WHY WEST IS AGAINST SINHALA BUDDHISTS
About five years ago very few people believed that some western powers led by Britain were the force behind the LTTE and Tamil racism, separatism and terrorism. Even today not many people are of that view. However, by now many Sinhala people have begun to talk of double standards of the British and some others in the west. Most of these people would not have thought that good old Britain could have double standards on any matter as it was the attitude that had been given to them while they were at schools and universities.
Recently a group of students from a different institution came to me to find out whether the western attitudes on terrorism had changed after the so called September eleven. They would have had thought that the west is now taking a tough stand against terrorism and as a result Sri Lanka is on the verge of defeating the LTTE. Little they knew that the Sri Lankan victory over terrorism is in spite of the western policy on terrorism, and not because of it. These students knew that USA has forced Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight against Al Qaeda and in their innocence thought that the west had the same attitude towards the LTTE.
I had to tell them that the west reacts in two different ways with respect to the terrorists. They are for defeating terrorists who are against them, their political system or their culture but would support nurture and maintain terrorists groups that are against systems or cultures (or Chinthanayas) that are considered as threats to them, their culture or their system. There are no double standards in this policy as it is a policy emanating from the survival and maintenance of the western Christian modernity. If a terrorist group is against western Christian modernity, the west will try to eradicate it if possible but if a country, system or culture is against their system or culture they will create, nurture and maintain terrorist groups to eradicate that culture or system that is a threat to them if possible. Those who consider this policy as a double standard are those who consider terrorism in an absolute sense. What most of us forget is that there are terrorists and terrorists.
Those who are moulded in the British school and university tradition would think that the British are "sympathetic" towards the LTTE and the scattered Tamils, as there had been discrimination against the Tamils by the Sinhalas. The humanitarian British who support the underdog is an image that has been instilled into our minds by various academic drillings at schools and universities. However, very few people remember that the whole colonial world was the underdog from about the sixteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century politically culturally and economically and the situation has not changed much since then except for a limited political independence given to the colonies. Neither the British nor any other western power had any sympathy for the colonial underdog and bombarded the latter not only using weapons but with hotdogs attempting to change their cultures as well. The colonial underdog had the "luxury" of eating the western hotdogs.
We had no misgivings from the beginning that Tamil racism, separatism and terrorism (RST) was created nurtured and maintained by the British with the assistance of some other western countries. Norway was one of the agents that were used and it is clear that the LTTE has been supplied with heavy arms by these westerners directly and sometimes using the NGOs and INGOs indirectly. Why should Britain and other western countries assist the LTTE and Tamil racism in general now expressed by scattered Tamils in Britain and other countries? When the scattered or Burgher Tamils in London block a bridge over Tames, attack high commissions of India and Sri Lanka and the embassy of China in London no charges made against the culprits. London metropolitan police, like the Sri Lankan police is investigating the matter. Now we understand why the Sri Lankan police investigations are a never ending process as they had their initial training by the British.
It appears that the British foreign secretary is the secretary for the LTTE with assistance from Ranil Wickremesinghe. David Miliband is in Sri Lanka this week going to Embilipitiya, next week he is busy trying to discuss the so called Sri Lanka situation where more than hundred thousand people have been displaced at the security council under any other business and arranging press conferences in New York, totally ignoring the situation in Pakistan. So far he has not put up any posters nor organised a picket outside the Victoria railway station in London but one should not be surprised if he does so in a very humanitarian way. With the assistance of Ranil Wickremesinghe he might organise even hooting campaigns both in the western and Sinhala traditions. Such is the humanitarian concern of the man towards the LTTE. If Miliband and his friends are so humanitarian they should have had asked the LTTE to release the so called trapped people. The government of Sri Lanka is wasting its time inviting western journalists to visit the camps for the so called internally displaced people, as they will never report what they see but what they hear from the Tamil racists and read in the Tamil net. The channel four journalist from Britain is a case in point.
If it is not a case of supporting the so called underdog, then why is that the west led by Britain (it is not the USA leading the west in this particular instance but Britain) so keen in promoting the "cause" of the LTTE and the scattered Tamils. There is only one reason and it is political, cultural as well as economical. There were some left oriented nationalists who argued that Norway was helping the LTTE because of the oil resources that have been purported to be found off shore Mannar. These are negligible economical gains and even the mineral sand resources found in the eastern coast would not have lured the Norwegians economically. They were as said before working on behalf of Britain. Now Britain has taken the leadership openly and we do not hear much about Solheim and others. We only hope that they are in good health! We always maintain with respect to Tamil racism Britain is our main enemy and we can defeat Tamil racism in all its different forms only if we understand this important fact. For the Anglophiles it is a formidable task but unless we do so we would have won battles but not the war.
I know that many would not agree with what I have to say below but then they did not agree with us when we said that the LTTE could be defeated long time ago. Gradually people are drifting from their original positions and mention of the so called double standards of the west, but it will take a long time before they even attempt to consider there is any value in what follows. In fact some of them would consider it as childish. Nevertheless it has to be mentioned at least for the benefit of the future generation of Sinhalas, especially of the Sinhala Buddhists. Just as much Britain is our main enemy, not even the LTTE, when it comes to Tamil RST, the main enemy of western Christian modernity that began more than five hundred years ago is Theravada Buddhist culture and the west would do anything possible to weaken if not to destroy the culture of the Sinhala Buddhists. In that respect they are now using the scattered Tamils following the defeat of the LTTE.
(To be continued)
Professor Nalin de Silva
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