My Good Friends, The Sinhalese-Up, Close And Personal
July 31st, 2007
by J.B. Muller
The Island of Sri Lanka in South Asia is inhabited by many different communities of people. These differences range from ethnicity to language spoken to religious affiliation to culture and a broad spectrum of other intangibles.
These differences all contribute to a cosmopolitan society and that means that it is multi- this, that, and the other in a bewildering mixture of ‘markers’ as identities merge and re-emerge.
As numbers go, the largest community is known as the ‘Sinhalese’ and they generally speak Sinhala and follow the Buddhist way-of-life. They are generally divided into Low-country Sinhalese and Kandyan Sinhalese. They also adhere to the caste system especially when it comes to marriage and the latter group more than the former.
Education, political favour, the adoption of Christianity [in one of its several forms], and opportunity worked together to create a class system that made an uneasy bedfellow with the ancient caste hierarchy. As Dr. Kumari Jayawardena puts it so succinctly, ‘Nobodies became Somebodies’ in the 19th Century during the heyday of the Colonial Era.
The Sinhalese are a generally peaceful, unaggressive people with a settled way-of-life. Their social intercourse and religious life are governed by rites and rituals, customs and traditions, and superstitious beliefs as old as Time itself.
Nothing important is done without consulting astrologers, soothsayers, and diviners who would dictate the exact time that anything important should be done, especially marriage. When a child is born, an astrologer is consulted and a horoscope cast that is supposed to foretell the child’s future in detail.
Those things being so, everyone comments favourably on the ever-smiling disposition of the Sinhalese. They are welcoming and hospitable, extremely tolerant [up to a point]. Upper caste Sinhalese are courteous but distant and give the distinct impression that they aren’t as friendly and hospitable as the so-called ‘lower’ castes.
Since Colonial times, they are also very ‘class’ conscious considering themselves to be of the ‘upper crust’ of local society and members of the upper class.
Long association with the Sinhalese reveals another facet of the Sinhalese character: Their lives are weighed down with an unspoken grief, of unrelieved sorrow and a constant fear of the future-tomorrow just might mean sudden death and destruction! This morose or gloomy outlook colours everything they do or say.
Underlying this generally pessimistic outlook is their belief in the Hindu-Buddhist doctrine of Karma or fate and the endless cycle of rebirths it postulates.
That belief is also grounded in the cardinal Buddhist principle that birth is sorrow, life is sorrow, and that death is sorrow-in effect, that life itself is sorrow and the sole endeavour of the human being is to seek escape in Nirvana or nothingness. This system of belief goes to create a melancholic character that finds itself unable to produce spontaneous, ebullient joy.
Indisposed to expressing any form of real happiness, any feeling of satisfaction is controlled by a seriousness of manner that at most, becomes a smile.
Traditionally, their songs are religious; their dancing is homage to either the Buddha or to the innumerable gods they worship, and their music is dedicated to the same purpose.
The entire gamut of what is known as ‘Kandyan,’ ‘Sabaragamuva,’ and ‘Ruhunu-rata’ dancing is religious, much of it to propitiate various gods, evil spirits and demons.
The popular songs of today are a recent phenomenon drawing its inspiration from the secular music and songs of the West, and here again, the melancholic preoccupation with unhappiness and sadness come through strongly: Love, it seems is a tragedy full of sighs and regrets, moans and groans, as this miserable life uncoils painfully in Samsara.
Then, they are extremely artistic and its expression in something as temporary as tender coconut fronds (go- kola) or something more enduring as granite. Whether it is wood carving, textile weaving, terra cotta ware, ivory, bone, horn, silver or gold, the artifacts turned out are beautiful to behold-some exquisitely so. The mind, the eye, and the hand work together in harmony to bring forth rare delicacy in conception and form.
They have painted delicate frescoes of rare attractiveness and composed elegant poetry. The script of the Sinhala language is, perhaps, the most beautiful in the world and it is phonetic in that it could express almost every sound known to man.
