Sri Lanka: On Buddhist Fundamentalism

By Tariq Ali –May 5, 2013

Tariq Ali

Four years after the brutal assault on the Tamil population and the killing of between 8—10,000 Tamils by the Sri Lankan army, there is trouble again. The saffron-robed fanatics, led by the BBS—Bodu Bala Sena: the most active and pernicious of Buddhist fundamentalist groups that have sprouted in Sinhala strongholds throughout the island— are on the rampage again. This time the target is the relatively small Muslim minority. Muslim abattoirs have been raided, butchers shops attacked, homes targeted. Terrified kids and adults in Muslim areas are living in fear. The police stand by watching passively while the Sri Lankan TV crews film the scenes as if it were a school picnic.

A few weeks ago, Buddhist monks led some hoodlums and attacked the car sales room of a Muslim-owned company (Emerald Trading) in Pepliyana. Reason? An employee was stepping out with a young Sinhala woman and her father had complained to a local monk. A journalist on The Sunday Leader (a courageous broadsheet whose editor Lasantha Wickramatunga had, four months ago, denounced President Rajapaksa for corruption, predicted in print that he would be killed as a result and was) reported on 2 April that, ‘Following the complaint, an eye-witness saw a monk leaving one of the temples in Pepiliyana followed by a group of youths, mostly under 25 years of age. The group carried stones and, people were later to discover, kerosene…’

As if the anti-Tamil pogroms were not enough to satisfy the blood-lust, a BBS blogger explained the ‘reasoning’ behind the targeting of Muslims in the Colombo Telegraph (6 March 2013):

“Muslims have been living in this country since 7th century and now only they want to have Halal food in Sri Lanka. Population wise they are only 5%. If we allow Halal, next time they will try to introduce circumcision on us. We have to nip these in the bud before it becomes a custom. We should never allow the Muslims and Christians to control anything in Sri Lanka. What is Halal to Muslims is Harem to Sinhala Buddhists. Slaughtering cow and eating beef should also be banned in Sri Lanka. Instead, we should promote pork. We are glad that the parliament has re-introduced pork in their menu. Hijab, burqa, niqab and purdah should be banned in Sri Lanka. The law and the legislature should always be under the control of the Sinhala-Buddhists and our Nationalist Patriotic president. After all, Sri Lanka is a gift from Buddha to the Sinhalese.”

Difficult to imagine how circumcision could be ‘nipped in the bud’ even by a buddhist, or how the  percentage of the Muslim population could have decreased from 9.7 percent in 2011 to 5 percent today. It has undoubtedly gone down but demographers doubt it could have done so by more than one or two percent at the most. The decline is obviously a direct result of unchecked harassment and persecution. It has gone down over the last few decades. The Tamils did their bit. Muslims in Tamil-majority areas were harassed and effectively driven out by ethnic purists from both the  communities. They regret what they did now because it has been done to them on a much larger scale.

If it were only the BBS mouthing this nonsense, it would be one thing. But many within Sinhala political-military mainstream pander to rhetoric of this sort. In Pottuvil in the Ampara district, for instance, where the Muslims are a majority, the uniformed soldiers have been collaborating with the local monks and monasteries to erect Buddhist statues and inflaming the region in noise pollution via loudspeakers which start early with Buddhist hymns and a nightly replay. Local women who own land are being driven off it: the monasteries steal as the army provides protection.

The 1911 consensus revealed, as has always been the case, that the Buddhists compose a huge majority (70.2 percent), followed by the Tamil Hindus (12.6), Muslims (9.7) and Christians (7.4). Nobody threatens the Buddha or his followers except fanatics from within.

What of Buddha’s gift?  It was stolen by European imperialists for 450 years;  first by the  Portuguese (who intermarried eagerly regardless of caste or social location but insisted on conversion to Catholicism with the locals, leaving behind a socially integrated layer that still bears the old names: Perera, Da Silva, Fernado, Mirano, etc), next came the Dutch who  only married  the local upper castes leaving behind a burgher cast with names like Kretzer, Van der Porten, Ondaatje; and lastly by the British who didn’t  marry the locals at all. Had gay marriages been legal, Lord Mountbatten might well have defied the pattern.

What really freaks the Buddhist hardliners is the suggestion that the gift could not have been given to Buddhists alone. The earliest architectural finds reveal Buddhist and Tamil (Hindu) objects. Hardly surprising given the proximity of South India to Northern Sri Lanka, not unlike Sicily and the mainland. And at one point the island must have been land-linked to its parent. Who came first was a burning issue throughout the colonial period. Now it cannot even be discussed since the ‘solution’ of the Tamil question.

