ANTI WAR BRIGADE
The recent march and the rally by the so called anti war groups have exposed the warriors (tigers) under the peace (sheep) skin. It was clear from the banners and other paraphernalia that the organisers have had some money to spend. The march and the rally were organised by the so called anti war NGOs, and "peaceful" people such as Dr. Mervin de Silva Mr. Rajitha Senarathne MPs had been invited as speakers, if they themselves were not among the organisers. Another MP, Mr. Dilan Perera probably was an organiser representing the well known Burghof peace foundation. Then of course the usual religious dignitaries, Mr. Kumar Rupasinhe, Mr. Vickrambahu Karunarathne, Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Ms. Nimalka Fernando and other "peace" loving leaders were there to preach us why war is not good for the country and the people. The government allowed the organisers to proceed with their antics. Perhaps the government knew that these rallies had no impact on the society, and that they could be allowed. However, the majority of the Sinhala Buddhists do not think that way. These rallies, which are funded by the western organisations that maintain the activities of the "peace" loving people, could be harmful to the society at large. The "peace" lovers such as Vasudeva, Nimalka and others are only asking the government to stop war and not the LTTE. They may have an occasional sentence for the LTTE, but their main thrust is on the government. These "peace" lovers have been active for the last few decades and have been successful at times. Their main aim is to weaken the Sinhala Buddhist culture, Sinhala Buddhist identity and to maintain this country as a colony of western Christian colonialism.
Different wave length
The columnists such as Mr. R. M. B. Senanayake are also in the same league, though they operate on a different wave length. The article by Mr. Senanayake in The Midweek Review on 16th August 2006, is a case in point. There he argues that there is no Sinhala Buddhist identity as such quoting me also in the process. It is clear that Mr. Senanayake does not understand the concept of Olcott Buddhist. The Olcott Buddhists have been influenced by western style rationalism, but their atheism has nothing to do with that. No Theravada Buddhist is an atheist, and would not worship Buddha the way the others worship the God. In any event before stating that there is no Sinhala Buddhist identity, Mr. Senanayake should have told us whether there was a Christian identity, and in particular whether one could mention of a Judaic (Judaeo) Christian culture. These identities are general identities with of course differences among individual members of a particular group. This is a process called generalisation and it is carried out with not much of a problem only in Mathematics. It is one of the differences between Mathematics and the other subjects. The problems involved with generalisation are not very large in Physics but as one moves away from Physics to Social Sciences through Chemistry and Biology the problems increase. Nevertheless we could identify groups with some general properties as in the case of those who practise a religion or belong to a particular culture, in spite of some differences among the individuals.
Wrong signals
The "peace" lovers and others want to demoralise the Sri Lankan armed forces, and one of the reasons to have the anti war march and the rally was to give the wrong signals to the soldiers. It is well known that while the western funded, after all they are funded through the western NGOs, INGOs etc., "peace" lovers are organising rallies in the name of the public, the western governments are applying pressure on the government to stop even the limited operations that the armed forces have undertaken. The government should not listen to these proxies of the LTTE. If the "going has been good" for the LTTE these peace lovers and the western governments would have kept quiet. We did not see Vasudevas and Nimalkas at Kebithigollewa, though they could be found in the Vihara Maha Devi Park. The NGO boys and girls have been functioning in this country from the time of "Marga" institute, and the Sinhala Buddhists are in a position to generalise them, though there may be some differences in the way they operate. The Sinhala Buddhists not to be outdone are now also in the process of constructing theories, and they could not be deceived any more with theories, concepts and funds coming from the west.
Attack
Some Bhikkus knowing what the "peace" lovers are up to had gone to the Vihara Maha Devi Park in order to expose the nature of the anti war brigade. One could argue whether it was correct for the Bhikkus to go to a rally to protest against the rally itself. There is nothing wrong with it in principle, and protests of this type have taken place in many parts of the world. The organisers of the protest would have been further encouraged as they were protesting not against "Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinist war mongers", but against the cream of "peace" loving democratic people in the country. Rupesinghes, Dilan Pereras, Vasudevas, Nimalkas have attended so many peace conferences here and abroad, and campaigned for against war, and the organisers of the protests would have expected those "peace" lovers to welcome them with open hands. After all, nobody would expect an attack from such a distinguished and peaceful gathering under any circumstances. The "peace" lovers are experts of conflict resolution, and who would expect a conflict from conflict resolution worthies.
