19 March, 2024

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How We Came To This Pass – The Aragalaya Challenge

By Sachithanandam Sathananthan

Dr. Sachithanandam Sathananthan

Rise of the Sinhala Nation

When President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) won the presidency a Sinhalese journalist and author of Gota’s War captured the spirit of the celebrations in November 2019. “What we saw”, he rejoiced, “was the reaction of a down trodden, persecuted, humiliated majority community to all the suffering and indignities they had undergone for the past five [Yahapalanaya] years”, 2015 to 2019; and, he explained, this is what happens “when the majority community of a nation is used as a doormat by the minority communities.” 

His claims appear farfetched. Members of the Sinhalese elite controlled political power through their parties (UNP and SLFP) from February 1948 and they have had and still hold an unassailable absolute majority in parliament; they virtually monopolised State power – the armed forces and civil bureaucracy – since the mid -1970s; and they reserved for themselves the lion’s share of national resources (land, employment and, after 1972, education and so on). It’s a great mystery how “the minority communities” could have used “the majority community… as a doormat” up to 2019. On the contrary, the Sinhalese elite collectively wiped their feet on the vast majority of their own masses who are now revolting, led by Aragalaya (the Struggle), against the elite and demanding a systemic change.

Arguably, the journalist inferred from Anagarika Dharmapala’s opinions about Sinhalese victimhood expressed more than a century ago that, in all likelihood, resonates with him and the 6.9 million Sinhalese who voted GR into power. It is said the Anagarika, the Buddhist revivalist, developed an intellectual interest in Sinhala-Buddhism after “a mob of Sri Lankan Catholics attacked a Buddhist procession in 1883”.

The journalist and nationalist Sinhalese compatriots do not explain how “minorities” could have walked all over the “majority community” under the rule of Sinhala-Buddhist president and prime minister during the Yahapalanaya (Good Governance) years. The “majority community” underwent more pain and ignominies between 2019 and 2021 under the next Sinhala-Buddhist President GR and his nationalist (SLPP) administration. The cost of living sky rocketed; prices of necessities (wage goods) rose beyond the reach of the average consumer; fuel was first unavailable and, later, tightly rationed; foreign exchange reserves all but dried up; and normal life ground to a virtual standstill. Perhaps the nationalist Sinhalese believe that the multiple crises, well documented in the public domain, are conspiracies by the “minorities”. 

However, the crises galvanised critical sections overwhelmingly within the Sinhalese middle and upper-middle classes, mostly from urban areas; and Aragalaya burst forth like a butterfly from its decaying chrysalis in early March 2022. They activists demanded the Sinhalese-dominated government takes urgent action to resolve the crises but soon they moved beyond seeking symptomatic relief to the realisation, dimly at first, that the emasculation of legal and political institutions, procedures and traditions over several decades is at the root of the country’s problems. Their demand escalated to a system change on the run, so to speak.

The Aragalaya activists launched, with unprecedented bravery, the “Gota-Go-Home” campaign on the Galle Face Green to eject GR from the presidency and shed the Sinhalese old guard as the first step to systemic change. They exhorted the “minority communities” – Tamils and Muslims, and Christians – to  join them in their drive to “save our motherland” from GR and his siblings. The activists’ patriotism, commitment and spirit of martyrdom stand in stark contrast to their kleptocratic political class. 

Nevertheless, the irony of “inviting” the assistance of Tamil and Muslim “minorities”, demoted by nationalist Sinhalese to “recent arrivals” from South India and Arabia respectively but seemingly upgraded by Aragalaya to temporary “boomiputhra” status, was largely lost on the activists. A few die-hard nationalists desperately goaded “minorities” to lend support with a breath-taking sense of entitlement, while dismissing as a “Tigers’ plot” the Tamils’ Poraattam (the Struggle) that has been going on for several years in the north and east protesting human rights violations and demanding accountability for the Disappeared. The Sinhalese by and large had offered little support for or solidarity with the Poraattam. 

To be fair, some Aragalaya members expressed regret but insisted Tamils and Muslims participate with hardly a semblance of an apology for the violence – physical, emotional and cultural – let loose against them over the past seven decades. The “minorities” also know the headlong military campaign to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-led resistance over four decades (1979 – 2009) has wrought far-reaching structural changes to State and society, buttressed by a virulent hegemonic ideology, that are very likely irremediable in the foreseeable future. So, they are understandably wary of the sudden benevolent shift, no doubt quite sincere, from Sinhala-Buddhist motherland to our motherland and logically wonder how soon attitudes would revert to normal.  

