THE PEACE OF CHANDRIKA
Mr. Tissa Devendra writing to "The Island" on the 8th of May has "replied" to something that I never intended to mean by an Olcott Buddhist. He has completely misunderstood the concept of Olcott Buddhist and has assumed that Olcott Buddhists are those who were educated at the Buddhist schools, especially the Buddhist English schools. It is neither necessary nor sufficient to be an old pupil of a Buddhist school to become an Olcott Buddhist. The Olcott Buddhists came into existence around the time of the "Pancha Maha Vada" and especially the "Panadura Vadaya" or the Panadura Controversy. With these debates the leadership of the Sinhala Buddhists passed from cultural Sinhala Buddhists to Olcott Buddhists who were produced by the British through their education given in the schools they had started. The Olcott Buddhists were there even before Colonel Olcott arrived in Sri Lanka and they were Buddhists in religion and Christian in culture. For them Buddhism was only a religion and they separated Buddhism from their Sinhalaness. Colonel Olcott was conscious of this separation and thus we baptise (as in Judaic Christian culture) these Buddhists as Olcott Buddhists. In the nineteenth century the Buddhists who won the Arrack rental from the British became the protectors of Buddhism. The establishment of the Buddhist schools only escalated this phenomenon, though there have been many people including Anagarika Dharmapala who were able to resist the tendency to become Olcott Buddhists in spite of the education that they had received in Christian, Buddhist, government schools during and after the British period. However, this discussion cannot be continued as the so called peace talks have to be given preference this week and I hope to come back to Olcott Buddhists as soon as possible. In the meantime those with a knowledge of Sinhala could read on Olcott Buddhists in the articles that appeared in the "Irida Divaina" in the recent weeks.
The so called peace talks are on again and the JVP more than any other party would be tested on its policies this time. Already the Patriotic National Front (PNF), that carries the signature of Mr. Wimal Weerawansa has issued a statement on so called peace talks. The statement is not as strong as the previous statements of the PNF and Mr. Tilvin Silva's statement on peace talks also appeared to be lukewarm. Mr. Kadirgamar and Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga are in the thick of it at the moment and there is not so much openness or transparency to use the words of Dr. G. L. Peiris in the dealings of the government with the Norwegians.
The Vikings, though not unexpected with the policies of Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, have come sooner than expected and their presence must be to the liking of those elements in the UNP who think of coming back to power over the issue of peace talks and other dealings of the government with the non national forces. We never had any misgivings about the intentions of Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga who for all purposes is a Kumaratunga than a Bandaranaike. She continues to be guided by the policies of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) and not by those of the SLFP. She is proud to have invited the Vikings as the so-called facilitator and is a believer of the so-called multi racial (bahu jathika) character of the country, which is the biggest bahubhuthaya in the country.
The peace vendors bring out so many arguments for peace, the first being their total opposition to war. However, what is not stated is that the "war" is the result of Tamil racism that is not prepared to accept that the Sinhala Buddhist culture should be given its due place in this country. As we have said so many times, in a country the people are equal before the law but the cultures are not. In the country of the Vikings it has been said umpteen times without any westerner or even an Indian involved with the affairs of Sri Lanka being "convinced", that the Lutheran culture is not only the prominent but the dominant culture as well. When Solheim gets married for the third or the fourth time he would not do so according to the Tamil Hindu rites, though he is demanding equal status for Tamil Hindu culture with Sinhala Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka. Neither he would observe the marriage customs of the indigenous people of Norway whom the Vikings "massacred" and did not care to have peace talks. Recently at an examination the words Sinhala Literature had to be translated into Tamil. The original paper was in English, and the Tamil person who was responsible for the translation translated it to Tamil as Tamil Literature. The setter of the question paper had no choice but to drop the words Sinhala Literature as otherwise the question paper in Tamil would not have been consistent with the question paper in the Sinhala and the English Languages. This is the attitude of Tamil racism. This is nothing but the eye for eye, tooth for tooth old testament policy that even the Jathika Hela Uruguaya (JHU) is practicing under different circumstances.
There is an attempt by the anti Sinhala elements with vested interests to demean the Sinhala Culture. A group of "intellectuals" would like to establish that the Sinhala Buddhist culture did not have a music of its own before the Portuguese came to this country. As at present almost all Sinhala men and women wear European dresses one could even argue that before the Portuguese came the Sinhala people did not have any dresses to "cover" their bodies. These "intellectuals" could be found close to Ms. Kumaratunga who is practicing the most "bahubutha" policy when it comes to the culture of the country.