Do the Sinhalese possess a sense of humour? Do they crack jokes? Do they play practical jokes on each other? By and large the answer to all three questions is ‘No,’ they are much too serious and take life too seriously for that, usually misunderstanding any humour as a subtle attack on their innate dignity and also as pointless frivolity.
They do not possess restless, peripatetic spirits given to wandering. On the contrary, they are very settled both in their villages and in their ways. Though occupying an island athwart the major shipping routes from ancient times there are no records that witness to the fact that they became a seafaring nation. Their experience of the ocean has always been restricted to coastal fishing. They generally make hopeless employees abroad with their constant sighing for home and family.
The ties of home, family, and the extended family of uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, and nephews is very strong and binding and especially those social markers of a birth, of a girl coming of age, of marriage, and death and overlaying all this, that of the self-respect from generation to generation personified in the family name that fixes an individual’s ‘place’ in society.
My good friends, the Sinhalese, have been rudely torn from their age-old moorings by time, circumstance and the relentless march of history. Much like the decline and fall of the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Mayurans, and the Han Chinese, their ancient civilisation was driven into the wilderness by the repeated invasions of the aggressive South Indian dynasties contending for territory, command, and control over potential rivals.
The destruction of the Heartland and the drift to the southwest disrupted the way-of-life that had developed over many centuries. Insular by nature they withdrew into themselves even more and to such an extent that when the Europeans arrived this Island was ruled by many petty princes each claiming to be supreme overlord over the entire Island.
That arrival is the most pivotal event in the modern history of Sri Lanka and it had a profound effect upon all the Sinhalese. Indeed, five hundred years of European domination, each power more dominant than the earlier one has had a telling impact on the life and lifestyle of my good friends, the Sinhalese. Indeed, they have found adjusting to the new order painful and complicated, even onerous in many respects.
The New Order imposed from outside and from above (with the use of force or the threat of force for non-compliance) paid scant respect to their beliefs, rites, rituals, ceremonies, customs, and traditions, all of which were most unceremoniously relegated to the past to be forgotten.
Alien languages, methods of instruction, and new vocations quite foreign to their nature were introduced. Everything from architecture, administration, attire, military structure, land administration, religion, introduction of exotic varieties of flora, cuisine, furniture, dance, drama, lyrics, songs, literature, and system of justice, was introduced and modified where necessary to suit both rulers and ruled.
If anything, the tragedy that has befallen Sri Lanka has awoken them to the ground realities that now obtain and that is that Sri Lanka is irreversibly a multicultural, multireligious, and multilingual polity moving gradually towards a mature, secular democracy that respects human rights.
Though we call ourselves the ‘Democratic, Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka,’ my good friends, the Sinhalese prevented this country from truly being that. It could in no wise be called ‘democratic’ if it denies 30 per cent of its population their fundamental human rights. Many segments of that 30 per cent are not represented and their voice is not heard in any forum. It is certainly far from ’socialist’ if we mean the welfare and wellbeing of its entire people.
My good friends, the Sinhalese, should take a long hard look at both their strengths and weaknesses. They should place Mother Lanka first above all narrow, parochial concerns and work to clean up this almighty mess.
When they join all communities to unitedly march to the rhythm of ONE drumbeat, then we’d love to stand, shoulder-to-shoulder with my good friends, the Sinhalese, sing our beautiful National Anthem with resonant voices and really make this ‘that other Eden,’ a ‘land like no other’ in which we could live, love, and die peacefully.
Entry Filed under: transCurrents NewsFeatures
27 Comments Add your own
1. Preethi | July 31st, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Very good work. But I do not agree with cast system as it is not so important to today sihala people.
Also I think most destuctive rulers are British ( during 1818 uprising) and becuase of that we lost our rice bowel to tamils and muslims.
Becase of sinhala people tolarance towards other ethnities ( even after war with tamil we allowed them to stay in any whre they want or when prtugees try to kill muslims kings allowed them to settle in east area where no portugees power), we are face current day situation.
