Lukman Harees
‘Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within’-Arthur Erickson
Ratana
Thero, who took time off his earlier strong nationalist (anti-Muslim)
stance during the last presidential campaign, has woken up once again
from his deep slumber while Champika has re-started talking about
‘hidden threats’ Meanwhile, BBS appear
to have found new patrons in the MS-RW government with GST gone into
sham hiding, with hypocritical official statements being made about the
need for communal harmony and taking ‘stern’ action against the
perpetrators. Groups such as Mahason Balakaya, Sinha-ley and other mini
groups are exposing each other while dubiously living off the earnings
of the Diaspora by relating pack of proven lies and woven tales about
the ‘threat from the Muslims’. Not just Muslims, even the voice of
Christians are being suppressed under Yahapalanaya preventing activists
like Lakshan Dias for example from highlighting harassment of Christians.
In
a recent TV interview, Ratana Thero lamented that Islamic Extremism is
being forgotten while Sinhala Buddhist extremism is being repeatedly
stressed in public discourses. He was in fact comparing the
incomparable by equating fundamentalism but non-violent (per his own
version) seen among the Muslims to the violent Islamophobic Sinhala Buddhist nationalism of these fringe groups. BBS ironically in a recent interview blamed Ratana Thero for Gnanasara Thero
(GST)’s violent actions and for egging him towards prachandathwaya
(violence). According to Vithanage , ‘Upasaka Mahaththaya’ Champika
apparently used GST as ‘his personal hitman. GST further claimed that Ratana Thero even tried to use him for some ‘illegal’ un-Buddhist assignments during CBK days too.
True! The majority community has voiced concerns about some recent
practices and attire of the Muslim community for good reasons, which
has led to an engaged discourse among the Muslim intelligentsia whether
the community is becoming divorced from the traditional Sri Lankan
Muslim culture, their predecessors adopted. It is however clear that
Muslims have generally been peaceful and in fact showing an admirable
level of restraint and patience especially in recent times amidst high
levels of provocation.
In the light of these Post-war anti-Muslim developments,
the question arises : is there more to what meets the eye, are they
mere flashes in the pan or are we as a nation missing the wood for the
trees? In Buddhism Betrayed, Stanley J. Tambiah argues that the
political activities of the bhikkus promoted a narrow and exclusive
ethno religious, nationalist ideology. Nineteenth and twentieth century
Buddhist nationalists deftly used the Mahawamsa and Duthagamani myths to
institute Sinhalese Buddhist domination. Political leaders, Maha Sangha
and their acolytes regurgitate these accounts to justify policy
prescriptions, including ethnocentric practices, and legitimize their
standing as good and valiant Sinhalese Buddhists. Myths clearly have
been used, especially since the nineteenth century, for politicking
purposes and have been deleterious to the fashioning of a peaceful
poly-ethnic society with a common Sri Lankan identity.
Social
scientist Jayadeva Uyangoda too says ‘the involvement of Buddhist monks
in politics following independence in 1948, in effect, transformed
Buddhism into a highly politicised religion. Since independence,
Buddhist interest lobbies have been active in politics’ and that
“Sinhalese Buddhism has made no significant contribution to the
evolution of a non-violent social ideology. On the contrary, the
Sinhalese Buddhist historiographical tradition and ideology inherent in
it supports ethnic political violence”. Events that transpired in
post-independence Sri Lanka when Buddhist leaders and Buddhist monks
campaigned for policies that exacerbated ethnoreligious violence
highlight Uyangoda’s argument.
Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne in ‘Nation,
Constitutionalism and Buddhism in Sri Lanka’ argues that Sinhalese
nationalists have invoked a centralizing cosmic order which with many
of its’ metaphors emanate from a deep sense of faith and belief, and
not as a consequence of any scientific inquiry as such. What this
implies is that no amount of historical analysis or critical
re-interpretation of historical evidence can challenge or change a
belief; for beliefs defy any such attempt at ‘rationalizing’ the debate.
Further, as Kalana Senaratna says in an ‘Island’ article (2014): the more
fundamental reason for the emergence of Sinhala-Buddhism, as well as
groups such as BBS, has to do with the inadequacy of the true
Buddha-teaching for contemporary political engagement, especially in an
identity-seeking, identity-promoting multi-ethnic and pluri-national
political setting. The Buddha-teaching is unhelpful in political
struggle. Thus,
there is a yawning and enduring gap between precept and practice. And
it is this vacuum of a solid political ideology which is sought to be
filled through the adoption of a culturally-constructed form of
Buddhism. In Sri Lanka, this comes to be called Sinhala-Buddhism.