“It is the western tradition that demolished the temples in Sri Lanka and other countries and this so called humanist tradition has been weakening if not destroying the cultures other than western Christian in the world. For RMBS destroying other cultures may be humane but for the vast majority of people in the world there was nothing humane in the western tradition of trying to destroy the other cultures. The so called aborigines in Australia and New Zealand, the Indians in the Americas, have almost disappeared from the earth thanks to the humanist western tradition.”
________________________
by Nalin de Silva
(July 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) R. M. B. Senanayake has decided to ride his hobby horse of attacking Sinhala Buddhist nationalism again. Obviously disgruntled by losing some of the privileges he and his tribe had enjoyed before fifty six he pours venom on Mr. SWRD Bandaranaike and the so called Sinhala Chauvinists and the majority populists etc. He probably would want the populists to be ostracized following the Athenians. He speaks of we and other concepts and Garibaldi and Obama, not to mention the good man Ranil W. who deserves the admiration of Mr. RMBS and the tribe, and who has lost his way amidst the cacophony of nationalists.
RMBS wonders whether upholding of Sri Lanka nationalism by Ranil W. may not be based on the latter’s Christian background although he is a Buddhist. His response to Mrs. Ann Abeysekera on 5th July clearly shows his educational background based on western concepts and his hatred against the Sinhala Buddhists. He seems to be very much worried that the artificial Sri Lankan identity he has in mind is dead as the fate of Prabhakaran in whom the anti Sinhala Buddhists had high hopes is now sealed. I would say that the concept of Sri Lankan identity that RMBS and his ilk has is not dead but was stillborn. I must add that there are other concepts of Sri Lankan identity that would eventually emerge in spite of the spite of RMBS towards the Sinhala Buddhists. Before I proceed to analyse the response of RMBS, let me point out that RMBS and his ilk are allowed to write on Sinhala Chauvinists but others are forbidden to mention Tamil racists as it could hurt the feelings of Tamils. This implies that the feelings of the Sinhalas could be hurt but not those of the Tamils. I would not call it discrimination but it only reflects how careful our editors are in their editing. I am afraid my response to the response of RMBS is going to be somewhat lengthy and Michael Roberts and the other historians would have to wait to read the next part of "on history". However, in the present series of articles they will find reference to the so called philosophical discussion between two "heavy weights" in Social Sciences Charles Abeysekera and Newton Gunasinghe on identity as a Sinhala (Tamil) person, though neither has contributed any concept or theory to their chosen disciplines.
In the first paragraph of the response RMBS mentions two matters. I would not call them facts as it could give a different meaning to them. He says Mrs. Abeysekera has shown from her personal experience that Sinhala nationalism or Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism is entirely a matter of feeling and emotion rather than of rational thought. According to him such nationalism is caught not intellectually grasped and that it is caught from the social environment where society is stressing ethno-religious identity in an emphatic way. He also says that in the past in the social environment she and he grew up, the social environment was not dominated by the Sinhala-Buddhist ethos. To him it was a more humanist tradition that they inherited from the West.
I will first consider the second. I am a few years junior to RMBS, though I am myself a senior citizen now, and I belong to the generation that saw the transition from English to Sinhala/Tamil with respect to the medium of instruction. The social environment I grew up was dominated by the western Christian ethos and as a child and an adolescent I felt it very much. As the eldest son of two Sinhala school teachers who were compelled by the social values dictated to them by the society to give their sons and daughters a western education, I had to come to terms with the dreaded kaduwa reluctantly. I did not find it a humane exercise, and English was a subject I hated from the primary school. I am not ashamed to say that I was weak in that subject and that even today my English is not good, and I have no intention whatsoever of improving it as I am satisfied with my present knowledge of English with which I can expose the hypocrisy of the English in particular and the west in general, not to mention their imitators in Sri Lanka. If the Europeans had not gone to the other countries with the blessings of the Pope to dominate and suppress the others, I would not have been a de Silva and I would not be writing this article in English, and I might even say that I would have been a happier person with less belongings that include western degrees, one awarded by the University of Ceylon that has ceased to exist. The western education, I must say has come in handy in this society dominated by western ideas, concepts and theories to gain "recognition" and to find employment in the Universities, though some disgruntled academics who taught nothing but Vijathika Chinthanaya and who did not like me teaching Jathika Chinthanaya, successfully kept me out of the Universities for more then ten years. The "humane western tradition" would not mind sacking a person simply for the reason that he/she is teaching not only what they want him/her to teach. If anybody doubts my statement he/she could consult Dr. G. L. Peiris who as Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo wanted to find out from me why I was teaching Jathika Chinthanaya. I had to ask him why I cannot teach Jathika Chinthanaya if the others were allowed to teach Vijathika Chinthanaya. Dr. Peiris was kind enough to ask me whether I wanted to continue with teaching at the University. I do not blame Dr. Peiris as he was only serving his masters in the west, and did not know what he was doing.
