China’s ‘bear hug’ brings in $ 2200 million to Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2013, 10:08 GMT]
China signed an agreement with genocidal Sri Lanka on Tuesday, offering 2200 million dollars in loans for infrastructure projects. China and Sri Lanka have also agreed on cooperation related to defence, defence-related training, logistics and maritime security, and have agreed in principle to establish a free trade agreement, Reuters reported, citing Colombo’s Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, who was part of the Rajapaksa delegation to China. There were speculations that the agreements could cause unease in India, but Tamils need not show any sympathy or understanding to New Delhi in tolerating its competitive partnership with Colombo any further. The game would continue forever and the paranoid Sinhala State with insatiable crave for the genocide of Tamils is not going to stop with the island, said Tamil political observers in the island. 

When Reuters asked about Britain’s concerns over Colombo’s rights abuses, Peiris said, "These are not things that can be done overnight, they take time, basically these are processes which have to move forward in accordance with the people's culture, their aspirations," and adding that "These have to be homegrown, homespun solutions."

What Colombo is attempting overnight is demographic genocide, and what it means “in accordance with people’s culture, their aspirations,” is structural genocide of Tamils and Sinhalicisation of the entire island, are obvious to anyone who is not pretending blind.

The main problem is powers like Britain stopping only at ‘rights abuses’ and international media in the clutches of the powers not conceding to the righteousness in casting their weight in favour of independence of a genocide-affected nation, the Tamil political observers in the island said.

In the competition of the USA, India and China over the island, if all of them think of only wooing the Sinhala nation, it is time that Tamils all over the world have to think of a unique foreign policy and implement it collectively. Whether North Korea attacks the USA or China encircles India, those need not be concerns for Tamils to show understanding to any adversary or to adjust to deviations and dilutions of justice, the Tamil political observers in the island commented.

Playing a major role in the bandwagon that fought the genocidal war against the nation of Eezham Tamils, Japan’s policy on the island staged by Akashi committed a serious blunder, the observers added.
Suspects involved in Rs 10 million robbery identified

By Ananda Weerasooriya

Six suspects among 8 involved in the robbery of Rs 10 million from a businessman in front of Nawaloka Hospital recently have been identified during an identification parade at the Fort Magistrate’s Court today.

On 12 February, some persons impersonating officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) abducted a person dealing in foreign currency, along with his driver, in their vehicle and robbed the said sum of money that was in his possession, in front of Nawaloka Hospital car park at Sir James Peiris Mawatha, Colombo 2.

The identified suspects have been further remanded until 05 June following the identification parade.

Two of the unidentified persons among the 8 suspects have been identified as an Inspector of Police (IP) attached to the Fort Police and a civilian. (Ceylon Today Online)

American IRS And The Sri Lankan Experience

By Ravi Perera -May 30, 2013 

Ravi Perera

One would have thought that the recent news item about the resignation of Commissioner Steven Miller, the head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States would have received more attention than it actually did in the local media. The reasons for Miller’s exit are issues fundamentally affecting good governance and hence of compelling interest to a country such as Sri Lanka struggling from the time of independence to establish rules, standards and systems that are both transparent and objective as it were.

The current United States government led by President Barrack Obama is dominated by the   Democratic Party. They also command a majority in the Senate. Steven Miller was an appointee of the Obama administration. One of the functions of the IRS is to consider applications   for tax exemptions. The controversy that blew up arose in this department where some organizations considered to be leaning towards the Right were targeted by the IRS for special attention. The standard bearer of the ideology of the Right, the Republican Party, enraged by this uneven approach by a government agency raised an indignant outcry against the IRS.

A fundamental principle of good governance is that whichever political party is in power, the administration functions not only objectively but on a neutral, non-partisan basis. In a legitimate State, laws and rules should apply to all alike. If   the application of the laws depend on who you are, the legitimacy of that State is very much in doubt. In such a situation the State structure has become a tool in the hands of a few people, one political party or a group. In America, obviously they loathe to see politicized government agencies. As a Senator observed during the debate on Steven Miller “the American public deserve better…”

Taking that standard as the yard stick, it seems that we in Sri Lanka operate on the basis that the Sri Lankan public do not deserve a neutral public service!  Not only in the public sector, but in every other service, the Police, the Judiciary, Media and even the professional bodies political agenda/domination is overwhelming.