The Aragalaya activists may be aware of Tamil parliamentarians’ Satyagraha on the same Galle Face Green more than six decades ago, in 1956, when nationalist Sinhalese welcomed the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna’s (MEP) policy of declaring Sinhala the sole official language (“Sinhala Only”) and acclaimed the Rise of their Nation – a Sinhalese renaissance – and violently dispersed the non-violent Satyagrahis who symbolised the opposition to the policy. The Rise had already begun with stripping citizenship rights of Malayaha Tamils in 1948 and continued for about seven decades: “Sinhala Only”; the Buddhist calendar delineating Poya and Pre-Poya days; the Sinhala alphabet “Sri” adorning vehicle registration plates; anointing Buddhism as the virtual State religion; and ethnic cleansing of southern Tamils through a series of Pogroms from 1958 to 1983, reducing them to an ethnic rump in and around Colombo are but a few of the bench marks of the Rise. 

Most nationalist Sinhalese who believe the “majority community” was “used as a doormat by the minority communities” suffer from a staggering amnesia of the recent events. Unsurprisingly they view the twin events of the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 and political victory of President Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) seven months later in the 2010 presidential election as the zenith of the Sihala-Buddhist hegemonic project, claimed to have originated by the legendary King Duttugemunu more than two millennia ago. The resulting ethnic animosities between communities obviously cannot be reversed by a few weeks or months of well-meaning Aragalaya declarations about “united we stand, divided we fall”.

Please don’t get us wrong. We are not disputing the right of nationalist Sinhalese to do any or all of the above and more in what they consider their motherland; of course, they do and they did, lubricated by majoritarianism. At the same time, they should not recoil at the devastating consequences of their actions, taken consciously with unimpaired mental faculties; nor should they scapegoat Tamils and Muslims for their self-inflicted miseries.

The collapse

The heady reverberations of exploding fireworks and hypnotic clicking of cocktail glasses in May 2009 perhaps made the nationalists forget that King Duttugemunu did not have to contend with Geneva Conventions, International Humanitarian Law and the UNHRC. In contrast the allegations of war crimes documented, for example by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and the BBC film No Fire Zone, are swirling around MR, his then Defence Secretary GR and their senior military commanders. The government, armed forces and sections of the Sinhalese intelligentsia have strongly rejected the allegations.  

The nationalists also slurred over the country’s steady descent into the “non-rule of law system” and entrenched impunity. For instance, an anonymous account of the proceedings of the 2013 Marga Institute Seminar recorded the participants endorsing the findings of the report, “The Numbers Game: politics of retributive justice” by unspecified author(s) from an “Independent Diaspora Analysis Group”, which in effect demonised the LTTE. The participants, however, formally concluded violations of the rule of law by both sides in the war should be impartially investigated by an independent body and resolved one way or another. That was ten years ago; and pervasive impunity has made mincemeat of the pious hopes for accountability – the foundation of justice.

It is only natural that nationalist Sinhalese and the mainstream section of their intelligentsia would justify the war they championed and strive to protect their “war heroes”. We have no quarrel with that; they may do so and both MR and GR during their presidential election campaigns and after vowed to shield the “war heroes” from prosecution. A few minions were convicted but were soon granted a presidential pardon in 2020 and let loose into society; the following year 16 LTTE convicts, whom Tamils firmly believe are political prisoners, were also pardoned perhaps to maintain apparent even handedness. However, a consequence of not systematically investigating allegations of war crimes to weed out guilty ones, if any, including those with command responsibility, is that the alleged perpetrators are allowed to continue to hold office in the government, armed forces, bureaucracy and the foreign service. They invariably resist the re-establishment of rule of law, under which citizens may hold them accountable.

Meanwhile economic crimes, known colloquially as “corruption”, flourished within the larger context of widespread impunity. But nationalist Sinhalese turned a blind eye to blatant crimes of all hues asserting “they won the war”; some protested only half-heartedly against the 18th Amendment and barely against the 20th, confident that “the oldest democracy in Asia” will soon spring back to its feet. The Aragalaya’s seminal contribution is the assessment that a systemic change is the precondition to the renewal.

