Gallibbo!

photo: ft.lk

Gallibbo is a conjunction. Two Sinhala words: Gal (stone or rock) + Ibbo (the plural of tortoise). In common parlance the term ‘gal-ibba’ refers to someone who is thick skinned or insensitive. There’s a perception that consuming the meat of the gal-ibba (a species found in and close to inland water bodies) makes muscles so hard that it makes it difficult to inject — the needles are said to break. 

Anyway, that’s just an aside. 

Technically speaking, although we pronounce it that way, when writing the term in Sinhala, the ‘gal’ and the ‘ibba’ (or ‘ibbo’) are kept separate. Together, then, ‘gallibba’ would be a dvithva roopa sandhiya; ’sandhi’ referring to a junction, intersection or a conjunction and the term describing a particular way of coupling.  

Here we are not sandhifying ‘gal’ and ‘ibba’ but ‘gal’; we are combining ‘gal’ and ‘libba’ (‘sandhi’ meaning junction or intersection or conjunction). ‘Libba’ is a new term that has entered the Singlish lexicon in social media and refers to ‘liberals’. So the relevant grammatical term, in Sinhala, would be upamaa visheshana poorvapada samaasaya, essentially a coupling of two words with distinct meanings to create a third with a completely different meaning. In this instance the first word being an adjective and a simile.

In the sense we use ‘Gallibbo’ however, given the meaning of common usage, the term can be said to have an additional layer of meaning: a liberal who is intransigent. Oxymoronic, yes, but then again we live in times where the truth is revealed less by design than by accident. Indeed, that exactly is the point. People and things are not what they appear to be; there’s gap between theory and practice, between ‘say’ and ‘do’.  

It’s applicable to most ‘sayers’ who fall short on the doing — from the extreme left to the extreme right, nationalists to separatists, religious fundamentalists to fundamentalist secularists and so on. Nationalists, for example, whose nationalism has nothing to say about the wanton destruction and plunder of natural resources, the exploitation of the citizens and the fact that ‘nation’ and in particular THIS nation is or should be fundamentally inclusive, also betray a similar gap between theory and practice; their definitional preferences are flawed, incomplete and in the long run detrimental to their cause or rather the sliver of the overall nationalist project, let’s say.

Gallibbo, however, are the ones who are in the spotlight. The funny thing is, it’s not that they weren’t around before. Somehow they went under the radar, some of them anyway. The Galibbo, that is. It’s almost like they are wearing a touch-me-not cloak — self-righteous, pompous, know-all-ish and condescending. They are all for freedom, all for secularism, all for devolution of power, all for a suspension of ‘morality’, all for LGBTQI rights, media rights, minority rights, human rights etc., etc. In fact they might be confused with anarchists, but then again they are also defenders of ‘Rule of Law’ never mind the fact that laws, as Lenin pertinently observed, are the will of the ruling class. Indeed they can also be mistaken for Marxists and not only because some Galibbo are essentially Marxists who have found comfy clothing, But shhh….Gallibbo are quiet when it comes to capitalism, the overarching creator of inequality and suspender of freedoms in the relevant political economy. 

A few months ago there was quite a stir when some young people dropped their pants, got someone to take pictures of their bare bottoms and posted on Facebook. It was at Pidurangala. Naturally, some Buddhists were upset. Naturally our Gallibbo came to the defense of the bare-bottomed boys. Some pointed out to all kinds of un-Buddhist like practices by Buddhists, so claimed, by way of defending the butt-boys. Indeed, such Gallibbo (and there were ‘Buddhists’ among them) quoted chapter and verse from the Buddhist canon to defend the positions they took — not that they demonstrated any of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism (metta, muditha, karuna and upekkha) nor adhered to the tenets of their particular religious faith. The boys were Buddhists. They were arrested almost immediately.

Gallibbo are high on religious freedom and in particular about religious tolerance. Not in this case though. Indeed, the sensitivities of Buddhists were brushed aside, because (hold your breath!) ‘Buddhists are supposed to practice equanimity anyway!’ 

Anyway, just the other day, some undergraduates from the Eastern University (all non-Buddhists) climbed the ruins of a stupa in Kiralagala, Horowpathana, got pictures taken of them as though they’ve reached the top of Mt Everest, and posted them on Facebook. The Gallibbo fraternity went quiet, except for a few brave people who pointed out that it was just a pile of bricks (correct) and that they could be used to build houses. It took several days for the boys to be arrested; they were not Buddhists, remember. Gallibos, who are high on religious tolerance, couldn’t see the intolerance here.   

Gallibbo have a habit of touting secularism, but if you ask them three questions, they go silent: a) Could you take everything into account, compare religious freedoms enjoyed by non-Buddhists in Sri Lanka with those of people who do not belong to the faith of the majority in other countries and tell us if we are better, worse or the same? b) Have you ever thought about the number of non-Christian religious holidays in secular countries you take as examples? c) Have you calculated the number of religious holidays for Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus in Sri Lanka (13, 54, 16  plus special privileges in the event of spousal death and divorce, and 3, respectively. They talk of equality before the law, but balk at one law for all; they wouldn’t touch the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act or the Thesavalamai Law. 

They talk good governance, true representation, transparency and accountability but say nothing of a set of unelected people (mostly NGO activists or tag-alongs) repeatedly throwing out an elected President’s recommendations with respect to Court of Appeal positions. 

Here’s another lovely Gallibba argument: ‘There are no Sinhalese in the pure sense of the word. If you checked their DNA, you’ll probably find traces of other races. They can be differentiated in so many ways.’ And yet they talk of a ‘Tamil Community’ and other communities as though they have DNA-integrity. Sinhalese are asked to be ‘Sri Lankans’ AND are asked to accept that Tamils and Muslims have inalienable claims based on identity. They will say ‘Mahawamsa’ is a racist tract, refuse to take it apart in any scholarly manner, and treat Eelamist myth-making as impeccable historiography.  

They might point to the number of Tamil words that have been incorporated into the Sinhala language, but will say nothing of the percentage of such words in the overall lexicon. For example, the Sinhala Dictionary is still not complete, it’s so vast. The section containing words beginning with ‘ka’ and words beginning with ‘ki’ is more voluminous that the Random House Dictionary.

Galibbo. A sociological treatise waiting to be written. I’m scratching the surface here. But, speaking of scratching, scratch a Gallibba and you’ll get someone who has some kind of grouse against Sinhalese and Buddhists. Wait. You can’t really do that. They have that ‘gal’ element about them, a thick skin to use the English term. A steadfast refusal to be honest and consistent. Honesty and consistency would strip them of the liberal garb they cover their moral poverty with. 

Gallibbo: an interesting species, all things considered.

malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com