Ever since independence in 1948, Buddhist fundamentalism has been the driving force behind Sinhala intransigence on the ‘Tamil question’. A Buddhist monk assassinated S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the country’s fourth Prime Minister, in 1959. His crime? Making too many (in fact they were too few) concessions to the country’s large Tamil minority had cost him his life and spawned a dynasty. But the deterrent effect worked. Sinhala politicians of all stripes began to pander to the monks. Anti-Tamil discrimination was institutionalised. It was a tragedy for the island. The notion that these warped methods could produce long-term stability is risible.

Mainstream Tamil politicians had nothing to show for their labours in the Sri Lankan parliament. As the situation deteriorated, young people became more and more alienated both from Colombo and the elders of Jaffna. They began to speak of Vietnam, Che Guevara and armed struggle as the only way to free themselves from their rulers. There was an example closer to home. If Bengali Muslims could split from their Muslim brethren in West Pakistan and create Bangladesh, why not the Tamils?

Denied reforms, a  new generation of post-colonial Tamils turned their back on reformism and opted for something more dangerous. Colombo would soon be confronted with the spectre of urban guerrilla warfare. Having denied the Tamils effective autonomy, they were now faced with a civil war.  In 1976, the militants formed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and raised the demand for Eelam…an independent Tamil homeland. They succeeded, for a time, in galvanising an entire generation. Their audacity in those early days drew gasps of admiration even from their opponents. Sixteen and seventeen year olds raided banks to fund their struggle, making their getaways on bikes through the old narrow lanes camouflaged by the permanent guard of honour in the shape of the ancient Palmyra trees and their giant leaves. Their targets were police stations and government officials. When state repression multiplied, local Tamil community leaders shielded their children. They were proud of them. Years of collaboration with the last colonial power had given the older Tamils an image of docility, people in a pose of permanent surrender.  No longer.

The tragedy of the Tamils echoed that of similar movements elsewhere. The Tigers were, as armies are, led by their commanders who brooked no dissent. They turned on their own and their mass base became passive and embittered. Sensational acts of terror became a substitute for a political strategy, thus alienating all possible allies in the South. Warring factions fought each other and the Sinhala politicians in Colombo chuckled with delight, bided their time and embarked on large-scale repression that spared nobody. The grand finale in which Tamil men, women and children, without any links to the Tigers were killed in huge numbers, in comparison making civil war in the former Yugoslavia look like a boisterous dinner party. Much of the blame lies with Sinhala chauvinism and its grip on the island’s politics. Even the predominantly Sinhala JVP radicals of the Seventies, the first victims of the government and killed in the thousands for challenging its monopoly of violence had extremely ambiguous positions on the Tamil issue. But the Tigers cannot be exempted for their crimes against their own people. There was no justification whatsoever for their brand of authoritarian terrorism. Suicide bombings which they pioneered in Asia were a cynical tactic revealing the Supreme Leader’s hold on his membership. Cyanide pills—that every guerrilla carried— are an inducement to self-destruction.

The island is now in a terrible mess. The International Crisis Group report of February 2013 makes for grim reading. Expressed in polite language the message is clear. Rajpaksa’s outfit is an authoritarian government, possibly guilty of war crimes for which there is plentiful evidence. The government’s use of the ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ to repress Tamil civil rights, the constant presence of the army in Tamil regions, the curbs on the press and the sacking of an awkward Chief Justice are all highlighted. Hewr replacement is a timeserver who has already declared that the civil rights of the population  are not being violated.

The remit of the report does not extend to the scale of corruption in the country. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also in charge of Defense, Urban Development, Finance and Ports and Highways. One can only imagine the scale of the kickbacks. As if this were not enough, a brother, Basil, is the Minister for Economic Development, another brother Chamal, is the Speaker of the Parliament, a nephew Shashindra is Chief Minister of Uva, a key province, a cousin, Jaliya Wickramasriya is Ambassador in Washington, his brother-in-law Udayanga Weeratunga is Ambassador to Russia and his 25 year-old boy, Narmat, is the MP for Hambantota, a strategically crucial port, funded by Beijing and, together with Gwadar in Pakistan, part of China’s strategic ‘string of pearls.’  Chinese policy towards Sri Lanka  (and, for that matter, Pakistan) today is consistent. Mao Zedong and Chou en Lai supported the Sri Lankan government when it crushed the JVP uprising and destroyed the best of Sinhala’s youth (a mass grave of some of the victims was discovered only a few weeks ago); their successors have given open backing to the current regime  and Chinese state security bigwigs have been photographed with the Sinhala army in Jaffna, enjoying the sights and inspecting regions where Chinese projects of various sorts will soon dot the coastline.

