REAL PEACE AND HYPOCRITES' PEACE, THIS CHRISTMAS ...

On this Christmas day multitudes world over will no doubt use the opportunity to give thanks that the world did not end, and that life goes on despite end-time predictions.

While there would also be the normal good cheer expected at Christmas, however, there is a question begging to be answered about how 'Christian' people are in their general outlook. Is there anything 'Christian' for instance, about soliciting for millions of dollars from foreign funding agencies, and trying to by hook or by crook, oust an elected government that has banished the scourge of terrorism and let peace prevail in order that we are able to surpass the Maldive islands in the number of tourists we draw annually into this country?

Is asking a question of this sort decried as a needless politicization of Christmas, and the spirit of religiosity and piety associated with this time honoured and tradition-bound holiday?

Not so, because, for example, there are English newspapers that specialize in sloganeering for 'peace' and brotherliness in this country, that make such questions curiously pertinent. There isn't a Christmas or some other religious holiday that does not prompt such newspapers to emblazon the message of 'peace' right above the masthead on the front page, in very eloquent though sometimes rather overzealous terms.

Such messages of peace are easy. They can be clapped off the keyboard with the same speed that they can trip off tongues, these sweetly worded homilies about peace in the community, or paying true homage to the 'Prince of Peace.' But, the perspectives touted in these newspapers each day, seem to encourage anything but peace -- and therein lies the rub!

The subtle advocacy in these newspapers is for Arab Spring style regime change, of getting onto the streets, and of disturbing the hard won serenity of the real and tangible peace! Welcome then, to the industry of blessing with one hand, and cursing with the other -- of making rousing calls for peace on the outside, and creating the atmosphere for anarchy and acrimony in fact, by deed.

The fact is that the peace that these people hankered after in their mushy newspaper slogans is a reality in this country after decades, and the people are enjoying the dividend of that outcome. When it is said that Sri Lanka has surpassed the Maldive islands in terms of tourist arrivals, this is no empty slogan, it is hard fact.

It represents a hard fought gain, for which many sturdy youth paid with their lives. The people on the streets enjoy this peace, and they are improving on this bounty, and building good lives despite the prevailing hardships due to the global economic downturn and its repercussions being felt here in this country, despite the substantial peace divided.

But what do we have - - we have the newspapers that were sloganeering for peace, carrying teeth-gnashing tracts that subtly beat the war drums of discord by sowing seeds of discontent and calling in ever so subtle terms - - and sometimes not so subtle terms - - for an Arab Spring, in an entirely peaceful and resurgent country whose people have been released from the damnation of war and destruction.

The quicker the hypocrisy of such peace merchants is exposed the better, and this is one of the most upright thoughts that people can entertain on this Christmas day, because this is the message of Christ too -- a Prince of Peace who had a special hatred for hypocrites. Christ chased away the money changers from the Temples, and he did so with a rare show of aggression; he actually turned their tables over and chased them away from the Houses of Worship they had been desecrating in the guise of Holy Men and religious leaders of his time!

The hypocrites that proselytize for peace in their newspapers but clamour for destabilization anarchy and in effect bargain for war, are in the same leagues as those biblical shaman.

They are in the same league also as the 'peace' merchants who call their organizations National Peace Councils but with every action of theirs, in fact, subvert the hard won peace, and attempt to chip away at the peace divided by creating needless apprehensions and divisions among people striving to get along after decades of struggle and confrontation.

It's is hard not to wish a plague on such people's houses but in this spirit of this Christmas season, let us wish that these folk are guided and a light shone through some divine providence at the least, to put them on the path to real righteousness, and not self-righteousness -- the hallmark of the typical brand of humbug Jesus Christ so hated.