The immovable feast cooked in Easter fires

 

Over the last 24 years, Easter Sunday has been celebrated on various days, from the 23rd of March to the 5th of May. It is then a movable holiday or, if one wants to be overly technical about it, a movable holy-day given that the word derives from the Old English hāligdæg (hālig ‘holy' + dæg ‘day’).  Not all holidays have anything to do with divinity or religious purpose, but Easter certainly is. In Sri Lanka, however, while the ‘true’ Easter, if you will, is movable, there’s also a political Easter that is not only static but has in fact taken on greater significance. That’s the Easter Sunday of the attacks on several churches executed by…hold you breath…a since hardly-mentioned organisation led by a since-hardly-mentioned man.

April 21, 2019. The audacity of the attacks, the magnitude of the damage caused and the enormity of the tragedy certainly makes casual passover impossible, even though the politics that followed is as unholy as it can get.

So, first of all, a moment of silence.

A moment of silent in memory of those who lost their lives, were injured or who lost loved ones. A moment of silence for members of the clergy (let’s leave the relevant faith and denomination out) who called out for justice quite out of character to the ‘turn the other cheek’ recommendation.

A moment of silence for the perpetrators, the architects of the attack and those who executed them, their backers, apologists and others who through various means ensured that the name of a particular organisation and the names of particular perpetrators of a particular religious persuasion were systematically removed from the discourse on terrorism, truth, justice and retribution.

A moment of silence for whoever first touted the idea of a ‘mahamolakaru’ and all those who turned it into a refrain when talking about the tragedy, tossing around insinuations, tossed out the dictum ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ and proceeded to judge, condemn and execute…no, not the perpetrators, but some who were at worst enables on account of incompetence and negligence.

A moment of silence for the over 700 persons arrested in relation to these crimes, the over 300 enlarged on bail and the over 40 persons on whom 11 indictments have been served.

A moment of silence for those who believe justice was done the day stiff fines were imposed on some people whose ‘crime’ was, as mentioned, of the omission kind; the 'some people,' coincidentally or otherwise, belonging to a particular community which has been considered 'The Enemy' by spokespersons for both the accusing religious community and the religious community which the perpetrators belong to, now and in the long centuries that have passed.

A moment of silence for those whose fixations, ideological and political persuasions and shameless designs to use the Easter Sunday attacks to exact revenge on people they hated for reasons that had nothing to do with the tragedy pushed them to make a mockery of justice, truth and due process.

A moment of silence for selective amnesia. A moment of silence for selective and pernicious targeting. A moment of silence for ignoring the truth and in the process affecting a lovely pass for the religious fundamentalism that was the bedrock on which the attacks were planned and executed.

Those who carried out the attack were of a particular faith. Let’s not name it because that would be unholy. They prayed to an entity they considered divine before embarking on their murderous mission. Indeed they may have uttered the name of this entity at detonation-point by way of consoling themselves that the appreciative omnipotent would arrange a heavenly afterlife for them.

But no, terrorists have no religion. At least that’s the weak and laughable dismissal offered by those who were trigger-happy to attribute to an entire community numbering over ten million the crimes of a handful who happened to belong to that community because of given name, yes, not even close to, say, religious affiliation reverentially obtained and affirmed as was the case of the Easter Sunday terrorists.

Let’s forget all of the above, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s join hands with the vile, revengeful, pernicious, lying and myopic. Let’s form a human chain from Peduru Thuduwa through Colombo, Devundara Thuduwa, Madakalapuwa and back to Peduru Thuduwa.

Let us, in this hand-holding way, express unity in calling upon leaders to render justice to victims and remain conspicuously silent about the names and convictions of those who caused so much grief on that immovable and immutable Easter Sunday in the year 2019 and made us forget THAT resurrection and embraced the resurrection and re-resurrection of deceit and crass politicking in the name of justice and truth.

And let us celebrate the fact that thanks to these devious machinations, we’ve unshackled ourselves from the tyrannies of the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Let us retire prayer. Let us feast to our hearts' content. Tongue-in-cheek of course.

 malindadocs@gmail.com.

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Rev Fr Cyril Gamini: judge, jury, prosecutor and pernicious rabble-rouser

 

Rev Fr Cyril Gamini (RFCG hereafter) has found his voice. RFCG, after shooting his mouth and naming names in a zoom discussion, was duly complained about and required to make a statement. Having named names, he was required to offer tangible proof, for lack thereof would amount to defamation. He ducked. He hid under his own cassock. We wonder if he went to confession at any point thereafter. 

Anyway, RFCG is back at his own games of casting aspersions, loose-cannoning if you will. He's careful, RFCG is. He deliberately and meticulously avoids talking about the perpetrators of the crime: the NTJ, Zahran, Naufer and, if you want to be ideological about it, Islamic Fundamentalism. Instead he goes for soft targets and puts both feet in the mouth (as always). He talks about conspiracy, but not related to the attacks themselves; for him it's about negligence and the alleged protection of the negligent. And, not untypically, a wide-eyed media that tends to extrapolate beyond belief attributes the allegations of this maverick priest to 'The Catholic Church'. 

RFCG was ranting in response to comments made by Secretary, Defence, Kamal Gunaratne. He asks what moral right Gunaratne has to 'protect political leaders.' Was Gunaratne protecting anyone? Has nothing been done about the Easter Sunday attacks in terms of investigation, legal action, compensation for families of those killed and the injured, countering extremism and in ensuring that such attacks are not repeated? Gunaratne stated some facts. The state has done much in terms of the second set of questions. The details of the numbers arrested, enlarged on bail, indicted etc., are well known. Well, RFCG clearly is ignorant of all that. Other measures taken have been detailed in numerous comments, statements and reports. Yes, RFCG is not interested in any of that. What moral right does he have, then, to talk about truth and justice? We don't know how well versed he is about the Ten Commandments or if he does, the value he places on them, how many he has broken etc., but clearly he's at odds with the 9th, as per Deuteronomy 5:20: 'You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor,' in the expanded interpretation of 'neighbor' of course.

The ninth commandment honors the right to one’s own reputation.[1] It finds pointed application in legal proceedings where what people say depicts reality and determines the course of lives. Judicial decisions and other legal processes wield great power. Manipulating them undercuts the ethical fabric of society and thus constitutes a serious offense. Walter Brueggemann says this commandment recognizes “that community life is not possible unless there is an arena in which there is public confidence that social reality will be reliably described and reported.”

