Image courtesy JVP website

Some priests in ascetic orders who indulge in carnal pleasures, though not very often, do get excommunicated. A prominent catholic priest of high rank in Europe who had allegedly abused a child some twenty years ago was disrobed recently, when the affected party unearthed that case. There are some Buddhist monks too who are not virtuous, but there is no effective mechanism to disrobe them. What happens often is that the person in question himself voluntarily quits the temple. Though they are frowned upon by society as Heeraluvas I esteem them for their courage and honesty in leaving a place where they don’t fit in anymore.

In a certain sense, Peoples Liberation Front (JVP) also is a secular sect, akin to a pious religious order, with ascetic pretensions. Presumed canon of this pseudo order is Marxism. Since the Buddhist religious order could survive with basic precepts of even simple religious virtues being breached rather than followed in any serious manner, there is no reason why a secular party like JVP could not maintain its integrity without the help of rigid Marxist Commandments.

Listening to the emotional speech made by Wimal Weerawansa in the Parliament with regard to the suspension of his membership by the JVP, what came to my mind was the long list of former members who, either sacked or having voluntarily left the party since the 1960s, have consequently narrated the same emotional stories of services rendered and immense sacrifices they had made for the well-being of the party in the past. Ingratitude and the cruel treatment by the party stalwarts towards these aggrieved members were sensationally highlighted, just as Weerawansa did today, though none of these pleadings could stall their being branded as traitors. The paradox of this sinister process was that these same people when they wielded power in the party never hesitated to stick the same label on their predecessors who failed to tow the party line. In fact, punishment with a mere label of a ‘traitor’ (at most, confiscating their vehicles or mobile phones) is mild in comparison to the practice of meting out justice for the same offence, i.e. betraying the party, in other parts of the world, especially when the party was in power, like condemning to the Guillotine or banishing to Siberia for life, or worse, beheading with a snow axe by an agent of the all powerful party.

Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe broke the LTTE into two whereas the incumbent President, as events start straightening out now, would manage to split the JVP into more than two. The circumstances under which these splits took place in these two political movements are diametrically opposed to each other with the LTTE (a military outfit) having to witness its breakup in times of peace and the JVP (a democratic party) facing its time of reckoning during intense war. This distinction, I think, is important, for it sheds light on the different roots and characteristics of the two movements.

JVP has never been a Marxist movement in the strict sense of the word. From its very inception it tended to arm itself with the cosmetics of Marxism as a façade without truly relating to productive process of labour in any meaningful way, thereby lacking social substance. It is true that the present context of the modern developed world doesn’t leave much space to successfully operate on each and every tenet of Marxism for any political party, if it is to survive as a practical alternative to capitalist political option. Modern working classes of the developed world, for instance cannot be properly perceived by the classical Marxist theory of labour. The very development achieved through capitalism has transformed the worker in a way that could not possibly have been imagined a few decades back. He is no longer a wretched slave who had to toil 16 hours a day for a pittance with no protection from a social network based on solid labour rights and a strong code of universal human rights. Just as the nature of labour, the configuration of capital too has taken a turn in a dramatic way. Therefore, the JVP not adhering to some outdated dogmatic tenets of classical Marxism can hardly said to be committing a grave offence.

Yet, amongst all these historical changes there remains like an age old truth in Marxism, a rock that withstands all challenges posed by capitalist development, which is humanism. This humanist perspective of Marxism, under no circumstances, can be changed or reformed. The Marxist stand vis-à-vis racism belongs to this sphere. During both World Wars the world Marxist movement split up over this matter. But true Marxism was uncompromising even at the risk of being washed away by the populist and patriotic sentiments that swept through whole continents one after another. Even Lanka Samasamaja Party, the pioneering Marxist movement of Sri Lanka split up over this issue during the Second World War. If there is a near absolute principle in the humanistic project of Marxism, it is nothing but Anti-racism.

