PETER SCHALK RUNS AWAY - I
I reproduce below the entire article published by Dr. Peter Schalk in the Tamil Circle - Digest of 9th April 2001. I have not edited it and it is directly copied from the Tamil circle digest that was e-mailed to me this time by more than one of my Tamil friends.
"All my contributions to The Island are censured-for which I should feel flattered. Nalin de Silva, however, gets free space in this tabloid on 4-4-01. This is not fair, but what to do about a country where even cabinet ministers are afraid of foreigners' verbal criticism and protect themselves by refusing them visas? Media has no authoritative ideal models to follow in Lanka that allegedly is sri. Nalin de Silva likes to be called ex-academic in the sense of Non-Western academic. He wants to be an Eastern academic! There is, however, no Western or Eastern academic. There is only an academic or an ex-academic. Nalin de Silva has become one of the latter. He broke elementary rules of academic performance in his writings by launching virulent attacks against an important academic book by HL Seneviratne. I have specified them in my article. He quotes from secondary sources in translation. Furthermore, in his article from 4-4-01, Nalin de Silava openly declares that he bases his research on catika cintanaya, a [ethnonationalist] Sinhala ideology [that reverses civil values]. After this, he cannot make plausible that he belongs to any academic tradition, East or West. Jatika cintanaya has a strong anti-Semitic edge in Nalin de Silvas own presentation. He pinpoints Jewish ideology being the source for Western evilness. It reminds me strongly of Nazi conspiration theories. I have been aware of Western anti-Semitism being a part of Sinhala ethnonationalism since the days of the Anagarika who reflected the polarisation of the Aryans against the Semitics. This polarisation of Aryan against Semitic was the model for polarising the Aryan against the Dravidian. I am also aware that Italian Fascism has had an influence on jatika cintanaya. Sinhala ethnonationalism follows in this and other cases the modern history of Hindu-tva closely. It is no accidental occurence that Nalin de Silva speaks of Sinhala-tva in his article. Sinhala ethnonationalism is not traditional Sinhala thinking. It is modernist, Western influenced and traditionalist. It projects its own ideas as history, but has no historical roots beyond the colonial period. So, I am not astonished to find Western anti-Semitic tirades in Nalin de Silva's writings, but I am astonished that he gets opportunities one after the other by a Lankan tabloid to publish his anti-intellectual eclecticism on ! Internet.
One thing is clear, the forum he has chosen, The Island, corresponds exactly to his shady political ambitions. Media and message are identical in his case. I am aware that most academics have lost patience with Nalin de Silva a long time ago. It would have been wiser by me also just to neglect him. I shall do so from now on. Let him shout, but let us copy his tirades on our harddesks for later use. After all, he is a source for recent Sinhala ethnonationalism. He has no 9 in my collection of Sinhala ethnos. The time comes when we shall make all these anti-intellectuals legally responsible for having incited ethnic polarisation."
Though Dr. Schalk like many others before him has withdrawn from the debate, I make use of this opportunity to say a few words about Jathika Chinthanya that has been misrepresented by many others as well writing in English. More than ninety nine percent of the literature on Jathika Chinthanaya is in Sinhala which neither Dr. Schalk nor most of the others who comment on it in the English press have read even in translation. The hegemony of the western academics and their tradition is such that they feel free to comment on this literature in Sinhala without reading it. At the same a person like Dr. Schalk has the audacity to tell his readers of the circle digest that I quote from secondary sources in translation. In the relevant articles I have quoted only from the Holy Bible and the Holy Quaran and it is true that I have quoted from the English translations. What else does Dr. Schalk want me to do. Quote from the Arabic, Aramic or Hebrew versions? In any event what does he recognise as the original Bible. Does he want me to quote from the dead sea scrolls?