From the early years of the 20 Century when we were gradually introduced to the concept of electing our leaders, you can discern a clear departure from methods and standards of the countries from whom we got the idea. Things were looked at differently here. We had a different value system. Those elected to power become masters of all that they survey with the rest of the power structure adjusting their various agendas to suit that status quo.

One cannot imagine an officer  in our Inland Revenue Department losing his job because he investigated anybody considered to be opposed to the government !The same goes for all other government agencies such as the Police, Customs etc. They are there to attack enemies of the government while collaborating in all activities of its supporters!  As to the question of investigating anybody connected with the government, since the idea   will not even   enter the mind of a public servant we need not waste time on a subject which is so culturally alien. There is no point in even talking about Mervyn Silvas and Duminda Silvas! These two names have been highlighted only because of the entertainment value they provide. In reality this duo is just the tip of an iceberg composed of thousands of family members and friends of the politicians in power who are above the law. Even our political parties are built on family connections; most present day politicians owe their career to senior family members who had climbed the hierarchy earlier. Unlike in other cultures here a political dynasty is spoken of as a matter of pride.

Needless to say this situation breeds uncertainty, fear and frustration. The concept of fairness is a distant second when it comes to family and other partisan considerations. Even in a so called rebel group like theLTTE, the son of the supreme leader Prabakaran seems to have had an easy passage to leadership over the heads of thousands of dedicated cadre. As inevitably happens in Sri Lanka, there were several articles in the media   at the time extolling the talents and skills of the junior Prabakaran! Perhaps some of the striking features of our social and historical mosaic such as regular insurrections, disloyalty, sabotage, narrow outlook, short term vision, intolerance and even the high murder /suicide rate could be attributed to the experience of living under a culture which is palpably unfair. Having adopted systems which need to operate objectively, we seem to have subverted them into self-serving machinery for personal advancement.  Whatever the situation, from the Parliament to a simple meeting at a social club, few people would think we have fair processes. They are seen as occasions for interested parties to achieve agendas far removed from the principles and policies professed by them.

In the absences of an independent State structure, things become arbitrary, breeding a huge uncertainty. Everything depends on political leaders and their perceptions. Careers and promotions   are rarely made on merit. Invariably, they are based on the leaders’ agenda. Investors, businessmen, and even ordinary citizens must adjust their lives and plans   to suit this reality.

The twenty odd million people of Sri Lanka have been able to create an economy now calculated at something between 50-60 Billion US dollars. Last year it is said that the Americans spent about US $ 60 Billion on their pet food. Good eating by their cats and dogs aside, the American can also rest easy with the knowledge that they live in a country where government agencies like the IRS have to operate impartially and in an evenhanded way.

Don’t the people of Sri Lanka deserve that?

Working women should be molested: Saudi writer

Writer campaigning against moves to bring women into mixed-gender work environments

• By Abeer Allam and Michael Peel, Financial Times- May 29, 2013

• Image Credit:
• Saudi writer Abdullah Mohammad Al Dawood

Abu Dhabi: A Saudi writer has urged his Twitter followers to sexually molest women hired to work as cashiers in big grocery stores, the latest backlash from conservatives who want to roll back limited social and economic reforms launched in Saudi Arabia.

Abdullah Mohammad Al Dawood, who writes self-help books including one called The Joy of Talking, has stirred fierce debate this week via the internet microblogging service with the use of the hashtag harass_female_cashiers, to press for Saudi women to be forced to stay at home to protect their chastity.

His campaign against official moves to encourage women to work in mixed gender environments has led some Twitter users to denounce him. Others however applauded him as a fighter against government efforts to westernise and corrupt the country.

More than half a million Saudi Arabian nationals, including unprecedented if still modest numbers of women, have surged into the country’s private sector since late 2011 under a government-driven programme aimed at turning the Gulf giant’s sclerotic non-oil economy into a regional powerhouse.

Abu Dhabi: A Saudi writer has urged his Twitter followers to sexually molest women hired to work as cashiers in big grocery stores, the latest backlash from conservatives who want to roll back limited social and economic reforms launched in Saudi Arabia.

Abdullah Mohammad Al Dawood, who writes self-help books including one called The Joy of Talking, has stirred fierce debate this week via the internet microblogging service with the use of the hashtag harass_female_cashiers, to press for Saudi women to be forced to stay at home to protect their chastity.