The London-based octogenarian Tamil novelist and writer, A. Sivanandan is despondent. He told me that he fears not just for the Tamils but also the Sinhalese people:

‘Defeated, the Tamils are now rethinking everything, at least in the diaspora which so heavily and uncritically supported the Tigers.  They are no longer talking of independence, but of political rights and democracy. Is it too late? I honestly don’t know. The Buddhist monks will soon turn on their own, denouncing Sinhalese who are not orthodox Buddhists and if Rajapaksa, family and friends back them, they might be in for a surprise. Mass uprisings are in the air. All that is left is hope.’

He might have added Hebert’s ditty to the mixture. The late colonial Bishop of Madras and Calcutta wrote after a visit in 1819:

What tho’ the spicy breezes

Blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle;

Though every prospect pleases,

And only man is vile?

The Commonwealth leaders and their Queen who will soon assemble on the island could do worse than sing these lines for a start. And will talk of Burma joining the Commonwealth be nipped in the bud?   Buddhists have clashed with a tiny Muslim minority and driven them out of their villages, though the cause in this case appears to be material rather than ethno-religious Puritanism. The Buddhists wanted the land for themselves. A macabre confrontation resulted in, of all places, an Indonesian refugee camp where the Burmese Muslims had been provided with shelter. Eight Burmese Buddhist fisherman whose vessel had foundered in nearby waters were also rescued by the Indonesians and taken to the same camp. That night the two sides battled and all the fishermen apart from one were killed. Muslim casualties were two dead, and seven wounded.

*Tariq Ali was born in Lahore in 1943. He was educated in Pakistan and later at Oxford. His opposition to the military dictatorship in Pakistan prevented his return to his own country and he became an unwilling exile in Britain. He has been a leading figure of the international left since the 60s. He has been writing for the Guardian since the 70s. He is a long-standing editor of the New Left Review and a political commentator published on every continent. Since 1984 he has had six novels published in over a dozen languages, produced TV documentaries and written for the theatre and the screen.

Executive Presidency is usurped and finished : nothing left to put it in order –Ranil

People are disgusted –fear UNP will also follow this regime

(Lanka-e-News- 05.April.2013, 12.30PM) Opposition and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said, the people of Sri Lanka are today fed up with politics . They are gripped by the fear that even if the UNP comes into power they too will be toeing the line of the Rajapakse regime which is abusing political power most disgustingly and degradingly. Since this regime had usurped the Executive Presidency power callously and treacherously so much so that it no longer exists duly ,and therefore cannot be allowed to go on any further. Hence , a new constitution shall be introduced by him (Ranil) to safeguard Democracy and that will be a model for the world . In this connection discussions will be initiated in the month of May, he pointed out.

Wickremesinghe made this historic announcement yesterday(04) when he addressed the National Bar association on its 40th anniversary celebrations. The research division of the UNP expects to incorporate the proposals of other parties, civil Organizations and the people in the new constitutional amendments , Wickremesinghe added.

He went on to comment as follows :

“Is it Executive Presidency we choose or Cabinet Westminister government system ? As I told you , the 78th Executive Presidency has already been usurped and finished. Hence , it cannot be repaired via amendments. Then which system are we going to follow? Is it going to be the Prime Ministerial system?”

“That too has proved a flop today in South Asia. The Pakistan military Forces were able to carry on its governance while having civil administration. What has happened today ? We thought India was the best. Today India too has completely failed. The Cabinet system is floundering. The party leader is one person and the Prime Minister is another person. In my view this has also failed in its implementation in South Asia.”

“Let us think a little more deeply afresh and see what our country truly needs, and create a new system of governance compatible with that. A number of countries have introduced new constitutions , namely South Africa , South Korea , Poland and Finland .We are going to take all those into consideration and introduce a new set of proposals. But before all that , let us bear in mind the most important factor , that is in our country at this moment people are disgusted of politics for which the present regime is mainly responsible. People are now thinking it is all the same whether it is this party or another party coming into power . They are wondering whether we will also conduct ourselves like this regime if we are installed in power , and abuse power like them. This is what is preying on their minds.”

“We are bound to give a suitable answer to the people. Thilak Marapone told now , the country must be handed over to me, and I shall effect the changes. What my party and me want are not that , rather to vest the political rights and the country back in the people which had been forcibly withdrawn from them.”

“We shall enact a constitution that will take us ahead and our country forward within South Asia and all of Asia. Let us restore the international image which had been torn into shreds by the Rajapakse regime, so that we will be saluted by the world. We shall create a model constitution on Democracy to the whole world. We shall be commencing our preliminary discussions in this regard towards the end of May.”

