by Nalin de Silva
The Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe is scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart and the other Indian leaders next week. It is said that he will seek the assistance of India to solve the so-called ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. The English educated Sinhala upper middle class and the middle class, in general, slowly but surely getting behind the government to advocate peace. They together with Mr. Anandasangari and company in the TULF and the TNA claim that the Sinhala people have voted for so-called peace talks when the facts and figures, tell a different story. As we have shown in these columns the majority of the Sinhala people have voted for the PA and the JVP and the other parties that campaigned against the UNP and its so-called peace proposals.

When taken into consideration the votes received by the UNP through Messrs. Arumugam Thondaman, Rauf Hakeem and others like Mr. Maheswaran the MP who was elected from the Jaffna district it can be safely concluded that the PA and the JVP and the other parties have obtained at least three hundred thousand more Sinhala votes than the UNP (F). The Sinhala people have not given a mandate for so-called peace talks and people like Mr. Anandasangari and the so-called educated among the Sinhala middle class and the upper middle class have no right moral or otherwise to interpret the election results according to their political leanings. It is strange how some of these middle class and upper middle class have changed during the last few weeks. Those who were branded as "war mongers" have all of a sudden turned out to be supporters of the "peace" move of the government. They now maintain that they have been always for peace and claim that the Sinhala vote is a mandate given for "peace". It is not only the middle and upper middle class that have changed.

Even the temples that these middle and upper middle classes are associated with have changed. About four years ago when I said that these temples were associated with some members of the middle and upper middle classes I was thrown out of the National Joint Committee. Very soon we would know whether the stand taken by them against the package of the PA government was genuine.

Before proceeding further I must make a clarification. The majority of the Sinhala people are not against peace. They are for peace, but not for the peace of Solheim and the west, nor for the peace advocated by the NGO’s, nor for the peace preached by the Bishops. Peace is a relative term like anything else and different people have different versions of peace. Let us go to the fundamentals. It is always easier and better to start from the beginning so as to get a clearer picture of anything, than quoting others who have spoken in a different context. The western English education in this country, in general, has produced a set of imitators with notable sterile minds since the so-called Colebrooke- Cameron reformations and the fate of this country is unfortunately decided by these children of Colebrooke. The "Buddhist" schools, again in general, could not produce a set of people who could challenge the children of Colebrooke for the simple reason that the Olcott Buddhism had separated the Sinhala part of Sinhala Buddhism of Dutugemunu and Dharmapala. These schools have upto now failed to produce a Prime Minister or an Executive President and their products are very happy being deputies, imitating and finally themselves being Children of Colebrooke. (It is not implied that producing a President or a Prime Minister is the yardstick of evaluation of success.)

In the context of Sri Lankan politics peace depends on the problem that the achievement of "peace" is going to solve. According to the children of Colebrooke who incidentally paved way for the present problems in the country with Cameron, there is an ethnic problem due to the injustices caused to the Tamils (Mr. Rauf Hakeem would say the other minorities as well). The President, Ms. Kumaratunga takes pride for being the first leader to admit the injustices and problems of the Tamils. The children of Colebrooke, supported by Olcott Buddhism, have while weakening the Sinhalathva among the Sinhalas have worked to create a Tamil racism against the Sinhala Buddhist culture in the country. The western Christian education in Sri Lanka (with the support of Olcott Buddhism) has been successful to a certain extent to separate Buddhism from Sinhala and we have produced so-called Buddhist leaders who would misquote from Suttas to show that there is no nation. Long before Benedict Anderson the Theosophist "Buddhist" leaders who presided over "Buddhist" education in this country were talking of the myth of nation. In their enthusiasm for internationalism they failed to realise that according to Dhamma even humanity is a myth. Humanity as well as "I and mine" are only concepts and if one is to discard nation as being a myth then one should deny "I and mine" and not talk of one’s achievements. The western Christian education among the Sinhalas had a negative effect as far as nationalism is concerned. It devalued Anagarika Dharmapala and even today products of this education in the form of Historians, Sociologists, Anthropologists, Political Scientists and even "Buddhist scholars are burning mid night oil to devalue Mahavansa, Dutugemunu and the rest. On the other hand the western Christian education among the Tamils have created a Tamil racism against the Sinhala Buddhist culture. The Hinduism of Tamil vellalas that failed to unite the Tamils due to its strict caste system has been replaced by a Christian ideology (there is no difference between ideologies and theories and even narratives. They mean the same thing being creations of the human mind in answering (formulating) questions and solving problems.) and with the displacement of the Vellala leadership with a Karivar leadership the Tamils have united politically in this country.

What we have in Sri Lanka is a Tamil Christian racism and not a Tamil Hindu racism. Some Hindus have realised this. For example Ms. Arundathi Rajasingham writing to "The Island" of 27th April 2001 says: "Hindus need to refute the ideology of pro LTTE outfits such as Tamil Net. These organisations use the rhetoric of 20th century "Dravidian" nationalism, to belittle Hinduism.

