A LITTLE LEARNING IS A
DANGEROUS THING
It's ironic, and painfully, almost pitifully so. Those
who seem to shout the loudest about the danger of ethnic
polarizations between Sri Lankans of the Muslim community, and
of the majority Sinhala community, are those who seem to be
contributing the most these days to the very dangers they
sternly decry. There is a breed of self-regarding, even
narcissistic seminar room types who have been going around
propagating the view in the last few days and weeks that the
current Mahinda Rajapaksa regime is supremacist and triumphal,
inference being that it is the regime that is in tacit or active
fashion, encouraging the polarizations (assuming there are any)
between the Muslims and Sinhalese.
Wittingly or unwittingly, these people encourage regime hate
and hate of the Sinhala majority by uttering these platitudes
which are patently false, if substance was anything they cared
about.
Their theories generally go in this direction -- they say
that the Sinhala majority/majoritarian government won the war
against the Tamil Tigers, became triumphalist, and as a result
of this triumphalism, let loose a Sinhala hegemonic tendency
which radicalized certain persons who have been baiting minority
communities. The final accusation that usually accompanies this
litany, is that the regime that somehow encourages Sinhala
supremacy and the baiting of minorities, also tolerates the
misguided actions of these radicalized segments of the Sinhala
population i.e.: the Bodu Bala Sena etc.,
This is of course to lump all of the already exaggerated
incidents of ethnic frictions together, and lay responsibility
for these squarely at the government's door.
Obviously, either mischievously or otherwise, or wittingly or
unwittingly, these people are promoting a viewpoint utterly
divorced from reality that can at careful perusal be termed
undiluted fiction.
The 'radicalization' of certain miniscule and insignificant
sections of the Sinhala community did not take place in the
sequence that these people try to say it did. There was no
regime aided triumphalism that led to Muslim baiting after the
war, in other words.
What in fact took place which anybody with anything called a
memory will remember, is the slow infiltration of so called
radicalized and jihadist Islamic groups in the eastern province
for instance.
For example there was the attack on a mosque in Beruwala -
and who could forget that the perpetrators were not Sinhalese?
The cause was internecine rivalry between what was apparently a
newly emergent Muslim sect rightly or wrongly referred to as
Wahhabist, and Muslims of a more traditionalist and moderate
persuasion.
The first alarm bells on Muslim radicalization -- at the
fringes of the Muslim community of course -- were rung by
orthodox Sri Lankan Muslims. Then others such as United States
embassy intelligence officials, we are aware, were sensitized by
the activities of these radicalized so called jihadist elements,
the US waging a war on terror and on Al-Qaeda and all that being
considered.
Sinhala radicalization, again, it has to be remembered,
taking place in the fringes of the community, happened as a
result of this initial burst of Muslim fundamentalism which in
fact irked, or rather rudely disturbed the orthodox Muslims
before it did the Sinhalese.
That Sinhala fringe elements got agitated in this context is
not something that comes as a surprise. This comment on no
account claims that overreaction to alleged fundamentalist and
jihaidst tendencies on the fringes, is a good thing.
But it is to be expected that some sections of society would
react more agitatedly than others. It is up to the authorities
and the saner sections of both communities to keep the
radicalized elements on both sides controlled.
That's an entirety different matter. But, what's surprising
is when the so called learned, go around claiming that Sinhala
supremacist tendencies in the regime are causing needless ethnic
polarizations.
In the context of the recap of events above, it is earnestly
wished that the know-it-alls desist from propagating canards
against the regime which are tantamount to inciting hatred
against the largely innocent Sinhala bystanders and their
leadership that is innocent of this careless charge of causing,
aiding or abetting alleged Sinhala radicalization.
|