He asks questions to which answers have been given many times, for example, 'What are the investigations carried out by the investigation teams including the CID so far to prove that it is not such a political conspiracy?' This is like asking someone 'Is there any evidence that Jesus was born in what is today known as Iceland?' and being answered, 'Is there any proof that he was not?' The main task of investigation is to consider what happened and based on facts to make determinations on any matter, conspiracy included. In RFCG's court (where he is judge, jury and prosecutor) it's a flip: conspiracy as hypothesis and all energies to be expended to determine first and foremost and to the end whether or not hypothesis holds. Bunkem!

RFCG seems to be intent on sticking his dagger into SSP and former SIS chief Nilantha Jayawardena. Nilantha Jayawardena as indeed is anyone and everyone in the intelligence agency had to do his job: obtaining intelligence information and passing on the information to authorities that are mandated to act upon them. No negligence there. Negligence can only be attributed to agencies and individuals mandated to act upon such information. Negligence, obviously, is a significant fault.

Former President, Maithripala Sirisena was negligent, even though he is not an intelligence officer nor an investigator. The then Minister of Public Administration and Management and Law and Order Ranjith Maddumabandara, also not an intelligence officer nor an investigator, was negligent. They were both aware. They did nothing. NOTHING, repeat. The hero in charge of stuff during that period, Shani Abeysekera, is far more culpable since he had the leads and brushed them off. Indeed he had some of the would-be terrorists cornered, but was either clueless or slothful. For a full discussion, read 'The Easter Sunday Attack: negligence and the negligent.' We know what happened later. RFCG knows too, but he doesn't mention the man at all. Why not?

For the record, consider the following:  735 suspected of direct or indirect involvement in the terrorist attacks were arrested. Of them, 196 are in remand custody, 19 in detention, 81 served indictments while 453 have been enlarged on bail. There are 27 cases filed against 79 persons in the high courts of Gampaha, Candy, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Nuwara Eliya, Batticaloa, Colombo and Kegalle are being heard by three-judge benches in terms of 25,753 charges.

There's more: Assets, including property, buildings and vehicles worth Rs 365 million as well as gold worth Rs 168 million belong to the suicide bombers and relevant organizations have been confiscated so far. All relevant agencies have taken innumerable steps to investigate and press charges on all persons who have directly or indirectly supported extremism, regardless of who they are; politicians, public and private sector employees and officials make up this list.

Is RFCG interested? Of course not. He's the judge, let us repeat, the jury and the prosecutor. He's not concerned with the perpetrators or the ideology that spurred them on. Instead, he's chasing a ghost, some mahamolakaru (mastermind) and his thesis is that the negligent were in fact masterminds. Speculation, speculation! Humbuggery, humbuggery!

Seriously, if conspiracy is the big-word here, RFCG is clearly the most vocal conspirator of them all! I wouldn't go as far to say that the blood of the victims are on his hands, but RFCG's hands are anything but clean.

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The resurrection and the life

Illustration courtesy Aysha Maryam Cassim

It’s been just a year since the Easter Sunday attacks shocked the nation and took the lives of over 300 Sri Lankans. It was a rude awakening for a nation that truly believed that terrorism was a thing of the past. It reminded everyone that the demise of one kind of terrorism does not mean the end of all terrorisms.

So we got to know about the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) which literally means ‘National Monotheism Organization.’ The name itself indicates intent and obviously absolute intolerance of religious others.

The dominant narratives are also informative. There are those who quickly jumped on post-attack attacks on Muslims and their properties. Nothing as violent and destructive as the Easter Sunday attacks of course (which seriously impacted tourism and therefore the national economy), but we had people talking about these incidents almost to the exclusion of the ‘antics’ of the NTJ. We were told ‘all Muslims are not terrorists.’ Absolutely. Does not mean that the terrorists weren’t Muslims. Indeed we saw a quick slip from ‘attacks orchestrated by terrorists adhering to the Islamist faith’ to ‘Easter Sunday attacks.’ That’s neat sidestepping. That’s sweeping things under the carpet. That’s dangerous.

The very same boys and girls padding the above narrative also interjected a subplot of victimhood. Muslims were a besieged community, we were asked to believe. In other words, if the  extremism of the NTJ had ‘roots’ they were to be found in other communities, religious or otherwise. Some pundits even urged people to ‘look for the funders,’ either directly or indirectly suggesting ‘Western Conspiracy.’

We do know the the West, the USA in particular, play the game of founding/funding terrorist organizations, creating and sustaining wars for political and business reasons. That said, it is laughable to think that the NTJ members who carried out the attacks were ‘in the know’ about such things, if indeed they were true. It is laughable to think that they blew themselves up by way of saying ‘thanks’ to the funders or were simply ‘doing the bidding of the master(s)’. No, it is abundantly clear that they were affirming their faith (the way they understood it). It was an act of faith, nothing more and nothing less. 

The above preamble is necessary because it is missing in the dominant narrative. So, let’s say ‘done!’ For now. Done with the preamble or, if you prefer, a framing of the issue that takes into consideration important elements of the story. 

Now we can and must talk of things within our control. For example, prevention. The then government failed miserably in this regard. Key individuals knew. They did nothing. The former Chief of National Intelligence, Sisira Mendis has revealed that the National Security Council hadn’t met for weeks despite early warnings about such an attack. This he mentioned to Parliamentary Selection Committee on the subject the first time they met. He was removed from his post a few days later. We saw the callousness of senior ministers who had the gumption to laugh about the attacks. 

There are lessons here. First, we can never let our guard down: national security is a priority. Secondly, it is better to be prepared because preparation helps prevention. The then government in word, policy and action not just let the national guard down, they essentially issued invitations to one and all terrorists. ‘Come attack….the paths have been cleared,’ is essentially the message that was given. And the ‘guests’ duly arrived.

My friend, Dr Udaya Liyanage, a surgeon now domiciled in the USA, made an interesting observation in a different context.

‘I, in my simple mind, have made a list of “bottom feeders” of the world. One simple criterion qualify admittance to the list. Does the person or organization monetize misery? If so, then you are a bottom feeder. BBC. Red Cross, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group, most NGOs, most religious organizations qualify easily to the bottom feeder list.’

That’s the third element. The bottom feeders moved in after the attacks. Well, it’s not that the misery was ‘monetized,’ but capital (political and otherwise) was made of the misery unleashed by the attacks.

So did Sri Lanka roll over and die? We got hit, that’s obvious. It was not the first hit we’ve suffered and it won’t be the last. We stood up. In this, we need to salute a few people.