When I had to study western science (at that time I did not know that it was western science as western science was taught as "The Science" at the schools and the universities), I came across the not so humane response by the Pope and the others in the Catholic Church to the work of Galileo and others, though I now understand why the Church had to react the way it did. Galileo, da Vinci (remember da Vinci code) and others in Italy during that period called "renaissance" and soon after that, were involved in what we call a Chinthana Viplavaya, that resulted in the replacement of Catholic Chinthanaya by the Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya. If RMBS has not read on Chinthanaya in the books by the learned scholars from the west, it is not my fault and he may find it very inhumane to read most of the literature on Chinthanaya in Sinhala which is not a so called international language. To refer to the humanist tradition inherited from the west is not different from referring to Ranil W. who was a cabinet minister in the bheeshanaya days, as a good man who lost his way amidst the cacophony of nationalists. There may not have been white vans then but people, especially youth continued to disappear only to "appear" as dead bodies along the roads and in the rivers. The tyre seya, Batalanda and even the Law Faculty buildings of the University of Colombo have not been forgotten by many people, though presently the JVP may be in truck with Ranil W. The human rights heroes of today probably do not mind the tyre seya as it was mainly the bodies of the Sinhala Buddhist youth that were burnt along the roads. In fact the present day heroes were conspicuous by their absence and it was left for one Mahinda Rajapaksa to raise the matter in the Parliament and in other fora.
It is the western tradition that demolished the temples in Sri Lanka and other countries and this so called humanist tradition has been weakening if not destroying the cultures other than western Christian in the world. For RMBS destroying other cultures may be humane but for the vast majority of people in the world there was nothing humane in the western tradition of trying to destroy the other cultures. The so called aborigines in Australia and New Zealand, the Indians in the Americas, have almost disappeared from the earth thanks to the humanist western tradition.
The irony is that though Pope was against the Chinthana Viplavaya there was nothing that he could do to prevent it from taking place in Europe, and finally England became the nursery of the new Greek Judaic Christian (GJC) Chinthanaya which not only western science but even Capitalism is based on. Today the Pope has no choice other than to serve Bush in addition to God to keep Vatican going. The GJC Chinthanaya was no more humane than the Catholic Chinthanaya, even if one goes by the wars fought between different countries having the same GJC Chinthanaya. Have we forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki in connection with the humanist western tradition? The countries of the GJC chinthanaya were also involved in suppression of the others and what is most disturbing is the hypocrisy resorted to by the western Christian modernity. It has to be remembered that the interpretations, theories etc., are all worked out by the intellectuals of the GJC Chinthanaya and they have come out with terms that do not reflect what is actually happening in the society. Humane, Humanity are two such words and they use many other terms such as democracy, freedom, choice, enlightenment, reason, and rationality. Of these rationality is significant as RMBS has used it in connection with the experiencing of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. I will deal with so called rationality and the emotional content in identification as a Sinhala and of experiencing Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in the next installment but for the time being may I ask whether the belief in God is rational or not. Even if one wants to leave out God one could still ask whether it is rational to believe in the Big Bang that is supposed to have happened some 13.7 billion years ago without any reason. Why was the Universe born according to western science or Cosmology to be more specific? If there was no Universe I would not be writing this article and there would not have been a Nalin de Silva or a RMB Senanayake. My Ph. D. Thesis was in Cosmology but now I do not believe in this irrational event called Big Bang that is supposed to have taken place long long time ago in history, in essence a history created not by historians such as Roberts, but by the western Cosmologists. However, I will not give back my degree to the University of Sussex because without that degree, in this society dominated by western ideas, concepts and recognition I would not be able to ask questions not only on the irrationality of Cosmology and of other western Sciences, but also on the irrationality of talking of the experiencing of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism as entirely a matter of feeling and emotion rather than of rational thought. RMBS seems to be unaware that so called rational thought is nothing but a creation of western modernity and enlightenment to keep people in the dark.
(To be continued)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
________________________
by Nalin de Silva
(July 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) R. M. B. Senanayake has decided to ride his hobby horse of attacking Sinhala Buddhist nationalism again. Obviously disgruntled by losing some of the privileges he and his tribe had enjoyed before fifty six he pours venom on Mr. SWRD Bandaranaike and the so called Sinhala Chauvinists and the majority populists etc. He probably would want the populists to be ostracized following the Athenians. He speaks of we and other concepts and Garibaldi and Obama, not to mention the good man Ranil W. who deserves the admiration of Mr. RMBS and the tribe, and who has lost his way amidst the cacophony of nationalists.