Yet, JVP from the very beginning was vacillating, under various pretexts, on this cardinal issue. This ambiguity could conveniently dwell in the backward social milieu with no friction coming into the fore. Even Buddhism that has no room for race or caste has become ‘Sinhala’ in Sri Lanka. It is in this backdrop that the JVP, mildly anti-Indian in the 70s (tirades against Indian expansionism) transforms itself into a fully-fledged Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinistic force by the 80s in the face of a civil war thrust upon it by an oppressed ethnic minority. While claiming to be anti-racist as a face saving maneuver, it went on to label the armed struggle of the oppressed minority as a form of pure terrorism and a fascism by extension, so that they, the JVP could keep their Marxist mask while battling tooth and nail against the aspirations of the oppressed minority. This is why we always distinguish between Champika Ranawaka’s anti-terrorism, which is genuine in the sense that he never tries to hide his anti-minority racial sentiments and the JVP’s anti-terrorism which is nothing but anti-minority chauvinism.

There is a certain distance one can go with his feet on two parallel but opposite tracks, one on Marxism and the other on nationalism. As the war intensifies the width between these two tracks tends to become wider and wider making it difficult to keep on going with each foot on a different track. The JVP as a party which was as steadfast as Wimal Weerawansa, the individual, in being patriotic during the peace time and during the first phase of the present war, is now trying to restrain that individual’s patriotic enthusiasm, as the repercussions of the brutal war starts filtering through all crevices of society, in various forms of suppression, finally endangering the party’s own grip on the Sinhala petty bourgeois strata. Alas, by this time Wimal Weerawansa, leaving behind the ambiguity of his party has gone such a long way with his romance of patriotism that no shackle would be strong enough to stop him now. When the party gathers courage to disrobe him now by suspending his party membership, he has got the courage to fight back, exposing the very contradiction the party has been sponsoring all along.  

As we see this, the basic fault lies not with Wimal Weerawansa’s individual behavior (tainted with greed and opportunism, of course) but with the backward puerile ideology of a party that purports to be Marxist. When one clamours for war as a solution to an ethnic problem he should be ready and have the courage to accept all woes that go together with any war in general and civil war in particular. A party that hollered for war even when peace prevailed should be frank enough to face the bitter repercussions now that the war rages in its full swing. Tightening belts for workers, deep resentment of housewives, erosion of all democratic norms, abductions, killings, intimidations, suppression of media freedom, Fascist tendencies of all hues, in short, militarization of the whole society not only in its mundane life but also in its thinking too, are part and parcel of war. In times of peace, one can have his cake and eat it, that is, he can keep his Marxist pretensions while being a mild nationalist, but in times of violent conflict, the necessities to prop up war efforts make it impossible to keep the healthy ratio between the two at a sustainable level.

Weerawansa who has cultivated during the last couple of years the habit of living in “Ramya, Suramya, Subha’ amongst the most prosperous ruling elite Sri Lanka has ever seen since its Independence, can hardly be expected to come to the old fold again (where even his wife has no freedom to taste the fruits of nouveau riche) even if the party clears him of all charges tomorrow. His puerile wailing over Sigiriya and Sri Pada, opportunities allegedly missed for the sake of the party (notwithstanding the pleasure opportunities abundantly made available by the same party for him to enjoy the splendor of Paris, London, Tokyo etc; at the cost of fifty thousand souls laid to rest in the latter part of the 80s) speaks volumes for the future of a Sinhala Karuna Amman.

Just one difference: Weerawansa has no burden of conscience as Karuna had, for Karuna as a Tamil had the misfortune to toil for the majority only to be discarded once the service is rendered. Weerawansa, a born racist, happily serving the cause of his own racial prejudices, would never feel like a fish out of water.

 

Editors note: Also see videos on the JVP split and the opinions of those who were part of the 1971 JVP insurrection here. 

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• Is the Tamil version of our national anthem a joke?
• Photos and video from the UN headquarters in Colombo today
• Photos from Day 3 of NFF protest against UN in Colombo
• The protest by Wimal Weerawansa against the UN in Sri Lanka: Condoned by government?