First of all the Catholic Church and several organization of other christian denomination. They showed tremendous patience and restraint in the main, apart from a few incidents in Catholic-majority areas which, thankfully, did not spread. The Catholic Church has officially forgiven the perpetrators. The other cheek has been offered. And the distance for slapping, as the Very Reverend Fr James Amerasekara observed when he was Chaplain at St Thomas’ College, is also the distance that enables embrace.

Secondly, the Muslim community in general has demonstrated overwhelming remorse on behalf of those who perpetrated these horrific acts of terrorism in the name of the faith they share or, to be more precise, who worship the same god (but affirm faith in very different ways, obviously). It must be noted that the first victims of NTJ violence were Muslims of a different denomination, the Sufis. They were the first to suffer. They were the first to alert relevant authorities including politicians. They were the first, tragically, to be ignored.

I firmly believe that the Muslim community has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they do not subscribe to the extremist interpretations dished out by the NTJ, even though they show a marked reluctance to voice objection to the brands of Wahhabism which affirm and spread the doctrine of intolerance embedded in the notion of monotheism, perhaps for defensible reasons. They are peace-loving, I have no doubt, even though I have reservations about the demands that some of them make for a secular state given the thumb-twiddling approach to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). It is archaic and violates the principle of equality on multiple counts. That’s another story, however. Clinging to such things is not the preserve of the Muslim community.

It is patently unfair to blame an entire community for the violence unleashed by a few in that community. The NTJ’s terrorism made the entire Muslim community vulnerable. They are obviously uneasy. They’ve done everything possible to distance themselves from the NTJ. Alleviating their fears is something all other communities must do. Actively. The Catholic Church has led the way in this regard. Various Buddhist prelates have articulated the same sentiments. A lot more needs to be done, obviously.

In other words, we have a considerable reservoir of elements that make for reconciliation, moving forward. It takes just a few extremists to ruin things of course, but then again, all that is required to combat extremism is a few, determined men and women who will see beyond identity. We have such people in abundance. In all communities and as far as this issue is concerned, among Christians and Muslims. This is very important. It’s a fertile ground. A solid foundation. Call it whatever you will, we are blessed. Resurrection is not ‘out of the question.’

There are reservations of course. There is uncertainty. There is fear. All these are natural after-effects. Memories don’t die easily. We forgive and that’s a good thing. We should not forget for that could lead to us having to pay even stiffer prices if things go wrong. And they can.  There’s no substitute for caution. Alertness at all levels helps and unfortunately is a non-negotiable given contexts.  

In the end people, of all communities, have a role to play. They make resurrection possible. They must embody ‘the life.’



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Dr Shafi Sahabdeen and the proportionality of communalism

I want Dr. Seigu Shihabdeen Mohamed Shafi cleared of all charges leveled against him with respect to unethical and unwarranted sterilization. I want him cleared because I want to believe that our medical profession made of impeccably honorable and competent people. I want to believe that those who graduate from state universities in Sri Lanka learn the relevant skills and show absolute fidelity to professional ethics. I want him cleared because it would help dial down the lunacy among a certain section of the population to see a terrorist in every Muslim.  

Here’s the caveat: IF HE IS INNOCENT.  Here’s another caveat: HE HAS TO BE PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.  Over and above all this, I concur with Prof Hemantha Senanayake, Head, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, who insists that the absence of impartial, speedy and transparent investigation could have a negative impact not only on Sri Lanka’s achievements in maternal care and health but create a situation where people would be afraid to have babies delivered in hospital. 

Let me flag the key words here: impartial, speedy and transparent. I would assume that ‘comprehensive’ is a given.  

The lengthy submissions by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have been taken as proof positive, irrefutable, absolute and final that Dr Shafi had not blocked the fallopian tubes of mothers on whom he had performed Caesarian surgery, amassed wealth in an illegal manner or maintained links with a terrorist organization.  Having thus concluded, those who are convinced of his innocence have turned their fire on the accusers.  Some have raised the bogey of a massive conspiracy involving women who lodged complaints, even claiming that they have been paid by some ‘somebody’. 

They are forgetting some important facts. First, the investigation is not yet concluded. Secondly, there is nothing to say that CID investigations are always comprehensive and above board. Indeed, in this case, certain salient matters seem to have been ignored. 

On the issue of investigating complaints, CID claims that 468 women (of the 615 who had complained regarding Dr Shafi) had developed complications, but of the 147 complaints investigated, only 13 women were produced before ‘an experts committee’. Two cases, apparently, need to be further investigated while 11 have been deemed ‘false’. In other words, there are 321 cases yet to be investigated and there are questions about two that have already been investigated.  

There are allegations regarding Dr Shafi’s behavior when operating on Sinhala women. There is very personal and emotional elements associated with issues of childbirth and related medical examination. Do these indicate guilt? Not necessarily. 

Dr Shafi’s wife, M.N.F. Imara, herself a physician has pointed out that her husband worked under the supervision of a Consultant. She has, echoing expert views, said that other medical professionals are present in operating theaters. In other words, if he did wrong, then the relevant consultant(s) and others were complicit. However, those who work in such hospitals claim that situations for wrongdoing do arise. It is alleged that consultants often delegate authority to house officers such as Dr Shafi, who, by the way, is not an obstetrician or gynecologist. There is talk of consultants doing so because they engage in private practice elsewhere and therefore could only implicate themselves by revealing all. That, however, needs to be investigated. It does not imply guilt.  

It is certainly disturbing, though, that the CID thought fit not to take into account all relevant statements by the hospital authorities. It is strange also that the CID has not thought fit to do a simple exercise in statistics. The following questions could very well elicit answers that either exonerate Dr Shafi or indicate very strange happenings, short of course of unwarranted, unethical and perverse sterilization: a) How many Caesarean Sections did Dr Shafi perform? b) How many such operations did doctors in similar positions perform during the same period of time? c) What is the ‘ethnic’ breakdown of the patients? d) What is the ‘ethnic’ breakdown of women whose first child was thus delivered and who did not conceive thereafter, in the case of Dr Shafi and in the case of other such doctors? 

It cannot be impossible to find out how many of the 3,479 Sinhalese mothers, 860 Muslim mothers and 33 Tamil mothers did not have children after Dr Shafi operated on them. Of course it could be ‘choice’ but numbers will tell a story, one way or another. We need to know.

I want to know these things. Dr Imara has said that her children are undergoing mental trauma, ‘as they are unable to attend school, due to the threatening situation.” They should not suffer such trauma, but they will until this case is closed and Dr Shafi’s innocent is established.  