This nationalism owes much to missionaries such as Bishop Caldwell, Rev. G. U. Pope, Rev. Percival, Rev. Schwarz, Father Heras, Father Gnanaprkasar and Father Thanninayagam. The missionaries selectively interpreted early Tamil literature to detach Tamils from the Hindu mainstream........ This colonial historiography was essentially a political exercise to divide India and Sri Lanka. The British supported the creation of the Justice Party based on a narrow Tamil jingoism to counter the Indian freedom struggle led by the Indian National Congress in the 1930s. The British also supported Mr. G.G. Ponnambalam and the Tamil Congress in Sri Lanka until it became clear to them that de-colonization was inevitable...... Proponents of Tamil separatism have had a disproportionate Christian presence. Tamil Net with its intimate links to the Tamil service of BBC reflects this bias." (It should be noted that the so-called peace movement in Sri Lanka has a disproportionate presence of Christians including the born again Christians.) While the remarks made by Ms. Rajasingham are applicable in the case of India as well, in Sri Lanka we have seen that how the work of the missionaries in the ideological plane has made its impact in the political field through the leadership of the Christian Mr. SJV Chelvanayakam.

The western Christian education has managed to detach Tamils from the Hindu mainstream. Among the Sinhalas they tried to separate Buddhism from Sinhala Buddhism with the assistance of Olcott Buddhism. However unlike in the case of Tamils Sinhalas had become a nation long time ago during the reign of king Pandukabhaya and became Sinhala Buddhists during the time of king Devanampiya Tissa. During the period of king Dutugemunu Sinhala Buddhism went through a metamorphism that blended the Sinhala nation with Buddhism which did not take into consideration any caste differences. The caste system of the twentieth century Sinhalas was not that rigid and the attempt by the British to promote Durava, Salagama and especially the Karava castes against the Goigamas did not succeed. In fact these castes rallied round Sinhala Buddhism of Dutugemunu and Sinhala nationalism under Anagarika Dharmapala was gaining in strength until the arrival of Olcott Buddhism. However, even Olcott Buddhism has not been able to destroy Sinhalathva though it has weakened it considerably.

While the Children of Colebrooke among the Sinhala admit that there are injustices to the Tamils the Sinhala Buddhists (not the Olcott Buddhists) have shown that there are no problems that the Tamils face in this country due to their Tamilness.

The problem in this country is not the injustices to the Tamils but the Tamil racism with a Christian ideology. Tamil racism attempts to deny Sinhalathva its rightful place in Sri Lanka. LTTE is only the armed wing of Tamil racism and with the formation of the TNA, LTTE has been strengthened.

Those who claim that there are injustices to the Tamils tried to distinguish between Tamil moderates and terrorists. However, that is not possible now as the TNA accepts cowardly that the LTTE is the sole representative of the Tamils. Those who have been brainwashed by western Christian education to claim that there are injustices to the Tamils want the peace of Solheim and the western Christian countries, which is not different from the peace by NGOs dominated by Christians. They want so-called peace talks with the LTTE, one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the world. We challenge those who claim that there are injustices to the Tamils to specify these so-called injustices.

The west is fighting terrorism against the western Christian civilisation and not terrorism in general. They have now defeated Talibans and are looking for bin Laden. In the meantime Israel has gone to the extent of naming Arafat as an enemy. It is not because Arafat is engaged in terrorist activities against Israel but apparently he has failed to stop terrorist activities by other Palestinian groups against Israel. India after the terrorist attack in the Lok Sabha has said that they will fight against terrorism. But, in Sri Lanka India and the west want the Sri Lankan government to start negotiations with the LTTE.

It is easy to understand the position of the west, that created the problem in Sri Lanka by baptising Tamil racism in the country. Tamil racism has a western Christian ideology and the Christian west will not take any strong action against the LTTE. But why does India while fighting against terrorism in that country insisting that Sri Lanka should have talks with the LTTE. Is it because of the Tamil vote in Tamil Nadu? What is not understood by India is that the ideology of Tamil racism is not based in Hinduism and as such it is a threat to India as well. Tamil racism is only marking time with respect to India and with the assistance of the west that shares its ideology, will one day turn against India, once they achieve what they want in Sri Lanka.

Th Sinhala Buddhists who see the problem as Tamil racism with a western Christian ideology, hell bent on depriving Sinhalathva its due place in the country want peace that is dawned after defeating the LTTE militarily. Tamil racism that has been defeated on the ideological plane has to be defeated politically and its off shoot Tamil terrorism militarily. It is wrong to say that the Sinhala Buddhists do not want peace. The peace they want is a more lasting peace and because of that the majority of Sinhalas have voted against the UNP(F). It is unfortunate that the Sinhalas do not have a leader who could tell the world fearlessly that the

Tamils have no grievances in this country but an aspiration to deny the Sinhala nation, Sinhala language, Sinhala history and Sinhala culture, in short Sinhalathva the due place in the country. As far as India is concerned, by assisting Tamil racism which is against Hinduthva, it is only digging its own grave. There is a Sinhala proverb that goes as "labbata thibba athamay puhulatath". The hand of Tamil racism with a Christian ideology will be on India soon. It is only a matter of time and it is not late to have a dialog between Hinduthva and Sinhalathva on how to defeat Tamil racism and its off shoot Tamil terrorism.