2. fuckface | July 31st, 2007 at 10:23 pm
hey fuck face, stop writing bullshit and lies, if you DONT, I WILL start writing bullshit about tamils how they used to collect newspaper and glass bottles and pick the tea plantation…wait a second, they still do. THe proud sinhalese nation will fuck all you tamils in the ass until you bleefd from the ass and cant take a fuckin shit, you fuclin faggotl.
EDITORS NOTE: WE HAVE STATED EARLIER THAT WE DO NOT POST COMMENTS OF AN INAPPROPRIATE NATURE WRITTEN IN OBSCENE , FILTHY LANGUAGE. THIS COMMENT HOWEVER HAS BEEN RELEASED IN ORDER TO ILLUSTRATE TO OUR READERS THE DESPICABLE DEPTHS TO WHICH THIS SO - CALLED “SINHALA” CHAMPION HAS DESCENDED TO. WE CALL UPON THIS PATHETIC CREATURE TO REVEAL HIS TRUE IDENTITY WHEN WRITING COMMENTS OF THIS NATURE. WE ARE SURE THAT THIS PERSON HAS NEITHER THE COURAGE TO TAKE UP OUR CHALLENGE NOR THE DECENCY TO FEEL A SENSE OF SHAME AND APOLOGISE. WE ON THE OTHER HAND ARE SORRY FOR OFFENDING OUR READERS BY PUBLISHING THIS LOW< THIRD _ GRADE COMMENT.
3. Jay | August 1st, 2007 at 12:10 am
The first part of the article (about 75%) was really on the ball, it gives a great insight to the Sinhalese society, at least to the lower middle class & below, predominantly Buddhist. I thought this melancholy is due to the ongoing war, poverty & the two crushed uprisings, but Mr Muller thinks otherwise. I may be gullible, but I think he is correct, we are & we have been a sad lot, which could be attributed to Buddhism or mis-understanding of it. That’s why as kids, young adults & youths we loved to hang around with other communities, especially, Burghers, Colombo Chettys & those wonderful Sinhala Catholics from Moratuwa. Only when I left Sri Lanka that I realized how sad we were & how much we are wasting by trying to be too serious about life. When Jothipala sang “Lets cherish the life without regretting yesterday or worrying about tomorrow” we used to hate the fellow!!!
4. N | August 1st, 2007 at 12:14 am
The Sinhalese are ‘ever smiling’ but at the same time ‘morose’? Also J.B. Mulller who I’m sure is a great and distinguished anthropologist seems to not really understand the concept of the “Four Noble Truths’
Of course going on his generalizations Burghers are a bunch of child abusing, alcoholics (source Carl Muller’s autobiographical books) and the Tamils are prone to blowing themselves up.
Is this article serious or tongue in cheek?
5. Sinhaya | August 1st, 2007 at 2:47 am
Recent victory is against TERRORISM is a good example that SLA can defete LTTE by War which is the only language they understood!
Then everybody can talk about Democracy.
Shall We join hands for defeting LTTE!
Eradicate terrorism from the world
Make a better place that you and me can live together!
6. mal | August 1st, 2007 at 3:51 am
Is J B Muller a Sri Lankan ?
Interesting reading !
While reading the article, the word stereotyping came to my mind many times !
Then came utter nonsense:
“It could in no wise be called ‘democratic’ if it denies 30 per cent of its population their fundamental human rights.”
With all its faults, for a third world country struggling economically, Sri Lanka is a model democracy for the rest of the third world which the international community should try to preserve and foster but not allowed to be destroyed by terrorism.
If any other country had one tenth the size of threat of terrorism Sri Lanka has, they would have eliminated such terrorism in a flash while suspending almost all democratic rights if they have to. By and large, the Sri Lankan governtments have been much too nice (this does not mean they have been perfect). For example, we know what Canada did to control a handful of ameture terrorists in the early 70’s. Any other western country would have acted the same way and they do except Sri Lanka (is not allowed to by the international community).
When the international community is spending billions of dollars and thousands of live on creating a democracy in Iraq, it is so ironic that the same international community is letting a 60 year old model third world democracy destroyed by terrorism!