It is well to recall that Lanka e news reported on 7th April that when the opposition leader made a tour of India recently , he gave them an assurance that he would abolish the Executive Presidency , and he would make an announcement in that connection on the 1st of May. The opposition leader made a public definitive statement on the abolition of / making changes to the Executive Presidency yesterday .

So-Called “Causes Of The Sinhala-Muslim Conflict”

By Laksiri Fernando -May 5, 2013 

Dr. Laksiri Fernando

There is a slang term in Australia, some people calling others ‘going troppo’ to mean going crazy. The origin of this slang is supposed to be the tropical heat in the northern parts of Australia driving people crazy.

I am not sure where Mr Tilak Samaranayaka exactly lives in Australia, but when I was reading through his article, “Understanding the Causes of Sinhala-Tamil Conflict in Sri Lanka,” it was this saying that came to my mind instantly. If he were living in Sri Lanka, I would not have said this, although I feel he is in fact affected by the Sri Lankan heat more than the Australian one.

Issues of Buddhism

His very first sentence itself is misconstrued to say that there is an “on-going conflict between the Sinhalese Buddhist organizations and Muslims over a number of issues.” On the part of the Muslims, the whole community is accused but on the part of the ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ there is a clear admission that only ‘organizations’ are involved. To be more precise, only two three organizations are involved directly and even indirectly.

The so-called ‘conflict’ is obviously a created one with some political backing and for political objectives. Although there are prejudices, fears and apprehensions being created, so far it is more correct to characterize the situation as ‘thuggery, intimidation and hate speech’ against the Muslims, rather than a conflict. It has overwhelmingly been one sided except some exposure of intimidation of the BBS by people like Azath Salley. Now the victims are persecuted instead of perpetrators being brought before the law.

The language, the tone and the pretended and concocted facts presented by Samaranayaka are more dangerous than the hate speech carried out by the BBS in the recent past. He appears to counter the arguments of those who rejected the ‘hate speech’ and denounced the violent attacks against religious and business premises of the Muslim community, also correctly pointing out that these were against the Buddhist principles. The last matter was highlighted by many because all these injustices were done in the name of Buddhism.

But Samaranayaka unashamedly says that “the argument that we should follow Buddhist principles and live accordingly has no relevance when there are two sides to a problem.” Why? The following is his strange explanation.

In fact, we are dealing with real people and real issues, and these issues involve two cultures, two religions, two languages, and two different life styles. Religion, cultural practices, and social values of Muslims are poles apart when compared with the Sinhalese.  It is an absurd assumption to accept that by living according to Buddhist principles, these problems can be automatically solved.

I am not sure whether he is a Buddhist to talk like that, but frankly I am not a Buddhist by birth although I have all respect, fair knowledge and considerable influence from Buddhism. But to him Buddhism has no relevance here because we are dealing with “real people and real issues” as if Buddhism applies to ‘imaginary people and imaginary issues.’ Then he says “religion, cultural practices, and social values of Muslims are poles apart when compared with the Sinhalese.” Has he discovered this only now? How come that the two communities managed to live peacefully in the past? Poles apart undoubtedly are not correct as there is so much rapport between the two communities.

No one would argue that ‘living according to Buddhist principles would solve any social problem automatically.’ There are other ways of dealing with our social problems through democratic means (not majoritarianism), nonviolence and most importantly respecting human rights of each other. But Buddhism is a profound philosophy which enunciates the Middle Path when exactly there are two sides or extremes to a problem. But artificially creating an antagonism or conflict when there is none, is not the way to practice the Middle Path. It is unfortunate if the Buddhists openly reject practicing Buddhism and criticize Muslims for practicing their religion, only on the pretext that they are poles apart from us. I think Samaranayaka should re-read what he has written.

Rights Issues

Samaranayaka talks about rights issues a lot. But his perceptions are completely misplaced. He creates victimhood to the Sinhalese as if Sinhalese are colonized by a Muslim empire. He says, “It is very unfair to suggest that only the Sinhalese should sacrifice their rights and values and provide a solution to this problem. Since the Sinhalese are beginning to take action to protect their culture, religion, and fundamental rights, they are branded as ‘extremists.”

See the words “very unfair.” No one has suggested that anyone should sacrifice ‘their rights’ unless those are privileges or ‘rights’ against the others. Since 1948, this country Sri Lanka has been governed by the Sinhalese and quite discriminately against the other communities, both ethnic and religious. We should have the rationality and modesty to accept that. The colonial period was a different story and it ended 65 years ago. What are the actions that the Sinhalese need to protect their culture, religion and fundamental rights when there is a Sinhala supremacist as the President with two thirds majority in Parliament? Why the religious and business places of the Muslims community are attacked to protect the rights of the Sinhalese? Samaranyaka should answer these questions.