His campaign against official moves to encourage women to work in mixed gender environments has led some Twitter users to denounce him. Others however applauded him as a fighter against government efforts to westernise and corrupt the country.

More than half a million Saudi Arabian nationals, including unprecedented if still modest numbers of women, have surged into the country’s private sector since late 2011 under a government-driven programme aimed at turning the Gulf giant’s sclerotic non-oil economy into a regional powerhouse.

Al Dawood, who has more than 97,000 followers on Twitter, justified his call to harass female workers by using an obscure story from the early days of Islam about a famous warrior, Al Zubair, who did not want his wife to leave home to pray in the mosque. Al Dawood claimed that Al Zubair hid in the dark one night and molested his wife in the street. The wife rushed home and decided against ever going out of her house again, saying that the “there is no safer place than home and the world out there is corrupt”.

Scores of Al Dawood’s followers supported his campaign and condemned the planned anti-harassment law, which comes as employers respond to government financial incentives to hire more Saudi workers, and in particular more women. One user wrote: “It is a man-made law and it can’t be accepted in a kingdom ruled by God’s law. They had better ban mingling of the sexes, not protect it.”

But Al Dawood’s hashtag drew condemnation from others, who said the writer was a disgrace to Islam. One, Waleed Al Khawaji, asked: “What kind of person urges the youth to commit debauchery?”

Another urged Al Dawood to follow his own example and harass his own wife and sisters.

Court ordered BBS to evacuate from "Meth Sevana"

[ Thursday, 30 May 2013, 08:55.23 AM GMT +05:30 ]

Galle additional Magistrate Mr.Gunendra Munasinge today ordered the Bodu Bala Sena organization to vacate the "Meth Sevana" religious center at Wanchawala Galle, immediately.

The decision was given after hearing a petition filed by Mr.Batagoda Gamage Asanka Amarasiri. The petition had named BBS members as respondents. The case was filed the 13th February 2013, against the forced appropriation of his property of 3 Acres land and the house by the BBS on the 16th December 2012. Mr.Amarasiri told the media that as the police took no step despite his repeated complaints, he had to come to court . He accused that the BBS had started an educational institute in his property with the Defense secretary as the chief guest on the 9th March, despite the court case filed by him. He further said that the BBS had ignored the court order to halt all the activities in the property during the hearing of the case. Dambulla residents given 24 hours to vacate homes Wednesday, 29 May 2013 The media has reported that several residents living within the Dambulla sacred land area have been asked to vacate their homes with 24 hours. The BBC Sandeshaya has reported that the residents have told the BBC that the order had come from the Matale District officer. Some 35 families have been ordered to vacate their homes to facilitate development work in the area. According to the residents, they had been told that they are living on state land and so will not be compensated. “We have no place to go. We were born, educated and grew up here,” one resident had told the BBC Sinhala service. The resident had said that while they were living on land which has been demarcated as sacred land maintained by the historic Dambulla Temple, they will leave if alternative land was given. However the orders received by the residents their houses will be razed to the ground if they fail to vacate their homes.

Muslims Are The Present Target Group For Sinhala Hegemonic Nationalists

By V.Sivayogalingam -May 30, 2013 

Dr. V.Sivayogalingam

State institutions in post-colonial Sri Lanka has been working within the general institutional framework of parliamentary democracy, yet this process took the character of an ethnic majoritarian democracy. The latter evolved in a context of the rise of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism – the ideology which contained a political vision of using the state institutions to serve the interests of the majority Sinhalese community. Through this ideology, the state policies were specifically served the Sinhalese language, Buddhist religion and the Sinhalese-Buddhist culture.

The defeat of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and the regain of the LTTE controlled areas in the North-Eastern parts of Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan army in the name of war against terrorism and the war for the unification of Sri Lankan territory have, in number of ways, paved way for the re-emergence of Buddhist ethno-religious hegemony and sentiments in Sri Lanka. Number of incidents has been justifying the exercise and dominance of majoritarian hegemony which really targeting minority communities and their religious, linguistic and cultural distinctiveness and identity. One of the minority groups which severely affected by these hegemonic politics is the Muslim community in Sri Lanka.