One has to lose something to start appreciating it I guess ! Then it could be too late?
7. Ranjan | August 1st, 2007 at 7:59 am
J. B Mullar,
I do not know your real motives. But I would like to comment on your following statement,
[ It could in no wise be called ‘democratic’ if it denies 30 per cent of its population their fundamental human rights. Many segments of that 30 per cent are not represented and their voice is not heard in any forum. ]
Who are this 30 percent of the people you are talking about? As far as we are aware every person living in the country except those living under the cluctuches of terrorism in the North and East have their fundermental rights represented and their voices are heard. If you are truly talking about that people who can open their mouths only to eat, what you have to do is to support current government’s effort to irradicate terrorism from Sri Lanka.
Thanks.
8. Lanka Putra | August 1st, 2007 at 8:12 am
I think this is a nice start. Let’s think all over again. This is the short history but there are many more thing to add.
-Lanka Putra
9. dharma | August 1st, 2007 at 9:28 am
Actually you have done a great job I know sinhala peope cared about cast in the past but no more Anyway this article is areal life of sinhalese.But due to some bad situation sinhalese cannot bear the patient more. but they are still waiting patiently A good job
10. sam | August 1st, 2007 at 11:50 am
Good post. You have a view of a standup comedian (I mean it good way). Admire that.
I kind of like the way you only use the word ‘Sinhalese’ and not the world ‘Tamil’ or ‘Muslims’ anywhere. It make it seems like Sinhalese cause the mess we are in right now, just because they are Sinhalese. Nice illusion.
I hope one day you can write “up, close and personal” about Tamils too – it could be quite interesting. That is what actually we need, Good look at inside ourselves. Well. I understand if you scared if you write about Tamils. I mean, you don’t want to end up like Thiruchelvam or Kadiragaman too. I know Tamils prefer to kill people who write about Tamils. Sinhalese, well, we are cool.
Like to see more of your posts.
11. dushy | August 1st, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I like the way the author has written this piece and I also have read the comments above. First of all, I disagree with the comment that we are a melancholic people with no sense of humour. This is not true at all!! Just because Buddhism teaches that Nirvana is the anly way to peace, I don’t see all Buddhists scrambling down the path Lord Buddha showed. This is only because they’re human and it’s quite difficult not to be materialistic in this world! (By the way I am ashamed to be from the same race as F***face. Really he/she should learn to articulate their views more politely)
The commentries above state that many Sinhalese do not care about the caste system now, but they certainly do when it comes to marriage!
And finally I honestly think that comments like the ones above show why we cannot come to a peaceful solution.Why do we always think that the we the sinhala people are the only ones targeted? Innocent Tamil and Muslim people are victims of this war too. Do you even care how many Sinhala, tamil and Muslim children get killed in the border villages? Is this war their fault?
No one is winning this war except the politicians who have turned it into a goldmine. The money which could be used to develop our poor country is spent on arms and ammuntion. Why can’t we as the majority of the population, force the politicians to put and end to this? Because deep within there are people who think that this war is fair and all minority people should be our slaves!!
12. mal | August 1st, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Dear Editor,
I hope ALL of us “civilized” people will condemn what “fuckface” has written in the strongest possible terms. ( I wanted to call him/her the scum of the earth but thought I would stoop to his/her level if I were to do that. By the way, these people are everywhere in every community all over the world. Let’s just hope that the numbers are small).
I am a belieaver in all communities living together. It really does not matter if the “fuckface” is a “sinhala racist” or racist LTTE or a “tamil racist” or for that matter some other “racist” trying to drive a wedge between the two communities. The reality is, these kinds of statements hurt feelings and do drive a wedge between the communities.
We know that there are racists in all communities. “fuckface’s” statements simply prove that s/he is a racsist no matter what “ethnicity” s/he comes from and the statements add nothing else. Given this situation, I am wondering if it is better not to give them a platform to display their filth and racism ? I probably think that the editor must have struggled on whether to publish or not and I am NOT blaming the editor for publishing this. Let’s not divert the blame in any way shape or form from where it deserves, the “fuckface”.
