THIS NEW YEAR, CHEER - DON'T LIVE THE LIE

There is nothing as germane as the Sinhala New Year to remind the country, particularly in this rather eventful year, of the rainbow mosaic that comprises the Sri Lankan social fabric. This is a harmonious society - and it is a case study of ethno-religious amity and co-existence.

Here in Sri Lanka, Tamils Muslims and Sinhalese live cheek by jowl, and only the outsider envious of that sense of community, is vile. The outsider, and one might mention of course the vile pack that is being paid by the outsider, to subvert that admirable celebration in diversity.

The above opening to this comment may sound disingenuous, or in the least, exaggerated. But the reality is that it is not. It is the objective reality, that the majority of Sri Lankans live and let live or they do better, they live and celebrate the diversity they thrive in.

But it is a vocal minority that is tendentious, and in denial of this objective reality. They seem to have fervid imaginations and their jottings indicate that they suffer from at least one manifestation of personality disorder.

They imagine that the regime is out to get the 'other'. They say that there is a grand plan to suppress the Tamils and demonize the Muslims.

There is no such thing, but this insignificant minority of people wields influence that is disproportionate to their numbers, in part due to the speeches they hear and the influences they imbibe courtesy those such as Michele Sisson the U.S ambassador to this country.

Sisson does not know the meaning of ethnic harmony as she has lived in a country that enslaved a minority of people, literally, at a certain time in her history. She sees dissenting opinions, democracy at work, people of one ethnicity engaging in a healthy discourse with those of the other despite some fraternal tiffs at the margins, and decides that there is impeding apocalypse.

She may have deeper-going reason to be doing this, but in part, she does it probably because she superimposes her country's sad reality of ethnic schisms and continuing mutual suspicion between races, in this country.

It is time we said loud and clear to all who may want to know, that this is not a nation that needs a Tamil President to showcase amity and productive co-existence. That would be unnecessary as there is no Tamil underclass in this country, the way there is an African American underclass in the United States of America, that cannot by and large see itself out of centuries of poverty, marginalization and neglect.

This is a country therefore that's not in need a feel good shot of showmanship in electing a member of the minority the President -- the political equivalent of a drug induced altered state -- to show that we enjoy ethnic amity, and the harmonious blending of the races.

Live and let live, co-exist, celebrate -- all that comes naturally to us. We Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese are in and out of each others' houses. Only U.N reports and fantasy tracts of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International fiction writers hold that that's not the case. One reason being that they have come to believe their own concocted narratives, which makes them inured to any reasonable rendering of the objective reality that prevails in this country ...

If they go to a village and see that the Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils are in and out of each others' houses and are literally celebrating their diversity by adopting each others' customs and sometimes permanently making them their own, these amazed onlookers will decide that such is an aberration.

Those who ape them and parrot what they say on the other hand, know otherwise, but they will disingenuously say that there is diversity in Sisson's country, because they like to repeat Sisson's little imagined narrative as if they are cub scouts that repeat after the leader - Akela we will do our best.

This country has one more reason to celebrate this Avurudu season. Compared to all these crazy people who go about their hallucinated existences believing in the fictional and not experiencing the real, this country's people are living, as opposed to living the lie. That's one more reason to whoop it up, wink at each other and say - we intuit reality, but they can't know it even when it unfolds before their very eyes!