Muslims of Sri Lanka is the second larger minority community, comprise 8 percent of the total population are living along the territory of Sri Lanka, but scattered. They have a history of 2500 years in Sri Lanka where they have been living with majority communities in the country peacefully and maintained a harmonious relationship in every aspects of life. The history has recorded a number of incidents that the Muslim community has contributed in number of ways to unity, peace, social harmony and the national and territorial integration of Sri Lanka. However, unfortunately, during most of the nationalistic hegemonic periods, the Muslim were targeted and vehemently victimized by the nationalist groups. The major incident against Muslim community has recorded in the history was the anti-Muslim riots of 1915 which labeled the Muslims as exploitative foreign trading community similar to how Jews have been viewed in Europe. During the post-independent period also, numbers of incidents against Muslims were printed. An occurrence of a riot of the same nature as that of 1915 was the violence in 1975 when some Muslims were killed in Puttalam mosque due to a misconception that the Muslims were an economically privileged group and which fact fired the major motivation for anti-Muslim hatred. Likewise, there has been an unprecedented level of violent attacks, demonstrations and hate speeches targeting Sri Lanka’s Muslim population, mainly perpetrated by Buddhist-fascist fundamentalist groups. Those events have left the Muslims feeling afraid and vulnerable. The situation has become worse after the defeat of the LTTE in 2009.

End of civil war in Sri Lanka has been marked by state-sponsored Sinhala Buddhist hegemony, the weakening of democratic institutions and rule of law, the constriction of civil and political rights. As how the Tamils were been targeted, the Muslim community’s personal values- religion, culture, identity, dressing, personal law were mainly targeted by the Buddhist nationalistic groups. The attack on a mosque in Dambulla of April 2012 by a mob led by extremist Buddhist monks has reignited concern about targeted violence against Muslim religious minorities in Sri Lanka.

In addition to attacks on places of religious worship, there are calls to boycott Muslim shops and establishments, all of which is increasing tensions, particularly in areas where Muslims and Sinhalese are live close to each other. The incidents against Muslims are widespread across the country and have picked up momentum during the last few months. The recent attack on the store of Fashion Bug, one of the big chain of textiles owned by a Muslim merchant shows that the attackers are not only giving threats to the Muslims but also they are ready to use violence over them and their properties. One of the major victories of the Sinhalese nationalistic hegemonic agenda was the lifting the Halal certificate by printing of ‘Halal’ Symbol, as an standard of product like, ISO to the product of iteneries of daily use.  ‘Halal’ is a Muslim practice since sixth century A.D. It is an Arab term used to mean ‘acceptable’ according to the Islamic religious fundamental’. It is a must for all Muslims to consume Halal items in eating and other purpose of their daily activities.  When many merchant companies wanted Halal certificate to sell and export their product to Muslim customers and to Muslim countries, government of Sri Lanka allowed the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, the accepted authority concerning religious affairs of the Muslim Community in Sri Lanka, to evaluate and issue the halal certificates. However, by propagating as injustice practice which impose non-Muslims to buy Halal food and other items, these Buddhist nationalistic hegemonic groups, especially, the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ (Buddhist Power Force) staged number of anti-Halal and anti-Muslims programs and finally were able to remove Halal certificate from printing in the product. These incidents were mainly looked at by democrats and moderates as one of the violations of Muslims fundamental and religious rights. Thereafter, the agitators are being claiming that they are going to work hard on removing number of their personal and cultural practices of Muslims namely, the Muslim personal laws, special dress code etc. It is a major challenge for the Muslim community living outside to North-East where the Sinhalese are living predominantly, to exercise their distinct religious and cultural practices and living with fear of unwanted and unexpected treats.

Muslims in North-East, particularly in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka where they formed a considerable majority say that statues of the Buddha and Buddhist shrines are appearing in places where previously they did not exist. In both the north and the east, it is common that, wherever a Bo tree is found, a Buddhist shrine is erected. It noted a “sharp uptick” in religiously-motivated violence and said the authorities are “passively and sometimes actively” condoning extremist Buddhist groups, such as the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ and the Hela Urumaya are the main groups behind the targeting of Muslims.

During these anti-Muslim sentiments and violence, the Sri Lanka government’s failure to take decisive action to protect religious minorities from threats and violence is undermining its claims to being a rights-respecting democracy and pave the way for another ethnic violence against Muslim which may create another possible violent conflict in Sri Lanka’s near future.

*Dr. V.Sivayogalingam, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Peradeniya,

5000 People Spoke Out Against Racism in Sri Lanka

Thursday, 30 May 2013

His excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa the President of Sri Lanka: take action to stop incidents of harassment against minorities.

