{"id":82885,"date":"2013-04-18T16:55:34","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T11:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=82885"},"modified":"2013-05-04T05:58:54","modified_gmt":"2013-05-04T00:28:54","slug":"on-dayans-logic-mildly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/on-dayans-logic-mildly\/","title":{"rendered":"On Dayan\u2019s \u2018Logic\u2019, Mildly"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

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

This refers to Dayan Jayatilleka\u2019s response (Anti-BBS Vigil: A critique of the critique<\/a><\/span>) to something I wrote on the subject of a candle light vigil organized by a group that named the event \u2018Buddhists Question Bodu Bala Sena\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I called my comment \u2018The \u201cVigil\u201d I saw\u2019. Colombo Telegraph re-posted with what I consider to be a mischievous re-titling, \u201cThe BBS \u2018Buddhists\u2019, \u2018Nightclub Buddhists\u2019 and The \u2018Vigil\u2019 that I saw<\/a><\/span>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Dayan, sadly, seems to have let that title guide his rant and has missed out all the caveats inserted.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s an old trick.\u00a0\u00a0You deliberately take a black-white picture and then rant and rave.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s something I would expect from a high school debater, not from a man who has a doctorate, and one in political science to boot!<\/p>\n

\n

Dayan, true to form, throws his CV at the readers.\u00a0 That\u2019s fine if only he was not so selective.\u00a0 His description of MIRJE is eye-wash, but that again is Dayan.\u00a0 I will let that pass and get to his \u2018critique\u2019.<\/p>\n

Dayan wants to know \u2018how on earth\u2019 I determined the following: \u2018But there were non-Buddhists in proportions that were a fair distance away from national ratios\u2019.<\/p>\n

Dayan, by his own admission is not one to attend such vigils.\u00a0 He will only stand with \u2018The Left\u2019 (he thinks the JVP and FSP are \u2018Left\u2019, but that\u2019s another story for another laugh).\u00a0 In my case, I have made it a point to keep myself informed about who does what and why, especially I\/NGO operatives and their cheering squad, in the media, at Lipton\u2019s Circus, I\/NGO forums and the workshop rounds.\u00a0 That\u2019s how I know. The only people not speaking in English were those who were talking with the Police.\u00a0 This was no cross-section, as I pointed out.\u00a0 Not that it had to be, but I was only making an observation.<\/p>\n

What I found most hilarious about this man who charges me of jumping to conclusions about composition, is that he sees fit to indulge in caricature of a magnitude that would make my error seem utterly trivial.\u00a0 He calls the BBS Bay-Badu Bala Sena, picking on a drunk-drive-without-license transgression of its main political figure<\/a><\/span> 13 years ago.\u00a0 So based on that incident each and everyone in the BBS is a drunkard.\u00a0 Wonderful logic! Dayan asks me how I made a call on \u2018cross-section\u2019.\u00a0 I live in this country.\u00a0 I move around.\u00a0 I keep my eyes and ears open.\u00a0 Can tell.\u00a0 Dayan can\u2019t, but that\u2019s his problem.\u00a0 I challenge anyone who took part in the vigil to say that the group was a cross-section of Buddhists in this country.<\/p>\n

No, demonstrations need not necessarily \u2018accord with national, ethnic and religious ratios\u2019, but it is strange to me that one which claimed it was a by-Buddhists event ended up having such a non-Buddhist preponderance.\u00a0\u00a0 Add the other rider, there being a significant number of people with definite political agenda, and the picture is not as rosy as Dayan might think it is.\u00a0 The implication is that it was either not organized by \u2018innocents\u2019 or else some with suspect agenda had hijacked it or else were piggybacking on the innocents.\u00a0 Dismissing issues of class and category in politics by alluding to the Dhamma, as Dayan has done, is once again silly.\u00a0 One cannot be innocent in politics and Dayan certainly has not been.\u00a0 He has not subjected himself to the rigor he seems to demand from others.<\/p>\n

Typical of Dayan, he took my \u2018facebooking\u2019 comment out of context.\u00a0 It is linked to my observation regarding composition.\u00a0 Dayan, true to form, deliberately misses the point and goes off at a tangent about who is on facebook and what being-on-facebook means and does not mean.<\/p>\n

He does the same with the word \u2018violent\u2019.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy.\u00a0 Pick a word and spit at it.\u00a0 Maybe it gives a thrill, but that\u2019s not intelligent, engaging debate, but sophomoric word-play.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to answer for those Sinhalese and Buddhists who have been violent in one way or another against Tamils, Muslims or anyone else. Never been part of any of that.\u00a0 But Dayan does have a violent past and I find it strange that he didn\u2019t pick some stuff from his own story to buttress his argument.<\/p>\n

At no point have I condoned the Bodu Bala Sena.\u00a0 This does not mean that I have to agree with everything that those opposed to the Bodu Bala Sena say and do.\u00a0 Only someone who cannot extricate himself from flawed Cartesian logic would expect me to do so.\u00a0 In this instance, I went to oppose the BBS.\u00a0 In retrospect, I found that I was ill-informed.\u00a0 But I informed myself quickly enough.\u00a0 I did not stand with the BBS but I went to stand with people opposed to the BBS and the way I do politics, criticism and self-criticism are part of the story.<\/p>\n

I said the policeman cannot be faulted for wondering how a \u2018Buddhists against BBS event\u2019 could have so many non-Buddhists.\u00a0 It\u2019s enough for Dayan to go off at another tangent.\u00a0 If you mark an event as organized by X, Y or Z and realize that there\u2019s more of P, Q and R in it, you can\u2019t blame anyone for wondering what is what!\u00a0 That comes from bad organizing or too many people being taken for a ride.<\/p>\n

This is what I wrote: \u2018The Police Officer can\u2019t be faulted if he wondered how a \u2018Buddhists against BBS\u2019 event had so many non-Buddhists.\u00a0 It was a sweeping generalization nevertheless and the ethno-religious composition is anyway not relevant to the matter of peaceful, democratic action, even if there was nothing innocent in intent and design.\u2019\u00a0 Dayan has either not read the second sentence or has deliberately kept it out of his rant.\u00a0 That\u2019s cheap.\u00a0 Sophomoric. Typical.<\/p>\n

Dayan ends his piece with a confession: \u2018This hardly seems a fair or rational critique\u2019. I agree, wholeheartedly; he has neither been fair or rational.\u00a0\u00a0 Why he pressed \u2018send\u2019 after writing it for the Colombo Telegraph, I really cannot fathom.<\/p>\n

NOTE 1:\u00a0 Dayan\u2019s article in Colombo Telegraph has prompted a lot of comments.\u00a0 Many have saluted Dayan and showered me with invective.\u00a0 There is very little reason and very little sobriety in these comments.\u00a0 If they were at the vigil or supported the vigil then I can safely say that they are totally unsuited to question the BBS from a Buddhist perspective.<\/p>\n

NOTE 2:\u00a0 I learned that spokespersons for the BBS have quoted my article.\u00a0 They, like my detractors, have misquoted me, leaving out important caveats.\u00a0 In my next article I will explain why I am opposed to the BBS.<\/p>\n

NOTE 3:\u00a0 Most of those who cheered Dayan and most of those who\u2019ve cheered the BBS, I noticed, did so during the nonagathaya and on Aluth Avurudda (April 14th) and into the festivities.\u00a0 Made me smile.<\/p>\n

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

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