Two important Sinhalese perspectives bubbled to the surface during the Aragalaya. A decidedly marginal one held that the country’s tragic turn is the result of the mistreatment of Tamils and Muslims. The other mainstream opinion believed the government was compelled to militarily repress Tamil “communalism”, crush its LTTE and bring to heel the Wahabi-inspired Muslims prone to violence, witnessed on the 2019 Easter Sunday. The former view was louder in March and April when Aragalaya grew from strength to strength; the latter became more dominant when the protests faltered and began to fade after the allegedly State-sponsored attacks and counter attacks from the 9th of May onwards. Murmurs in Colombo expressed a variation of the second theme, steeped in the usual anti-Tamil kneejerk reaction: the county’s multiple crises and near bankruptcy are “all” largely, if not exclusively, due to the war the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran started to satiate his greed for power.  

Either way the Struggle forced the more perceptive among the majority’s intelligentsia to review the country’s “downfall” since Independence in 1948.  A few apparently reflected deeply on the political mirages conjured up by Sinhalese politicians: S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike’s Apae [Sinhala] Aanduwa, JR Jayewardene’s Dharmishta Aanduwa, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Mahinda Chinthanaya, President Maithripala Sirisena & Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe’s Yahapalanaya and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Sahubaggeye Dhakma; President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s vision is awaited. 

The Aragalaya activists have taken on the unenviable task of rescuing the country. Their sincere efforts are timely and welcome but are unfortunately hobbled by a fundamental misconception.

Aragalaya: an apolitical struggle? 

At its inception activists declared their agitation is “apolitical”, an approach widely welcomed by Sinhalese both within and outside the country as the “Beauty of Protest”. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) weighed in, cautioning government the non-violent “lawful” protesters are protected by the Constitution and should not be arrested. Perhaps the BASL overlooked that lawful could be turned unlawful virtually by the stroke of a pen by the elementary expedient, for example, of having a court issue an order against protesters for the conveniently vague infraction of “causing inconvenience to public”, which empowered police to disperse them, forcibly if necessary; and lawfully tear gas and water cannon and, where necessary, arrest the disobeying protesters.

The Aragalaya activists claimed they are apolitical whilst attempting the quintessentially political task of a systemic change, of expelling the President and the 225 parliamentarians. What could be more political than that? 

The confused claim reeks of US Political Science 101’s naïve view of politics as party politics, instead of politics as power relations that determine the side of the city one lives in, what type of school one attends, which profession one enters and whom one marries. The alleged involvement of the political Left (JVP and FSP) could not correct the apolitical-ness of the overwhelmingly middle and upper-middle class Aragalaya activists; the same political handicap also evidently prevented them from making common cause with powerful working class trade unions that had initially showed interest in backing the protests. Perhaps the activists were reluctant to share leadership with the unions.  As a result, they were caught flatfooted by RW’s power play.

The apolitical approach also limited the Aragalaya’s ability to convincingly explain the sources of funds to build the GotaGoGama on Galle Face Green, except to respond to our enquiries that “well-wishers” provided the apparently abundant financial and material resources. That may well be true but such altruism does raise eyebrows in the political arena. We observed the flying visit to Colombo by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who is said to have masterminded the February 2014 regime change in Ukraine that drove out the country’s elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and brought in the pro-US President Volodymyr Zelensky. Her visit coincided ominously with the launch of the Aragalaya in late March, 2022. 

The activists achieved a degree of success. They compelled MR to resign the Prime Ministership but not his parliamentary seat; he’s back in the House. The Aragalaya claimed credit for forcing his brother GR to flee the country and quit the presidency. On the other hand, credible rumours in Colombo insinuate he fled because the military refused to back him, for instance, by not firmly preventing protesters from invading GR’s official residence, and paving the way for RW to take over as President, whom the military has so far supported fully. Predictably there is speculation about a foreign hand’s involvement in a “regime change” that included the resignation of Ministers. However, GR has returned as Former President to the country and a majority of ministers are back in the “new” Cabinet. 

Their apolitical-ness has so far blocked the Aragalaya maturing into a political movement that could win power and carry out the much sought after systemic change; it also prevented the activists from anticipating the 9th of May mayhem and led them, within four days, to appeal to the entrenched Members of Parliament (MPs) to change the system that the same MPs control and benefit from. The Sinhalese political class correctly interpreted the Aragalaya are on the back foot; it smelled blood. 

In August the BASL flagged extra-judicial killings and corpses that washed up on the beach in the vicinity of GotaGoGama; they carried their own message, a throwback to darker times. The Aragalaya activists vacated Galle Face Green on 9 August and the police have reportedly arrested about 3,000 activists, in part guided by MPs’ lists.

Many in the South expect the Aragalaya to rise from the ashes. We wish the activists well.   