5,081 people that is. The petition was created by a small group of concerned Sri Lankan citizens, following the systematic harassment of minority communities around the island over the past few months. What started out with banning Halal food, rapidly developed into arson attacks on Muslim owned businesses, defacing of Mosques and attacks on Churches.

That’s not to say that the issue cropped up recently. In 2012 an extremist Buddhist group, lead by monks, stormed a Mosque in Dambulla and torched the 50 year old building. The Buddhists in the area condemned the violence against their Muslims neighbours, stating that they have co-existed peacefully over the years. The government did what they do best– they ignored it.

Just as they ignored other isolated incidents of both Mosques and Churches being attacked as well in the recent past. They went as far as calling the public delusional and having cooked up the Grease Yakka attacks.

Then again, this has been an issue since the 1950′s; possibly beyond. The problem is undoubtedly deep-rooted, and we cannot allow it to fester as it has for all these decades. It has been the impetus of the 30 year conflict, and here we are once again, repeating the mistakes of our past.

We need to speak up. We need to work towards chipping away at the racism in Sri Lanka that’s preventing us from truly progressing. No amount of expressways, wider roads, wetland parks and cobble-stone pavements (all built on borrowed money as we sink deeper and deeper in debt), will help Sri Lanka progress.

So 5081 people spoke out. They called on the government to take action against the hate-speech, hate-crimes and racism. The petition was mailed to the President a few weeks back and has reached the Presidential Secretariat.

Here’s a link to the petition in case you’d like to read through it (there’s a Sinhala and Tamil translation available as well)-

http://www.change.org/petitions/his-excellency-mahinda-rajapaksa-the-president-of-sri-lanka-take-action-to-stop-incidents-of-harassment-against-minorities?utm_campaign=friend_inviter_chat&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=permissions_dialog_false

You can check out the Facebook page too(it’s got lost of neat graphics and posters)- http://www.facebook.com/NoMoreHateInSriLanka

I do hope that all those who signed the petition will continue to speak out and fight against racism in Sri Lanka. Signing the petition is a good first step, but we need people actively working towards bringing about change.

-Megara Tegal

Courtesy - Beyond borders Sri Lanka

Colombo meat stalls shut down

2013-05-30

Almost all the meat stalls in Colombo city have been forced to shut down due to strong protest campaigns launched by various organizations against cattle slaughter. Accordingly, four meat stalls in Maradana and all beef stalls in Dematagoda, Bambalapitiya, Wellawatte, Mutwal, Armour Street, Kotahena and Mattakkuliya have been closed.

Why is Aung San Suu Kyi speaking out now?

Why is Aung San Suu Kyi speaking out now?

Monday, May 27, 2013  Today's Thoughts  

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi is finally speaking truths to power.

Aung San Suu Kyi condemns Rohingya 'two-child policy'

Suu Kyi Slams Reforms, Says Govt Introduced ‘No Tangible Changes’

  

It is most certainly welcome!

Better late than never.

She will never be able to  ride the military on to power - there is no way this Neanderthal institution will let her.

I hope she soon reconnects with the grassroots in Burma.

The grassroots is her real power base, not Washington with its 'Asian pivot', Beijing with its neighborly resource imperialism, or Naypyidaw's sham and military-controlled parliament where Than Shwe's real man presidential hopeful Shwe Mann is waiting in his wing for 2015 elections.

Why is Aung San Suu Kyi speaking out now?

After all she has given away too much of her international policy leverage, and simply going with the West's pre-determined new policy flow while pinning her hope on a single liar, namely Thein Sein,.

Did she not realize that Thein Sein spent most of his military career aiding and abetting in the old fox dictator Than Shwe in his 'crimes against humanity', 'ethnic cleansing' and a serial massacres of dissidents and citizens alike?

My view is the Lady seriously miscalculated these snaky men, in silk skirts and green uniform whose primary mission is NOT nation-building, but retention of power and wealth at all costs to the society at large.

Further, Aung San Suu Kyi grossly over-estimated the power of her own individual goodness with them.  Her business partners in the military and the military-controlled Thein Sein government rose to power precisely for their lack of virtues and serious nation-building intellectual capacities.  

Burma has had a system of lies since 1962, and good and virtuous men, by definition, do not survive, let alone thrive and rise in this system.

In addition, politics doesn't work on good intentions alone, especially the Burmese military politics where the snakes reign over the past half-century.

