HATE TO SAY THIS, BUT…

The latest hobby among the ‘Colomban’ – nothing to do with the edible Northern Kartha Colomban – elite is to go to raptures emphasizing that many, an unspecified number of Sri Lankans, are engaged in a campaign that represents a ‘wave of hate’ against the Sri Lankan minorities. So they have organized what they think would be a chic counter protest that has been apparently got together with hasty messaging on Twitter and social media.

There is nothing wrong with a counter hate campaign even when there is no hate, palpably, by any community aimed at any other community in Sri Lanka. But what’s wrong is when an anti-hate campaign organized by people who think they are ‘beautiful’ ends up as a tirade against the Sri Lankan majority Buddhists and Sinhalese, who are not responsible for racism in any shape or form. What’s galling also, is the use of these anti-hate campaigns for spewing politically motivated venom against the elected Sri Lankan regime.

The latest ‘pacifist’ campaign of this type ended recently with an interview given by a former ambassador to Paris who told the perky but always wrong BBC correspondent in Colombo Charles Haviland, that he is joining a campaign against hate directed at minority Muslims and Christians. Former ambassador Jayatilleka ended up saying that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) later this year should be an occasion for pro-democracy campaigns, and something also to the effect that the participating countries should offer Sri Lanka ‘conditional support’, instead of isolating the country by boycotting the proceedings entirely!

It is not as if ex-ambassador Jayatilleka has a choice in the matter. The CMAG didn’t so much as take up the Sri Lankan issue at its recent London deliberations, and the fact is that the issue of venue change for CHOGM is absolutely off the table.

Under these circumstances the question of offering ‘support’ of any sort for CHOGM by and large does not arise, as the matter is settled. It’s germane to state that this is because the Commonwealth leadership in its wisdom thought that there is nothing that is going on in Sri Lanka to spend sleepless nights over, despite the fact that there are some very hyper-hateful-people in all parts of the world that are fulminating at the mouth about the post-war progress in our country.

Apparently according to Jayatilleka, there is a ‘garrison mentality’ in this country that has to be resisted. Some garrison that – one that encourages Lonely Planet to state that in 2013, Sri Lanka is the number one country in the world to visit!

There are others that write about how we Sri Lankans should watch British produced movies to understand that categories of race and religion etc., are not permanent. The recommended movie is ‘The Reluctant Infidel’. This is as if people are told to read up on Howard Jacobson’s Finkler Question to be able to understand that some Jews who are circumcised also want to rid themselves of their circumcision by masturbation - because they feel that they are too oppressed by their ‘reviled’ Jewish identity.

Thanks but no thanks, we Sri Lankans would say. We Sri Lankans are comfortable in our skin thank you, and the bottom line is that Sri Lankans overwhelmingly celebrate their plurality, though there is a rascally fringe that tries to depict them for sinister political and personal reasons, as haters and isolationists.

Sri Lankan Sinhalese who are in and out of the homes of Muslims, do not need a foreign movie or Howard Jacobson’s writing to celebrate their plurality. They have for centuries been fond of co-existence, and happy about celebrating diversity in contrast to the cold Canadians and Westerners in general that have a history of enslavement, of genocide as colonial powers, and general xenophobia. Yet the Colombans march against the ‘hating’ Sri Lankans. These people must badly hate themselves, to be unable to see the beauty and civility in our society, despite a few minor aberrations over time that are minor in scale compared to the racism of the Canadians that are calling for a boycott of CHOGM, cheered on by Sri Lankans who want the limited engagement of ‘conditional support.’