Previous posts

How we came to this pass – I 

How we came to this pass – II 

How we came to this pass – III 

How we came to this pass – IV 

How we came to this pass – V
How we came to this pass – VI 

How we came to this pass – VII 

*Dr Sachithanandam Sathananthan is an independent researcher who received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Cambridge. He was Assistant Director, International Studies in the Marga Institute, Visiting Research Scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University School of International Studies and has taught World History at Karachi University’s Institute of Business Administration. He is an award-winning filmmaker and may be reached at: commentaries.ss@gmail.com

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Latest comments

  • 15
    1

    There are but a few societies that are as blind (and deaf) as the Sinhala land. Only a few Sinhalese see and feel the madness of their own people. Even they fear to speak out.
    .
    Notwithstanding the humiliation, deprivation, and depredation suffered in the hands of our ‘masters’, it is time to let go the past, and forge a practicable response.
    .
    In my mind, lending strength to the Aragalaya is a sensible move.

    • 3
      0

      Agreed. However, depends on whether there would be a change in stance, once the starvation and deprivation of basic essentials is OUT?!
      Hope not, otherwise it would be a case of repetition of 1947/48, when GB wanted assurance that Tamils agreed to Dominion status, and when achieved Dominion status, the 1st thing on the AGENDA was disenfranchisement of estate Tamils (for supporting LSSP and CP) and 2nd welcome offering was SINHALA ONLY (employment for Sinhala youth, marginalising Tamil/English)!!
      POLITICAL FOOTBALL WITH MINORITIES!!??
      Past time of Sinhala Elite – NOT THE POPULATION??
      THE LATTER SHINE AS EXEMPLARY CITIZENS!!

      • 2
        0

        The “aragalaya aka Struggle ” and its positive achievements saved the country. Some hidden political parties ruined its image. That is why the abuses that happened in the last stage sent the message to the whole world that this nation has no law and order. There is a saying in Sinhala idiom, “If you put a drop of dung in a pot of pure milk” – it all becomes dirty.

        Now we all must question as to why we were kicked out of our true values by a Rajapaksa family. So-called artists and other notables were instrumented and tamed by the family to achieve their goals. There was no limit to their corruption and crime. High crimes like murders and money laundering acts were implemented by them and mechanisms of usurpation of power.
        .
        Isn’t it obvious that religious priests have not done enough to save the nation from the corrupt?

        Even today, only the Melecha family is at the top of the society – no one will protest that Buddha put them on top.

        Fake Buddhist monks are above the law in our society. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of good Buddhist monks in this country. Most of them are wasting our tax payers funds by going after the perks given to them by the Rajapaksas and their henchmen. Many monks close to the Rajapaksas have been blessed with V8 cars for their transportation.

        was seen as a hotspot for drug addicts, and other fraudsters.

        TBC

        • 1
          0

          Continuing.
          .
          They linked it to the “October 2018 conspiracy”. Parliamentarians were behaving in a “fish shop” where MPs were throwing “chilli powder and urine” at each other.
          The events that caught my eye in the Negombo and Galle fish markets are not easily erased. Civilization is miles away from them. In the last 3 decades nothing has been done in terms of human development in that part of our nation.

          Now is the time to rethink what happened to our nation. Ranil was appointed as their president, however the story would not have ended positively if no leader had the courage to come forward to replace the “Malecha Rajapakse duo”. Our people are known as memory losers. That fit them most.
          .
          I thought the way aragalaya originally started was fantastic, unconventional to anything else, but later it became a hotspot for all various criminals.

    • 3
      0

      Nathan,
      “There are but a few societies that are as blind (and deaf) as the Sinhala land.”
      Small amendment!
      There are but a few societies that are as blind, deaf and dumb as the Sinhala land.
      3 WISE MONKEYS!!

    • 5
      0

      Nathan,
      One very obvious thing that should have been done a generation ago was to ban the use of the Mahavamsa as a history book. It contributes to the demonization of minorities as invaders, interlopers, or just visitors (as per Sarath Fonseka). It justifies religious violence, even against Buddhists who stray from orthodoxy. It says nothing about the origins of most of those who claim to be “Sinhalese “, including Sarath Fonseka and Champika Ranawaka.
      Once upon a time, the Bible was locked up in churches to prevent the laity reading and “misinterpreting” it. The Mahavamsa deserves the same.

      • 3
        0

        Dear old codger, Thank you.
        Your input brings tears in my eyes.
        Let the book be there. Let there be no history making.
        I have said on several occasions,
        * Do not use school texts to ‘indoctrinate’ the young.
        * Education should be left in the hands of independent bodies.