These men who delude themselves into thinking only they can lead the country have only venom for those whom they consider a serious challenge to them.

As her senior colleague Win Tin lamented her resumed act of speaking only truths to power was long overdue, and it has taken her 3 years. 

One hopes that she purges all the sycophants around her,  that is, almost all of them, who have no intellect or courage to tell her when she was making strategic miscalculations left and right.

The sooner the Lady wakes up to the unpleasant reality - that the bastard regime in Naypyidaw will never ever change or undertake necessary fundamental reforms for people's or country's sake, and that her future does NOT lie with the generals or Washington or Beijing - the better.

Expect the regime to be making concessions to the ethnic armed resistance organizations as a way of placating the latter while it will need to be turning its attention to the mainstream Bama politics, if it realizes the Lady may be getting out of their Washington-fixed marriage of the Lady and the Beasts and returning to her grassroots.

Much as she may long for a peaceful transition in Burma it will likely take a bloody major societal eruption and a massive revolt in order to deal a decisive blow to the ir-reformable neo-Fascist regime in Naypyidaw.

Their hands are soaked in blood and they have slaughtered every segment of Burmese society since they came to power in 1962 - monks, students, Chinese, Indian, Rohingya, Muslims, Christian minorities, ethnic nationalities and even their own kind.

No Burmese should be under the illusion that these men in soldier uniform will give up their power, privilege, 'special place' in society and wealth - without a serious fight.

Communal Conundrum And Constitutional Calculations

By Dharisha Bastians -May 30, 2013 

Dharisha Bastians

A political week marked by a Buddhist monk’s suicide by fire and the main opposition’s promise of constitutional reform that seeks to pour balm over the country’s democratic woes

When Bowatte Indrarathana Thero poured petrol on his body and set himself ablaze outside the sacred Temple of the Tooth in Kandy last Friday, he set in motion a series of unfortunate events that shattered the peace of Vesak season. The holiday weekend to commemorate the birth, passing and enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama is usually a time of reflection and meditation for Buddhist devotees and a festival of light for other denizens of the ‘land of the Buddha’, who take to the streets of Colombo and suburbs in their hundreds to view the spectacle of lanterns and pandols that illuminate the streets. This year, the holy season was marred by terrifying images of a human inferno, saffron robed and dancing in flames before Sri Lanka’s most sacred Buddhist shrine.  Indrarathana Thero succumbed to his injuries 24 hours later, after being airlifted from the Kandy General Hospital to Colombo National Hospital for treatment. He had chosen this gruesome death apparently to protest against the slaughter of cattle and alleged unethical conversions taking place in the country.

The monk had been vehemently opposed to the Halal method of animal slaughter, an issue that has become increasingly heated in the current political discourse, with hardline groups like the Bodu Bala Sena and theSinhala Ravaya acting like a religious police, raiding abattoirs and threatening meat transporters. Rather than call on Buddhists to refuse to consume meat and appeal to the sensibilities of other communities against the killing of animals for consumption, groups like the Sinhala Ravaya and BBS led by Buddhist clergy have chosen to agitate for a blanket Government ban on cattle-slaughter because Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist country. The hardline groups perceive the Muslim community as being the main producers and consumers of beef. The ruling administration is not entirely unappreciative of the campaign, with many members of the ruling family already being ardent vegetarians.

The political and communal overtones of the self-immolation therefore, were hard to miss.

Graphic details

Communal Conundrum and Constitutional Calculations by nelvely

"Buddhist Nation", My arse! : On Bama "Buddhist" Nationalism

30 MAY 2013

BY DR. MAUNG ZARNI

Almost 70 years after independence from the White Man (the British Raj), Myanmar is rudderless. It is rudderless, intellectually and ideologically.

The result is all kinds of 'democracy promoters' and 'capacity builders' from all corners of the world are coming in with their remedial and half-baked 'social science' ideas, ignoring the advice the late C.Wright Mills half centuries ago warned social scientists against:  pretend to have scientific knowledge about society and human inhabitants and sell equally pseudo-scientific and ideologically driven policy makers their own pet pseudo-scientific policy advice and ideas.

These 'global gurus' are building even 'centers of excellence' in higher education in a country where most people, young and old, have not been encouraged or taught to THINK - just simply THINK!

So, you can't blame these charlatans and 'democracy and economy' quacks of all stripes and colours, who come in for their own hidden agendas, corporate, personal and neo-Liberal.