I consider this humble nature of his funeral as a sign of a great farewell, not letting those pompous meaningless rituals deemed fit only for corrupt politicians’ funerals, hamper the simplicity of this great science fiction writer. Yet, the fact that the honour lavishly bestowed upon ignorance in Sri Lanka is not reserved for rational tradition too manifests itself in the same phenomenon. Ajith Thilakasena reminisced about his attendance some dozens of years back at the funeral of Dr. N.M. Perera’s where he noticed an abundance of religious paraphenalia which only emphasised the irony of religion being given such a prominence in the name of a person who practiced his politics, spanning more than 5 decades in Sri Lanka, in a belief that bordered on labelling religion as opium. Prof. Sunanda Mahandra had once pointed out that Sugathapala De Silva who wrote and produced his stage dramas postulating the importance of labour over metaphysics had gone to Kataragama to seek godly blessings prior to every stage production.

Do people behave like this because of taking rituals as a habit or because of a real faith that they reposit in them? If the answer is the latter the picture becomes gloomier.

Anura Bandaranayake, a man well versed in world literature and art, had a strong grasp of modern thinking and rational way of looking at things, a rare feat that the majority of our present day politicians are devoid of. Yet, this same brilliant man went on pilgrimage to India almost in every year to get blessed by that world famous conman Sai Baba. Our politicians including the President and the Prime Minister tend for their own well-being to consult astrologists before taking political decisions, sometimes jeopardizing the national interests. The Opposition party too resorts to various superstitious rituals like Coconut Striking as protests against the government’s mishandling of the country. Some politicians well known for their liberal ideas about religion, morals and sex hesitate to take political decisions without consulting a woman famous for horoscope (mis) reading.

Modern day superstitious beliefs emanate from the same ancient root. Loneliness giving rise to a desolate self requires solace from unworldly powers. This is not a physical loneliness, for man among men is never alone in physical terms. It is not because he has companions but because he has a reality, however illusive, to relate himself to, a reference point to which he can claim himself belonging to, a process in the natural course of events in which he can place himself, giving a substantial meaning to his existence. As long as he can identify himself with this existence he is not alone. As an example, take a man who is about to be hanged. He cannot be alone in this sense since he can place himself in the process starting with the crime of which he was the author and leading to the gallows that resulted from the initial criminal act. In short, he has a place in the whole process, which displaces him from any inner coherent loneliness. In contrast to this man, take another person who got caught totally unawares in the tsunami, which in his mind and in his perception of the world is totally unprecedented, therefore inexplicable in his reading of the existence as lived up to that point.

Now, apart from these extreme cases, if we turn to mundane life experiences where we cannot grasp head or tail of certain events, we have a virtual personal tsunami situation. Without being firmly armed with intellectual reasoning power and without the courage to withstand rough tides, then one needs to have the supportive hand of a power beyond this earth, not to overcome that personal tsunami situation but to temporarily evade it. When you go to Kataragama or to India seeking blessings from Sai Baba, what you do in reality is to unburden yourself by giving the management to an unknown god whom you believe would act on your behalf.

This whole process is illogical not only because it is substantially illusory but also because despite all shortcomings apparent to any practical eye of scrutiny you persist in a faith that deceives you over and over again. You become immune to being duped. The day the golden pinnacle of Kataragama Kiri Vehera was successfully stolen (up to now the thief has not been apprehended, even after some dozen of years from the theft) by some smart person, one could only expect that all pilgrimages to that godly shrine should have stopped. Yet, no decrease of pilgrims has been noted. Everybody knows that predictions of wealth for those Taurians in the horoscope column today do not materialize for the majority, while others not belonging to Taurus might win even lotteries. Yet, they read their horoscopes in newspapers before going on to read other items!