Given the circumstances, which of course we need not elaborate but which include the fear, anxiety, doubt and suspicion generated by the Easter Sunday attacks by a group affirming the Islam faith as per their reading of the same, any glaring omissions in the investigation can only make matters worse. The political affiliations of Dr Shafi, the alleged intervention of Rishard Bathiudeen in Dr Shafi’s appointments following electoral defeat, the Health Minister’s tendentious statements with respect to the need for investigation etc., clearly describe a cloud. This cloud needs to be cleared. One way or another. 

There’s another reason that I need to know such things and it is not directly related to the controversy regarding Dr Shafi. Disturbing as it is to extrapolate the actions of a single individual (regardless of overall context) to paint negatively an entire community, even more troubling is the fact that it is not the preserve of a single community. 

A Facebook post claimed the following: 457 houses, 198 business establishments and 70 vehicles belonging to Muslims were destroyed in 36 hours in Kuliyapitiya, Nikaweratiya, Bingiriya, Panduwasnuwara, Wariyapola, Chilaw and Minuwangoda. That’s a large number. The unknown author may have been liberal in the use of the word ‘destroyed’ and in the numbers tossed out, but let us assume he was not. My contention is that even if it was one house or business premises or vehicle that was damaged (not destroyed) on account of the religious identity of owner, it is disturbing. There is, despite all this, the problem of selectivity. Yes, we have to talk ‘comprehensive’ now. 

It’s as though the Easter Sunday attacks did not take place, that some 300 people weren’t killed and 500 were not wounded, churches and hotels weren’t damaged, and yes, extremism so violent that the ‘faith’ factor overrides any ‘provocation’ did not, does not and will not exist on this island! Instead we have ‘gullible or vindictive racist Sinhala women’ enacting an anti-Muslim drama. We have Sinhala Buddhist hordes creating a bogey of unethical sterilization. We have other such ‘extremist’ elements in paintings that have no room for, for example, the almost 200 children who lost a parent on Easter Sunday. 

Well, we do get the large-print disclaimer ‘terrorism/terrorists have no religion’. True, in a sense, but who’s actually buying that and why should anyone buy that, simply because in another sense, it is rank silly and a disavowal of a serious problem that has created an existentialist anxiety among people belonging to communities that the terrorists were clearly at odds with. This is the other problem: there’s lunacy among a certain section of the population to see all Sinhala Buddhists as intolerant extremists and the one and only villainous collective of the sad, tragic and terrible piece that Sri Lanka has become.  

A swift, comprehensive, independent and transparent investigation would go a long way in sorting out these issue because the truth does that, sooner or later.  Anything less than that will not help. What we have though is cherry-picking by those who want to find Dr Shafi innocent and by those who want to find him guilty.  In the case of the first, we have too much ‘politician’ in the investigation and in relation to the latter, a marked reluctance to assume innocence until guilt is proven. We need a Presidential Commission at this point to keep communalism and extremism at bay and of course to ensure that things are not blown out of proportion.

malindasenevi@gmail.com. 

[First published in the Daily Mirror on July 4, 2019]

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අනතුර, ආරක්ෂාව සහ පුරවැසි වගකීම

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Blame-shifting will not eliminate threat

The 'blameless' (apparently!)

Politics is about inflating the useful and deflating, ignoring, wishing away or denying the uncomfortable. Some of these things are deliberate and some just issue from that powerful impetus giver, political and ideological preference. Alright, let this be the frame of this article. 

Easter Sunday Attacks. They happened two months ago. It was not about a dozen or so people getting together one evening, chit-chatting for a couple of hours, buying a few bombs from a supermarket, deciding on some random locations and proceeding to execute the explosions the following morning.  

No, it didn’t happen like that. This is why people have to deal with the question, ‘how did all this come about?’  Then there is the additional question, ‘how can we prevent such things happening again?’ The questions are inextricably linked. If we unravel that other overused term ‘root causes’ we can get somewhere because it stands to reason that if root causes are eliminated or the soil is removed or is robbed of fertility, that which is objectionable cannot grow.  

We have the Jihaadists and no, they are not limited to the National Thawheed Jamaath. Jihaadism is an ideology and such are not in organizations contained. So what gives rise to Jihaadism? We have elaborate theses on various Western powers creating such groups, but then again the growth has to be accounted for at some level by a particular religio-ideological soil. The fertilization of such soils can take place in opposition to persecution, real or perceived, and that too is a thesis doing the rounds. 

We could say that things complement one another. We also cannot dismiss the fact that operatives rarely know anything about ontology; they don’t always know who set things up, who funded and trained. Regardless, those who blow themselves up do not do so on account of financial benefits or agreement with the interests of the assumed ‘hidden hand’. The hand they know or believe in is the hand of ‘god’. Their calculation is about afterlife benefits as derived, in this case, by their understanding of a religious faith, namely Islam. 

A comprehensive analysis would have take in all relevant factors, global and local; focusing on one to the exclusion of the other can yield erroneous conclusions. Error-prone too is the predilection for single-reasons explanations. On the other hand, the ‘combating’ while it has to be at multiple levels (again global and local) there is a natural tendency to do what is possible within the limitations imposed by geographical and legal realities.  

Ultimately, locally, the response has to be two-pronged broadly, eliminating a threat and removal of conditions that could give rise to similar threats. The blame game is inevitable. Shifting blame is also a game. It has its uses because it allows the spectators to read the politics and outcome preferences of the players. In any case, blaming is a convenient tool because it implies that the fault is elsewhere, not with oneself.  Even if one is not at fault, pinning blame can have political uses.  It can be used to justify theories one has constructed for oneself. It can be used to obfuscate and distract. 

And so we have conspiracy theories. We have blame-shifting. Perhaps the question should be, ‘shifting from what/who?’ But first let’s tick off the what/who of ‘shifting to what/who?’ 

There are some prominent ‘culprits’ or rather those narratives that seem to be doing the rounds. It’s the Muslims, as an entire community or a majority, some claim.  ‘Radicalization’ is the operative term and all those who have knowingly or unknowingly facilitated are faulted. First, ‘radicalization’ is putrid word-usage. Using it on processes that produce Zaharans and Prabhakarans makes it easy to vilify radicalism and radicals. More seriously, to use a broad brush and the crimes of association and shared culture, attire and faith as reason enough to assume guilt is plain silly. It is a caricature. It feeds fears and pushes people to seek in ‘likeness’ (cultural or religious) comforts that outweigh the risks of ideological association. 