Samaranayaka pretends to be fair for both sides and claims that since the Muslim side is presented that he wants to present the Sinhala side. The following is what he presents.

Muslims live everywhere in the country. In some regions, there are more Muslims than the Sinhalese. They not only live with the Sinhalese, but also carry out most of their economic activities with the Sinhalese and supported by them. Furthermore, they practice their religion the way they want despite the inconvenience caused by their religious practices to others living in the area.  Evidence that the Sinhalese are a tolerant community is that they allow Muslims in their neighbourhoods, contribute to their economic base, and allow their religion to practice. This does not mean, however, that there is no limit to their tolerance. Can the Muslims be considered a tolerant community, if they are placed in the same context?

Muslims living everywhere in the country (which is not completely correct) is a grievance for Samaranyaka. He does not even casually mention that the Muslims were evicted from the North and the East by the LTTE. Then it is a grievance for him that in some areas they are concentrated and more than the Sinhalese. The genuine ire perhaps is that ‘they not only live with the Sinhalese but carry out their economic activities with the Sinhalese and supported by them.’ This is not a Sinhala grievance but a grievance on the part of some Sinhala business groups.

He further says that “they practice their religion the way they want” as if they should practice their religion according to what Samaranayaka wants. Of course if there are inconveniences to others those could be placed before the legal and judicial authorities and there are courts and mediation boards to deal with them. But no one has any right to interfere with their religious dress or any other practice. Samaranayka claims that Sinhalese are a tolerant community, which is largely correct, not because that they ‘allow’ but they live in the same neighborhoods and engage in common economic activities. The tolerance is also mutual because Muslims are not aliens to have special permission to live among the others, the Sinhalese or the Tamils. This is a wrong conception in anyone’s part.

Then the real attitude or the motive of Samaranayaka comes out when he says, “This does not mean, however, that there is no limit to their tolerance.” This is in fact a threat which he repeats at the very end of the article again. I don’t know who this Samaranayake is and what connections that he has with extremists organizations in Sri Lanka. We should ask the question from him, however, when and at what point that this limit would reach?  At the last paragraph he says “The Sinhalese feel that they have been pushed beyond the tolerant level by the activities of the Muslims,” but does not explain what activities, except the population growth and non-participation in sports!

There are so many prejudices that Samaranayka has propagated in the article although he started by pretending to be an unbiased observer and objective analyst of the causes of the conflict. Even he uses the term ‘root causes.’ Even if there is any serious conflict then what he highlights cannot be the roots causes at all but some superficial subjective reasons on the part of some Sinhalese at most. It is ridiculous for him to accuse that Muslims are not participating in national sports or social activities, which is not correct, and even if it is correct, it is not a reason for a conflict other than for a for prejudicial mind.

Statistics

Perhaps with an economics background Samaranayaka has some ability to manipulate population statistics. There is no question that the population growth rate of the Muslim community is higher than the other communities as at present. But some of the figures given by him are not correct at all. He says, “During the thirty-year period from 1981 to 2011, the average growth rate of the Sinhalese has been 0.94% compared with 1.8% growth rate of Muslims.” The average growth rate of the Sinhalese for the period was 1.04% and not 0.94%.

Although I have no intention to go into details of his figures or calculations, if he has made his population projections on the above basis, those are then simply incorrect and exaggerated. It is a known fact even in Australia that population growth of the Muslim community is higher than the other communities. This is the case in Sri Lanka. What he does however is scaremongering without understanding the reasons. Before my retirement from the University of Colombo in 2010, I recollect that the issue came up during a seminar and a prominent demographer explained that further studies into the matter reveals a downward trend already among the Muslim community in certain areas where women acquire education and participate in the work force in addition to urban migration. As Dasun Edirisinghe reported to The Island on 18 March 2013, a senior officer from the Census Department, Mrs Bandara, had expressed a similar view.

Samaranayaka pretends to be a friend of the Tamil community. He on the one hand says, “There is no animosity between an average Sinhalese and an average Tamil. The two communities share long standing social and cultural links, and have common cultural and social customs.” On the other hand he says, “The ongoing conflicts throughout the world are either directly or indirectly related to Muslims whose ideologies are based on the rigid form of Islam.”

But he is clueless in explaining the drastic population decrease within the Sri Lankan Tamil community between 1981 and 2011. The percentage position has dropped from 12.7 to 11.2 between the two years. Hill Country Tamil percentage also has dropped from 5.5 to 4.2 between the two years. I am saying these to show that the superficial statistical explanations are misleading. But he believes “that the growth of population of the Sri Lankan Tamils is quite comparable with the Sinhalese.” This is hilarious and the explanation given is the following.