  • 7
    1

    It was Channel 4 in UK that produced the Film Killing Fields.BBC was not showing much of the Tamils sufferings. It’s approach is sometimes wired.

    • 6
      0

      Thanks very much. The inadvertent error is noted.

      • 5
        0

        Dr.S,
        “Murmurs in Colombo expressed a variation of the second theme, steeped in the usual anti-Tamil kneejerk reaction: the county’s multiple crises and near bankruptcy are “all” largely, if not exclusively, due to the war”
        This may well be true, in my opinion, but not exactly that way. The majoritarian State begged, borrowed, and spent money it didn’t have, to fight an unnecessary “war”, which it finally won only with a 10-to-1 advantage in men, perhaps 100-to-1 in equipment. Now it is stuck with an untouchable Army bigger than Britain’s.
        A case of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.

  • 9
    1

    I have lost all hopes of getting the Singhalese especially the Professionals to understand that the ill treatment of Tamils over the many decades since indepedence is at the ROOT CAUSE of current economic and political CRISES. To imagine one can sort out the economic crises without the political solutions to ethnic and religious issues IS NOT going to succeed. Singhalese wants SYSTEM CHANGE as much as the Tamil speaking SL citizens. System changes –Elimination of bribery and corruption;
    Up holding Law and Order EQUALLY; Purging the crooked Parliamentarians; ENDING the public money being WASTAGE; re-organisation of Security forces; bringing in meritocracy;Ending Nepotism etc etc

    • 1
      0

      I am not surprised at your lament?? Sri Lankans – Never apologise and therefore don’t make any mistakes or Vice Versa?? Egg or the chicken – don’t know?? But that is the state of affairs in Lanka ‘Resplendent Isle’ of SB’s and one must contend to live with it??!!
      is the non-disbanding of the large military and Tri- Forces and police and their unsustainable emoluments in the long term one of the primary causes of the economic misadventure and to return to pre-war numbers??!! They would never admit it nor address it!! Instead these patriots attribute it to the 30 year war FORCED on them – indirectly to blame the “other party”??!! Not themselves and admit that the war was caused by DEPRIVATION OR ABUSE OF MINORITY RIGHTS??? EVASIVE ATTITUDE NEVER ACCEPT LIABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY??
      Not surprised that they don’t want UNHRC inquiry into ACCOUNTABILITY of wartime Human rights abuses, because they DON’T ever commit anything wrong??
      UNIQUE indeed!!

  • 10
    0

    Another comprehensive article by Dr Sachithanandam Sathananthan. There are many articles on CT that deserve to last “for-ever”, to guide future historians. Most of them have been very carefully assembled facts which would have been lost for ever, but for these articles.
    .
    I think that Dr Sachithanandam’s articles belong among them. As for the comments, Nathan is always there, with very appropriate comments. I’m tired now at 04.30 am . His is the only comment visible as I type. I’m tired. I hope to return.
    .
    Many thanks

    • 5
      0

      Thank you.

    • 1
      0

      Sinhala_Man: Thanks for your views on the analysis of the writer.

      Please watch: youtube.com/watch?v=Ys2J3Q5yM

      If this is not available try: http://www.siyatha.lk and watch the program “Turning Point” aired on 26-9-2022

      I have made a very brief comment on the “Aragalaya” below.

  • 2
    1

    Dr. Sachthanandam: I like that caption: ” How We Come To This Pass – The Aragalaya Challenges”.

    To sum up the conclusion of the “Aragalaya”, I would say: It Was COSMETIC. All those “Achievements” that are spoken of have ended up in a “HOAX” of “GOTA GO HOME” to install “Ranil” – a corrupt political leader who even could not secure a seat in the Legislature in a Democratic system. Another “HOAX” that the people were led to believe was: “We sent MR and Cabinet home” – to be installed by the “SAME” and/or “REPLACED” by the same set of “CROOKS”. The “Aragalaya” also wanted a “System Change”. Has it happened? NO. Another “Demand” – Bring back the “STOLEN” money and “PUNISH” the culprits. Now we find the “STEALING” goes on UNABATED and at more speed than ever.

    Nothing succeeds unless properly “UNDERSTOOD”; “LED” and “STRATEGICALLY PLACED”.

  • 6
    1

    Mahinda promised soon the war ends he.will find solutions for the Tamils, he just ignored it ,,then targeted the Muslims ,exactly same pattern of 83 program against Muslims.
    Then came on the seen of Gota took the lives away of people gone for peceful prayers.
    Then back door opened for RW,he just wanted to follow and satisfy the kings

  • 7
    2

    Two issues/persons in Lanka’s history has completely destroyed our Lankan nation.