The main problem of course is this:ideas are not coming from the 'natives', neither the mainstream political party of the NLD, nor the much-touted '88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group' (of George Soros).

Worse still, the face and the brain of this group are once again proving themselves to be racist and ethno-nationalist chauvinists.

In contrast, as early as 1945, Aung San offered far more fresh, forward-thinking and non-racist ideas and vision than all of the men and women have ever done as a group of dissidents.

Unlike the cream of Burma's crop, including his daughter, the late Aung San NEVER studied in foreign 'world class' universities.

Nor did he consider siting in colonial jail - or for that matter, nor would he Burmese dictatorship's jails - a worthwhile choice.

He made sure he spend not a single hour in police custody or Class A political prisoners' cells in colonial Insein jail in his 10 years in politics in Rangoon.

He was truly a self-made man. And yet his intellectual power was tremendous: he formulated non-racial, civic, secular and inclusive NATIONALISM - the only version that is viable - for the country in 1947.

Aung San foresaw the need for a regional group - such as ASEAN - about 20 years before any "Southeast Asian" leaders pursued it.

All was buried along with his body in the fall of 1947.

Generations of Burmese growing up bowing to Aung San's pictures and posters on every 19 July - 10:30 am, to commemorate the assassination of AS and his colleagues.

Many put his pictures on their t-shirts or hang big banners of his mug on their house walls.

But not many seem to have any clue as to what Aung San stood and fought for: civic, secular, non-discriminatory, non-ethnic, nationalism that defines "Bu-mi-pu-tra' or "Tai-yin-Thar" as anyone whose umbilical chord was buried in Burma!

The same thing can be said about self-described "Buddhists" in Burma who don't know what Buddha Dharma really is, hence up in arms about 'protecting Buddhism and defending "Buddhist nation" from the impending attack by "Islam"!

Because Buddhist philosophy is not sufficiently internalized - nor human rights for that matter - the Burmese public becomes susceptible to potent strains of neo-fascist nationalism with a very strong racial and ethno-religious component.

As Thailand's highly respected Buddhist thinker Ajan Sulak Sivaraksa put it, Buddhism is about extinguishing Ego - the illusions of Ego - and nations and nation-states are about "Extended Egos". 

Nationalism and Buddhism are incommensurate, utterly irreconciliable.

So, my fellow Buddhists, "Buddhist nation", my arse!

And Aung San would say, "Amen"!

© Maungzarni.com

---

Dr. Maung Zarni is a noted exile, commentator, and expert on Burmese affairs. He is currently a visiting fellow with Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Srebrenica Video Project Presents 500 Survivor Interviews

BALKAN TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

A project documenting the testimonies of Srebrenica survivors has handed over 500 video interviews for a multimedia room at the massacre memorial centre in eastern Bosnia.

Harriet Crawford-

BIRN-Srebrenica-28 May 13

The Cinema for Peace Foundation, which is documenting the memories of Bosnian war victims, presented the video interviews to the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Centre on Monday.

Selma Hadzic, the director of Cinema for Peace, emphasised the need to finish the filming of all the testimonies about the July 1995 massacres as soon as possible because of passing time.

“We have a huge problem with the age of the survivors. We really have to speed up the process,” Hadzic said.

“It’s almost 20 years after the war and we would really love to hand over the entire project to the memorial centre on the 20th anniversary of Srebrenica,” she said.

The Cinema for Peace project was established to create a Genocide Film Library in December 2011. It has so far recorded a total of 1,307 testimonies from Srebrenica survivors and aims to film 10,000 stories by 2015.

It is Bosnia’s first oral history project and is non-political, Hadzic explained.

She said that the witnesses’ accounts are “objective, non-biased, historic... and educational”.

The mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, told BIRN on Monday that “living remembrance is the only promise that this won’t be forgotten”.

He said his connection to the project was personal.

“I am a Bosniak and I did survive this genocide,” Durakovic said.

Some of those who supplied their personal narratives said it was hard to talk again about their wartime sufferings.

One of them, Kadefa Rizvanovic, of the Association Women of Podrinje, from Bratunac, said that despite difficulty, she considered it vital to send a message to the younger generation.

“[They need to] know how and what we survived,” Rizvanovic said.

The Genocide Film Library aims to promote tolerance, human rights and reconciliation both in Bosnia and abroad.