Although an increase of 1.7 million has been recorded under Sri Lankan Tamils in the 2011 Census, it cannot be considered as a net gain because the coverage of the 1981 census was limited to few parts of the Northern Province due to the ethnic conflict that was emerging in the North at that time.

In the first instance, if the coverage of the census was limited in the North then it should be an ‘underestimate’ in 1981 and then 2011 census should show a higher growth. Secondly as far as I am aware, the 1981 census was not limited to few parts of the Northern Province as he claims. That happened at the 2001 census but not at the 1981 census.

My conclusion remains, and even reinforced, that Samaranayaka has gone ‘troppo’ by trying to defend the Bodu Bala Sena.

Prevention of Terrorism Act to suppress the opposition-Ravaya

 Saturday, 04 May 2013 

The government is employing the Prevention of Terrorism Act in order to suppress the opposition political leaders of South and Azad Sally the leader of the National United Front (NUF) was arrested under the particular regulations.

Former Deputy Mayor of the Colombo Municipal Council Azad Sally was arrested on May 2nd from his house in Kolonnawa for allegedly attempting to stoke the fires of ethnic and religious strife and harm national unity and a letter by the Defense Ministry regarding the arrest has been provided to him.

Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) Director General Lakshman Hulugalle said Azad Sally was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) following several complaints received by the CID regarding conduct which could damage ethnic harmony, and harm national unity.

Hulugalle further said that He was taken into custody under Section 120 of the Penal Code and provisions under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He is currently being questioned by the CID and legal actions will be taken against him following the questioning, he said.

The police spokesperson had not made any comment regarding the arrest of Azad Sally. The attempt to contact the spokesman was unsuccessful and he has not given out proper information on the arrest to any other media institution as well.

Minister Wasudewa Nanayakkara had recommended amendments to the Penal Code as it does not consist sufficient provisions to convict the people causing ethnic or religious unrest. The reason for his particular suggestion is the prevailing situation where many organizations are involved in various actions with the aim of causing damage to ethnic and religious harmony.

The government did not employ the regulations of the Penal Code and provisions under the Prevention of Terrorism Act to take measures against Sinhala Buddhist organizations which conspire and act against the religious and ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Suresh Premachandran questions the legality of the arrest made under the Prevention of Terrorism Act as Azad Sally is a politician who fights for democracy not an armed terrorist. He presumes the arresting of Azad Sally as revenge over the opposition politicians who raise their voice against the government.

The United National Party (UNP) MP Lakshman Kiriella has also expressed his discontentment towards the arrest stating that he cannot be convicted for fighting for the rights of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka and questioned the legality of the arrest.

The National Organizer of Muslim Congress Rafik Rajabdeen has expressed his discontentment towards the arrest stating that only step he has taken is speaking for the Muslim community in the country. He condemns identifying Azad Sally as a terrorist and requests the immediate release of him.

-Ravaya

Interview to TN magazine lands Sri Lankan leader in jail

Author: P K Balachandran | ENS-04th May 2013 

• Published Date: May 4, 2013 8:26 AM
• Last Updated: May 4, 2013 8:26 AM

Asad Sally, a Sri Lankan Muslim leader who has been a critic of the Rajapaksa regime while being a votary of Tamil-Muslim unity, was arrested here on Thursday under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for “stoking the fire of ethnic and religious strife and harming national unity.”
A Sri Lankan Muslim website, www.sonakar.com, quoted Sally’s lawyers as saying that the reason of his arrest was an interview he had given to a Chennai-based magazine. They said that the interview, dated April 24, had a misleading heading: “Muslims will also take up arms”. Sally had subsequently got the magazine to issue a correction, and yet, the CID had arrested him, the lawyers added.
Sally had told the magazine that the very first attack on another community in Lanka was against Muslims in 1915. In 2012, a mosque in Dambulla was destroyed. So far, more than 10 mosques and madrasas had been destroyed, the magazine quoted him as saying.
Denying Sally’s charges, the Director General of the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) Lakshman Hulugalle said that no ethnic or religious strife had been reported under the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

On Azath Salley, NPC Election And The 19th Amendment

May 5, 2013

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” Malcolm X (Advice to Youth of Mississippi – 1964) 

Senior Journalist J Tissanayagam was charged with creating ethnic dissension, by a regime which included such apostles of reconciliation as Champika Ranawaka. Azath Salley has been arrested for fermenting religious disharmony by a regime which is providing succour to such proponents of brotherly love as Rev. Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara Thero.

If creating religious disharmony is really an issue for the government, it is not Mr. Salley who should be in custody but the likes of Rev. Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara Thero.

