Why Sinhala jingoism is in fact a jinx
The Indian Prime Minister Atal Behar Vajpayee has called for elections early. While India's SAARC partner Sri Lanka is contemplating elections as a way out of an ugly struggle India's imminent poll is as a result of upbeat economic forecasts.

The Indian economy is growing at a rate of 8 per cent. One might argue that this is the Hinduthva government of Vajpayee, and that despite all the religious slogans raised by him, the country has managed to progress. It might also be argued that Sri Lanka needs a Vajpayee-like government which looks after majority Sinhala interests while also delivering on the economic front.

But Sri Lanka is a small kid on the block compared to India, and is therefore more vulnerable to the machinations of various diabolical political forces. For example, the Americans have always been claiming that there is no strategic or other interest that America evinces in Sri Lanka.

But the American President also said that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which necessitates the US led war in that country. Turns out that there were no such weapons of mass destruction - a fact now acknowledged by the Bush administration and most everybody in the world. If the US President cannot tell us the truth about Iraq, there is no reason the United States should be trusted to tell us the truth about Sri Lanka. If America says it does not have strategic interests in this country -- there is reason to believe the Americans are lying.

A recent survey on the peace process in Sri Lanka, returned a clear verdict along these lines. An overwhelming majority of those questioned said that America is involved in the peace process to further its own interests.

So, it is a good thing that American credibility does not stretch much. But, be it the Americans or any other force - - a regional power or otherwise -- it has been very easy for external powers to get Sri Lankans to rise to the bait of destabilising their own country and sabotaging their own interests.

Such a destabilising hand is quite visible in the recent happenings in which there is an attempt to create unrest around the issue of unethical conversions. Though there were justifiable concerns on Defence, and though there were apprehensions that the LTTE was being allowed to run riot in the North and East at the cost of the human rights of other political entities and civilians in these provinces, couldn't this situation have been addressed without having to overturn and annihilate the entire process?

Clearly the Sri Lankan psyche does not see issues in the perspective of economic development and the overall prospects for the country. The quality of the argument in national newspapers including the English newspapers during the entire contretemps that followed Ven Soma's death bears out that Sri Lankans display a naïve tendency to see issues in one dimension.

The passing of the popular Buddhist monk brought out the self destructive in the Sinhala psyche because the reaction was an absolutely simple minded one of playing into the hands of mischief makers interested parties and the LTTE.

There have been newspapers comments since then which have claimed that the LTTE is in active collaboration with the elements attempting to whip up Sinhala jingoism in the wake of the cry against conversions. This column will not go so far as to say that the LTTE is involved without any clear evidence, but there have been comments which have raised the possibility that the most prominent member of the Sri Lankan judiciary who took on a legal crusade against unethical conversions now has visions of presenting himself as the compromise candidate at a future Presidential election!

Obviously, there is a political campaign that's seeking to ignite the unethical conversions issue as a means of creating a convenient conduit to power. Anybody is free to do anything to aspire to power within democratic limits, but if that's going to create instability and stymie the nation's progress, that's a different matter.

If the Buddhist majority does not know that it is playing into the hands of the foreign and subversive elements which want to destabilise this country, then that's as bad as blindly condoning unethical conversions. There have been some very slavishly simple minded tracts in some newspapers which have advocated the line that converting is like some market process - and that if other religions have something economically advantageous to offer, and if the Buddhists convert for mercenary or other dubious advantage, then that's kismet for the Buddhists.

It is almost as bad as saying that anyone is free to propagate religion even if he holds a gun at a person's head. Those who convert for money are taking advantage of a liberal culture and value system, and there is nothing ethical about converting in exchange for pecuniary reward because that will only be testimony to the fact that the people of this country are willing to offer themselves up for cultural molestation. It's as bad as saying they can take our wives and daughters over for prostitution if they want to, because that's also governed by the rules of the market.

But, slavishness and masochistic religious enfeeblement aside, there is no case to play the conversions issue out of proportion and make it a national bogey which can be used by the crafty to destabilise the country, and their agents to jockey themselves into power.

This is why the Indian example with which this article began is important, because even though Vajpayee is a Hinduthva advocate, he has been able to keep the nation together and direct its fortunes towards progress and economic growth. But India is large, and its market has been flooded by the Americans. Instability there has been eschewed by the big powers.

Not so in Sri Lanka in which big powers regional powers and the whole lot see an instrument for propagating mischief in the region. Sri Lanka is a satellite nation with which to keep India in check, and India sees Sri Lanka as a neighbour which has to be kept from being a satellite of a big power. Caught between these kinds of designs directed at it from all sides, Sri Lanka's progress has always been stymied at take off point. It is happening again - which is why Sinhala jingoists should look smart before they begin to beat their breasts not knowing that in the process they are playing smack into the hands of the nearest agent provocateur on the prowl.

Back to Top

Back to Columns

Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.