The Sinhala nation and the sudden rush of blood
There is general agreement in this country on one thing. It is that our politicians have earned their disrespect. Last week has been the week of denial. The President has been saying that the quibbling is for nothing and that there is no real constitutional crisis. But this is like seeing an elephant ten feet in front of you in a narrow alleyway and saying you cannot spot it.

So, no matter how many rationalizations politicians and their lackeys invariably make, it is a fact that the people have decided that Sri Lankan politicians are an avaricious self centered, incompetent lot in the main. Refer to the Letters to the Editor columns in newspapers if any Martian who landed in Colombo yesterday needs any confirmation on that.

But, while politicians have thus earned this moron status, it is questionable to what extent the people contribute to this phenomenon as well. In the main it can be said that the people are a wretched lot; wretched because their politicians have not had a vision and because they have practised a brand of raucous tub thumping parochial politics which has created deep fractures within our community.

But it had often been said that the people get the kinds of governments they deserve. This is to some extent like saying that a child is to blame for the "original sin'' he is born with. That used to be the flawed logic of all child psychologists of a certain time who were of the view that it's ''the original sin'' that makes infants do the exact opposite of what parents tell them.

But, now it's known that "the original sin'' is healthy and that a child's natural sense of wonderment at discovering new things lends him or her to do the things that are most annoying to parents.

So before launching onto more psychobabble it's probably correct to say -- in the main again -- that Sri Lankan citizens are not to blame for all the disasters that have been visited on them courtesy their politicians. It's not their original sin.

But the critical mass of opinion has never been heard above the political rabble. Look what's happening now in the country. If Tamilnet reports are correct, persons were assaulted at Ven. Soma Thera’s funeral a couple of weeks back, on the basis that they looked Tamil or appeared to be Christian.

Then, there is a certain gung-ho anti Christian sentiment that's building up to a climax. It's a basic case of a majority community feeling prickly and irritated. It's coming at a time when there is no war, and there are no LTTE suicide hit squads in Colombo. When there was a war, the garrulous majority leaders had retired into their shells. Perhaps the report of the bombs going off was so deafening that it drowned out the anger of the prickly majority! Such short memories.

The brave Sinhala majority has had a sudden resurrection now, that they are no longer cowed and are hiding from LTTE suicide squads. As long as these bombers were there, majoritarian rabble of all hues from Saffron to deep red were all taking shelter and heaving a collective sigh, feeling lachrymose and hopelessly sorry for the Sinhala race. But now that the LTTE hit squads have released their iron grip of terror over Colombo, the jingoists have smoked themselves out of their rabbit holes, and all the cowards are back on the streets slugging people who look Tamil or appear to be Christian!

This is how brave the Sinhala urban cowboy is. The aggrieved (those who lamented that the Sinhala race is being bombed into extinction and formed rear guard organizations such as the National Movement Against Terrorism as a last resort against annihilation of the Sinhala race) have now turned aggressor (Tamil basher, Buddhist aggressor or church burner..) now that LTTE bombs are no longer going off from under their ample behinds.

Though the majority Sinhala community is not responsible for this turnabout - and though the majority Sinhala community essentially wants to get about its business peacefully and not get enmeshed in any kind of politicking -- the majority Sinhala community and the rest of the peaceful members of this society have been unable to get the lunatic fringe out of its way.

True, it is the lunatic fringe that creates problems out of nothing, or rises to the bait of some foreign hand that wants to create dissension in our society with various religious and communal bogeys. True, any country will have a lunatic fringe that will rise to this bait.

But, whereas any country will have a critical mass of opinion that's capable of getting this lunatic fringe to keep its lunacy to itself, the lunatic fringe here often morphs into the mainstream. It can be called the utter gullibility and apathy of mainstream Sri Lankan opinion. To that extent, even if Sri Lankans do not deserve the politicians they have got, it seems they have earned their lot because:

a) There is no people power as in the Philippines to get charlatans and political pretenders out of power b) Eventually, whatever people power is there is in the form of the lunatic fringe. Civic consciousness equates to lunatic consciousness. The current cause of the lunatic fringe is to open up a new front in national discord and acrimony -- ie : a religious front.

There may be a problem with unethical conversions, but the majority community can handle that issue without going into an apoplexy that will tear the nation apart. But the seeds of animus have already been sown in the lunatic fringe by interested parties; maybe a foreign hand. What's interesting is to watch the lunatic fringe in the process of transforming itself into mainstream.

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