Mr Salley was arrested because he made the cardinal error of criticising the Rajapaksas, because he had the temerity to take on the BBS. He stood up to theBBS while Muslim ministers maintained radio silence – probably because they know that the BBS is a Rajapaksa-monkey; and that any minority leader who opposes the saffron-mobsters engaged in Rajapaksas’ work risk imprisonment or worse.

Mr. Salley’s arrest probably has multiple objects. Perhaps the regime wants to frighten the Opposition into total inaction so that the 19^th Amendment can be passed fast, with minimum fuss. Maybe the regime wants to send a message to all minority leaders about the costs of dissent. It might even be the essential first step in manufacturing an Islamic version of that old Naxalite Plot, which in turn can be used to neutralise Delhi, London and Washington (Delhi and London are important conjuncturally, vis-à-vis the Hambantota Commonwealth; Washington is important structurally because Basil and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa are US citizens while America is the favourite port-of-call, whenever President Rajapaksa has a health issue).

The arrest of Mr. Salley is unjust; it must be opposed unconditionally. Whatever Mr. Salley did in his political past – including his one-time support for the Rajapaksas – is of no consequence, now. He is a victim of Rajapaksa injustice and abuse, and as such deserves the support of all who care about democracy and basic rights.

We cannot remain silent and inactive about the arrest of Azath Salley, without encouraging the Siblings to reach even deeper depths of repression and impunity.

Protesting against the injustice done to Mr. Salley is an inextricable component of the struggle for Lankan democracy.

The BBS and its ‘Nationally Important Task’

The Rajapaksas may have saved the Hambantota Commonwealth by promising to hold Northern Provincial Election in September, but it is a promise impossible to deliver.

The Rajapakses do not want to share power with anyone, including the parliament, the SLFP and the judiciary. The Siblings cannot allow a provincial council which is not under their familial control to come into existence. The Ruling Family’s real problem with a TNA-controlled NPC is not that it will promote separatism but that it might strengthen national opposition and provide a rallying-point for Rajapaksa-opponents.

The Rajapaksas do not believe in the existence of an ethnic problem. According to their thinking, the Tamils were living in perfect contentment, until Tamil nationalists came along and sowed discontent. Eelam War erupted not because Tamils had real grievances but because Vellupillai Pirapaharan wanted his own state.

The Rajapaksa notion of how reconciliation should be achieved is dependent on this diagnosis.

Since Tamils have no legitimate grievances, a political solution/devolution is unnecessary. Any Tamil dissatisfied with the status quo is a Tiger by definition. The way to avoid another ‘problem’ is to adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards any sign of minority activity, from the very beginning. Hit hard, at the earliest possible sign of life, so that the minorities learn to curb their thoughts, mind their language, control their activities, and accept their secondary status – and even learn to live with the demented ravings of the BBS/JHU.

If the Rajapaksas hold the NPC poll in September, either the election will be violent, unfree and unfair; or the provincial council will be denuded of all powers. Since a violent election might create too many regional and international waves, the Siblings might opt for the 19^th Amendment, so that limited political-devolution is downgraded into not-so-generous administrative-decentralisation and provincial councils become glorified pradesheeya sabhas.

Many minority parties belong to the UPFA. Their leaders hold ministerial/deputy ministerial positions. But a small measure of personal power and a limited capacity to advance themselves are all they really possess. The minority parties are mere show-pieces to bolster the Sri Lankan credentials of a Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist regime. In any case, even Sinhala ministers possess little actual power, because all power is concentrated in the hands of the Siblings and a few trusted acolytes.

That is how the Rajapaksas would want all Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim leaders and activists to conduct themselves. Anyone refusing to toe that line can face persecution or worse, be it the war-winning Army Commander or a one-time ally like Azath Salley.

The relationship between the Rajapaksas and Sinhala-Buddhist supremacists is a symbiotic one. Sinhala-Buddhist supremacism provides the Siblings with an attractive mantle for their naked power agenda. By attaching themselves to the Rajapaksa Juggernaut, Sinhala-Buddhist supremacists in turn have gained more power and influence than they ever possessed, including in 1956. Had the Siblings tried to impose familial rule without the cover of patriotism, they would have encountered far more Southern dissent. It is the Sinhala-Buddhist mantle which has enabled the Rajapaksa project to achieve hegemonic status in the South. Thus the Rajapaksas cannot ditch Sinhala-Buddhist supremacism anymore than Sinhala-Buddhist supremacists can ditch the Rajapaksas (as Gen. Fonseka found out to his cost).

As memories of the spectacular victory over the LTTE fades with time, the Rajapaksas need to deliver socio-economically, in order to retain their Southern hegemony. This means ensuring that the Sinhala South is given rapid and adequate access to the peace dividend, in the form of lower prices and higher living standards, less poverty and more employment, better educational and health services and improved opportunities.