Then we have the usual (and tired) broad-brush-strokes against Sinhala Buddhists. Such theses are buttressed by those who take the position described above, but they have their own steam. They would pounce on Rev Gnanasara’s last-minute piggybacking on Rev Rathana’s upavasaya (which by the way did not target the Muslims) and go to town with it, forgetting the objectives of the upavasaya. ‘Aluthgama’ and ‘Teldeniya/Digana’ are dragged into the story in ways in which the history of Islamic extremism (global and local)  are not. 

There are sophisticated pushers of such theories. Take for example Harini Amarasuriya’s ‘Shifting the blame’ in www.himalmag.com. This is an important and useful intervention which should spark lengthy discussion. For now, in this piece, I focus on the matter of blame-shifting. 

While decrying ‘narratives[that] are replete with broad generalisations and inaccuracies,’ Amarasuriya herself is not far away from wild claims, generalization and inaccuracy.  She speaks of ‘deep rooted racism and elitism within the Sri Lankan polity’. There is elitism and racism, but ‘deep rooted’?  She claims, ‘Without a serious analysis of how the nation-building project in Sri Lanka consistently failed to accommodate minority communities as equals, we will not be able to understand how institutionalised forms of racism in the Sri Lankan polity have produced and maintained ethnic tensions between communities in Sri Lanka.’  So the minorities are blameless and the majority community is the villain of the piece, it follows. Saying it without saying it at its pernicious best. 

Then she says it direct: ‘What exists in Sri Lanka is a clear pattern where the political establishment regularly resorts to the appeasement of the majority, upholding populist nationalist sentiment as a means of deflecting any accountability towards itself.’  That’s rank simplification. A compelling argument can be made about how the ‘political establishment’ has appeased minorities particularly the bourgeoisie but also the formal Muslim political establishment (flagged here simply because the nimiththa here is the Easter Sunday attacks).   

She is correct — we should hold accountable those responsible for the wellbeing and security of the population. But that can also be a blame-shifting exercise. Incompetence, the rift between President and Prime Minister and other related matters, matter. Existentialist angst, extremism and notions of what makes and/or unmakes the nation, matter. However, it is not as though the Sinhala Buddhists or even the Sinhala Buddhist nationalist fringe, as she puts it, put the fear of god into a coterie of Muslims, giving rise to Jihaadism, local and global.  We do, collectively, as she puts it ‘turn to the easier target of blaming’. She believes we turn to the easier target of blaming yet another minority community for just not trying hard enough to be good enough second-class citizens.  

This is happening, she is correct, and it is not something to be applauded. In fact it should be condemned. It is silly to talk about ‘an idyllic past when Muslims were ‘good’ and there were no problems’. It is silly to treat any community as homogeneous. A lot of it falls into the business of blame-shifting, a ridiculous expression of which is the notion that India was behind the Easter Sunday attack.

We need to discuss who we are and who we ought to be. We need to talk about identity and identities. We need to unpack what’s taken to be homogeneous. We need also, at this point, to address the threat. The Jihaadists. The security apparatus. The breeding grounds. Who funded whom. All the factors that produced Zaharan and the NTJ. The entire process and apparatus of ‘education’, training, suicide-readiness and execution. We can and should talk about all the issues and categories that are being flagged, but not at the expense of ignoring the Jihaadists and Jihaadists as though they are entirely a product of something external.  That’s ‘displacement’ is happening and is being orchestrated by blame-shifting of all kinds, including the easy targeting of Sinhala Buddhists whose homogeneity, interestingly, is not talked about at all.

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

[First published in the Daily Mirror on June 27, 2019]

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Ranjan Ramanayake is an outspoken UNP parliamentarian. He’s so outspoken that sometimes he gets into hot water. Occasionally, though, he is spot on. Just the other day, he was at his blunt best when he took on Mahamood Hizbullah and other Muslim politicians who are all of a sudden playing ‘Representatives of the Victimized Community’ and worse, issuing threats to one and all non-Muslims. Here’s a gist (in translation): “They say they are in fear…aren’t we scared? The attackers didn’t say ‘Buduhaamuduruwane’ or ‘Jesune’…they said ‘Allahu Akbar.’” That’s ‘God (as per the Islamic faith) is greater (or ‘the greatest’).  The Muslim politicians have not shown any remorse or humility about what was done in the name of Muslims by a tiny minority of that community.’'

Make no mistake, the terrorism unleashed on Easter Sunday was planned and executed by those who were (in their minds and in their convictions) of the Islamic faith.  They deliberately targeted churches. They also targeted hotels. The majority of the dead and wounded were of the Christian faith and in the Batticaloa blasts, the victims were mostly Tamils. Sinhalese died. Buddhists died. Muslims also died. Given the rhetoric of the terrorists, given the well-planned and executed nature of the attacks, given the fact that successive governments have turned a blind eye to their operations for well over a decade and that they’ve indoctrinated and recruited hundreds to their cause, it would be folly indeed to assume that they are done and dusted. They, first and foremost, were instrumental in regenerating a nation-wide fear psychosis.  

Ironically and tragically but not necessarily surprisingly, their operations particularly instilled fear among the very community they belong to and in whose name they act(ed), never mind the fact that, arguably, a significant section would not identify with them. Indeed, many Muslims have openly condemned the attack and have named the attackers as the primary source of the anxieties that the Muslims suffered and continue to suffer on account of their actions. I said ‘not surprising’ because following the example of the LTTE, any fear that is generated could, theoretically, facilitate recruitment. Also, given that the ISIS is a global operation, even the decimation of a community could be seen as a worthy sacrifice in terms of the possible broader objective of enhanced recruitment elsewhere.  

It is precisely because of this that regardless of the shameless communalism of Muslim politicians, everyone in other religious and ethnic communities should do everything possible to a) ensure the safety of Muslims and b) to allay all fears they may harbor. It does not matter what their political affiliations are. It does not matter whether or not they were opposed to NTJ, vocally or otherwise. It does not matter whether or not they identify with the Wahhabism that gave rise to the Jihaadists. 

This is precisely why the statement of the Chief Prelate of the Asgiriya Chapter is unfortunate. Indeed, the call for attacking Muslims should be roundly condemned, even as we must treat with suspicion the chapter-verse quotes of the ICCPR by those who selectively do so.  Any statement that generalizes about any community can only aggravate anxieties. They can only agitate the worst DNA strains of the human being. They can only empower the extremists. They can only disempower the peaceful. Fear begets fear. Communalism feeds off communalism. Affirmation of identity does not necessarily mean you have to attack or say anything negative about any other identity based community. We an do without all that.  

