of communal violence in recent months.

Demographic inevitables

However, there is a rational element in the panic that bearers of “Mahavamsa consciousness” endure. En passant, this consciousness envisions Sri Lanka as the pristine land of Sinhala-Buddhism, much as the Resurrection is the cardinal article of the Christian faith. Panic about alleged Muslim concupiscence is a Sinhala-Buddhist demographic nightmare. Muslims now number 9% but they multiply faster; their women are presumed more fertile, their men of superior virility – presumably the latter engenders a potency-inferiority complex in the competition! Psychology apart, I am no expert, demographic calculations suggest that within a generation the proportion of Muslims could rise to between 15 and 20%. Now this would be a completely different ballgame. The mocking lilt of that charming old ballad, “The sons of the Prophet are Mighty and Bold, and quite unaccustomed to fear”, may come to life, all the way to jihadism.

There is still a little time for the Lankan government to come to its senses and bring the full force of the law to bear. Despite scores of mosque and shop burning under the noses of an idle police, not one rowdy monk or BBS thug has been brought to trial and convicted. Fearful organisations and middle-aged Muslims have sought compromises (they have surrendered on the halal issue) and shop owners have reached “amicable” settlements with arsonists. The mood, however, is different among the young; patience will snap when Muslim women are violated by monks and mobs.

Appeals to justice and commonsense will have no effect on this government, only a threat to its own survival will be effective. This is where international action can help. Middle East countries must draw a line in the sand and say, if it is crossed, if violence against Muslims continues, Lankan domestic workers (earners of 60% of the countries current account foreign currency) will be sent home. If this happens the government will collapse within months as the economy crumbles and the streets erupt. India and the rest of the world must make it clear that if these pogroms, or any other artifice, is used to annul constitutional democracy in Lanka, the culprits will be dispatched in short order. The world does not need another Bashar al-Assad.

The Rajapaksa Hegemony; Is there a way forward?

The Rajapaksa Hegemony; Is there a way forward?

Robinhood-

Saturday, April 6, 2013

According to the prevailing state of affairs, the way the GOSL behaves, allowing continuing lawlessness and impunity, the disobedience to oblige international resolutions, the failure or the delay or the casual approach to address, respond and resolve desperate issues such as land, resettlement, livelihood, ethnic harmony and social integration in the north, the delay and the unwillingness in implementing the LLRC to establish genuine civil administration and rule of law, it appears there are factors deliberately fasten by the government preventing to implement and to obstruct the smooth function of all above. 

When doing a casual approach in implementing the LLRC no credible local civil society organizations are invited in post war reconstruction and rehabilitation in the north. Though few INGO’s operating few projects none of these projects address the critical issues faced by the people in the north. These restrictions cause severe setbacks and cause vast delay in the rehabilitation, reintegration and development of the war affected people in war torn area. Further the continuation of frequent intimidations and abductions by the paramilitaries and state sponsored mobsters dressed in civilian uniforms, the presence of the military, curtailing the freedom of expression and association it is learnt there is a clear suppression and a debilitation carried out targeting the Tamil community living in the North.

The Rajapaksa administration has extracted and centralized all its power to a single executive location which could centrally administer. It has fastened its brothers, family members, relatives, friends, henchmen’s and stooges to every corner in the public sector and government institutions to strengthen its network.

When we look at the ground situation the people in the north are continuously restrained participate in political activities and freedom of association. This is due to the hidden agendas of the government to oppress the Tamil minority people curtailing their democratic rights. The regime continues the oppression against minorities for its benefit to find a way to exist among the majority community dissembling separatism to the hearts and minds of the majority Singhalese creating a communal hatred among the two communities to sustain its rule. These hidden agendas cause severe setbacks for the establishment and implementation of the 17th and the 13th amendment and the implementation of the LLRC to bring a reintegration and harmony among the communities. Further these hidden agendas limit the ongoing developments (5R’s), the commitment and the government’s willingness to find a lasting solution for the ethnic conflict. The disinterest shown to implement the LLRC and the casual and selective process hinder a genuine reconciliation which is not acquired considering the best interest of the northern people or aiming to find a political solution for the Tamil national issue in a post war situation but to the best interest of few politicos in the regime.

Charging the minorities; aiming credit from the majority.         Read more »


Commonwealth Meet Should Not Be Held in SL: Karuna
APR 06, 2013
DMK today said its MPs and members of pro-Tamil TESO backed by it will meet envoys of Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group of countries, scheduled to meet at London on April 26, to demand that the CHOGM should not be held in Sri Lanka.

DMK, which has been opposing Sri Lanka as the venue for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) slated for November, said in a statement that its representatives will call on the CMAG members to press their demand.

"I insist that the demand not to hold (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka should be discussed in detail and a decision is taken. DMK MPs and TESO members will meet envoys of member countries of CMAG and explain in detail that the meeting should not be held in Sri Lanka," DMK chief M Karunanidhi said.

The 88-year-old leader recalled his party Executive had adopted a resolution in this regard on March 25.

The DMK, which walked out of the UPA coalition over the Lankan Tamils issue last month, had in the Executive also demanded that India boycott the meeting in case it was held in the island republic.

Members of Tamil Eelam Supporters' Organisation (TESO), a once defunct organisation revived last year by Karunanidhi, include his son M K Stalin and Viduthalai Chiruthaaigal Katchi founder-leader and Lok Sabha MP, Thol.Thirumavalavan, among others.

Say ‘No’ To Extremist BBS Majoritarian Virus

By Lukman Harees -April 6, 2013

Lukman Harees

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again..