    1. Angarika Dharamapala with his delusional, fallacious Sinhala Aryan notion, has made it impossible for Sinhala nation to show legitimacy when trying to secure their lands, livelihoods, and right as a nation.

    2. Rajapaksa family with their delusions for power and glory, totally oblivious of the needs and abilities of the Sinhala people, took our Motherland shamefully, on the wrong, misguided, and erroneous economic track.

    • 0
      0

      …have*

    • 1
      1

      It’s the reflection of the super 69….how he sumed up ….only two …..shocking.
      Sadu..Sadu.. sadu…god Grace

    • 3
      0

      Absolutely SPOT ON.
      They partially woke up from their STUPOR only in February 2022, when starvation and deprivation stared down on them! TOM FOOLERY!!

    • 1
      0

      President Premadasa, though many derided as incompetent to be President analysed the Sri Lankan ethos well!! He declared when his advisors cautioned him that the Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lankans would come out in droves to protest against the government on a particular issue, that it would never happen!! Further elucidated, that they will never do it to a person guaranteeing a ‘Roof over his head – Shelter’ – GAM UDAWA and Food/Employment sustenance – JANA SAVIYA!! He was absolutely on the money!! Million houses in 10 years, self-employment assistance and Garment industry proliferation made him unshakeable to dislodge from his EXECUTIVE PRESIDENTIAL PEDESTAL?? Which probably prompted the LTTE to the 05/2003 bombing, which sadly indeed brought his tenure to an end, unlike subsequent holders of that exalted office!!

      • 4
        0

        Mahila,
        “which sadly indeed brought his tenure to an end, unlike subsequent holders of that exalted office!!”
        But you mustn’t forget that his death was greeted with crackers.

        • 0
          0

          This is why I have no hope abo6 srilanken future. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

    • 4
      0

      ramona grandma therese fernando

      “……………………. has made it impossible for Sinhala nation to show legitimacy when trying to secure their lands, livelihoods, and right as a nation.”

      Which land are you talking about?

      • 0
        3

        Native Vedda,

        The united country concept! The Western lands shied away from giving the Sinhalese much help during the war of secession. They were uncomfortable and embarrassed because of the Aryan themes suggested by the Sinhalese. Indeed, the riots by the Sinhalese against Tamils wouldn’t have been 90% as bad if the Nazi themes weren’t around. The Nazi themes incited massive amounts of rage, hate , and violence against the Tamils. Instead of the Nazi Themes brought about by Anagarika Dhahamapala, Sinhalese would have had a far greater success if they could have a more rational technique of letting the Tamils know that Sinhalese were the majority, and that it was normal and natural that Sinhalese ran the country…..Sinhala language and Sinhala Buddhism and all.

        • 5
          0

          ramona grandma therese fernando

          ” that Sinhalese were the majority, and that it was normal and natural that Sinhalese ran the country…..Sinhala language and Sinhala Buddhism and all.”

          Whatever the rational technique it was whether the Tamils like it or not the Sinhalese ran and ruin the country. Of course Sinhalese were and are in the majority which means Sinhalese have more stupid people than rest of the people put together. More you rely on stupid majority and majoritarian policies more destruction they would bring.

          • 0
            1

            Native Vedda,

            The stupidness comes from the Angarika doctrine. Sinhalese can’t think of anything beyond that. Their nationality is based on that! Ok…yes, they are very stupid. To this day, you find normal functioning people, even from coastal areas (especially from the coastal areas), declaring that they are of Aryan descent. A snapshot or video of the Sinhala Masses – upcountry, lowcountry, will tell very differently.

          • 2
            0

            Ramona,
            “Instead of the Nazi Themes brought about by Anagarika Dhahamapala, “
            A small correction. The Swastika is an ancient Hindu symbol. It was Hitler who copied it, not Dharmapala.

            • 0
              1

              Old codger,

              Never mind what the Hindues are about,…..there is rather a difference between North Indians who got mixed with the invaders from the Steppes and have some white blood, and South Indians who are purely Dravadian. Lankan masses of all races on the other hand look more less the same. There are a few lighter skinned people, but that are about 0.1 -1 % of the population, and mostly due to colonial influence.


              Anyway, the swastika symbol meant nobleness in character. And usually the conquerors had a lot more time to develop refinement. They took the Hindu concepts, like that of the swastika, from the Dravidians that had millenia of advanced civilization, refined themselves, and created the caste system. Hitler took his chance to copy this because they were stumped on how to create jobs and improve their society. So they used this against the Jews and other minorities to create a new order of especially economics through their own notions of eugenics and holocaust.