However my bigger question is, how do those of us who believe in living together fight any type of divisive activity, not just this type ? It seems a huge challenge and an uphill battle. I don’t have many good answers other than to say just don’t be a racist and be caring towards your fellow human beings. Hope some one else would share his/her better thoughts here.
Lastly, let me thank the editor for providing a forum and letting us express our views.
13. M-Aluth,, | August 1st, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Nice work.Very interesting.Sinhala people are very generous and good hearted people…They help each other..
But..unfortunatly..Tamil people cannot understand about it.
Good start.I am very happy about it…I am so far from my country…I felt so happy about the artical…Thanks.
14. dias | August 1st, 2007 at 7:39 pm
While the author has rendered a broad description of the Sinhalese disposition, he/she has overlooked a very important aspect of the Sinhalese — collective social fear (or insecurity). And it is mostly due to this quality, the Sinhalese, in the first place, got themselves in to this mess and it is for this same reason they cannot get out of it.
Immediately after independence, wealthy Sinhalese elites perceived the political demands of their highly educated Northern Tamil friends as a systematic plan to dislodge the Sinhalese and replace them with Tamils from then poverty stricken Tamil Nadu. They also viewed the post-Independent UNP administration as a Catholic dominated entity and were frightened of the prowess of the Roman Catholic Church. They feared that the financially powerful church would make Buddhism, over time, obsolete. Driven by the fear of a potential Tamil-Catholic dominated Ceylon they set about on a deliberate strategy to create a new society — a society based on a Sinhalese-Buddhist identity. Using their wealth these elites mobilized Sinhalese Buddhists at the grass roots level by establishing thousands of small Buddhist centers around the country. Upon generating a sufficient power base through these centers, next, they embarked upon looking for a leader who could champion their cause, Singhalese-Buddhism. In SWRD Bandaranaike they found such potential and promoted him to become their patsy leader. The rest is history.
In the 1950’s, these were England educated Sinhala Buddhist elites who simply got very frightened and way over-reacted. In the 2000’s its their Sinhalese descendants who are repeating the similar behaviors but importantly, for the identical reason - fear - fear of loss of identity, fear of loss of Buddhism, fear of separation, and fear of eventual extinction. Their motivations are rooted in fear not as some suggest because the Sinhalese are a racist lot.
As much as the author is requesting the Sinhalese for a “harder look” at themselves, the Tamils should give deep consideration to the reasons for Sinhalese fears and extend to help them alleviate these. Until such time that both do their parts expect more of the same agony for all. And we ever do, may be we can sing our beautiful National Anthem with resonant voices inclusive of Tamil verses imbedded in it.
15. H | August 2nd, 2007 at 3:27 am
Is the paranoia of the “Sinhalese” deliberately perpetuated by the Buddhist Clergy to ensure they can maintain their power base?… similar to the manipulations by the Hierarchy in Rome that initiated thousands of massacres in Europe and the middle east.
16. H | August 2nd, 2007 at 3:35 pm
In comparison to other people in South Asia, the Sinhala people are far less cast concious. Buddism may be a reason for this. A sound English education on the oter hand carries more weight, if anyone needs to complain! The cast concious nature of the other comunities in Sri Lanka and the rest of South Asia is perhaps well known and does not need mentioning.
17. Kevin | August 2nd, 2007 at 8:53 pm
This f… face should not be allowed for his filty post.He sould be banned from the forum.
18. Naga | August 2nd, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Hey, there is no need to get nervous about the rantings of the “………face” for they are dime a dozen in the gutters of any society, be it Sinhalese or Tamils. The specimen might have inherited this from a cross-breeding technique of both sides, who knows? He may look like an idiotl, talk like an idiotl and write like an idiot, but dont’ let that fool you. He really is an idiot!
19. Lanka Putra | August 3rd, 2007 at 2:18 pm
This Transcurrent editor shows again his partiality towards gun carrying Tamils. By deleeting my entire 2nd comment which I made after him deleeting my 1st comment, shows again and again that there is no space for discussion in Tamil society.They only know the language of Gun.