Wow! How effectively this nursery rhyme sums up the disaster awaiting this Paradise Isle in the not too distant future. We are living at the most challenging time in recent history, where the forces of extremism such asBBS and Sinhala Ravaya , have unfortunately got the upper hand over the voices of moderation and reason. It is a matter of regret that the Police have virtually delegated or abdicated their law enforcement powers to these vicious elements , extremist forces – BBS, and Sihala Ravaya, supported by theJHU , to do whatever they wish. The idle promises given by the government not to allow any elements to create communal disharmony have become ‘much ado about nothing’. Of course, Sri Lanka hasn’t still become another Myanmar ,but there are clear signs that an irreparable damage has been inflicted on the hopes of millions of Sri Lankans that, after the end of War in 2009, they can live happily thereafter.

What type of Sri Lanka is being shaped by these events in the recent past ,and what type of image of Sri Lanka is being carving out in the international arena? If the messages on posters and social networking sites as well as ‘small talk’ at the grass root levels, are anything to go by, we have allowed racial prejudices and communal divisions to gain a foothold in the psyche of our younger ones, instigated two communities which lived side by side for generations in trust and friendship to start harbouring mutual suspicions and fears while pushing Sri Lanka to be hounded internationally as a country fast transforming itself into a ‘Sinhala Buddhist’ majoritarian state with decreasing space for the ‘other’. Following the strategy of Goebbels, the Hitler’s propaganda Minister, BBS particularly has already carved an almost an irreversible negative image about the Sri Lankan Muslims in the minds of Sinhala Buddhist people –‘aliens subtly increasing their flock and working against their interests, although history of Muslims in this country amply bears witness to their loyalty.

Hitler had an all-powerful ally without whom he could have never succeeded. His ally was the world that chose to remain silent as Germany kept testing the limits of the universal tolerance for its evil actions. Similarly, in Rwanda too, the genocide took place amidst the silence of the international community. Ultimately, when the world took note and decided to act, it was too little and too late, after millions of Jews and others whom Hitler despised died , and after over 800,000 people for no fault of theirs perished in Rwanda . That, man does not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach. It is therefore imperative that we, the society at large learn from the bitter lessons history imparts to us and not allow our country to fall apart like Humpty Dumpty. Let’s give ear to the golden words of Martin Luther King Jr. : ‘we will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people’.                           Read More

Ehei Hamduruwaney: A New Religio-Political Order For Sri Lanka

By Emil van der Poorten -April 6, 2013

Emil van der Poorten

As no contributor to any of the English-language media has taken this particular bull by the horns, let me try to formulate a plan that not only recognizes the current “Sri Lankan Reality” but which might lend itself to enhancing the reputation of the Debacle of Asia (DoA) or the land where democracy is DoA (Dead on Arrival).

We have recently seen the emergence of the Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS),Sinhala Ravaya etc. as clear examples of government policy implementation, notwithstanding the unconvincing denials of those of the “dead left” within the government.

I believe that, rather than decry what organizations such as the BBS are seeking to establish in Sri Lanka, we should join them and help them establish the instruments of Sinhala Buddhist Civilization without further ado. That is particularly essential given the current definition of “patriotism” which is the cry of “Ehei Hamduruwaney” whenever Our Beloved Leader makes a pronouncement of any description. A side benefit of such behavior could be defined as immunity from being transported against one’s will in vans of a particularly pale hue.

In addition, taking advantage of a recent government pronouncement that control will be affected over ALL religions to ensure that the four primary faiths – Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam – are not further corrupted through the efforts of those whose conduct does not meet with the approval of the government, we should strain every sinew to help in that enterprise. After all, we are NOT a multicultural nation but one in which, by Presidential Exhortation at least, we have erased all those elements of ethnic difference, to meld into one Sri Lankan nation whose characteristics will continue to be defined by Our Beloved Leader.

I would, in fact, take this Presidential Exhortation a step farther: I would bring together a group of theologians – to be chosen by him – who are capable of developing a primer which will encompass all the fundamentals of each religion in such a manner that they can be codified into a New Book (NB) that contains all those elements of each of the mainline faiths that our ruling family finds acceptable. In fact we already have at least one Anglican Bishop and a Roman Catholic Cleric who was considered a dark horse in the “papal stakes” who have demonstrated their eternal fealty to our Royal Family who can set the standards in such a formation. Once they and their colleagues are appointed, no deviation from the rules they set will be permitted. In the event of any contraventions of those rules, appropriate punishments will be carried out in a form clearly defined in Appendix I to the New Book.

It should be clearly understood from the very outset that these rules and regulations will apply to all those already adhering to any of the mainline faiths. As for those terming themselves as Free Thinkers, Agnostics, Atheists etc., a humane system of removing them from Sri Lanka will be defined in Appendix II to the NB.

Since the Mahavamsa is being updated currently, it is essential that the establishment of the new nation in all its glory be entered, in detail, in that great journal. This task will be entrusted to a person nominated by the Bodhu Bala Sena, the logical body for such a purpose.

As a means of ensuring the success of this venture, the continuing purity of what is set in place and the future of the New Nation, all symbols of existing religions will be removed from their current locations, the architecture of such places of worship modified so that there is no indication of what they were previously, ensuring absolute uniformity and conformity as defined by the Chief Executive of Sri Lanka.

Any future construction of places of worship will be at the absolute discretion of the President of Sri Lanka or his appointee(s).

The original document defining the new faith will be housed in the new Mahinda Rajapaksa National Museum and Archive to be built in the Hambantota area, as part of the complex comprising the cricket stadium, international airport, and port with an electrified fence to keep out marauding elephants, both of the political and wild kind.

In a display of solidarity with regimes of similar democratic disposition, we will make Kim Jong Un, the President of North Korea, Honorary Advisor in Chief in all matters religious and spiritual.