My objection to astrology is simple and straightforward. I hold the opinion that the human being has an unalienable responsibility for his existence solely because of my nausea at the thought of being reduced to a stone or a plant if I am to be deprived of that self-belonging. I exist among those that relate to me and among those that I relate to. To that extent, I am responsible for myself and for others. If I get caught in the rain I might catch cold. I cannot stop it from raining but I can avoid being caught in the rain. If I am struck by lightening I might die. I may not be able to avoid getting struck by lightening as I avoided getting wet in the rain. Yet, getting killed by lightening and from being run over by a bus has my responsibility as well as of those connected with the incident firmly registered in the same logical circumstances. Therefore, the responsibility that binds me and others to my death is what makes my existence or non existence independent from metaphysical forces, that gives me my freedom conditional only to others’ freedoms. If I, as the bus driver, tell you that I am not responsible for killing you since your fate had been predetermined by some planet, you have to agree with me if you believe in astrology. Before these planetary verdicts you and I are both helpless. But as you know very well if we relegate the responsibility to a planet or to a god the whole human edifice would crumble like a pack of cards.

When I insist on placing responsibility on materialistic (including mind) causes, one may ask if the planets are not materialistic phenomena. True, they are matter in the perfect sense of the word, but they cannot break my marriage or set up my death. What is superstitious is not the acceptance of real existence of planets but the metaphysical meaning we bestow on them.

The biggest harm done to me in saying that my death is predetermined by planetary systems is grabbing from me my essence, the core meaning of my existence. My selfness is snatched away from me making me a virtual non-entity. In short, I am a puppet, nothing more than that. It is there, this astrologer, the middleman between me and the planets, strikes a business deal.

In Arthur C. Clarke’s imagination these planets attained a prominent place in terms of fiction as well as in sharp scientific observations. Some predictions made in the light of pure fiction became true. But nowhere has he implied any metaphysical powers gaining upper hand over these planets. This great sage’s last wishes were peace for Sri Lanka and an appeal to carry on incessant research into discovering the universe, so that perhaps one day we would be able to strip all planets of their godly powers!

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The mediocre con artist occupies the other pole of deception. A bald man selling some indigenous oil as a sure remedy for falling hair fits this category. His deception works not in his own smartness but in others’ naivety.

Rajapakse regime resembles the latter who has no finesse at all in his subterfuge. As there is a large section of naively vulnerable population any deception can work for some time. However, another group of people who can hardly be deceived but who pretend not to notice the deception for their own reasons are the worst lot. In Sri Lanka we can identify these people as veteran leftists.

At present, those so-called progressives in the Samasamaja and Communist parties are busy with publicizing political statements mildly criticizing the government decision to abrogate the Cease Fire Agreement and the President’s efforts at derailing the independent proposals of the APRC. Furthermore, they express their concerns at the President’s apparent subservience to hasty diktats of the JVP.

Their present misgivings are so pathetic that one gets the impression that these people could not have been in this country for the last two years, for they had not apparently known that there was no credible solution for the ethnic question in the Mahinda Chinthana Manifesto except within a unitary state structure. They don’t seem to have known all this time that the maximum devolution possible within such a unitary system could not go beyond the 13th amendment. Nor had they known that this same cease-fire agreement had been castigated in the same Manifesto as a conspiratorial act committed by Ranil Wickremasinghe in collusion with imperialist forces.

It is almost two years since this undeclared war by the government has started with all its collateral destruction being widely covered in the media. During this period not a single murmur of these people against that war waged by the government in which they hold ministerial portfolios has been heard. It is only now that their tongues have started to wag feebly over the inappropriateness of the cease-fire abrogation. The Communist Party of Sri Lanka issuing a statement on the said abrogation says that the government could have achieved all that it wanted while keeping the CFA as well.

In this respect, I believe the JVP is much more genuine than these veteran leftists. The campaign of the JVP against the CFA while clamoring for war is complementary. Their thinking that a document (CFA) even if it carries no weight had to be scrapped is consistent with their belief that even a symbolic paper should not be left to stand in the way of an all out war. The reason why those conventional leftists raise their voice against this abrogation is not that they stand for peace but that they fear of losing international backing thereby frustrating Rajapakse’s overall plan, including the possibility of war being carried out to a victorious finish with international blessing. If the CFA was there government could always portray their major military thrusts as defensive or preemptive measures. The JVP, on the other hand, would not want to camouflage anything regarding their war intention, which makes them more honest than these leftists.

