Sri Lanka has enough collectives to make anyone given to
rabble rousing on identity-account salivate.
It does not take the entire collective to feel wronged. It does not take even a single individual to
feel affronted on account of identity.
It can take either, but it would also suffice for a few shrew (misguided
or otherwise) individuals who know that spark can make a bonfire to gather
enough tinder or create it if necessary and put match to it.
It is glib to say ‘communities have always lived in
harmony’. There have been long periods
of peaceful co-existence, but no two communities can claim to have been ‘always
at peace’ except in situations of subjugation, where the ‘peace’ is obtained at
a price and resentment and humiliation go from raging fire to subdued flame to
smoldering ember. The truth is that
identity matters. It is primary source
of meaning, for human beings are cultural creatures; they have language,
customs and subscribes to cosmologies.
They are frail and therefore vulnerable.
Those vulnerabilities are preyed on by identity ‘others’ as well as
identity exploiters.
In short we are a nation where there are enough red flags
around to upset anyone whose identity fixation is capable of transforming
him/her into the proverbial bull. Indeed
even a pink flag waved can be seen as ‘red’ or read as being flaunted in
face. That is the downside of identity-fixation
and I am not even sure if there’s an ‘up’ side to it.
It doesn’t have to be identity either. The smart identity-abuser can dress
non-identity issues in ethnic and religious clothes. Bogeymen can be conjured at will. You talk to representatives of either of the
‘aggrieved’ camps and they would come up with excellent arguments to back their
fears and objections. One would think
that the articulators are all unblemished on all counts and the ‘other’ they
contend with are pretty odious creatures.
One thing is clear.
The law cannot differentiate among collectives. One thing is clear: no group has the right to
take the law into their hands. One thing
is clear. If you insult, you hurt and
some among the hurt will be angry and of those who are angry there will be some
who will retire reason in favor of passion.
One thing is clear. It is easy to
set fire to things it is a hundred times more difficult to douse the
flames. One thing is clear. Pyromaniacs love each other.
The true test of character and civic responsibility,
however, is to desist from making statements and asking questions that could
provoke irritation (irritation is spark, first spark; anger is fire). The true challenge is to sift message from
messenger, obtain word without letting its religious coloring blur vision. The
true responsibility is to ignore the obvious political motivation (it is
political, let us not be naïve here) and do what is prescribed in the
faith-texts of your choice.
I am a Buddhist so I will speak as one. Buddhists, since they are the most frequently
vilified (we have seen ridiculous and utterly pernicious blanket extrapolation
to collective the act of a single or a few individuals), if they feel ‘wronged’
(on account of sense of identity rather than philosophical conviction,
obviously), would do well to take refuge in the twin notions relevant to all
engagement: wisdom and compassion. They
would do well to reflect on the sathara
agathi (the four pathways to destruction), namely greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), delusion (moha)
and fear (bhaya) because they make
the vast majority of the population. For
when a weak man is afflicted, only a small circle of people are harmed, but
when a leader is arrogant, delusional, hateful etc., nations can perish.
No one can prescribe ways of being to others. We can only self-prescribe. If we are wise and compassionate, there’s
less chance of causing harm. We are the
atoms that make the bomb. All of
us. One explosion can take out the
entire nation. One can stop oneself, not
anyone else.
msenevira@gmail.com
5 comments:
Very relevant. Very good.
Why do you say that "Buddhists are most frequently vilified"? When, why and by whom? Time and tide waits for no man as you well know, Malinda. The ongoing protests are totally unprovoked and came from the blue. According to reports the Police are inactive pointing the finger at high-ups. Weren't the Muslims crudely and rudely vilified in Kuliyapitiya? Who orchestrated it, what was the urgent reason and why was it carried out? Pictures of pigs with "Allah" written on it were carried and similarly an effigy. Have the Muslims done anything to outrage the Sinhalese in anyway that resulted in such vile demonstrations where the clergy too participated? What are upstanding Buddhists, such as yourself, physically doing to stem the tide of another horrible era in the offing? And, pray, what are our leaders, who supposedly are also our protectors, doing? It is necessary that we we perceive the "worst case" scenario and take adequate action.In the meantime we shudder in silence, as is our wont.
Ramzeen asks some very pertinent
questions, Malinda.
I rarely respond to comments (for what i believe are defensible reasons)...but i do make exceptions. Yes, Muslims were crudely vilified and I have not condoned. I have in what I write called for Buddhists to look to the dhamma (which does not advocate anything like this). What can i do 'physically'? I don't argue with mobs. I do what I think I do best: write. Vilification of Buddhists: Take all the so-called non-partisan commentators. They use blanket classifications. One monk does something stupid and the entire Sangha is lampooned. When have the commentariate done the same to Christians and Muslims? When Buddhism is insulted no one calls anyone to be mindful of religious sensitivities. If Buddhists protest, then they are called 'extremists'. Re the Kuliyapitiya incident: last night at the Editors' meeting with the President, I brought it up and told him that the Police cannot look away when such things happen. I also asked whether he thought Sri Lanka would be castigated for infringing on the right of expression (alluded to in Europe whenever Islam is insulted). He observed that not everything can be stopped by referring to the law and that things like freedom of expression notwithstanding, in cultures like ours, we just don't insult religions. That would be the 'reethi' of neethi-reethi.
This was an article written in 2013 and I was unaware that you had responded. Sorry. Reading what I had written then, the words seem almost prophetic. At the time of writing this, we have seen incidents in Beruwela and Aluthgama and at dawn today, the arson attack on the No Limit clothing store in Panadura.(the media studiously ignored the incident although Derana TV made a coy remark this morning. My concern is this: if the security forces who are supposed to protect the citizens decide enmasse to obey a fire & brimstone "mullah" rather than the elected leader, what refuge do those outside the circle have? As in January 29, 2013, it seems that the Police still look away.
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