The Bishops are in the news, and I am
not referring to the first ever female Bishop in India, if not in South Asia,
appointed recently. In this regard it should be recorded that according to
Vargapurnikava, of the Yakshas, there
had been female Bhikkus or Bhikkunis who had held “high positions” even before
Vijaya came to Sri Lanka. The Bishops who are in the news are the political
Bishops who voice their opinions in respect of the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka. The
Bishops have been in politics for a very long time, whether in Rome, York and
Canterbury in England or Johannesburg or in Colombo and Jaffna. As far as the
Tamil problem is concerned, except for a few Bishops such as the present Bishop
of Kurunegala, who does not see eye to eye not only with many Bishops but with
elite laymen most of the other Bishops have been openly on the side of Tamil
racism. The Bishop of Mannar may be a hero for some of the Tamil Hindus,
especially of those who held high positions in the civil service and foreign
service not during the time of the Englishmen, but after independence, having
obtained their degrees through free education, maintained mainly by the Sinhala
tax payers, but it is reported that the Tamil Christian/ Catholic population in
the Northern Province is growing not at the expense of the Buddhists, but at the expense of the Tamil
Hindus.
It would be a good research proposal for
Universities to study the change of demographic patterns in the Northern
Province on a religious basis after 1976 the date of the Vadukoddai resolution.
The rigid caste system practiced by the Hindu Vellalas may also have
contributed to these changes, and those who shout from roof tops of forcible
Sinhala settlements in so called Tamil homeland or Tamil traditional habitats
would be surprised to find out the change of demographic patterns on a
religious basis. Tamil Hindu population has come down not vis – a vis Sinhala
Buddhists but vis a vis Tamil Christian/Catholic population and Muslim
population especially in the Mannar district.
Unlike in the case of Bhikkus, the Tamil
Hindu Priests are not vociferous and the Tamil Bishops have taken upon
themselves the “independence struggle” from the so called Sinhala government.
Even in India it was the Christian/Catholic priests who gave the leadership to
the Tamil movement, and it should not be forgotten that the separatist movement
in India commenced in Madras Presidency under the leadership of the Bishops.
Jayalalitha is only continuing with the work initiated by the Bishops, and we
are heading for a greater Tamil Eelam with the tacit of the westerners. The
greater Tamil Eelam with or without Jayalalith would not be Hindu and its dominant religion
as well as culture would be Christian headed by the Bishops. The recent letter
by two hundred and five Tamil Christian/Catholic priests to the members of the
United Nations Human Rights Council indicates where the struggle is heading.
It is unfortunate that the Tamils are
being used by the westerners against the Sinhalas, especially the Sinhala
Buddhists, and some of the Bishops are not working towards any “reconciliation”
in an acceptable way. In Sri Lanka the Tamil “struggle” is in the hands of the
non Hindus, and very often one finds the peace vendors among the Sinhalas to be
Marxists, ex Marxists or Christians/Catholics. These people have the knowledge
stemming from the western Judaic Christian culture and very often even the
Sinhala Buddhist nationalists are restricted by the concepts created in the
west. The very concept of “reconciliation” is one such example where the
Sinhala educated people (essentially those who are educated in western theories
and concepts) are taken for a ride without the latter realising that they are
led up the garden path.
The South African Bishop Desmond Tutu is
mentioned often in connection with the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka, especially
when it comes to so called international investigations and Reconciliation and
Truth Commissions. We have stated that the international investigations are
nothing but partial investigations, the international meaning a bogus
international of western countries. It is the western Judaic Christian culture
that is behind the problem, and there is no point in instituting such an
investigation. If the TNA, especially the Anandi faction that is only a proxy
for the dispersed Tamils in the west who are in turn are manipulated by the
western countries led by England, and the Bishops insist on an “international
investigation”, the Sri Lankan government and the Sinhala people could oppose
it as the “international” biased against the Sinhala people and the government. The prosecutor who
does not even has a list of witnesses wants to be the judge as well, and nowhere in the world
except those controlled by the west such investigations would be permitted.
When the Bishops clamour for an
“international investigation” it is considered as a step in the right
direction, without considering the biased nature of its fakeness. However, the
Sinhala people and the government of Sri Lanka are not allowed even to oppose
such investigation and the latter is accused of turning away from “good
governance” and “accountability”. Sri Lanka is a better democracy than England,
the country that gave the modern Parliament to the world. The English people
are fed up with the democracy and the turnout at polls is low compared to that
in Sri Lanka. The government is
accountable only to the people of the country, who elect the government, and not
to the “international” which is another name for the colonial powers.
Who is accountable to whom is a question
that can be debated in the academia, but before any such discussion it would
have been more appropriate if England handed over the wife of Anton Balasingham
who is accountable to many killings that took place in Sri Lanka for more than
two decades. As long as England gives protection to this terrorist who is
responsible for child soldiers and many other violations of human rights we
have to treat England as a country that
is accountable to killings of Sinhala people, even after 1817-18, 1848, 1915
etc.
There has been a terrorist movement in
Sri Lanka supported by the west and India, and the Sri Lankan armed forces have
been able to defeat the terrorists. As the Tamils were used by the colonials
there may be some resentment of the Sinhalas and the government by the former.
However, even this is confined to some parts of the Northern Province and the
Anandi faction cannot influence the Tamils in the Eastern Province.
The west has been trying to reduce the
majority to a minority in Sri Lanka from the third decay of the nineteenth
century and that is the crux of the problem. In South Africa as well a minority
ruled the majority with the support of the west. When the majority of the
people rose against the minority and when it was imminent that the minority
rule was to collapse, the west managed to maintain the minority rule with truth
commissions and reconciliations. Tutu played a big role in this deal and as a
Bishop who would like to maintain the hegemony of the Judaic Christian culture
(Than God that not all Bishops are of the same category as Tutu) he was
instrumental in keeping the minority rule in South Africa in all but name. What
the west wants is a truth and reconciliation commission in the South African
model and we should make it clear that we do not want the experience of Tutu in
Sri Lanka.
Nalin De Silva
2014-03-12