A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, June 26, 2017
A new play
Gnanasara Thero
by Sanjana Hattotuwa-June 24, 2017, 6:19 pm
The theatre of racism does not entertain coincidence. When the
Mahanayake of the Asgiriya Chapter, following a meeting of the Karaka
Sangha Sabha, issues a statement and the very next day, Gnanasara Thero
of the BBS, after over a month in hiding and with two arrest warrants
against him, surrenders to the courts, one sees a plan, process, purpose
and indeed, peril.
Despite official statements around coexistence, diversity and religious
tolerance by the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Ministers, coupled with
the surveillance and investigative powers of the entire Police force and
our intelligence services, Gnanasara Thero remained hidden until he was
ready to come out. The verbal acrobatics of the Police spokesperson
when grilled by the media clearly suggests the Thero enjoys the
protection of powerful politicians and political elements. The Thero may
well be, unknown to himself, a pawn in a greater game. The context that
led to surrender, and his subsequent kid-glove treatment by the Police,
mark disturbing and dangerous trends that will undermine the January 8
promise of fully realizing Sri Lanka’s democratic potential. The events
of last week also indicate a hidden pulsating power grid, within and
outside of government, discernible only by looking at the systemic
collapse around a clear, coherent response to what is clearly a fascist
threat. The head of this snake is the BBS, but its venom writhes and
slithers through the veins of government.
The statement by the Mahanayake of the Asgiriya Chapter is
unprecedented. Even at the height of the anti-Muslim violence under the
Rajapaksa regime, almost three years ago to date in Aluthgama, the chief
prelates of maintained a silence and distance from Gnanasara Thero,
affording at best a rare audience. They didn’t condemn. They didn’t
condone. They just didn’t engage. And while their silence was damning
enough, allowing the space for the BBS to grow, the statement last week
is a dramatic reversal in the dynamics of their engagement - and for the
worse. English mainstream media, which featured the statement penned in
Sinhala, focussed on a single sentence that noted the Karaka Sangha
Sabha did not approve of the aggressive behavior and speech of Gnanasara
Thero.
In his first interaction with the media after he was arrested, then
released on bail, arrested again, and then re-released on bail,
Gnanasara Thero indirectly references this concern, and says that the
campaign henceforth will be in the hands of other monks, who are more
civilized, cultured and well-mannered. What was a campaign of the BBS,
in concert now with a statement by the Asgiriya Chapter, is now a
campaign of all monks. This is congruent with the tone and thrust of the
original statement, couched in a considered, even cunning Sinhala. A
gentle knuckle rap on Gnanasara Thero is the entry point into what
really is a statement that articulates and amplifies what the BBS has
noted in the past.
It suggests that many are disrespectful of Gnanasara Thero, particularly
in how they address him, and denounces this. It denounces the purported
silencing and targeting of Buddhist monks who flag what they perceive
to be racist comments by politicians. It denounces the introduction of
what it says are new laws targeted against Sinhalese-Buddhists in Sri
Lanka. It denounces what it says are acts conducted in the name of
reconciliation, around the destruction of ancient archeological
artifacts in the North and East, and the appropriation of protected
lands. It calls for the intervention of the President. The statement
rails against what it says are attempts in the media to destroy the
Sinhala race, and reminds that it is the duty of the government to act
in this regard. The statement says that there are those in the guise of
Buddhists, speaking on behalf of Buddhist as well as non-Buddhists who
are engaged in a concerted effort to destroy Buddhist culture and the
Sinhalese.
It asks the government to hurriedly bring about and enact laws that
address these concerns and protects the Buddhist culture and Buddhism.
Its final point is the most chilling. The statement reminds all
non-Buddhists that Sri Lanka’s Buddhist population has always protected
and respected them. It condemns the acts of those, from other religions,
who act against the core values of Buddhism and suggests that this
destructive plot is also supported by various domestic and foreign
forces. The statement ends on a rallying cry, noting that it is the duty
of the Sangha and a patriotic public to stand up against the
discrimination of the Sinhala-Buddhists.
To my knowledge, a full and accurate translation of the statement has
not been published in any English media. This itself is revealing. The
thrust and tone of this extraordinary statement, aimed at the majority
community and religion in the country and with the powerful symbolic
imprimatur of the Asgiriya Chapter, lays the foundation for the
internalization of all the BBS stands for, by the sangha writ large.
Those like the Ven. Dambila Thero, who have been openly against the BBS
and Gnanasara Thero, and are now also in opposition to the Asgiriya
Chapter and the Karaka Sangha Sabha, stand to be even more marginalized
than they are today. The end result of developments this past week is to
make the agenda, concerns, fears and targets of the BBS, the same as
that which the Asgiriya Chapter and other senior monks will support,
secure and indeed, strengthen. Mark how fundamentally different this
response is to how in Myanmar, in May this year, the Sangha Maha Nayaka
(MHN) Committee, a government-appointed group of monks responsible for
regulating the country’s Buddhist clergy, announced a four-point order
effectively banning Ma Ba Tha, the equivalent of the BBS.
This places Sri Lanka is a precarious situation, and to my mind, more
incendiary than what it faced in 2014, which is saying a lot. The BBS
may well have same electoral impact as the odious UKIP before the Brexit
referendum, in that it moves the centre, fearful of losing a majority
vote, far more towards the right and into a new normal that is in fact
the cementing of fringe lunacy and continuation of deeply racist
responses, structures and discrimination by the State against
minorities. The pernicious political project isn’t in fact the
generation of votes to enter Parliament. Rather, it is the rejection of
an alternative future proposed at a referendum or any other electoral
contest through uncertainty, fear and the generation of distrust around
everything and everyone. To this end, far more than Gnanasara Thero and
the BBS, it is the Asgiriya Chapter’s statement that I find deeply
troubling, catapulting strained ethno-political relations in polity and
society into a mine-field of uncertainty, ripe for spontaneous violence
that can easily lead to sustained conflict.
That all this happens before a promised constitutional referendum is
also not mere coincidence - it is the hacking of our democratic future
by targeted, timely measures to undermine the government’s confidence
and public standing. None of this is helped by those like the Minister
of Justice, who is the equivalent of a computer virus that undermines
and sets out to destroy a network from within it. In targeting lawyer
Lakshan Dias for what he went on record saying in public using research
also in the public domain, as well as for what the Minister has said,
done and not done since his appointment, any statement, any project and
any desire of government to meaningfully address racism today is a cruel
joke as long as he holds the position he does.
Large sections of the Sinhala-Buddhist and even the Sinhala-Catholic
communities are being primed to countenance, if not directly engage in
violence against religious minorities and Muslims. Rwanda had Radio
Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, broadcasting content that
normalized hate, violence and othering. We saw in Aluthgama, three years
ago, what impact a single rally could have around the incitement to
violence. The stage is being readied for a new play. And in the wings
are saffron guillotines, ready to be pushed centre-stage at any moment.