Before we get on to the Jathika Chinthanya let us consider the distortions, lies, misrepresentations, and threats of Dr. Schalk one by one. The LTTE, which also resorts to the same tactics, must be "proud" of its apologist Dr. Schalk who considers himself to be an academic without mentioning that he is a western academic. He also thinks that his contributions to "The Island" are censured. However I understand that "The Island" has not censured his articles and in fact there are many who contribute to it along the lines advocated by Dr. Peter Schalk. He has the liberty either to mislead the readers of the circle digest website or to sling mud at "The Island", by calling it a tabloid. He seems to think very high of himself and probably thinks that the cabinet ministers of Sri Lanka are afraid of his verbal criticism and have denied him a visa. Or on the other hand he may be trying to misinform the readers of the circle digest that he has been denied a visa due to his so-called verbal criticisms. I do not know whether he has been denied a visa but sometime ago it was reported in the media that he had gone to the north to meet LTTE leaders without any visas to come to the country. It is also known that he was once sent back from India as he had violated the Indian visa regulations. Dr. Schalk, a well known LTTE supporter in the west can rest assured that the Sri Lankan cabinet ministers come under enough verbal criticism from foreigners and there are many foreigners who dabble in politics in Sri Lanka. In fact these foreigners from the western Christian countries, with a Judaic Christian civilisation think that Sri Lanka, yes with a Sri with a capital S and not simple s as Dr. Schalk thinks, is still a colony and they openly support Tamil racism in the country. Dr. Schalk's neighbours in Norway are among the worst and the Sri Lankan government tolerates them as unfortunately the government is not strong enough to tell these foreigners what to do and where to go. In fact neither the opposition led by Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe is in a position to tell the Norwegians and the other westerners what they should be doing without interfering in our internal affairs and at present the opposition leader is said to be in Norway. There are many who speculate that both Ms. Kumaratunge and Mr. Wickremesinghe are in the west at the "invitation" of the western powers to discuss the Tamil racist problem.
I know for certain that there are third rate mediocre western academics in the western Christian universities and Dr. Schalk is one of them. In fact it is always the mediocre third rate academics in the west engaged in case studies, who support Tamil racism as others have better things to do such as creating theories, concepts. People like Dr. Schalk only maintain "harddesks" and do not think. If they think they would not be so much interested in their "harddesks". Dr. Schalk the third rate academic is either unable to distinguish between verbal criticism, virulent attacks and supporting a terrorist organisation that has taken up arms against the legally elected government or if he is capable of understanding that much then he is as usual only distorting facts. He is a supporter of the fascist LTTE led by a war criminal by the name of Vellupillai Prabhakaran and if he has been denied visas it must be because of his activities connected with the LTTE which is banned in Sri Lanka and India. He was sent back from India for violating regulations and not because of any verbal attacks. Sri Lanka that has allowed many people who have criticised the government to come to the country would have had no problem with Dr. Schalk's so-called verbal criticism. Why should a government be worried of a person who cannot argue logically? If Dr. Schalk has been denied his visa then it also implies that his government (and the west) does not consider him to be a person important enough to apply pressure on the Sri Lankan government and to obtain a visa for him. The Sri Lankan government tolerates worse sympathisers of the LTTE under pressure. A person like Mr. Solheim should not have been allowed to come to Sri Lanka. Dr. Schalk should not think of himself as even a good debater. He is only a man who runs away when he senses defeat. If he was denied a visa it must have been due to his political activities and not because of the so called verbal attacks coming from a third rate western academic. Being the mediocre western academic he is, probably Dr. Schalk is unable to distinguish between verbal attacks of a third rate western academic and the political activities of a supporter of a terrorist organisation.
Dr. Schalk says there are no western academics and eastern academics. This is sheer western academic intolerance and arrogance that stems from the Judaic Christian civilisation based on Yudev Chinthanaya that does not tolerate Gods other than Yehowah. Dr. Schalk is not prepared to accept that there are academic traditions that are different from the western academic tradition and like most westerners identifies the western tradition with the so-called human tradition. For them western science is science, western ethics are ethics, western economics are economics, western political structures are political structures, and finally the western (white) man is the man.
(To be continued)
Professor Nalin de Silva
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