Certain terms are in use not because they mean anything but because they are habitually used by a sizable section of the people. All Parties Representatives Committee has been such a term in common parlance for some time now. In the first place, all parties are not represented in this Committee. For example, the main Opposition in the Parliament, the UNP that has stood for a negotiated settlement all along does not participate in this Committee. The JVP, the main party in the Parliament that stands for war opposing any political settlement with the LTTE is boycotting this Committee. The main Tamil party in the Parliament that opposes the war and defends the rights of Tamils in the country, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is not there, though they were the ones a solution is sought for. In fact, all the parties included in this futile exercise are none other than the very coalition partners of the government.

Among them there may be some groups or parties that stand for a credible devolution of power. The final report of the APRC is to be out tomorrow. But I have no qualms about being too hasty in proclaiming today the outcome, which I know, would not be liable to be changed tomorrow. From the very beginning Rajapakse regime’s intention was to defeat the LTTE militarily first and then to think about a political solution if there is any one left to ask for it. This is common knowledge from among the ignoramus to our Professor Tissa Vitharana, the chairman of the APRC.

But in this logic there is an inconsistency perhaps not easily grasped by the normal layman but could not elude an academic’s scrutiny. First, it was the LTTE that made the South to acknowledge for the first time that there is an exclusive problem for the Tamils living in the country. Secondly, it was not the collaborative politics of the EPDP but the incessant pressure exerted by the LTTE that drove the South to be ready, at least in principle, for a political settlement, whatever that settlement is. In this context, militarily defeating the LTTE would amount to killing the messenger with its message swept under the carpet until another type of the LTTE springs up from among the Tamils. It is interesting to note that even under heavy pressure of a brutal war the South has only agreed today to grant the mere 13th amendment, even that, 20 years after it was enacted. So, one can easily imagine a South not under any pressure acquiescing to granting a fare share of power to the minority, perhaps in the next century!

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On the other hand, abrogation of or nullifying the cease-fire is no mere abolition of the validity or binding of a bi-partisan document. It allows for a free for all thus preparing the ground for free killing and for all the savagery that follows.

With the Rajapaksa government deciding to abrogate the CFA, from 16th of this month the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) would have to wind up and leave not only from the North, but from Sri Lanka as well. No media institute or journalist would have access to areas the Defense Authorities would decide as “war zones”. Most Aid Agencies have already pulled out their staff and the rest would have to leave too. The Northern people would thereafter have no links to the rest of the country other than through state organized channels. On the other side with the rest of the world denied from having access to ground realities, indiscriminate aerial bombings, devastation of civilian settlements, schools, churches, kovils etc and an increasing number of refugees will be the order of the day. No independent media exposures on the war would be available. The war would be a one-sided affair with communiqués dished out by the media unit of the government armed forces to suit their own agenda.

It is this stark reality that we wish to expose to the world while some speak about the irrelevance of having a cease-fire that was breached more than it was honored by both parties. It is true the CFA has abysmally failed to restrain the Mahinda Rajapakse government in waging an undeclared full scale offensive that to date has taken the lives of 6,000 people within a short period of two years. What is nevertheless important about the CFA is that it kept the whole world informed of the increasing brutality of the war situation. It allowed the SLMM to record the human misery those people in the conflict areas were undergoing. With their departure from the 16th such exposures, even if the authorities call them biased, would not be available to infer what is taking place in conflict areas that in all probability would turn into killing fields.

The only political party that stood openly for the abolishing of the CFA was the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). But they were not a force in society that could push the government to abolish the CFA. Their day came with the budget debate when the government was left standing on a razor’s edge. The JVP became the arbiter of making or breaking the government with their 37 votes in parliament. They used this opportunity in a fork move as in chess, to save the government and avoid an election on one side while on the other side to have the CFA abrogated.

