AWAKE AT LEAST AFTER THE QUAKE
The tidal waves that caused havoc in the country as well as in some neighbouring countries are in the mind as one wonders could the nature be so cruel to some of the poor countries in the world in South Asia and South East Asia. After all the earth quake that gave rise to the tidal waves came on the wake of the Christmas, and I would not think that it is the work of God to punish the people of this region who are mainly non Christian. While we are saddened by the events there should have been some way of informing the people before the tidal waves reached the coast of Sri Lanka. In this "modern world" of satellites and internet, it is unfortunate that nobody had thought of a way to inform the authorities and then the people in advance of such events. We could have minimised the damage especially in the eastern coast and the southern coast if the people had been informed of the deadly earth quake soon after the event. It would have been recorded in many parts of the world and those with access to the records should have informed the others of the impending disaster. It may be that there are practical problems that prevent the "technological societies" informing the others of such data. If it is so then we must identify those problems and engage in "research" to overcome them so that the people would be the ultimate winner. It is also said that countries such as Japan, USA have the knowhow to predict earthquakes. Did anybody know of the earthquake in advance? If so then why weren't we informed? We sympathise with the families that have been affected and hope that at least in the future the authorities would be in a position to warn the public of any impending disasters.
The attitude of the government was not very encouraging to tell the least. When a disaster of such magnitude happened two thousand two hundred years ago during the reign of Kelanithissa, Vihara Maha Devi the daughter of the king volunteered to become a "sacrifice" to save the people. However, today the Madam President has not thought it fit to return to the island even at least as a gesture, and the ministers were going round in helicopters with cameras accompanying them. Even the JVP had deteriorated to the publicity level and one would like to see the government engaged in a meaningful exercise rather than resorting to gain cheap publicity at the expense of victims of the tidal waves.
The Sinhalas, Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, Christians and others in the country as well as others in the neighbouring countries were all affected by the earthquake and the resulting tidal waves. It is clear that we in the region have to look after ourselves, as those with "knowledge" would come to help us, if at all only after a disaster. Unfortunately we are still guided by the knowledge of somebody else and we become totally helpless when we have to depend on others for our survival. It was Francis Bacon who said that knowledge is power a few centuries ago, and since then those with knowledge have been able to manipulate knowledge to maintain their supremacy. Our Universities and Research Institutes have been mere appendages of those in the "technological and scientific" west and all that we could do is to believe what the people who create knowledge tell us. The so-called scientific theories are not objective but they are presented to us as such, and we do not have our own knowledge to find out whether what they tell us is to be believed or not. When we are told that objective knowledge is the TRUTH how many of us have the courage to turn back and ask them to fly a kite? Ever since Albert Einstein came up with an alternative theory for "gravitation" people should have realised that theories including the so-called successful such as Newtonian Gravitation are only models created by "intellectuals" to explain certain phenomena which themselves are dependant on "observations" with our sense organs, and associated theories and concepts. They are all "sanskaras" due to "avidya". Science in the final analysis is nothing but another result of "avidya".
Most of the problems in our countries are due to using somebody else's knowledge to understand the world. We abandoned our knowledge and we were forced to give up our life styles only to imitate the "technological and scientific" societies, and where are we after five hundred years of cultural colonialism? It is ironical that we use such terms like "knowledge based societies" without realising that the knowledge referred to is that created by somebody else and not by us in the region. If our society is to be based on their knowledge, the so-called objective and scientific knowledge, then we would have no future. The system of education with scholarships, fellowships only drain and train those in our societies who could imitate their ways and manners whether at the dinner table at a function or the high table and the lecture theaters in the universities. These latter imitators are called "intellectuals" though we all know that their contribution to knowledge is not significant at all.
Could we wake up at least after the earthquake? It is said that the tidal waves took about an hour and half after the earthquake to reach our shores. If we had been informed of the earthquake we could have minimised the damage. However, we do not have access to such knowledge. Our meteorological department like our scientists who "predict" various events have to depend on the internet. The knowledge that we have is that what is given to us by them and not our knowledge. We have no alternative but to create our knowledge if we are to be independent in a meaningful sense of the word.
The Sinhalas, Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, Christians have all suffered as a result of the earthquake. There must be many "Patacharas" who lost their children, husbands on that fateful Unduvap Poya Day, the day Sanghamitta Therin came to Sri Lanka more than two thousand years ago, long before the concepts on so-called women liberation were thought of in the societies with "technological and scientific" knowhow. Even if we were to console ourselves by calling it a natural disaster, can we do the same with respect to the killings that take place daily in our country. I am referring to both the underworld killings as well as the "Killinochchi killings". In this country where the British governors and their chief inspectors themselves have mentioned the qualities of the Sinhalas who would not have touched the money in the "pinpettiya" that was not guarded by the police at Anuradhapura Sri Maha Bodhi premises, a number of Sinhala Buddhists would have visited the houses that were abandoned after the tidal wave, not exactly to guard those houses. What happened to the Sinhala Buddhists in a space of mere hundred years, or even less than that. Who is responsible for the present day behaviour of these people?
The west and their cronies here would always blame the Sinhala Buddhists forgetting that most of them are not Sinhala Buddhists anymore having given up their life styles. They have been forced to give up their ways and adopt a new style of life which is alien to them. The Sinhalas as well as others in the region have not been able to find a solution to this problem in general. The underworld that would kill a person for a mere thousands of rupees is definitely not a creation of Sinhala Buddhism though there are groups that depend on funds from other countries who would always point their fingers at Sinhala Buddhism. There is not much of a difference between the "underworld boys" who would kill a person for a mere thousands of rupees, and "intellectual boys and girls" who would attempt to kill a culture for a mere thousands of rupees.
What is the background to the Killinochchi killings? There are people who would blame the Sinhala Buddhists or Sinhala Buddhism for such killings as well. These people who would rise against Sinhala Buddhism at the drop of a hat only echo the voice of their masters and mistresses. They would talk of a nation state, nation building, unmaking of nation, inclusions and exclusions by the Sinhala society, Sinhala Buddhist hegemonism, the injustices to the minorities by the Sinhala Buddhists, the myths in the Mahavamsa, Multi cultural societies, the reality of western supremacy and our incapacity to do anything against them, our dependance on the aid given by the west without mentioning that we have to pay back the so-called aid with interest to these "poli mudalalis" etc. All these concepts and theories are formulated in the west and we are not in a position to solve the problem because we look at it through the eyes of the west. We do not have to build a nation in Sri Lanka as the nation had been built by the king Pandukabhaya. All those who migrated to the country after that were absorbed into the Sinhala nation, sometimes under different castes, until about the fourteenth century. The present day Tamils who are mainly descendants of those who were brought by the Dutch and the British were not allowed to get themselves absorbed into the Sinhala nation by the colonial powers who created a so-called minority, and manipulated such minorities against the Sinhalas. Today no Sinhala person would demand that the Tamils should be absorbed into the Sinhala nation but we have to find a mechanism by which the Tamils remain as Tamils without losing their identity, and together with the Muslims absorb themselves into a "greater Sinhala" nation with probably a different name for the nation, in the process recognising the significance of the Sinhala Buddhist culture in the country. It is not a difficult task, provided we decide to look at our problems through our eyes, and not through the tainted glasses supplied by the "keepers and providers" of knowledge to the world.
We should at least now in the aftermath of the earthquake should realise that knowledge is power though by knowledge we do not necessarily mean the knowledge of the west. If we are going to be slaves of the internet for information, and not masters then our future is doomed. It is not necessary to elaborate that we could become masters of our knowledge and not of their knowledge.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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