Commemorate the arrival of the Dutch but never Portuguese or British

Some readers hung their heads in shame. But in my case, the hairs on my skin stood on reading the news item that the government is planning to invite the Portuguese premier in 2005 to commemorate and also celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka.

Taking a cue from the Sri Lankan government no one will be surprised if Russia, Poland and several other European countries will also think of celebrating the 65th anniversary in 2005 of the arrival of Nazi German soldiers to their countries.

The long list of brutal massacres by the Portuguese rulers on Sri Lankans from 1505 to 1653 and forced conversions to their religion can never be forgotten by the Sinhala people. It was recently revealed that some local converts had joined the Portuguese to carry out these gruesome atrocities on the Sinhala people.

There is definitely no harm in commemorating or even celebrating the arrival of the Dutch to Sri Lanka as they chased the Portuguese out of this country and saved the Sinhala Buddhist culture here. The Dutch also banned the religion practised by the Portuguese for more than 150 years. Another reason is that unlike the Portuguese and to a certain extent the British, the Dutch rulers rarely committed atrocities towards the Sinhala people and nor did they engage in destroying Buddhist temples or engage in forced conversions to their religion.

In the same manner we should also commemorate the memory of great Sinhala warriors like King Wimaladharmasooriya, King Mayadunna and Rajasingha the First who fought relentlessly to prevent the Portuguese from taking over the whole country. If the Portuguese had taken over the whole country Sri Lanka today would have been a 100 percent non Buddhist country and our language would have been Portuguese like in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde Islands, East Timor or even like in Philiphines (earlier ruled by their Spanish cousins).

The Sinhala people are a unique ethnic group because they fought for 310 years (from 1505 to 1815) to save the country from invaders. Whereas almost all the countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America came under European domination it is a miracle that after 450 years of foreign domination Sri Lanka still has 70% Buddhist population.

Molrg
Nawala.