{"id":75607,"date":"2013-03-02T18:33:03","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T18:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=75607"},"modified":"2013-03-07T00:02:25","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T00:02:25","slug":"being-part-of-the-ultimate-faith-minority-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/being-part-of-the-ultimate-faith-minority-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Part Of The Ultimate \u201cFaith Minority\u201d In Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Emil van der Poorten<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Emil van der Poorten<\/p><\/div>\n

The emergence of the Bodu Bala Sena<\/a><\/span> (BBS) on Sri Lanka\u2019s landscape has been a very logical political development given the Sri Lanka government\u2019s constant and consistent use of red herrings, animate (as in the case of the Buddhist priest leading the BBS, the racists – in the form of Udaya Gamanpilla and Wimal Weerawansa<\/a><\/span>) and inanimate as in the case of the hate material either issued or leaked to the public and media from time to time.\u00a0 The purpose?\u00a0 Simply to divert the attention of Sri Lankans from the REAL issues of the day.<\/p>\n

To repeat: all of this is intended to confuse a gullible population and conceal whatever facts might be evident.\u00a0 If nothing else, there is a consistency to all of this: it has fed on malice against \u201cthe other\u201d since the time of independence from the British Raj and even before.<\/p>\n

The military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE<\/a><\/span>\/\u201dTigers\u201d) left a vacuum in the matter of a communal target because successive Sri Lankan governments had, very successfully, made the terms \u201cTamils\u201d and \u201cTigers\u201d interchangeable in the minds of the Sri Lankan nation \u2013 particularly the Sinhalese Buddhists<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 What is left of the Tamils sans a physical presence such as the Tigers, hardly produces enough grist for the unprincipled racist mill of our current regime, having long passed its \u201cbest before\u201d date.<\/p>\n

As ham-handed as the efforts have been, I have little doubt in my mind that they are already successful, will become even more so and spawn off-shoots of similar virulence as the days go by.\u00a0 Particularly given a cowed and frightened population \u2013 frightened of being \u201cdisappeared\u201d as the last couple of three-wheeler drivers whose services I\u2019ve used \u00a0assured me would be the fate of anyone being critical of this lot.\u00a0 This is an endeavour that will, doubtless, be very successful for one major reason: it caters to the lowest common denominator \u2013 venting one\u2019s frustrations on the least powerful segments of the population in a situation where there is no law and order and those usually responsible for safeguarding the weak and helpless are conspicuous by their absence or, worse yet, complicit in the conduct of the law-breakers.\u00a0 The treatment of the BBC crew covering the BBS rally at Maharagama<\/a><\/span> by the storm troopers of that organization should give pause to anyone doubting the potential for mob violence by these supporters of the \u201cterritorial\/religious integrity\u201d of the land we live in.\u00a0 More important yet is the fact that the police present actively <\/strong>supported the goons in seeking to take the BBC crew hostage!<\/p>\n

As one with no affiliation to any formal religious entity, I would be stupid not to consider the current Sri Lankan \u201creality\u201d as having implications for such as myself. Given the new religious fundamentalism that Sri Lanka is giving birth to, the simple reality is that for every action by the Bodhu Bala Senas of this land there will be a reaction from victimized religious groups, fundamentalist<\/a><\/span> or otherwise, because they are left with little other choice.\u00a0 Those of us consciously rejecting formal religious affiliation or being seen as doing so will, in the end, be permitted the least leeway by those who wear their \u201cfaith\u201d on their sleeves. We could well end up between the jaws of that particular vice.\u00a0 Not a fate to be anticipated with much glee!<\/p>\n

You might well ask, \u201cSo what?\u00a0 You\u2019ve chosen to criticize and oppose the bullying criminals and those who believe in violence as the solution to the problems of this country and yet another set of enemies shouldn\u2019t make too much of a difference, should it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Before I deal with this contention, though, a couple of facts need to be recorded.<\/p>\n

One of these is that those who have no formal affiliation to any of the recognized religions in Sri Lanka \u2013 Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and their many branches and off-shoots \u2013 are going to be targets whenever the harassment of the current \u201cother\u201d minority has run out of steam.\u00a0 Also, those who owe no affiliation to Temple, Church, Kovil or Mosque will, thanks to the very nature of the country, be the ultimate<\/strong> minority.\u00a0 And in a country that has made Majoritarianism a virtual religion, this is a bad place to be.\u00a0 After all, aren\u2019t those of no identified religious affiliation easiest to identify as belonging to \u201cthe other,\u201d particularly since every adherent to denominational religion is able to differentiate themselves from the free-thinkers, atheists and agnostics, \u201cjointly and severally\u201d as the old legal expression has it?\u00a0 All denominational religionists could well be united against a common enemy \u2013 those not declaring allegiance to any of their faiths.\u00a0 The ideal \u201ccommon enemy,\u201d if you will.<\/p>\n

In all reality, being a target of \u201cmilitant Buddhists<\/a><\/span>,\u201d (no matter how dichotomous the term!), \u00a0those who believe in Jihad<\/a><\/span> being the solution to the problems of the world, the adherents of the Hindutva or those who believe that heresy of any kind should be dealt with by burning at the stake is NOT going to be fun!<\/p>\n

Throughout history we\u2019ve had the phenomenon of minorities being persecuted because of their geographic location, beliefs or some other superficial factor.\u00a0 It seems that, in relatively modern times, particularly since the advent of Christianity, the primary targets have been those in a minority insofar as religious affiliation is concerned.\u00a0 That these have, more often than not, been ethno-religious<\/a><\/span> groups is also a fact.\u00a0 What is symptomatic of the Sri Lankan reality is that there also appears to be no acceptance of the fact that a citizen may NOT belong to one or the other of the formal religious groups.\u00a0 The next time anyone reading this column has the opportunity to do so, it would be salutary to check any government (or other?) form requiring personal identification because you will NOT find provision for entering \u201cAgnostic,\u201d \u201cAtheist,\u201d \u201cFree-thinker\u201d or any such term!<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Sri Lankan version of the New World (Dis)order!\u00a0 One that does not recognize the fact that the vast majority of the world\u2019s population does not adhere to any formal religion!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":49743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nBeing Part Of The Ultimate \u201cFaith Minority\u201d In Sri Lanka - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/being-part-of-the-ultimate-faith-minority-in-sri-lanka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Being Part Of The Ultimate \u201cFaith Minority\u201d In Sri Lanka - 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