In addition to this political compulsion brought by the JVP, it is possible the Rajapaksa regime with its Defense Secretary who speaks only war was convinced and pressured by the military as well for larger leverage in executing the war. A free hand and no interference from outside as spelled by the Army Commander Sarath Fonseka who wants the “unpatriotic” media tamed. By acquiescing to one political demand, both requirements could be met, coupled with the remote possibility of scoring some plus points in the battle field being eventually used to go for a snap election.

It is important to note that for the last two years the JVP was an outsider to the victories scored by the government on the war front. But as the sole champion of the anti cease-fire campaign, the JVP now needs to have a claim to at least a part of the war gains, if they are to face an election.

This leaves no other option but to go on a military onslaught for them in government and for those propping up the government. A savage onslaught with no checks and balances in place that would lead to a human tragedy that Sri Lanka has never ever experienced during its 30- year long civil war. This would be enough reason for the government to suppress all divergent views and to keep a firm tab on media in the South. A political equation that would lead to an unholy alliance between the government and the JVP in the near future, at the expense of the whole country held hostage to a futile war that would allow a parasitic clique of politicians to remain in power for some time to come.

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“We urge the UNO to evict three million aliens from Sri Lanka as an effective measure to prevent the conspiracy of exterminating the Sinhala race. The present war, the scarcity of food, obstructing development projects, murdering Sinhala leaders, anti-Buddhist campaigns led by Marxist movements, political instability, depriving Sinhalese of land, employment and business opportunities, mud slinging against Sinhalese throughout the world, the conspiracy to hatch an alien religious state in Sri Lanka, underworld gangs, promoting liquor, gambling and smoking, encouraging corruption and rackets, so-called campaigns of human rights, media and peace- are all happened to be direct consequences of alien forces”.

This, he says, is a publicity poster of a formal petition later to be signed by some thousand intellectuals, like Prof. Mangala Ilangasinghe, Prof. Abhaya Ariyasinghe, Prof. B.K.Basnayaka, Prof. Robert P. Liyanage, Prof. H.M.Moratuwegama, Prof. A.A.Abhayasinghe, Prof. H.T.Basnayaka, Dr. Piyasena Dissanayaka, Lecturer Laksman Watawana and Dr.Bandula Siriwardene.

As a live example of the pathological state of our national ailment this is an ideal document to refute the stance of those who disclaim the existence of any national or ethnic question in Sri Lanka.

This monk is concerned only about the Sinhala leaders getting killed. Laksman Kadiragamar and T.A. Amirthalingam allegedly killed by the same people are not to be grieved. Others like Raviraj, a charismatic democratic leader and an MP of the Tamil people allegedly killed by the government-affiliated paramilitary groups are unimportant, reason being their non-Sinhala origins. The apparent conflict between this racial compassion of a Buddhist monk and the universal value of all lives in true Buddhism is astounding, where nothing but the Gouthama Buddha’s very doctrine itself is at peril. Therefore, to save not only race but also Buddhism, how many more millions would be liable to be evicted from this holy land warrants some fresh calculation, indeed!

Though the practice of deporting citizens from a country of origin was one of the punishments meted out to traitors or criminal elements in the period of ancient kingdoms, modern world hardly resorts to that practice anymore for the simple reason that no other country can be expected to receive those banished. Prince Vijaya and his clan of cohorts, great forefathers of our race were such people deported from India, some two and half millennia ago, according to legend. A fairly contemporary case in point was the edict of Idi Amin, the psycho pathetic former leader of Uganda to deport some tens of thousands of Indians from his country for the sin of one Indian lady not willing to sleep with him. However much he was insane in his own way, his decision affected only those Indians who were not Ugandan citizens, whereas our (B.A. Honors) priest’s vengeful wrath encompasses his own citizens, most probably those who may have lived in this country from the time of Vijaya.