Perhaps the Bhikkus had taken a step more by getting on to the stage of the rally. Even then the anti war worthies could have entered into negotiations with the protesting Bhikkus setting an example for the "Sinhala Buddhist war mongers". They could have offered "gilanpasa" to the Bhikkus, and the master of negotiations Rupesinghe and others could have started the negotiations. However, unfortunately it was not to be so, and the Bhikkus had been abused and manhandled. An organiser of the rally has said that it was the crowd that started the attack, but unfortunately for him there are photographs to the contrary circulating in the cyberspace. The Island itself published a photograph of that not so celebrated push that started it all. In the photographs there is a fifty one year old "lady" abusing the Bhikkus, and of course a presidential candidate not of any of the Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinist parties manhandling the Bhikkus. Of course, they too are part of the crowd, but they belonged to a special crowd who have well known political allegiances. Considering the fact that some of them were speakers at the anti war rally one knows that they were not from the ordinary crowd.
Arms
Perhaps the Bhikkus were mistaken in assuming that the organisers and the speakers were all peace loving people. It may be that the Bhikkus had thought that in spite of the past experience of some of them from Janavegaya to International Alert in an African country, in the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party, in the PRRA group that was involved in killing so many people, they had now become real peace lovers. Perhaps the Bhikkus did not know that the party of the comrades Vasudeva and Vickremabahu had received arms from the government to fight against the JVP, of course in self defence, but the arms were not returned even after almost the entire leadership of the JVP was massacred. Among the speakers and organisers there had been some who had actually used arms against the members or those who were purported to be members of the JVP. Even if the Bhikkus were aware of these incidents, they may have thought the past is past and the speakers and the organisers were all genuine peace loving people.
It is an irony that none of the speakers or the organisers of the anti war rally had then called for negotiations with the JVP. During the period 1987-1990, no peace brokers came from the western countries, and India was willing to help the government to crush down the JVP. One could say that the peace lovers may not have been for peace then, but they have become good boys and girls now. Of course the peace lovers in Sri Lanka are not triggered by the sight of the red, as some of them wear shirts of that particular colour, as were seeing at this particular anti war rally. They become tigers only at the sight of the saffron robe or any other symbol of the Sinhala Buddhist culture.
It is known that most of the speakers and organisers of the anti war rally, and also of other peace conferences, workshops etc., are either non Buddhists and/or Marxists of various degrees. Some of them could be identified as pink socialists, while some others are full blooded revolutionaries. Some of them may be presently in the UNP, but history shows that they had been in the Janavegaya led by Kumar Rupesinghe and/or the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party led by Vijaya Kumaratunga, who cannot be identified as lovers of the Sinhala Buddhists. Incidentally both these gentlemen had the opportunity of marrying into the Bandaranaike family. Though the JVP spoke in the idiom of Marxism in the late eighties, the other Marxists of various degrees did not come for the support of the former. As far as the Marxists were concerned, there was something wrong with the Marxism of the JVP.
Violence
It is clear that the anti war lobby is not reluctant to resort into violence when their interests, either personal or political, are at stake. The organisers of the rally did not want to negotiate with the protesting Bhikkus and arrive at a peaceful solution. In the idiom of Sinhala Buddhism, the anti war lobby preach "Vedi Bana". It is time to modify this expression and call it "Western Bana". As we have mentioned on number of occasions "Western Bana" is pro western Modernity, and is aimed at destroying the non Judaic Christian cultures in the world. The anti war lobby is not against the LTTE resorting to violence as the western powers in spite of the so called bans are not against the LTTE. In fact it is the west and India, which for all purposes is the agent of the west in this region, that maintain the LTTE. They make use of LTTE not to win the so called aspirations of the Tamils, but to weaken, if not destroy the Sinhala Buddhist culture in this country as part of their global objective of destroying the non Judaic Christian cultures. Thus the anti war lobby would speak for the LTTE and would represent the latter when needed. At present the LTTE has three proxies, they being the TNA in the Parliament, the anti war lobby outside the Parliament, and the "international community".
Professor Nalin de Silva
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