{"id":82024,"date":"2013-04-13T06:29:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-13T06:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=82024"},"modified":"2013-04-29T02:53:26","modified_gmt":"2013-04-28T21:23:26","slug":"anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><strong>By\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Dayan+Jayatilleka&amp;x=12&amp;y=7\">Dayan Jayatilleka<\/a><\/span>\u00a0&#8211;<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_63679\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/towards-a-world-summit-on-multilingualism\/dayan-jayatilleka-colombo-telegraph\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-63679\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63679\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-63679 \" title=\"Dayan Jayatilleka - Colombo Telegraph\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-63679\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr Dayan Jayatilleka<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I wasn\u2019t at the vigil because I don\u2019t do vigils and if I were to make an exception it would be for an anti-<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Bodu+Bala+Sena&amp;x=10&amp;y=5\">BBS<\/a><\/span>\/<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sinhala+Ravaya&amp;x=9&amp;y=3\">SR<\/a><\/span> demonstration spearheaded by the Left (in our case that would be the JVP and FSP), as are most anti-racist demonstrations all over the world. That is in fact the friendly advice I\u2019d give the organizers of the laudable demonstration. As a founder member, as an undergraduate in the late 1970s, of the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE) that took on the Sinhala racists in the \u201980s or tried to, I recall that we always reached out to and networked the trade unions, peasant unions, political parties, progressive clergy, student organizations, women\u2019s associations, university teachers and the Left. That said I was aghast, but not really surprised to read <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malinda+Seneviratne&amp;x=11&amp;y=0\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u2019s critical account of the vigil (\u2018<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-bbs-buddhists-nightclub-buddhists-and-the-vigil-that-i-saw\/\">The BBS \u2018Buddhists\u2019, \u2018Nightclub Buddhists\u2019 and The \u2018Vigil\u2019 That I Saw<\/a><\/span>\u2019 April 12, 2013, Colombo Telegraph). He writes:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut there were non-Buddhists in proportions that were a fair distance away from national ratios.\u201d Two issues arise: Firstly, how on earth could Malinda tell? Is it a visual impression? If so, isn\u2019t this the religious stereotyping, the equivalent of ethnic stereotyping, of the worst sort? Do the non-Buddhists have longer noses than the Buddhists, as the Jews were deemed to have in Nazi Germany? Where does this lead and where does it stop? Secondly, what does it matter? Should demonstrations accord with national ethnic or religious ratios? Are class, caste, provincial and gender ratios relevant too?<\/p>\n<p>Malinda go onto say : \u201cI was disappointed that there was little to tell me that the group was made up of people outside of the \u2018facebooking\u2019, English-speaking middle and upper-middle class.\u00a0\u00a0I was less disappointed than perturbed when I noticed that in that group there were individuals who have been violently\u00a0anti-Buddhist\u00a0and\u00a0anti-Sinhala&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here again, what is the implication? That Buddhists (or good Buddhists) don\u2019t use Facebook or do not belong to or come from the English speaking middle and upper middle class? Or is that they are Buddhists only if they use Facebook to abuse Muslims? How would this class criterion fit Prince Siddhartha?<\/p>\n<p>It is perfectly possible, even likely, that my own views are diametrically opposite to those of some of the crowd, especially on the war, the CFA and the current and long-standing leadership of the UNP, but I do not know the basis on which one can state as Malinda has, that in the group \u201cthere were individuals who have been violently\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=anti-Buddhist&amp;x=9&amp;y=5\">anti-Buddhist<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0anti-Sinhala&#8230;\u201d Were they\/are they really \u2018violently anti Buddhist and a<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Anti+Sinhala&amp;x=17&amp;y=3\">nti-Sinhala<\/a><\/span>\u2019, or simply anti-Sinhala Buddhism as an ideology? Could it be that Malinda is conflating the two? And by the way how \u2018violently\u2019 anti-Buddhist and anti-Sinhala were they? As violent as the mobs of July \u201983 or those who threw a grenade at the Shah Rukh Khan show, or even those who stormed the Fashion Bug or verbally abused minorities (\u2018hambaya\u2019 goni billa\u2019, un-mun-arun\u2019), and threw rotten eggs at shoppers?<\/p>\n<p>Malinda writes that \u201cMy Muslim friend wrote,\u00a0\u2018What\u2019s the ugliest thing in uniform? \u2013 a biased cop. I saw one today declaring pompously that everyone gathered at the vigil was either Muslim, Catholic or Tamil&#8230;\u2019\u00a0I heard that too. The Police Officer can\u2019t be faulted if he wondered how a \u2018Buddhists against BBS\u2019 event had so many non-Buddhists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why pray can\u2019t he be faulted? What business is it of a police officer to query the religious composition of a demonstration? Shouldn\u2019t he be faulted precisely for having posed such a question? How did he come to that conclusion anyway&#8212; which by pure coincidence is the same one Malinda came to? Where in the world, outside of an Islamic theocracy would the police pose such a question and where in the world would a Chief Editor of an English language mainstream newspaper think it ok?<\/p>\n<p>Malinda outdoes himself with the following paragraph: \u201c&#8230;someone referred to the anti-BBS \u2018Buddhists\u2019 as \u2018Nightclub Buddhists\u2019. Strange juxtaposition and descriptive, yes, but it also raised questions of social status, class, lifestyle etc.\u00a0\u00a0A Buddhist is a Buddhist, whether he\/she wears white or black, a\u00a0sil redda\u00a0or jeans, but clothes mark and they mark well.\u00a0\u00a0This was no Buddhist Cross-section, that much was apparent to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Quite apart from the question of whether \u2018Nightclub Buddhists\u2019 who aren\u2019t guilty of hit and run drunken driving of a lorry (a greater vehicle?) are somehow less Buddhist than the \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-court-report-bbs-leader-gnanasara-pleaded-guilty-to-hit-and-run-and-drunk-driving\/\">Bay-badu Bala Sena<\/a><\/span>\u201d ones, what precisely does Malinda mean by \u2018raises questions of social status, class lifestyle\u2019? What questions? Of course clothes do mark but how do \u201cclothes mark and [they] mark well\u201d, in relation to Buddhism and the issues at hand? When once again Malinda says \u2018this was no Buddhist cross section, that much was apparent to me\u2019, how was it apparent, why is what is apparent (the result of sense impressions) taken to be the truth \u2013 which doesn\u2019t sound much like the Dhamma\u2014and what does any of it has to do with Buddhism, still less the legitimacy of a protest against religious fanaticism?<\/p>\n<p>This hardly seems a fair or rational critique.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":63679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,2938],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial","category-popular"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique - 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\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-13T06:29:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-28T21:23:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"233\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"293\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/\",\"name\":\"Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-13T06:29:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-28T21:23:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"width\":\"233\",\"height\":\"293\",\"caption\":\"\u0d86\u0da0\u0dcf\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dba \u0daf\u0dba\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dca \u0da2\u0dba\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dbd\u0d9a\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-04-13T06:29:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-04-28T21:23:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":233,"height":293,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/","name":"Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","datePublished":"2013-04-13T06:29:18+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-28T21:23:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","width":"233","height":"293","caption":"\u0d86\u0da0\u0dcf\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dba \u0daf\u0dba\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dca \u0da2\u0dba\u0dad\u0dd2\u0dbd\u0d9a"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/anti-bbs-vigil-a-critique-of-the-critique\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anti-BBS Vigil: A Critique Of The Critique"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Dayan-Jayatilleka-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82024"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84635,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82024\/revisions\/84635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}