And yet, we need to understand that we will have ‘all that’.  We have to work keeping in mind that ‘all that’ is and will be part of the story. Even a cursory read of human history will teach you this uncomfortable truth. This is why we have laws and they are amended from time to time. This is why the business of national security has to be handled by professionals and not politicians. This is why no one should a) take the law into his/her hands, and b) push others to do so.  

More seriously, it cuts a road for outsiders with dubious agenda to write themselves into the overall political narrative. Mangala Samaraweera, a man who does not have what it takes to note that he uses hate speech even when he berates those who do, is small fry in this regard. No, when we have a government that is ever ready to welcome with open arms such operators, the causes for concern are that much more serious and more dangerous than anything that Samaraweera can do; he is but cat’s paw. Cats, ladies and gentlemen, abound.  

For example, just the other day, the European Union mission in Colombo issued a statement of ‘concern’. They are concerned ‘by political and religious pressure being directed at Sri Lanka’s Muslim community which is undermining peace and reconciliation in the country’. They add, ‘prejudiced and unsubstantiated allegations repeatedly published by media serve only to fuel intolerance.’  These views, the EU claims, were shared at a meeting with the Prime Minister. They have urged the President, Prime Minister and all political leaders ‘to reassert the state’s commitment to mutual respect, tolerance, and equal treatment under the law for all, irrespective of faith or ethnicity.’ 

Now the last seems above board, even though the word ‘urge’ is distasteful. This comes, one notes, from a group of nations that are the mothers and fathers of intolerance, racism and religious fundamentalism in roughly equal standing to the worst in that category among any other nation. Interestingly, they’ve taken a leaf from the Hizbullah strategy: ‘everyone is to blame but all Musims are innocent!’ Nothing of the rank intolerance, brutality and savagery of those who started all this. Instead, the media is targeted!

Nevertheless, the EU is only ‘Malli’ in the business of ‘boradiye maalu baema’ (roughly, ‘striking while the iron is hot’). The ‘Aiya’ in all this is the Grand Mother of Meddling. The USA. In the midst of all this, made worse by the fact that this country is being run by most incompetent government in post-Independence history, there are matters that can wreck the nation in ways that the Jihaadists cannot even dream of.

Here are questions that perhaps Eran Wickramaratne and Harsha De Silva (I expect) would answer, since they are ‘the economists’ in this government.

Has the Government entered into one, and is in the process of finalizing two other agreements with the USA? If there has been or is any discussion in this regard, does Cabinet know of it? Is the Government planning to introduce several laws and is at least one of them already in place? What is the final version of the ‘Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)’? Does it or does it now award  diplomatic immunity to US armed forces and civilian employees of the U.S department of Defense and will they be permitted to wear uniforms and carry arms while performing official duties? 

Would the said personnel be permitted to import, export and use any personal property, equipment, supplies, material, technology, training or services in connection with their activities according to the agreement, without any inspection, license, other restrictions and or duties? Can vessels, air crafts and vehicles enter Sri Lanka without any restriction/inspection? Will the agreement become binding the moment “a minister” of the S.L. Government sings a letter of willingness.  What is the status of and the full text of the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA)? What is the status of the full text of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact (MCC Compact)?

These are grave matters. They are causes for serious concern. They ought to generate fear and would certainly do so if these agreements come into effect.  We can retire all our favorite definitions of ‘Sri Lanka’ and ‘Sri Lankans’ (Sinhala Buddhist, Part of the IS Caliphate, Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Religion with the Sinhala Buddhists ‘Rabble’ as Servants of the Kolombians or Colombots).  Vassals we would be. For a long time to come. And the pot shots that extreme elements of various communities take at each other would seem like pebble-throws compared to the multiple violations and depravations we would have to suffer. Remember the Chagos Island and the Chagossians. Haven’t heard of them? Well, that might be our fate too.  

malindasenevi@gmail.com

[First published in the Daily Mirror on June 20, 2019]

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In the year 2019, sometime in the month of May a chance investigation threw up a name: Shanthilal Silva.  Dr Silva, attached to the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital. Although not an Obstetrician and Gynecologist, he was known to be one because he had performed caesarian sections and delivered babies. The name was thrown up, but no one picked it up.  

Now this Dr Silva, capitalizing on lax oversight at the hospital and of course able to cash cheques on account of superiors who got him to ‘cover’ when they went to earn a buck or two doing private practice, enjoyed his work. He liked to cut up expecting mothers. Mothers and of course the fathers of the children they delivered were extremely grateful to Dr Silva. After all, he ensured they could take healthy infants home.  

At one point something hit the fan. The ‘good’ doctor apparently had some skeletons in his cupboard which spilled out. Women ‘treated’ by Dr Silva suddenly remembered. Some claimed that they didn’t have babies after this doctor performed Caesarian Sections on them. Did he fiddle with their tubes, they asked themselves and others. Was he some kind of communalist (because all these people who claimed victimization happened to belong to some other community), they asked themselves and others.  

Immediately the big-name watchdog nations on human rights (never mind their sorry track record on this subject) got the wind up. They issue statements (politely) demanding that the Sri Lankan government provide speedy justice and reparation to the victims of this unfolding tragedy. Minister Mangala Samaraweera issues a 10 page statement against enemies of peaceful coexistence. He gaily indulges in essentialist terminology vilifying all Sinhalese and all Buddhists, especially the bhikkus. The US Ambassador immediately visits ‘victims’. There are howls of horror from ‘Civil Society’ especially women’s rights outfits. Demonstrations are held in Colombo by Born Against Democrats, Candlelight Ladies and Funded Voices at Lipton’s Circus. The UNHRC boss powwows with representatives of big-name nations to draft yet another resolution against Sri Lanka which Mangala and others of his ilk are itching to champion and endorse. 

Alright. None of the above happened. And neither were such revelations preceded by the bombing of churches and hotels by a group claiming to be the purest and only true adherents to the doctrine of the Buddha. 

We don’t have to listen to the not-so-veiled threats of ex Governor of the Eastern Province, Mahamood Hizbullah to understand that there is a real and abiding danger of a kind of terrorism this country did not know before Easter Sunday.  And yet, the noises made in English, in and out of the media (mainstream and social) are almost exclusively directed at the majority community, the Sinhala Buddhists. 