Unfortunately the JVP is also in wilderness with respect to the culture. They being "Marxists" of some sort, seem to believe that the cultures are equal. They talk of equality of the Sinhalas, Tamils and the Muslims (they seem to have dropped the Burghers) and they do not say that equality is with respect to the individuals and not the cultures. The equality of cultures would result finally in creating a situation where the western Christian culture becomes the dominant culture which is supported by Marxism as well. The JHU talks of a Sinhala Buddhist state but some of the most prominent of the party, meaning those who had been with the Sihala Urumaya and not the Bhikkus who joined the party recently, had been against giving foremost status Buddhism when this matter came before the latter party not many moons ago. The self same leaders who talk of a "Dharma Rajya" today were preaching sexuality as propagated by the so called X group blindly following bankrupt theories of western post modernism. The opportunism of these power hungry leaders is known to those who have been in politics for sometime unlike those innocent Sinhala people (some of them are not so innocent going by the e-mails that are circulated which I occasionally come across through some of my friends) who see them as the modern Dutugemunus.
A "war" is being waged to deprive the Sinhala Buddhist culture its due place in this country by a group of terrorists who are being supported by the west. The Sinhala people are told to oppose war in the abstract and support peace. The peace the Tamil racists want is a situation where the Sinhala culture is equated with other cultures and the Sinhala people are being told that in the name of a peace they should surrender the due place that should be given to the Sinhala Buddhist culture. Not long ago an "enlightened educationist" who speaks Sinhala better than either Tamil or English and could be called a Sinhala person (he may object to himself being called a Sinhala) objected to quoting a passage from Mahavamsa in a question paper, basing his argument on this equal status nonsense. The objection to Mahavamsa and the Mahavamsa phobia stem from this denial of a significant place for Sinhala culture by the Tamil racists.
We are not for war but if the Tamil racists, with the support of the west (Some joker living in a western country who pretends to be a know all has ridiculed us for criticising the west and stated that the average westerner is "good person". This know all does not know the context in which words such as west, Norway, America are being used. When one says the west or westerners it means the western powers and not the average westerner that these jokers meet in their work places and the supermarkets) wage war to deny the Sinhala culture its rightful place in the country then what are we supposed to do? Unless the Tamil racists change their attitudes there is no way other than "war". When the west is not prepared to bow down to terror why is the west insisting that the government of Sri Lanka and the Sinhala people should bow down to terror? The problem that the Sinhala people face is that even if they themselves get armed they would not be in a position to defeat Tamil racism as the west would take all the steps to crush the armed movement unless it has almost hundred percent support of the Sinhalas. The west would crush all movements that in the final analysis are against western Christian domination but would support any movement that strengthen their hegemony in the world. The west supports Tamil racism not because there have been injustices to the Tamils (Is the west a paragon of virtues supporting just demands?) but simply because Tamil racism is their creation against Sinhala nationalism which in spite of the pseudo nationalism of Olcott Buddhists who support the west in general, would be against the western Christian dominance.
The west is in a position to apply pressure on the Sri Lankan government (There is no need to apply pressure on Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe who for all purposes are not against western Christian hegemony) due to the precarious economic situation. In spite of the Central Bank figures which have no credibility at all, the Sri Lankan economy is not in good shape to say the least. Without the loans from the western countries and Japan that has no military strength and which is not different from the western countries, that go by the name of aid, and the foreign exchange earned and sent by those who go the west Asian countries (not those who go to more affluent countries in the west. The e-mail Dutugemunus in those countries send e-mails and not foreign exchange) Sri Lanka cannot survive. If the USA decides to cut our quota in the apparel industry where would we be? The west knows how to twist our arm and get what they want. The time has come to explain all these and others to the Sinhalas and prepare them for a long drawn struggle if they are interested in their survival.
It is also time that the Sri Lankan government imposed conditions to the LTTE, if the government is thinking of the economic situation and is of the opinion that peace talks have to be re-commenced. (This is not an approval of peace talks.) No western country would talk with a terrorist group that is armed and the Sri Lankan government should insist on the LTTE disarming before peace talks are re-commenced. There is no way that the LTTE could be considered as the sole representative of the Tamils and the government should invite other Tamil groups including Karuna's group, the Muslim parties and those parties that represent the Sinhala people for talks. The Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposal has to be rejected in toto. There is no similarity between the Northern and the Eastern provinces as demonstrated again by the revolt of Karuna and there should be separate talks for the two provinces and they should not be considered as one unit. It has to be emphasised that de merging of the northern and the eastern provinces has been a demand of the Sinhalas. Why should the government always accept the conditions as laid down by the LTTE without tabling its own conditions. If Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga is not prepared to impose conditions for some reason or other then the SLFP should be in a position to change the leader. As we have said previously the PA would have come to power in 1994 because of the "charm" of Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga and the support of the non national forces. However, she has to be reminded that ten years after, in 2004, the "Sandhanaya" came to power not because of any of those but solely because the Sinhala Buddhists, in spite of a challenge from the JHU, overwhelmingly voted for the SLFP - JVP - MEP coalition. Ms. Kumaratunga should not be allowed to dictate terms to the alliance. If she is so arrogant as to dictate policy then she should be sent back to her traditional homeland in England.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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