              • 0
                0

                Enter the British of the time who were indulging in all things of eugenics in nature, and they saw the word swastika and Aryan also in Buddhist texts (which means noble refinement according to the Hindu religion that belonged to the mellinia of advanced Dravidian civilization), and the damage was done via colonial-mixed Anagarika who had narcissistic personality disorder ( seen even in his pictures). Now the British did this in all places that they conquered. But only in embarassing Motherland did it take on the shameful proportions.

              • 0
                0

                Correction in wording: So they used this against the Jews and other minorities to create a new order of especially economics through their own notions *that included* eugenics and holocaust.

              • 0
                0

                “South Indians who are purely Dravadian”
                Do a quick scan of the rouge’s galleries of the state assemblies.

                • 0
                  0

                  SJ……whatever you mean, I am talking about the S. Indian and Lankan Masses.

                  • 0
                    0

                    You risk treading on the toes of our Arya Sinhala masses.
                    *
                    There is no pure race, and even less a “purely Dravidian” race.
                    What I said would not require a GCE(AL) to work out. Their features do not suggest any ‘conformity’ characteristic of a race— complexion, hair, any facial feature etc. (Height and build, the rogues gallery will not reveal).

                    • 0
                      0

                      Anna, you said it SJ!…..I am indeed treading on the feet of those who consider themselves Aryan Sinhalese. Unless someone treads on feet, the delusion cannot be erased from the Masses. Rationality and realism must ensure.

                      We ALL know there is no pure race. There was never a pure race anywhere. But you attempt to put the killing pogroms of the Sinhalese at one time who.considered themselves large part Aryan a ccording to the Angarika doctrine (and hence killed Tamils over it), with Tamils who who are large part Dravidian who didn’t do killings other than in retaliation, and with no killings on the sub-continent.
                      (oh no, you will now put a bunch of words to counter the “no killings” which was said for emphasis).

                      Sinhalese don’t kill nowadays ( mostly because of the Tamil retaliation via terrorism…..and because the Tamils want their own country that will certainly screw the Sinhala state). Instead it has become a mass cultural nonsensical gambit, which will alienate the Tamils even worser. Now is a time of not physical war, but of stealthy economic wrangling. Shouldn’t Sinhalese come down to earth once and for all for the sake of their suffering people, and for their own sanity.

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                      SJ…..but I agree about the S. Indians/Tamils etc. who shamefully placed their people into castes based on Aryan point percentages. And they have been doing this for thousands of years. Yet they all proudly declare themselves Dravidian!

                      Compare that to what the Sinhalese are up to. They are declaring themselves Aryan with percentage bits of Dravidian. Just look at the average masses on the roads and in the villages and tell me if that is correct.

                      Indeed, such delusion makes us unable to implant rational policy for our suffering masses. No, our leaders can’t understand why our fellows can’t do rugby and like the Whites work ethics of the Germans after all the Montessori training (they have their own work ethic, but extraneous concepts and ideals make it impossible to create comprehension and connectivity).

                • 2
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                  SJ
                  How nice it must be, to be able to explain the world in such simple terms.

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                    Don’t end in lazy sacarsm Old Codger. Face the real issue and drive out the devil.

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                      Ramona,
                      “Face the real issue and drive out the devil.”
                      Sorry, I didn’t know you’re a friend of Rosy.

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                      old codger …..yet another silly use less quip from you…….Typical! Show as the gravity of my words.

                      Rosy’s devil is a Christian devil. Mine is a Buddhist one.

                    • 0
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                      Shows*

                  • 2
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                    Looking back, the way it was introduced to society was truly a miracle. It’s like a protest in a developed country. I loved it and worked for them.
However, some evil politicians became part of their working machine. I was compelled to read this later.
Today, some people are trying to hang university boys from it (gap), but I felt that the struggle to send the message to the country that the Rajapaksa should leave Sri Lankan politics was born with the support of the Colombo rich.
The way they kept the place clean and organized was exemplary. Some thought it could never evolve in Sri Lanka. Political parties approached it and destroyed its concept. Despite achieving some victories, the manner in which the Sinhalese thugs destroyed houses and properties across the country in the name of struggle was similar to the method of the 83 rebels. What they ended up doing was betraying the Sinhalese civilized image. Also the events that took place after taking over the “President’s House” and declaring it to the public as a “public spectacle” were all low-level acts.
The whole world thought that Sri Lankans are people who never follow rules. Thanks to free education, those boys entered state universities and the message they sent is indescribable. No doubt some travelers thought about canceling theirs.