We know what happened. A large number of Sinhala women (close to 800) who complained about Dr Shafi (who is not, contrary to reports, a gynecologist and obstetrician) have been vilified. People have asked why only some 60 odd of them have agreed to submit themselves to examination, never mind that concern is one thing and anxieties about probes and related publicity are two different things. Pregnancy, childbirth and the ability to deliver are extremely personal matters which are surprisingly ignored in the relevant discourse.   

An academic, attached to an English Department in a state university no less, asks ‘where did all these women turn up from?’  

And we know what didn’t happen. We haven’t had a single Muslim woman ‘treated’ by Dr Shafi coming forward to say ‘I too was unable to conceive following the C-Section done by him’. Note that this doctor operated (!) in areas where there is a sizable Muslim population.

We know what is unlikely to happen too. Many have pooh-poohed allegations against Dr Shafi. Many of this ‘many’ were reluctant to pooh-pooh allegations against the Sri Lankan security forces during the last stages of operations against the LTTE. Innocent until proven guilty is a selectively applicable thing, apparently. Anyway, if they are so convinced, could they do the following: if they are of child-bearing age and inclination or have wives, daughters and friends who are, would they, by way of putting money where their mouths are, name themselves and say ‘Dr Shafi is my first choice medical practitioner in this regard!’? 

Today we have many lecturers on coexistence, harmony, reconciliation, peace and such things, just as there were when the LTTE played ‘Poor relation of the ISIS’.  Terrorists have no religion, we are told. Don’t conflate Muslims with the Jihaadists, we are told. Don’t alienate Muslims. Don’t isolate them. We are told. 

I am in agreement with all of the above, in general. Isolation and alienation would, as argued, most certainly play into the hands of the extremists. There’s no doubt that we have to deal with the terrorists as they ought to be dealt with, from processes and structures that feed ideology and facilitate recruitment to detecting and dismantling operations. With respect to ‘processes’ anything that isolates and alienates the relevant community will be an obstacle.  Perhaps the error is in exaggerating the possibility of the latter and pretending that isolation and alienation can only be inflicted and not chosen.  In any event (and this is a generous reading), we have seen a lot of this exaggeration which has in fact snowballed into two things: a) a crass generalization and vilification of the majority community, and b) scandalous silence on all other factors including the threat at hand and the relevant complicities of the Hizbullahs of the Muslim community, apart from the odd and token reference.  

It is a script that we’ve read before. It is a film we saw during the nineties and the early part of this century. And those who wrote and read and play it out call themselves or would have us believe they are ‘moderates’.  

I firmly believe that there are some who are in fact ‘moderate’. Vilification of an entire community, in this case the Sinhala Buddhists, is probably not THEIR intention. Neither would they advocate the alienation and isolation that could result and indeed seems to be the outcome preference of their fellow travelers. In fact I believe the majority of the moderates are, well, moderate. I am not talking about them but those moderates who give a bad name to moderation.

What’s their beef, though? Who are they, though? Among them are people who are neither Sinhalese nor Buddhists. Among them are people who for whatever reason believe and worry that the ‘Sinhala Buddhist community’ is the preserve of those opposed to the current government led by the United National Party. In other words, they are politically inclined to support or are affiliated with that party. Among them are people who talk of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious Sri Lanka while carefully avoiding numbers and percentages and of course brushing aside history and heritage.  They talk about a Sri Lankan identity in public, but fervently affirm their ethnic or religious identities in private. Many are wont to believe (although they won’t say it) that Sri Lanka is Colombo and vice versa, and assume (without saying it) that the affairs of the country should be managed by the English-speaking, Anglicized and relatively wealthy class.  

Many of them consciously or unconsciously are ashamed of their own skin and DNA traces, talk about how great things were under the Europeans (never mind ethnic-cleansing, genocide, extraction of resources and the fact that the ‘great works’ were funded by taxing the people and through their underpaid labor), and find the vilification of Sinhala Buddhists a means to self-isolation and self-alienation that makes them ladies and gentlemen.  They would shop, to put it a bit crudely, in the high end department stores like Odel (for instance) but would not be caught dead at Uptown Kandy in case (to use oft used derogatory epithets) ‘gode’ or yako’ rubs off on them. There are also among them people who do not belong to this class, people who are Sinhalese and Buddhists, who can’t afford high-end consumerism but want to be ‘posh’ and therefore do the costless thing of mimicking the ‘posh’, namely taking up the vilifying chant. They would be sneered at by the ‘Real Deal’ in private, but they won’t know it.   

They rant and rave against isolation and alienation, but in fact isolate and alienate. Caricature is their watchword. And this is why those like Rev Gnanasara and outfits like the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) are ‘heaven-sent’ to them. Such individuals and outfits, however rejected they may be by Buddhists, are used as proxies for that community. No caveats. No specifics. Totalizing, instead. Generalizing instead. Caricatured. And that’s ‘moderation’ and ‘moderates’ for you, ladies and gentlemen. Part of the problem. Sri Lanka must rise up, but to do that Sri Lanka must wise-up to these fake-moderates for they endanger everyone. That’s fundamental. 

malindasenevi@gmail.com

[A shorter version of this article was published in the 'Daily Mirror,' June 13, 2019]

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අනතුර, ආරක්ෂාව සහ පුරවැසි වගකීම

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And they resigned in solidarity with people accused of Jihaadist association! 

Ajith Fernando, an old friend and an incredibly good and humble human being, got it right when he said, ‘Terrorist don’t win when they manage to kill 200, 300 innocent people. They win when they manage to alienate and isolate the entire Muslim population.’

Now, broadly speaking, there are two ways in which a community can become alienated and isolated. First, if the rest of the population, out of fear, prejudice or for some other reason, conflates that community with the terrorists, in this case the National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ) or the ISIS or in general terms, the ‘Jihaadists’ (of whom there can be and are many variants), all acting in the name of Allah, the greater Islamic community and as per their reading of the Quran. Secondly, the community can for reasons of security (closing of the ranks so to speak, operating on the notion ‘me against my brother, but my brother and I against others’) or conviction alienate and isolate itself.  Where alienation and isolation do occur we tend to see one of the above two or both in varying degrees of intensity.  

Strangely, in Sri Lanka, at least in views expressed in English, the dominant view is that a) there IS alienation and isolation of Muslims, and b) it is a condition imposed on the Muslims, one in which they have not played any role.  