When a mad man is asleep his insanity is hardly visible. But, once he is awake he is unable to keep his mouth shut thereby exposing his derailed state of mind to the whole world. It is from the commandments of this monk that we came to know that the UNO role is also comprised of petty activities like the monitoring of liquor consumption and gambling in Sri Lanka as well! Not only that, a world body that practically failed in arresting alien forces from invading a sovereign state called Iraq is empowered to evict three million people from Sri Lanka, this erudite monk faithfully preaches.

Quoting from two dictionaries he invites us to have a proper understanding as to who would be qualified as aliens:

1.The Oxford Dictionary- NATION (n) community of people of mainly common descent, language, history.
2. Chambers Dictionary- NATION (n) a body of people marked off by common descent, language, culture or historical tradition.

Well, in the first place this is not a definition of aliens or non-nationals as you may see, but of a Nation. Anyway, by way of deduction (while keeping in mind the broad political implications of the term, nation) the most probable meaning of a non-national could be a person not belonging to the aforesaid categories, leaving only foreign nationals like tourists and other immigrants, temporarily resident in the country as aliens. But if this is all our monk is worried about, the best way to address that problem is to inform our Board of Investment, which has some fresh experience in revoking the work permit of a foreign national at Sri Lankan Airlines! Yet, one can hardly believe that there are 3 million foreigners of this type in Sri Lanka, a number nearing one sixth of our population.

He further urges the UNO to evict these 3 million from Sri Lanka and settle them down in, “Norway, Canada, Australia, US or any other place in the world”. When a newly wed husband is not satisfied with the bride, he takes her back not to other people’s houses but to her parent’s home. By what whimsical logic that this priest could be possibly wishing to dump these people in “any other place in the world” is incomprehensible, unless the whole world is to be held responsible directly or indirectly for our own predicament.

Then he goes on to assess the economic gains by way of deporting these people. Three million loaves of bread and one million kilos of rice a day, in addition to business and employment opportunities and land and health sector savings that can be used for the welfare of the true Sinhala Buddhist people in the country are the immediate benefits.

Finally, he refers to the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution as historical precedents where he thinks the national question had been resolved once and for all in 1789 and 1917. As for the Bolshevik Revolution, we are at a loss to reconcile his scathing attack at the beginning of the poster on “anti-Buddhist campaigns led by Marxist movements” with this last minute favorable lesson drawn from the annals of the Bolshevik Revolution.

However, for the benefit of his so-called professorial advisers this much has to be added as an appendix. It is true that the formal concept of Nation State was originated with the French Revolution. But that Revolution had got nothing to do with what we call a national question of ethnic origin, which we witness in Sri Lanka, and which this Thero also has in his mind when pointing an accusing finger to alien elements amongst us.

In fact, the Bolshevik Revolution did have a proper national question and a Commissar for Nationalities as well, by the name of Joseph Stalin who ruthlessly massacred thousands of Bolshevik cadres in Georgia to suppress a national revolt while Lenin was in his sick bed. Having come to the knowledge of this unhappy incident after recuperation, Lenin was swift in categorically condemning this irresponsible and brutal act of Stalin and making an apology for not intervening himself at the proper moment to avoid that catastrophe. (For further reference one can read Lenin’s Last Testament).

However, the fact that after seventy years of Bolshevik Revolution former Soviet Union was fated to be split into some 15 odd separate states on ethnic lines is common knowledge today. Whatever the case may be, in none of these revolutions no one has ever thought even in a daydream of deporting one sixth of its population as a viable solution to the National Question, apé hamuduruwané!

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Not only that, in order to get this security clearance, as reported in a weekend newspaper, one is obliged to disclose his/her political affiliations too.

About 20 years ago, the visa application form of the USA in their Paris diplomatic mission contained a rather impolite question like this: “Have you ever been a member of a political party affiliated with Marxism?”

It is possible that the USA has a right to pore over all outsiders wishing to enter their territory, though it may be queried as to its political correctness in a world where one’s right to hold any political opinion is inalienably guaranteed in a democracy of which the USA claims to be the world’s leading guardian. In our case, the person involved is not a foreigner but a citizen of the same country whose political opinion is demanded to be divulged by security personnel. A precedent of more vicious variety can be traced to a catastrophe that swept Europe, some 68 years back.