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                      old codger

                      It is not civil for me to barge in when you are enjoying a vibrant platonic exchange of ideas.

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    “…the Sinhalese elite collectively wiped their feet on the vast majority of their own masses who are now revolting”
    Very true.
    Many narrow nationalists still fail to appreciate the difference between the elite and the population that the elite claims to speak for.

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      SJ,
      How could the ELITE speak for the POPULACE, when the elitist are so divorced from the aspirations of the populace and importantly reality?
      Namal – Skiing; Rohitha – don’t know what?; Yositha – Outer space Rocketing??;
      They intend to propel all of us Sri Lankans to that of Americans/ westerners when we cannot provide/acquire basics for our population?? When are we going to be on TERRA FRIMA and be a Realists!!?? To Boot siblings MR – Uganda development, BR – 20% at any cost anytime and GR – untold misery, by thinking far ahead of time!!
      Only CR – a little bit of realism and “Unnanse” – elitism!!

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        M
        You and I may not like it. But that is reality. That is how the system works.
        One needs money to be elected; one also needs media support. These are two key needs.
        Above all the system is corrupt.
        The parties of the elite ate well funded and control the media. It is harder than boxing with both hands tied behind the back.

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        Mahila,
        About 1 % of that 20% is used to pay off the media, buy lunch or give Samurdhi to the “catchers”, etc. Then there are always places like CPC or some ministry to put unemployed graduates……as SP said: “short guys for labour, tall ones for security “
        It’s not the fault of the elite- they just know the people better than they do themselves.

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          old codger,
          You have a sharp memory. And, SP wants to be our President!
          .
          How can I find fault with SP, when Namal already thinks that he is the President. (He is thinking of rehabilitating the protesters.)

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        What is being an elite?
        /iˈliːt/ belonging to the richest, most powerful, best-educated, or best-trained group in a society: Elite troops were airlifted to the trouble zone. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases.

        It is reported that when Mahinda R became the president of the country in 2005, he did not have a vehicle and did not have any kind of Bandaranaike style assets. So our fools became the president and became elite

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      It must be due to our people’s own thinking nature. Most of them criticize without doing anything. Social media TV channels have revolutionized Sri Lanka today. People start believing that everything broadcasted by social media is similar to mainstream TV channels. So baseless news misleads the nation.
      :
      If we want to see “perceptible change in our society,” each of us is responsible for contributing to change. All adults of different age groups should participate in it. Regardless of their geographical location, it must be done permanently.
      .
      Although perhaps educated to the professorial level, it is true that the South Asian mindset is full of myths and other unwanted baggage.

      This is what Dr. Kovor explained in his analysis. However, his successor analysts may not have done a good job of conveying the message accordingly. Come to think of it, politicians like Mahinda Rajapaksa consciously work to promote illusions rather than truth for their political survival, and until recently many did not oppose them.

      tbc

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    Aragalaya was a spontaneous miracle that simply got birthed. Its conception was the battle sequence resulting from both good and evil. The seen incubation period was short, but the deception of evil originated long ago in a garden before it was transferred to a ruling elite in an institution which governs. Nimrod the hunter was a giant and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel. Aragalaya must discern the good and move in that direction to bring in system change. We need to move away from the current money madness, and release mercy, forgiveness and love to all humans. There is no other way to survive, revive and be restored. Then only can we receive healing both for ourselves and the land. Final war is not in the west, but in the middle east.

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    A clear exposition of recent and not so recent events by Dr.Sathananthan. Reading through was like watching a clear mountain spring with its cascades………
    I HOPE THE OTHER ESSAYS in the series, How we came to this Pass will be published in Book form. It was only at the end of this essay that I noticed that he was a Cambridge scholar.

    C.A.Chandraprema Author of the book Gotas War is the present day version of Don David Hewavitarana [Anagarika Dharmapala ]. The latter disoriented a whole generation of Sinhala Buddhists by his writings and nurtured the present day views of a good many Sinhala Buddhists with respect to the Minorities; Tamil, Muslim and Christian.
    It would be an uphill task for the Aragalaya to reverse this trend of our Political life.

    Gota enunciated his Sahubaggeye Dhakma. In reality what this meant was to silence the Minorities.
    Ranil is still to declare his Vision. Perhaps it will come when his Mission RUNS INTO DIFFICULTIES……….

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