Both my comments were made in order to start a discussion on what happened and what should we do now. I thought Mr. Muller’s article is a good start because it reflects how we were in past. How we were exploited is the next step we should discuss and eventuall we could come to discuss why we were stuck with JVP & JHU.
Equally similler discussion shoud be within Tamil society. But shame on you editor! you have no balls to carry on that disscussion. Shame on you!
-Lanka Putra-
20. nathan | August 4th, 2007 at 10:01 am
As one who was in the University of Ceylon in the fifties, in two university hostels in colombo, with close interaction with my sinhala colleagues, I can say that they never had any fear of a “post independence UNP administration as a catholic dominated entity” according to Mr dias above.
There was ot course hysteria generated people like NQDias, in the media, but noone took this seriously.
When the Sinhala Only bill was passed, it was the consensus that secondary and university education was going to suffer.
Much later, the effects of ’sinhala only’ began to be felt when newly graduated subordinates unable to read,write and speak english found themselves to be misfits in the public service - in medical,engineering,scientific & other disciplines which needed english knowledge to keep abreast - and underwent severe humiliation.
SWRD changed his religion & dress and used “snhala only” as a shortcut to political power and thus ruined future generations - even among the sinhalese - and the effects are being felt to this day.
21. Nandasena | August 4th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
One thing J.B.Muller did not mention is the STRANGE MENTALITY of the sinhalese politicians and the average sinhalese people.. They piously worship and make vows to hindu temples. But when the security forces and their goondas target the hindu temples, hindu priest or the pilgrims, they remain silent. Numerous hindu temples,christian churches were bombed and distroyed. I am yet to hear any action taken by the politicians or any concern shown by the average sinhalese!!
Mahinda Rajapakse took great pains to enter the Guruvayur temple, but he does not care when hindu temples are destroyed in Sri Lanka!!
22. K | August 5th, 2007 at 3:39 am
I would like to congratulate Muller on an interesting and thought provoking piece. Obviously it has ruffled the feathers of a complete ignoramus claiming to represent the interests of the Sinhalese.
His threats to do to the rear of the Tamil citizens of this country has been what his like minded politicians have done to the wider Sinhalese population from the time of independence. Their bigoted and short sighted policies in the name of protecting / enhancing the rights of the Sinhalese has led to the following;
-Sinhalese now own less proportion of national wealth than in 1948
-Sinhalese make up smaller proportion of graduates than 1948
-Sinhalese own less proportion of private land than in 1948
The list goes on and on.
As Sinhalese we should all get together and say no to sham Sinhala supremacists. We should look at our inner weakness etc as pointed out my Muller and help forge a new national bond brining all communities to live together peacefully as they did for generations.
23. mahaththaya | August 5th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
this modarator is cutting off anything against tamils… I think this blog is operated by a LTTEer
24. J.B. MULLER | August 7th, 2007 at 8:44 am
“My Good Friends, the Sinhalese,” Part2, is under preparation and I’m grateful for the comments posted including that of F…face, who represents the typical, ignorant and uninformed bigoted chauvinist found in Sri Lanka. However, he represents a miniscule lunatic fringe that no community would tolerate under normal circumstances. He only displays the ugly and distorted face of racism, majoritarianism, and supremacism that is abhorrent to all normal, rational human beings whatever their ethno-socio-cultural, linguistic, and religious affiliations. Indeed, the Sinhalese need to do some deep soul-searching about their present and their possible future given different scenarios. If they do not do tis they may suffer the same fate as that of the Babylonians, Sumerians, Macedonians, Akkadians, Egyptians, and other ancient civilizations that went into decline and disappeared off the face of the Earth. As a Burgher married to a Southern Sinhalese from Galle I have no racial pretensions of either ’superiority’ or ‘inferiority.’ In actual fact, the concept of ‘race,’ per se, is biologically untenable and does not stand objective scientific scrutiny. Scientific surveys that sampled the different communities in Sri Lanka a few years ago found the similarities outnumbered the differences, which were mainly linguistic, religious, and cultural, and certainly not biological! By interbreeding on this Island home of ours we have developed and accentuated certain common characteristics that could identify us as SRI LANKANS. Politicians and so-called religious mentors created the dichotomy of ‘majority’ versus ‘minorities’ for their own ends–the exercise of power, the ways and means to use that power to plunder the national exchequer and aggrandize themselves and their hangers-on. they are the ones who created ans sustained divisions–to teir own advantage. Today, after almost 60 year’s of independence (from what?) they have succeeded in creating a huge pool of ‘natthi-barris’ and their own group of ‘athi-hakkis’ to use the succinct terms coined by the late Ranasinghe Premadasa.