These views have gained a lot of credence thanks to some very tangential and even pernicious statements. Today we have the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs expressing concerns about ‘the demonizing of Muslims in Sri Lanka’. That’s rich, coming from one of the world’s most racist countries where Muslim-demonization is almost an article of faith. 

We also have Mangala Samaraweera’s multiple tweets: a) ‘Hatred is never appeased by hatred. By non-hatred alone is hatred appease. This is a law eternal.’ Today it was left to our Muslim Ministers to exhibit this sacred teaching of Lord Buddha while imposters in robes incited hatred in his name. A shameful day for our beloved #lka; and b) #Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith fanning the flames of hatred and communalism by visiting fasting robed MP Rathana. #Vatican TAKE NOTE! Perhaps he is feigning ignorance (unlikely) but this is quintessential Mangala: he can’t help attacking the Buddhist Order and the Buddhist community while at the same time sweeping under the carpet the context. One notes that he has never once tweeted about ‘imposters in the clothing worn by Islamic clerics,’ when referring to the NTJ. 

So we have, all of a sudden, a ‘situation’ where the Cardinal is ‘fanning the flames of communalism and racism.’ We have the ‘Muslims being demonized’. Perhaps we should talk of all demonizations and delve into the real demonizers.  

The New York Times quotes Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress: ‘our people fear a blood bath.’ Existential fears are not the preserve of the Muslim community though: if people are terrified in ways they have not been for 10 years, it is because of the Easter Sunday attacks, carried out, let us repeat, in the name of Allah, with the expressed affirmation of a reading of the Quran and of course the Islamic faith. THAT was a bloodbath (and not FEAR of a bloodbath) Wariness can make people imagine all kinds of doom’s day scenarios. Given the affirmed religious identity of the terrorists, it is not unnatural for people to be wary of that community. 

That said, to use words such as ‘demonization’ and to vilify efforts that seek justice as a means to a quick resolution and thereby the creation of a situation where mutual respect, trust etc., can take root, does not help. In fact it can have the opposite effect. The Buddhist community did not carry out or sanction a terrorist attack. Neither did the Muslim community as a whole. There was an attack that killed hundreds of people; it was not done in the name of the Buddha. If people don’t want a sense of proportion, if they want to play the margins, make mountains out of molehills etc., they are not helping. They are fanning the flames of discontent, they are feeding extremisms.  

The New York Times news report (‘All 9 of Sri Lanka’s Muslim Ministers Resign as Bombing Backlash Intensifies’) carried the following bylines: Dharisha Bastians and Mujib Mashal. The second, going by name, seems to be a Muslim. The first is the Editor of a state-owned newspaper. Well, no one asked ‘All 9’ to resign. They were not made to resign. They did so of their own accord. That’s not backlash. That’s choice. The NYT has not uttered a word about the tendentious comments made by the three whose eviction was sought nor Bathiudeen’s association with the NTJ. No, but the NYT feels fit to use the title ‘Mr’ when referring to Bikkhus. Bastians, even when she takes issue with him, says Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and not Mr Malcolm Ranjith. It is disrespectful and odious. It is quite antithetical to the rhetoric of coexistence and reconciliation indulged in by the Government that hand-picked her for a state-sector job.  

What’s the truth here? Here are the facts. First. The call was for the removal of three persons. The resignation of six persons whose removal was not sought in solidarity with three persons who are under a cloud (on account of statements made and close association with terrorist suspects) raises a simple question: identification with that very same ‘cloud’? A wit quipped, ‘if a Parliamentarian is accused of raping a woman and called on to resign or it sought to be removed, should all men resign in solidarity?’ 

They’ve offered an explanation of sorts: it was because they felt that Rathana Thero’s hunger strike had raised fears among their community regarding imminent violence, an explanation which of course helps the ever-ready vilifiers of the majority community.  

This notion has got a bit of carry due to a statement made by Rev Gnanasara Thero of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) about serious action to be taken in the event the President did not accede to Rathana Thero’s demands. Gnanasara Thero and the BBS, however, were hardly part of the agitation. Moreover, Salley and Hizbullah are known to have pleased with Maithripala Sirisena to obtain the release of the thero through a presidential pardon. Interestingly, Gnanasara Thero has since castigated Rathana Thero for causing a distraction in the struggle against the struggle to overcome the threat of Islamic extremism!  In any event, translating a peripheral fact into fear-mongering is playing politics, nothing less. Probably, one surmises, in order to congeal a Muslim vote bloc in a future election. 

Second. Rathana Thero’s efforts, as mentioned above, drew the support of all communities, Muslims included. Sure, there were a lot of snide comments about Rathana Thero joining Muslims in their fast with hardly any comments on his demands or the context in which they were made, but there were many who were in complete agreement with the Thero’s position.  There was absolutely no conflation of Muslims and the Jihaadists. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith in supporting the Thero put the full weight of the Catholic Church behind the effort. Tamil politicians joined the fast. In short there was solidarity of the kind rarely seen in recent times for protests of this kind.

Third. There is a strange reluctance to address the real and terrible threat to all Sri Lankans: jihaadist terrorism. Nothing has threatened to tear this country apart and rendered the entire citizenry vulnerable in the last ten years as the Jihaadist attacks. That threat is real. The entire drama about some kind of Sinhala Buddhist ‘backlash’ is in this context a distraction. It plays into the hands of the Jihaadists. 

What can one expect to happen when the terrorists are spoken of in tokenist terms or ignored altogether and at the same time those who have not conflated terrorists and the community they belong to are vilified, just because they happen to belong to a majority community? Is that not pernicious conflation? Does it not alienate Sinhalese and Buddhists? And if and when that happens, would you expect Sinhalese and Buddhists to pretend to be asleep or unconscious? 

Well, that’s what one can call the ‘Mangala Sutra’, ‘Mangala’ as a symbol and representative of all those whose passion has been to vilify the Sinhala Buddhists. Well, now it seems that this phenomenon can be trumped by what one may call the ‘Rathana Sutra’ but only if Ven Athureliye Rathana Thero says a lot of things, which need to be prefaced as follows: 

‘The greatest threat to unity, reconciliation, co-existence and peace among all communities, at this particular moment is Islamic extremism. The people must unite to fight this threat. However, we must not forget that if we do not do our utmost now and always to make sure that everyone feels safe, if we do not protect one another, if we directly or indirectly feed other extremisms, this task will only become that much more difficult.’  

Yes, Ajith Fernando has raised a pertinent point. Isolation and alienation never helps. Let us not push anyone or let anyone push us to such dreadful places.

malindasenevi@gmail.com

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