RMBS wonders whether upholding of Sri Lanka nationalism by Ranil W. may not be based on the latter’s Christian background although he is a Buddhist. His response to Mrs. Ann Abeysekera on 5th July clearly shows his educational background based on western concepts and his hatred against the Sinhala Buddhists. He seems to be very much worried that the artificial Sri Lankan identity he has in mind is dead as the fate of Prabhakaran in whom the anti Sinhala Buddhists had high hopes is now sealed. I would say that the concept of Sri Lankan identity that RMBS and his ilk has is not dead but was stillborn. I must add that there are other concepts of Sri Lankan identity that would eventually emerge in spite of the spite of RMBS towards the Sinhala Buddhists. Before I proceed to analyse the response of RMBS, let me point out that RMBS and his ilk are allowed to write on Sinhala Chauvinists but others are forbidden to mention Tamil racists as it could hurt the feelings of Tamils. This implies that the feelings of the Sinhalas could be hurt but not those of the Tamils. I would not call it discrimination but it only reflects how careful our editors are in their editing. I am afraid my response to the response of RMBS is going to be somewhat lengthy and Michael Roberts and the other historians would have to wait to read the next part of "on history". However, in the present series of articles they will find reference to the so called philosophical discussion between two "heavy weights" in Social Sciences Charles Abeysekera and Newton Gunasinghe on identity as a Sinhala (Tamil) person, though neither has contributed any concept or theory to their chosen disciplines.
In the first paragraph of the response RMBS mentions two matters. I would not call them facts as it could give a different meaning to them. He says Mrs. Abeysekera has shown from her personal experience that Sinhala nationalism or Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism is entirely a matter of feeling and emotion rather than of rational thought. According to him such nationalism is caught not intellectually grasped and that it is caught from the social environment where society is stressing ethno-religious identity in an emphatic way. He also says that in the past in the social environment she and he grew up, the social environment was not dominated by the Sinhala-Buddhist ethos. To him it was a more humanist tradition that they inherited from the West.
I will first consider the second. I am a few years junior to RMBS, though I am myself a senior citizen now, and I belong to the generation that saw the transition from English to Sinhala/Tamil with respect to the medium of instruction. The social environment I grew up was dominated by the western Christian ethos and as a child and an adolescent I felt it very much. As the eldest son of two Sinhala school teachers who were compelled by the social values dictated to them by the society to give their sons and daughters a western education, I had to come to terms with the dreaded kaduwa reluctantly. I did not find it a humane exercise, and English was a subject I hated from the primary school. I am not ashamed to say that I was weak in that subject and that even today my English is not good, and I have no intention whatsoever of improving it as I am satisfied with my present knowledge of English with which I can expose the hypocrisy of the English in particular and the west in general, not to mention their imitators in Sri Lanka. If the Europeans had not gone to the other countries with the blessings of the Pope to dominate and suppress the others, I would not have been a de Silva and I would not be writing this article in English, and I might even say that I would have been a happier person with less belongings that include western degrees, one awarded by the University of Ceylon that has ceased to exist. The western education, I must say has come in handy in this society dominated by western ideas, concepts and theories to gain "recognition" and to find employment in the Universities, though some disgruntled academics who taught nothing but Vijathika Chinthanaya and who did not like me teaching Jathika Chinthanaya, successfully kept me out of the Universities for more then ten years. The "humane western tradition" would not mind sacking a person simply for the reason that he/she is teaching not only what they want him/her to teach. If anybody doubts my statement he/she could consult Dr. G. L. Peiris who as Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo wanted to find out from me why I was teaching Jathika Chinthanaya. I had to ask him why I cannot teach Jathika Chinthanaya if the others were allowed to teach Vijathika Chinthanaya. Dr. Peiris was kind enough to ask me whether I wanted to continue with teaching at the University. I do not blame Dr. Peiris as he was only serving his masters in the west, and did not know what he was doing.
