Say No to Racism!

Remember the days when Sinhalese used to suspect Tamils? The days when your children would leave home and you’d be worried if they would return peacefully? All those bomb scares, and horrific bus rides? Those check points at every town that made you feel like you’re a suspect?

That’s all behind us now, after thirty years of bloodshed and terror. Tamils and Sinhalese have finally joined hands and they’ve just begun to work towards the development of the country. Ambulance sirens no longer make us worry about what might have happened; crackers are no longer mistaken for bomb blasts (admit it, we’ve all freaked out at some point!) Sri Lanka was becoming a safe haven, an example to the rest of the world. But of course, politics will always intervene to ruin that.

Any Sri Lankan with a basic knowledge of our own history will know that the civil war began as a protest to what certain political sects were doing to discriminate Tamils. In the Government’s attempt to ensure that Sinhalese received a good education and thus received respectable positions in society, after we gained independence, the politicians also managed to take it too far by openly discriminating Tamils. Tamils were killed, estate Tamils were not granted citizenship, and Sinhala alone was to be the national language with no regard to Tamil. So you see why, in the end, thousands died unnecessarily to end a war that needn’t have even started, had it not been for how short sighted (and basically, stupid) our politicians were.

Even though the LTTE was considered to be the most brutal terrorist group in the whole world, we managed to defeat them and become united. That took three entire decades of suffering. Thirty years of soldiers sacrificing themselves, wasted funds and sheer terror, which I’m sure we’d all rather forget. Remember the day when the war was finally announced over? That sense of relief, freedom and joy that flooded all of us? Just as Sri Lanka was putting that dark history aside and moving on, politicians stirred up another cause to “fight” for, which will only get worse if it doesn’t end here.

But this time, the politicians are Buddhist priests.

Buddhism, a philosophy that promotes nothing but equality, respect and compassion, is being disgraced by men who parade around in saffron robes, claiming to do the religion a favor, when all they’re actually doing is invoking hate in the minds of those who are unintelligent enough to want to believe the lies they spread.

If you’ve been following the news recently you would’ve seen videos of the Bodu Bala Sena members accusing Muslims of all sorts of things. There was also the incident of Buddhist priests burning down a popular clothing store (which was owned by a Muslim person, in case that wasn’t obvious enough to you). These priests were both verbally and physically abusive to the police who were trying to get the situation under control. Where’s the respect for other people?

There have also been cases of priests raiding mosques, as well as an incident where a monk exposed himself as an insult to the place of worship. What sort of an example are they trying to set on people? Buddhism doesn’t promote violence, yet look at what these religious leaders are doing…

I don’t mean to sound discriminatory, but monks belong in the temple, where they’re supposed to preach the religion to people, in order to make them better citizens. Buddhism clearly denounces politics, yet you find these ‘monks’ doing the exact opposite! And let’s not forget all the perks that come along with being a politician, which are not supposed to be enjoyed by priests given that they’re supposed to lead a simple life. But of course, these disgraceful excuses for monks do nothing but mock their own religion, with everything they do.

I have seen pictures of children carrying boards with slogans such as “Say no to Halaal”. Hatred is being sown into the younger generation…the generation we had hope in, to make a better future for Sri Lanka. But if adults themselves can’t be exemplary, how can we expect children to do better?

Mahatma Gandhi once said “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ”; it is clear that certain people are disgracing themselves by claiming to be Buddhists even though they promote racism and violence. The entire world has its eye on us, what with all their claims that our war caused human rights violations. Do we really need to give the UNO another reason to accuse us of something that can be avoided?

If you do recall, the entire population of Sri Lanka was united in an effort to help each other right after the Tsunami struck us in 2004. There was no separatism, just the common goal of escaping that terrible situation. No one worried about whether the donations came from Tamils or Sinhalese, it was all focused on developing our country. So imagine this scenario:  if another Tsunami was to hit Sri Lanka and a BBS member was about to die and the only way to survive was to accept the helping hand of a Muslim, are you telling me that the politician would rather die? I think not.

These particular Buddhist priests are nothing but a hindrance to our country, but it’s not too late for us to turn it around. Don’t, in any way, condone racism because that brings nothing but destruction. We don’t need another war, just four years after we got out of one.