I teach English to professionals (Bachelor’s degree graduates) of all communities who now realize, with some consternation, that they have all been defrauded of a decent future by the post-56 language policy and the imbecilic stupidities foisted on an unsuspecting population by acutely myopic but crafty politicians.
Wake up! My fellow Sri Lankans and look at the ‘Big Picture’ and you’ll realize that the Path led to a cul-de-sac, a dead end, and surely, F…face is one of the denizens of that dead end with no future in either this life or the next (if s/he believes in one).
We, whether we live in Sri Lanka or overseas, must work together to build a new Sri Lanka FREE of chauvinism, bigotry, extremism, and majoritarianism–if we don’t do so, WE HAVE NO FUTURE WORTH DISCUSSING!
25. DerekA | August 23rd, 2007 at 12:17 am
Congratulations, Mr Muller.
For the rest …
1. FlickFace and LankaPutra are typical of the Sinhalese that are allowed to rampage by the ruling (Sinhala) class. They are in fact the visible end that the SInhala masses (example “N”) not-so-secretly foster, as demonstarted in 1957, 1983 and 2001. The armed forces are 100% Sinhala, and full of these brutes, much like any armed rabble anywhere. The point is FrogFace is not a rarity, it is a defining part of the Sinhala culture, and thus “Sri Lanka”. That is the reality one has to deal with. Some one has to tell the Sinhala that as human beings they cannot do that, and unfortunately the Venerable Bikkhus are doing the opposite.
2. The comments are even more telling than the Article (excellent in itself). They prove that it is not one country. There are two (discussed here) races.
3 That the Sinhala ended up with a majority in an artificially ascribed “nation” is a recent event that is in the process of being changed. As the writer has stated, they are unable to accept change.
4 The fight is much deeper than this article, which I do not believe the writer intended to address.
5 If “Sri Lanka” means what it has been since 1947, there is no such thing as a “Sri Lanka” to which we can be complete and total citizens, I left Ceylon just after it was Sinhalised for economic reasons, and hundreds of thousands have left since then, mostly because the SL govt does not protect and nurture all its “citizens”. If that changes, there may be a chance of a “Sri Lanka”, until then it is an artefact that is held together by force and at great expense.
6 All of us who left, recognised, and departed the very Dead Ends that the writer identifies. Thirty five years later (I have visited that beloved place I grew up in), the Dead End has been cast in concrete, and is awash with blood, apartheid, racism and genocide. You are right, We do not have a future.
7 Taking up arms to defend oneself against genocide is exercising their right to life. They do not need the permission from the Sihala people or the Sinhala govt to do so. Defending oneself without a gun; and demonising anyone just because they have a gun is hilarious. Anybody who cannot accept a different point of view (under the tragic guise of “patriotism”) is simply proving just how narrow-minded and uneducated they really are.
8 For those people who are governed by simple thoughts, then the men with guns and bombs blowing up thousands of innocent civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands in the East, are “terrorists”. Let’s all get together and stop these murderous rampaging FlockFaces.
