{"id":125935,"date":"2014-06-15T21:29:59","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T15:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=125935"},"modified":"2014-07-16T23:08:29","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T17:38:29","slug":"aluthgama-needs-to-be-arrested-forthwith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/aluthgama-needs-to-be-arrested-forthwith\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Aluthgama\u2019 Needs To Be Arrested Forthwith"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

The Bodu Bala Sena<\/span><\/a> (BBS) holds a rally following an \u2018incident\u2019.\u00a0 A second, more violent incident follows.\u00a0 That\u2019s an easy line to draw, i.e. from BBS to violence.\u00a0 It holds.\u00a0 The language, the whipping up of emotions, creation and\/or exacerbation of apprehensions regarding another community do not add up to\u00a0<\/span>prthagjanas<\/i>\u00a0reverting to the foundational tenets, especially wisdom and compassion, or the inhabiting of the\u00a0<\/span>sathara brahma viharana<\/i>\u00a0(compassion, kindness, equanimity and rejoicing in another\u2019s joys) but produce a quick slide to besieged mentality, persecution mania and the adaptation of \u2018attack is the best form of defence\u2019 thinking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the \u2018facts\u2019 that we have here?\u00a0 There\u2019s the \u2018incident\u2019 where it is claimed that a Muslim person had hit a\u00a0bikkhu<\/i>. Claiming is easy and this side of\u00a0arahathood\u00a0<\/i>anyone,\u00a0bikkhus<\/i>\u00a0included, can transgress precepts, including the fourth, the commitment not to utter falsehood).\u00a0 Not only are things lost in narration, lots get added on too in the process. A disagreement becomes dispute, dispute becomes argument, argument raises voices, raised voices lead to in-your-face closeness, proximity tends to contact, contact is read as aggressive touch, touch is blow, and blow is assault.\u00a0 What happens between two human beings is then an altercation between two persons from two communities, religious communities, that is.<\/p>\n

The fact is that neither party can offer anything to conclusively prove their case.\u00a0 So they go to the Police.\u00a0 What can the police do?\u00a0 If the police are impartial, the police will weigh evidence and let the law take its course, either towards dismissal or indictment. The police, since it is also tasked to maintain peace, will take precautions to ensure that tempers are kept in check.<\/p>\n

The Police may have done the best they could but \u2018the best\u2019 clearly has been inadequate.\u00a0 Muslims have been attacked in Alutgama<\/span><\/a>. Houses and shops have been torched.\u00a0 The BBS rally could have been stopped (others have been on numerous occasions, after all).\u00a0 Outfits like the BBS thrives on \u2018flash-points\u2019 and are not averse to creating \u2018flash-points\u2019 which can be exploited.\u00a0 The \u2018democratic\u2019 argument; right to assemble, right to express opinion etc; is thin given histories that the Police and higher authorities are clearly not ignorant about.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so easy to slide on the matter of \u2018faith\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 Someone says \u2018I was hit\u2019 and those who hear that will see robe and\u00a0bikkhu<\/i>, will see \u2018Muslim\u2019 and not another human being, will not stop and ask \u2018is that true?\u2019 and will not let the law deal with it.\u00a0 And when the law does deal with it, even in clumsy ways, if the \u2018decision\u2019 is perceived as \u2018unfair\u2019, there is frustration. The police and the government have not helped at all.\u00a0 There have been countless instances in these types of situations as well as in regular policing matters where the law has been a politician\u2019s plaything and police officers turned into hapless implementers of orders \u2018from above\u2019.<\/p>\n

In this context Buddhists will say (as they have \u2013 check FB posts) that the Government is turning a blind eye on \u2018Islamic Extremism\u2019 and Muslims will say (as they have) that this is a\u00a0 \u2018Sinhala Buddhist state\u2019 with tacit approval of \u2018Extremist Buddhist outfits\u2019 and their attacks on Muslims<\/span><\/a> and Muslim establishments.\u00a0 Both parties can cite innumerable instances of \u2018government support\u2019 to the \u2018other\u2019.\u00a0 Buddhists will say \u2018Kuragala<\/span><\/a>\u2019 and Muslims could point to state-run media outfits that have blown the Aluthgama incident way out of proportion, claiming that political mileage was being sought by stating as established fact what is, as of now, nothing more than an allegation, that of a\u00a0bikkhu<\/i>\u00a0being attacked by a Muslim (whether or not religion was part of it is of course not even footnoted!).<\/p>\n

Part of the reason is this whole \u2018besieged\u2019 discourse that is gaining ground across all communities based on identity, regardless whether they constitute the majority or are a minority.\u00a0 Identity assertion is not illegal.\u00a0 Sometimes it is not a matter of pride; it is a communal assertion that seeks safety from perceived threat.\u00a0 Sometimes it is defiance. \u00a0Somewhere in this assertion business there is also a thread of threat.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, the ground that is made uneven and therefore made for tripping in multiple ways, is clearly a product of a break down in the entire institutional arrangement pertaining to law and order.\u00a0 It has made it possible for anyone to stake high moral ground claiming persecution and complicity of the police in the pernicious designs of the \u2018other\u2019.<\/p>\n

For this, no one is to blame, but all relevant individuals and bodies in the government.<\/p>\n

If the Government does nothing, then we are in a serious situation.\u00a0 However, even if the Government does nothing, it does not follow that the people should twiddle their thumbs.\u00a0 If \u2018faith\u2019 is at the center of these disturbing developments, then it would not be out or order to seek in \u2018faith\u2019 the appropriate response.<\/p>\n

No doctrine needs defense.\u00a0 Political positions require defense, political organizations can claim that defense is necessary. Attack will be an easy option in the matter of defending these things.\u00a0 Organizations have their membership made of the like-minded. They rarely listed to advise from outsiders (why should they?).\u00a0 But not all Buddhists are members of the BBS and not all Buddhists support the BBS.<\/p>\n

There is legitimate fear on the part of Muslims.\u00a0 No amount of assurances from the government or the police or the neighbors would succeed in removing these fears completely.\u00a0 It is necessary however for Buddhists to talk to their Muslim neighbors. It is not about saying sorry for crimes committed in their name by people they don\u2019t even know or whose actions they did not and would not support.\u00a0 All that needs to be done is to say \u2018I will not do this and I will do my best to stop anyone from doing anything like this to you or your family, my friend\u2019.<\/p>\n

It is not easy to argue with a mob, but I have seen individuals standing up to mobs.\u00a0 Reason, compassion, determination and everything else that one obtained or is strengthened by faith, will do it.<\/p>\n

Aluthgama is a metaphor for a lot of things. A lot of things we really can do without.\u00a0 For this reason Aluthgama needs to be arrested forthwith, if not by the Government then by the decent, civilized, law-abiding citizens of this country, whatever their faith.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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