In Sri Lanka there are so many rights
groups very often, if not always, financed by the western Christian countries
led by USA and England, though funds may be directed through other western
countries. These groups are interested in various issues such as freedom of
expression, freedom of the press, freedom to demonstrate on certain issues,
right to protect the human rights, the rights of the minorities, but never in
the right to sovereignty. It is almost a tautology that these groups would not
be in interested in right to sovereignty, and the western Christian countries
would not finance any group to stand for right to sovereignty. The western
Christian countries that pretend to have secular states, with the aid of so called
intellectuals in those countries who make stories (so called theories) on
“secular states”, would go to town demanding that the other countries separate
religion from the state, when not only their states but even knowledge is
linked with a culture based on a religion. The imitators in Sri Lanka and other
countries such as ours, who obtain their qualifications from the western
Christian universities and other institutes in the west as well in other
countries that disseminate Christian knowledge, and who cannot think, would
only repeat what their masters create as knowledge.
The west is only interested in
maintaining the hegemony of western Judaic Christian culture, and uses their
education (and media) to attain their objective. They would undermine even the limited
sovereignty of their former colonial countries, and all their policies whether
cultural, economic or political are formulated with that objective in mind. In
Sri Lanka the western Christian countries would finance only those
organisations that work against the sovereignty of the country. The colonial
policies have taken a different format but in essence they have not changed. It
is not neocolonialism in operation as stated by western “intellectuals” and
repeated by our imitators but nothing other than colonialism.
The western Christian countries were
behind so called peace negotiations and the peace vendors in Sri Lanka financed
by the west were mainly Christian organisations. It is not the ordinary
Christian I have in mind but the elite priests and laypeople who have access to
western finance and aid in various forms. There are few elite, or so they
think, Sinhala Buddhists who would like to call themselves broad minded,
rational objective etc., who supported peace movement, as if negotiations with
Prabhakaran would have brought peace to the country. Those peace lovers, whether
Buddhists or not, who claim now that they are happy that the LTTE was defeated
militarily may be telling the truth. However, at the time of the humanitarian
operations they were against any type of military involvement and wanted peace
talks to continue. If the peace talks continued and succeeded what would have
happened? The 13th amendment that was forced on us by Rajiv Gandhi,
and not by BJP, would have paved the way for an Eelam, undermining our limited
sovereignty. The peace lovers were effectively campaigning to undermine our
limited sovereignty and it was essentially the Sinhala organisations,
especially the Buddhist organisations that wanted the LTTE to be defeated
militarily without getting involved in bogus peace talks. However, it is
unfortunate that none of us in the Jathika Vyaparaya (Nationalist Movement)
wanted the government to abolish the 13th amendment soon after the
Nandikadal victory. It is pointless blaming the government for not doing so
then as the Jathika Vyaparaya itself was basking in the glory of the victory
without planning for the future.
It has to be emphasized that it was the
Sinhala people throughout history who have fought for the sovereignty of the
country, and the tradition is still continued. This is one of the reasons that
the Sinhala Buddhist culture in the country cannot be equated with the other
cultures. The so called independence movement of the national congress was
essentially a Christian movement though there were some elite Buddhists
involved in it, and what they wanted was not even limited sovereignty.
In any event the pundits would say that
sovereignty itself is a western concept and without the concept we would not
have been able to talk of even limited sovereignty. Sovereignty as a concept in
that form would not have been there in the time of Vijayabahu or Mayadunne.
However, throughout history the Sinhala people had fought against foreign
invasions of Chola Cholas, Kalinga Maghas, Portuguese and other Europeans and
are now fighting against the west led by USA and England.
As we have said often the western
governmental organisations (WGOs) are fighting on behalf of the western
Christian countries to undermine the limited sovereignty that the country
enjoys. Though the west was forced to give limited political independence to
Asian and African countries in the forties and sixties respectively, they did
not give up control of these countries economically, politically and
culturally. The WGOs were established by the west in the sixties in order to
propagate western ideology in the Asian and African countries, not satisfied
with the instruments they already had. If scrutinized one would see that these
organisations are working against the limited sovereignty of the Asian and African
countries.
Recently Ven. Galaboda Atte Gnasara
Thera who has earned the wrath of the non Buddhists as well as some enlightened
Buddhists made a very important observation. He said that Buddhists are poor
and nobody would give any aid to Buddhist organisation. There may be some WGOs
that preach Buddhist values but in essence they work against the limited
sovereignty of the country. One of the oldest WGOs in the country fits into
this category and at one time the Head of this particular WGO had aspirations
of becoming the President of the country! The western Christian countries
probably thought that a person clad in white nationals would be able to fool
the Sinhala Buddhists. There are allegations that the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) itself
is financed by the west and if that is the case then Sena is also working
against the limited sovereignty of the country. However, it is not established
that BBS is financed by a western country.
In any event what is important is to
note that the west would never assist any Sinhala organisation that is fighting
for the right to sovereignty. The most important right is the right to
sovereignty and it is the very right neglected by the western Christian
countries as far as the Asian and African countries are concerned. Two
embassies (one of them being a high commission) have issued notices to
expatriates to be watchful of anti western sentiments emerging in Sri Lanka.
The embassies issued this notice only after the Deans Road episode where
apparently some WGOs were involved in getting members of so called Mahavir
families to give evidence before the Navi Pillai committee using modern
technology. The embassies were represented at the centre for society and
religion (CSR) where the episode was held and though the present director of
the centre may think it has earned the respect of all the religious and other
organisations of the country it is not so. The Buddhists of this country have
experience of wolves in sheep skin and
also of shepherds for more than five hundred years, and nobody has to teach the Bhikkus what this
and that organisation stand for.
The Deans road episode is understood by
the majority of Buddhists as an exercise against the right to sovereignty and
the Bhikkus who have fought for independence of the country at least since the
time Mahavamsa was written know when to stand for right to sovereignty. If the
action of the Bhikkus is seen as disruption of freedom to assemble etc., then
there is a section of the Sinhala
people, especially Buddhists who would argue that the assembly was nothing but an attempt to
undermine the limited sovereignty of the country and that they had the right to
go there and express their opposition to the gathering that included officials
from embassies. What right these officers have to join hands with the WGOs
against the limited sovereignty of the country? In fact it could be said that
it was the embassies that were employing the WGOs to work against the limited
sovereignty of the country. Navi Pillai committee is supposed to be a committee
of UN and not of any western country, and there was no necessity for
representatives of embassies to be present at the Deans road episode. In fact
even the representatives of the UN should not have been there let alone representatives
of some western Christian countries.
The Sinhala people in the country are
not anti western per se but they are anti colonialist. If the western countries
continue to follow colonial policies there is no alternative for the majority
of the Sinhala people who could not be brainwashed by the western Christian
education but to identify the west with colonialism and be anti western in the
process of being anti colonialist.
Nalin De Silva
13-08-2014