26. DerekA | August 23rd, 2007 at 12:37 am
Re the comments either misunderstanding or countering Mr Muller’s point on democracy. This is typical of the Sinhala primitive naive understanding of democracy:
- that the majority will always win (in a war)
- that the majority understands and will take care of the minorities (in spite of 50 years of escalating violence … disenfranchisement … pogroms … displacement … genocide)
“Sri Lanka” cannot belong to a democractic people unless the people are being treated democratically. It is currently, and by evidence, neither a democratic people nor a democratic country. While the Sinhala people hold the idea of an unitary island close to their hearts, whilst not giving voice, power and protection to the minorities, it is not a democracy [unless like the Sihala that Mr Muller writes about, they have their own darling definittion of the term!], it is failed state with thirty five years of evidence to that fact.
27. DerekA | August 23rd, 2007 at 3:25 am
Re the Sinhala melancholy in particular, and the cultural inferiority complex (as identified in comments) in general.
In my considered opinion, the cause is DENIAL, of a culturally ingrained form, and thus deeper and less visible than other cultures based on denial (eg. the Nazis, current America). I will state this as clearly as I can because
a. there is no obvious reason why the Sinhala cannot do as well as other South Eastern Asians and
b. I earnestly want them to do well. In the long term, it is successful races that can afford to be generous and pragmatic (victims who are forever grasping what little they have cannot afford to give anything away [even if what they have is not theirs to give] ).
On the surface it looks like stupidity or hypocrisy, it may even be noticed as envy of others, but dig a bit deeper and you will find a pathological denial. Eg.
- denial of the fact that both the Sinhala and the Tamils are recent (2500 years) migrants who colonised the island (we were all Indians and Hindu then)
- denial of the fact that except for (a) the rule of a colonising power and (b) a tiny period in history and much taunted Sinhala conquest, the Tamils and two separate Sinhala kingdoms have lived here for 2500 years, and that most of that has been without war
- Tamils and Sinhalas have a long history of fighting side-by-side against outside forces
- it is stultifying blindness to repeat tiny selective extracts from history while denying the whole of it
- an almost religious belief in a “Sinhala Island”, in denial of the facts of history
- that they are nice Buddhist people who tolerate the Tamils, denying that the Tamils were [a] here first and [b] have always occupied the Nort and East, and denying the fact that the Sinhala have killed hundreds of thousands of Tamils in the last 50 years
- balming others for their life circumstances while denying their actions that caused it (we lost our rice bowel to tamils and muslims)
- singing songs about being the best in the world while denying that it is officially and failed state, the worst of all its neighbours in anything from human rights to GDP
- believing shamelessly in the next Sinhala supremacist politician, even though every single one in the past has made life worse for both Sinhala and Tamil, which by evidence means they believe in the ideology that the politician triggers
- the belief that one race is superior to another denies the equality of human beings
- A childhood full of staggering contradictions such as “your father is beating you because he is a Good Person and he loves you”
- rampant child abuse that is denied by the witnesses as well as the perpetrators
- practiced promiscuity while espousing chastity
- espousing Buddhism and the Four Noble truths, the essence of which is too look inward for answers, while actively blaming everyone but oneself (I would say the the Sinhala are in active denial of Buddhism, in many ways)
- lying, which if it needs definition, is denial of the truth as one witnessed it
The current situation that the Sinhala find themselves in, is the karmic return for these (amongst others) crimes, as denial is a crime of the mind. One has to somehow consciously and actively focus on one subject and ignore another, both of which are readily evidenced. After a few years, it becomes automatic. From specific experience in Australia and Canada, the Sinhala are now famous for crimes of deception, and the Tamils are not., why is that ?
Denial is form of Lying, therefore it is no surprise that freedom and power (in ones life, not anothers) begin with the first spiritual principle: honesty (stop lying in all its forms).
And due to the mercy of God (and this is expressed in different form in the Four Noble Truths), the moment one turns inward and looks for how one contributed to ones circumstance, which implicitly takes responsibility for it, one is ordained with the power to change it. But until then one remains a complete victim, experiencing some temporary relief by perpetrating the real or imagined crimes perpetrated against us, against some new other, projecting that victimhood outward, while desperately denying the abject condition inside that actually created it. The way the Sinhala prolong and enjoy the suffering of others is telling and must not be ignored.
The wheel of life, until one learns.
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