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Sihala Urumaya delusions

The Sihala Urumaya which can boast of just one seat in Parliament although it claims to represent the majority community, not surprisingly, feels the need for strong-arm tactics to draw public attention to its obscure causes. Wednesday was a case in point when some Sihala Urumaya activists clashed head-on with 'Lankafirst' peace demonstrators in the heart of Colombo.

It was obvious that the considerable display of support for peace had unnerved the Sihala Urumaya which believes that it and it alone has arrived at the correct diagnosis of the problems which plague Sri Lanka.

This is not the first occasion on which the Sihala Urumaya has succumbed to violent behaviour in the face of attempts by sections of the public to demonstrate the need for peace. We see here pointers to the real identity of the Sihala Urumaya - that is, their undemocratic and fascistic proclivities. What it cannot hope to achieve by reason and persuasion, the Sihala Urumaya aspires to accomplish through the use of force and violence. This is, of course, in keeping with the conduct of fascist groups all over the world.

Alarmed by the news of the peace demonstration on September 19th, the Sihala Urumaya high command issued a press release which rhetorically and stridently states that a popular campaign for peace would only undermine US efforts to form a worldwide alliance to fight terrorism. For, the Sihala Urumaya thinking is that the US-led campaign would also target the LTTE, since the general aim of the offensive is to wipe out all forms of terrorism, 'wherever it may occur and however it rears its ugly head'. How a public campaign for peace could undermine this offensive against terror and blunt efforts to neutralize the LTTE is not indicated by the Sihala Urumaya leadership although it is amply evident that continued and wasteful war is its preferred option on the National question. Besides, there is no evidence, whatsoever that the US offensive is also going to target the LTTE.

Even those with a nodding acquaintance of international affairs would know by now that the prime target of the US is Osama bin Laden and his group of extremists who are believed to be based in Afghanistan. The Sihala Urumaya is engaging in a bout of wishful thinking by imagining that the LTTE too would be wiped out in the US-led offensive against terrorism.

These recent pronouncements amply prove the superficiality of Sihala Urumaya analyses of the ethnic issue. Peace, it says, is the desire of everyone but this state of affairs can never be achieved until the LTTE is destroyed. This is the delusion which has driven all hardline groupings in Sri Lanka over the past two decades. That nothing has come of it need hardly be reiterated.

Sihala Urumaya perspectives on Sri Lanka, it could be clearly seen, would only help arms manufacturers worldwide, for, an advocacy of war would only help the arms industry and its local agents. Thus is established the close link between war mongerism and the arms trade.

• Editorial of  The Observer - USA and Sihala Urumaya  21.9.2001:

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