I really appreciate the critiques of my writing. I always welcome the
constructive criticism. But such criticism should be an objective one
not a subjective one. Of course my objective approach might be a
subjective to you. This occurs according to different perceptions of
your understating. But yet, we should all try to understand issues and
problems in comprehensive ways. We should substantiate our arguments
with evidence and logical reasoning.
The criticism that provokes our thought and stimulate our creating
thinking should be recognised. But all these should be done objectively
without any prejudice and discrimination within the etiquette of
academic writing: it is not my objective to make any communal division
or social disharmony rather to enhance of comparative religious
understanding. Please do not take my writing out of contexts; I have
been calling for communal harmony and religious dialogues between
different communities. It is not my aim to hurt feeling of any religious
community rather I make staunch criticism of BBS group for its apparent
bias and racial remakes.
I know well that Sinhalese race is one of the best races in the
world: They are kind, compassionate and polite people. I do not say that
but history itself testifies this. What happening now within the BBS
group is totally a different matter? I’m telling this because BBS has
been expressing communal resentment and religious jealousy in its recent
public talks and speeches. The entire world knows that. It is
self-evident from their talks and speeches. It is self evident from
their behaviours, actions and mentalities as well. Any sound person
would agree with such statement. We know well that the majorities of
Sinhalese people deplore the actions and behaviours of BBS. I
repeatedly re-iterate here that my aim is to expose the hatred of BBS
rather than hurting feeling of people.
I never and ever generalise this issue with Sinhalese people. I
single out some policy statements of BBS for its bias approaches and
attitudes. I do not think that BBS represent the majority of Singhalese
people. The majority of people do not subscribe to BBS view points.
They do not endorse their ideologies, policies and perceptions. The
majority of venerable Buddhist monks do not endorse the radicalism and extremism in any form. One could notice the clear disparity in the speeches of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero of BBS and its President Venerable Kirama Wimalajothi
Thero. While the venerable Kirama Wimalajothi Thero speaks with
politeness and logic we notice the venerable Gnanasara Thero speaks with
aggression and violence. His speeches are self evident for hared.
Please listen to some of speeches
and talks to see how much aggressive are his talks and speeches. Is
this Buddhist way of addressing issues and concerns? Of course not at
all and majority of Buddhist people deplore these attitudes.
Of course, some concerns and worries of BBS are genuine and real.
They should address these concerns in proper and professional ways. They
should address these concerns in democratic ways rather creating
communal disharmony and pandemonium. They should address their concerns
and their worries with the ministry of Buddha Sasena. They should
address these concerns with the high ranking Buddhist religious
authorities in the country. They should address their concern with the
administration of the temples in the countries to find some of ways and
methods to enhance their religious concepts.
They should not take the laws in their hands to address their
concerns. They should not become a religious police to dictate what they
want to the entire Sri-Lankan communities. A claim such as Sri-Lanka
belongs only to Sinhalese is an unwanted provocation. This could take
this country into one more communal conflict between Sinhalese and
minorities communities. Just we come out of 30 years of wars. Do we
need such a provocative statement once again?
Of course we could agree with BBS in some of their concerns and
worries. But those concerns and worries should be national concerns and
national interests rather than communal concerns. If they are fighting
for the rights of poor, needy and vulnerable in the communities these
concerns and worries are genuine and real. The entire nation should
support such a struggle, if they are fighting against all form of
corruptions and social injustices we all should support such a good
course. If they are fighting against all form of social illness such as
drug addition and fraud we all should support them in this good work, if
they are fighting against alcoholism and crimes we all should work hand
in hand with them in these particular issues.
Our country faces many challenges today than ever before. It may be true that the war with LTTE
is already over and yet, the country faces many economic and social
challenges. A large proportion of people suffer from abject poverty.
People in the villages are struggling to make end meets in the life.
People are struggling to meet basic necessities of daily life. A large
percentage of school drop outs do not get job opportunities and career
prospectus. These are clearly apparent in rural villages in some
districts in Sri Lanka. We should go to some remote villages to see the
pathetic conditions of people in rural areas. For instance look at the
conditions of Plantation Tamils in Estates. They have been dedicating
for the economy of Sri Lanka for the last 6 decades and yet see the
conditions they are living in today. In the same ways farmers of Sri
Lanka are backbones of Sri-Lankan agricultural sector and yet, look at
the conditions they are living in today. Rather than addressing these
fundamental problems BBS is engaging in communal racism. Ironically it
is in the name of Buddhism and Buddhism has nothing to do with racism.
Any foreseeable danger comes toSri Lanka today not from Sri Lankan
Tamil community or Muslim community in Sri Lanka rather it could come
from Tamil Nadu in long run. With its 65 millions Tamil populations it
could become a threat in a long run if Sri Lanka fails to establish good
diplomatic and social ties with Tamil Nadu. Sri Lanka has so far
managed to build up good diplomatic relations with India and yet, our
relation with Tamil Nadu has been not that good in recent time. No Tamil
Nadu high ranking politician visited Sri Lanka and our presidents and
PM are not yet, been invited into Tamil Nadu. This widening diplomatic
gap should be worrying BBS and its cohorts rather than creating more
communal disharmony between communities.
BBS is a real threat to national unity today. They create division
between communities today. They spread hared among communities today.
They spread lies and fabrications without any evidence. The racial
discrimination and racial prejudice of BBS can not be tolerated. BBS
should be dismantled in the greater interest of this nation. It would be
a social and communal suicidal to go on this path of discrimination and
hatred. We all know that happened to our venerable monks in South
India. Undoubtedly, it was reactionary violence of some Tamil Nadu
people against what was going on in Sri Lanka on those days. The
behaviours of some of these BBS people could put communal relation in
jeopardy in Sri Lanka.
Radicalism is radicalism and extremism is extremism, whether it comes
from Muslims, Christians, Hindus or Buddhists, whether it comes from
religious groups or political groups or from any groups, whether it
comes from al-Qaeda or Taliban,
whether it come from BBS or for that matter from any religious
groups. The radicals and extremists have done more damages and more
harm to Islam and Muslims today than any one else. In the same way all
forms of radicalism that come from BBS should be rejected.
Sri Lanka is blessed with the existence of four major world
religions. The different cultural and religious heritage beautifies Sri
Lankan Multi-Cultural history. It should not lead to communal and
religious conflicts at all. It should enhance our mutual intercultural
understanding. Unfortunately, this intercultural understanding is
lacking in Sri Lanka today. Our children have to learn all four major
religions today. Our children should know each other’s religious faith
and practices. This is not to indoctrinate one another with others
faith rather to enhance mutual understanding between different faith
groups. Today we live in a borderless virtual world. Therefore, we
should understand each others faith and way of life. We should also
appreciate other people’s way of life. In this way we could avoid social
and communal conflict in Sri Lanka. Our schools, institutions and
universities have no such systems to learn and teach comparative
religions. It is really a pathetic condition of our educational
system. I shall give some examples of this cultural conflict to
illustrate this point in my next week writing if God willing. (Dr. Rifai (Plus*))
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