But these developmental goals are unachievable under Rajapaksa rule, which prioritises guns and tamashas over rice. That prioritisation is inevitable; without a militarist conception of national security, the Siblings cannot justify the muffling of the media, the criminalising of dissent and the subjugation of the judiciary, in peacetime.

Thus the need to create a fear psychosis in the South, which alone can justify the continuance of impunity and excess. The BBS is a star player here; its Rajapaksa-mandated task is to create a climate of paranoia by fostering politics of fear, hate and hysteria.

According to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the BBS monks ‘should not be feared or doubted by anyone’ because they ‘are engaged in a nationally important task’. Indeed; this ‘nationally important task’ of the BBS is to keep Sinhala-Buddhists focused on Tamil enemies, Muslim threats and Christian conspiracies, to addle their brains with fear, so that they will not have time to worry overmuch about economic woes or develop the sense to see through the Rajapaksa façade.

Azath Salley, whatever his past mistakes, did the right thing by exposing these Rajapaksa machinations. That is why he is behind bars. And that is why his unjust arrest must be resisted.

Azath Salley continues fast: Health condition deteriorates

Picture: When Salley Met Rajapaksa To Strengthen His Hand

By Franklin R. Satyapalan-May 4, 2013

The health condition of former deputy Mayor of Colombo and leader of the Tamil Muslim National Alliance, Azath Salley has deteriorated as he still refuses food and continues with his fast, family members said yesterday.

Salley, was admitted to Ward 55 of the Colombo National Hospital on Friday following his arrest by the CID under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

"He refuses to take any food and is still going ahead with the fast he launched after his arrest on Thursday", they asserted.

The CID has denied Azath’s request for private medical attention and also disallowed even parliamentarians from visiting him in hospital, which is in breach of parliamentary privileges, they said.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, M. A. Sumanthiran said yesterday that he was able to see the arrested former deputy Mayor in hospital after he told CID officers that he is a lawyer and a MP.

"Though I am not a doctor, I could understand that his health condition was deteriorating as he continued to refuse food or any liquids", he said.

"When I asked him why he was fasting, Salley replied that it was as a mark of protest against the injustices against him after he were arrested illegally on trumped up charges", the MP said.

Salley told me that the President and the government should be held responsible in case his health failed, Sumanthiran recalled.He quoted Salley as saying that he was questioned by the CID about an interview he had given to an Indian magazine whilst in India, in which he had been misquoted. He had told investigators that he contacted the magazine and raised the need for a clarification and the editor promised to publish it in the next issue.

The wife and daughter of Salley were subsequently permitted to visit him in hospital on Friday, family members said.

The mobile phone of police media spokesman, SSP Buddh Siriwardena remained switched off and attempts to reach senior DIG Anura Senanayake were also futile as his mobile went unanswered.

Family members said that following Salley’s arrest by the CID from his daughter’s house at Salamulla, Kolonnawa on Thursday, All Ceylon Muslim Congress (ACMC) leader, Minister Rishard Bathurdeen was the first member of the ruling UPFA government to speak to the government on his behalf.

The CID had denied entry to UNP parliamentarians Ravi Karunanayake, Karu Jayasuriya and Dr. Jalath Jayawardena, All Ceylon Muslim Congress General Secretary, Y. L. S. Hameed and Mayor of Colombo A. J. M. Muzzamil to see Salley.

Salley, a nephew of senior Cabinet minister A. H. M. Fowzie, served as a former deputy Mayor of Colombo.

He was a longstanding member of the UNP but later crossed over to UPFA ranks at the invitation of the President. He was elected a CMC opposition member but later broke ranks with the UPFA.

Sritharan summoned to TID HQ

The Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) has requested the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian, S. Sritharan, to appear at the TID headquarters over the comments he has made to the press on alleged land acquisition in the Kilinochchi District. Sritharan told Ceylon Today, two men from the TID had even visited his house in Jaffna and inquired about him from his wife.

“A person identifying himself as PC Thilakaratne from the TID spoke to me over the phone on Thursday and requested me to be present at the TID headquarters. He told me the TID needs certain explanation on the comments I am supposed to have made over the alleged land acquisition by the Army in the Iranamadu and the Paravipanchan areas in the Kilinochchi District to the media,” he said.

Commenting further on the call from the TID, Sritharan said it was the fourth time he would be questioned by the TID. “I was first invited to the fourth floor in May 2012, then in November 2012 for the second time and third time in the early part of this year,” he said.

Meanwhile, another TNA Parliamentarian, Suresh K. Premachandran, was also questioned at the fourth floor a week ago, over an interview he had given to the Indian media.

2013-05-04