When I had to study western science (at that time I did not know that it was western science as western science was taught as "The Science" at the schools and the universities), I came across the not so humane response by the Pope and the others in the Catholic Church to the work of Galileo and others, though I now understand why the Church had to react the way it did. Galileo, da Vinci (remember da Vinci code) and others in Italy during that period called "renaissance" and soon after that, were involved in what we call a Chinthana Viplavaya, that resulted in the replacement of Catholic Chinthanaya by the Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya. If RMBS has not read on Chinthanaya in the books by the learned scholars from the west, it is not my fault and he may find it very inhumane to read most of the literature on Chinthanaya in Sinhala which is not a so called international language. To refer to the humanist tradition inherited from the west is not different from referring to Ranil W. who was a cabinet minister in the bheeshanaya days, as a good man who lost his way amidst the cacophony of nationalists. There may not have been white vans then but people, especially youth continued to disappear only to "appear" as dead bodies along the roads and in the rivers. The tyre seya, Batalanda and even the Law Faculty buildings of the University of Colombo have not been forgotten by many people, though presently the JVP may be in truck with Ranil W. The human rights heroes of today probably do not mind the tyre seya as it was mainly the bodies of the Sinhala Buddhist youth that were burnt along the roads. In fact the present day heroes were conspicuous by their absence and it was left for one Mahinda Rajapaksa to raise the matter in the Parliament and in other fora.
It is the western tradition that demolished the temples in Sri Lanka and other countries and this so called humanist tradition has been weakening if not destroying the cultures other than western Christian in the world. For RMBS destroying other cultures may be humane but for the vast majority of people in the world there was nothing humane in the western tradition of trying to destroy the other cultures. The so called aborigines in Australia and New Zealand, the Indians in the Americas, have almost disappeared from the earth thanks to the humanist western tradition.
The irony is that though Pope was against the Chinthana Viplavaya there was nothing that he could do to prevent it from taking place in Europe, and finally England became the nursery of the new Greek Judaic Christian (GJC) Chinthanaya which not only western science but even Capitalism is based on. Today the Pope has no choice other than to serve Bush in addition to God to keep Vatican going. The GJC Chinthanaya was no more humane than the Catholic Chinthanaya, even if one goes by the wars fought between different countries having the same GJC Chinthanaya. Have we forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki in connection with the humanist western tradition? The countries of the GJC chinthanaya were also involved in suppression of the others and what is most disturbing is the hypocrisy resorted to by the western Christian modernity. It has to be remembered that the interpretations, theories etc., are all worked out by the intellectuals of the GJC Chinthanaya and they have come out with terms that do not reflect what is actually happening in the society. Humane, Humanity are two such words and they use many other terms such as democracy, freedom, choice, enlightenment, reason, and rationality. Of these rationality is significant as RMBS has used it in connection with the experiencing of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. I will deal with so called rationality and the emotional content in identification as a Sinhala and of experiencing Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in the next installment but for the time being may I ask whether the belief in God is rational or not. Even if one wants to leave out God one could still ask whether it is rational to believe in the Big Bang that is supposed to have happened some 13.7 billion years ago without any reason. Why was the Universe born according to western science or Cosmology to be more specific? If there was no Universe I would not be writing this article and there would not have been a Nalin de Silva or a RMB Senanayake. My Ph. D. Thesis was in Cosmology but now I do not believe in this irrational event called Big Bang that is supposed to have taken place long long time ago in history, in essence a history created not by historians such as Roberts, but by the western Cosmologists. However, I will not give back my degree to the University of Sussex because without that degree, in this society dominated by western ideas, concepts and recognition I would not be able to ask questions not only on the irrationality of Cosmology and of other western Sciences, but also on the irrationality of talking of the experiencing of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism as entirely a matter of feeling and emotion rather than of rational thought. RMBS seems to be unaware that so called rational thought is nothing but a creation of western modernity and enlightenment to keep people in the dark.
(To be continued)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Nation is a western concept alien to the peoples of the East. But since we are living in a world which is more and more knitting together, better we study the way of the world and prepare ourselves to play the global games or disappear.
The word Nation is used to identify a grouping of peoples who are ready to share a common destiny. An intelligent nation never saps the energy of its constituent communities by hampering their development, it uses the diversity to enrich the nation as a whole. But there is a crucial factor of paramount importance, that is the loyalty of all communities to all the people constituting the nation.
The Singhala term « Jathiya » does not rightly translate the term « Nation ».
And « Sri Lanka Jathiya » sounds little odd at the moment! A new term such as Sri Lanka Janajavaya may suit better.
Why bother with these silly arguments? Please stop for a second and think, if Lord Buddha was alive, will He approve of what is going on in Sri Lanka in His name, or for that matter, will Jesus Christ approve what is going on in the so called Christian countries? It is blatant blasphemy to hide behind the teachings of great teachers to justify the injustices being committed. You do not have to know the religion of the other person, just know the truth about your own. The blame lies with the current day teachers of these great philosophies, who in my opinion do not know the truth themselves. Wearing a robe or a cassock does not make a person a qualified teacher, it is only a disguise.
Walter Lekamge
Post a Comment