By Muhammed Fazl –

Muhammed Fazl

I call upon all Sri Lankans to tear up the national flag & dump it & demand a new one to be designed so as to create a state of unity, equality & justice and to ward off the curse that has engulfed us all, all along!

Reasons for my conclusion;

1. SL never had lions nor was a bone ever found. We don’t have a national animal (we have a bird though) and the lion supposedly is to show bravery of the Sinhala race. The country was in existence thousands of years before the advent of the Sinhala race and it will continue to exist for thousands of years more even if the race becomes extinct! Talking of origins, neither the race, its people or the language is native and it all evolved from Asia, particularly India, Nepal etc…

And of bravery, now that is a far cry from reality. Sri lanka is a land of cowards & traitors who meekly surrendered it to the Portuguese, the Dutch and finally to the Britishers. Our independence was NOT hard fought, we just got it on a platter. Even at that stage, we were made to think that the Britishers were doing us a favor and we even said ‘thank you Sir’ on bended knees. Let us also NOT forget that it was the ‘Sinhala’ race that instigated and sustained the struggle for the division of the country during the 1983-2009 war!

One might wonder how the Sinhala race-led government sustained the war. First it was the ‘Sinhala-only’ policy followed by the marginalization of the minorities of every government in power that instigated the uprising of the Tamils, followed by the government’s lack of will to find a peaceful solution, give equality, separate state & religion & aiding the enemy with funds & weapons which resulted in it lasting longer with lethal devastation! Eliminating a rag-tag army of under 10,000 by a well equipped force of over 300,000 strong and dragging it for over 25 long years wouldn’t be considered ‘bravery’ in my book either. And questioning the alleged tactics of the SL armed forces, especially during the last stages of the war would definitely warrant an international War Crime Tribunal! But then again it is another long story…

The hard-line nationalist may want to portray the Lion symbol as bravery…. but in my view it is a flesh-eating, violent savage. No wonder the people of Sri Lanka resorting to violence & physical abuse at every altercation. A symbol of peace would be the need of the hour and an animal found in Sri Lanka would make it more sensible. My personal choice would be the elephant (majestic) or the peacock with its vibrant colors. (The government can request the Opposition party UNP to change their symbol).    🙂

2. It is funny to see the colors of the flag depicting the 3 different races (Sinhala, Tamil, Moor). If a dimwit thought showing the 3 different races separately as unity, I beg to differ. It is WRONG to show divisions, by doing so, it divides the population and depicts an imbalance of rights when one sect is given prominence. Race and religion is a choice one makes or is made by a parent, either at birth or by marriage or by conviction and that SHOULD be a personal matter. Besides, history has shown that race only divides the people and that no good has come to date.

Let us have one common color that does not divide the people based on ethnicity!

3.  The 4 leaves of the Bo tree is supposedly to depict Metta (loving-kindness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita (the joy in other people’s well being) and Upekkha (spiritual state) of the Buddhist philosophy. But is it a common practice or is it still in existence by and large? The answer would be a big ‘NO’!

It is not uncommon to see the flag-bearers of Buddhism (monks) themselves being lustful, vengeful, racist, and violent among other negative attributes. In this context, how realistic would it be for its ordinary adherents to follow the teachings of Lord Buddha?

So who is fooling whom with this poorly thought-of design that we call the ‘National Flag’ and that which we are ‘forced’ to embrace??