The country of initiation was Germany under Adolf Hitler. He legalized a system, not only in his country but also in the countries he consequently subjugated, to identify a segment of the population for the initial purpose of discriminatory administrative measures, and to facilitate the process of human selection for the Holocaust named ‘Final Solution” to the Jewish Question, at a later stage. Under this law, all Jews over 10 years of age had to wear a yellow badge in the shape of the six pointed Star of David inscribed with the word “Jude”, on the upper left hand side of the dress.

The history of Jewish people being derogatively identified as second-class citizens of wherever they happened to live goes back to a period earlier than the Middle Ages. As recorded history abundantly testifies, Jews have been condemned from time to time in various societies to live with a social stigma, characterized by external symbols like badges, most often the Star of David worn on the chest or bands of different colors wrapped over the head. However, this practice had gone into oblivion by the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1935, two years after coming to power in Germany Hitler took it upon himself to deprive all Jews of their citizenship thereby making a sizable segment of the German population a People sans state. In 1939, he legalized the Jewish badge, which was to be worn by every Jew over 10.

Some ethnic groups can be identified by countenance. ‘He looks like a Tamil”, we have heard many Sinhalese uttering in referring to people of dark complexion. Nowadays, as revealed in the media and in some court cases, our police officers manning road blocks seem to be going by these characteristics, if not to apprehend suspects of terrorism, at least to maltreat innocent Tamils. Jews too, though not scientifically proven, are believed to be having certain features like a long nose different from that of other ethnic groups. However, their way of dressing certainly marks them out as Jews, to which they have no objection at all. On the contrary, they have all along been proud to be identified as Jews and preferred to be distinct from others in every respect. It is like a traditional Sinhalese with an Ariya Sinhala national dress wishing to be identified, not without some sense of pride, as a true Sinhalese.

Yet, if a certain government with the intention of humiliating or persecuting a section of its own population, especially on racial or religious grounds, endeavors to enact discriminatory criteria the ethnic and religious sensibilities of those people would definitely be hurt.

With the beginning of the Second World War, Hitler’s “Final Solution” that paved way for the Holocaust in Europe needed an efficient mechanism to single out Jews. The result was the adoption of the Jewish badge. A political commentator who witnessed this new phenomenon on its first day of implementation has noted thus; “Yesterday I saw people on the streets. Today I see Jewish people and non-Jewish people.”

This new arrangement caused so much of pain to Jews that most of them curtailing their outings consigned themselves to be indoors, a virtual voluntary house arrest. If it were necessary go out they carried something like a book so that they could hide the badge being shown, by way of holding the book over the badge. If caught not wearing the badge due to sheer reluctance in some cases or mere forgetting with many elders, one earned the wrath of the authorities resulting in being thrown into prison with no clemency. Therefore, the trauma instilled in the mind of the affected was such that people resorted to a habit of getting a hand written notice displayed on the interior side of their house doors as a precaution against probable absentmindedness. “Is the badge OK?” “Don’t forget the badge” “Where is your badge?’ are the common reminders.

The resemblance between hometown and homeland that existed in Sri Lanka was decisively undermined during the last 30-40 years with homeland gaining a refined political significance. There was a time when a Sinhalese villager referring to his place of birth as “I am from Matara” was not at all different from a Tamil referring to his birthplace as “I am from Jaffna”. But while the Sinhalese retained the same connotation of cultural root regarding his birthplace, the Tamil was forced by circumstances not of his making to redefine the same statement with an added political weight, thereby wedging a permanent cleavage between the two terms. Now for the Tamil nationalist, Jaffna is not just the backwater he was born into, but also a territory his ethnic spirit claims adherence to. This paradigmatic semiological shift with crucial political underpinnings was making headway in the war weary psyche in the northeast region in proportion to the degree in which the Tamil was relegated to the status of a second-class citizen. The responsibility squarely lies with the Sinhala rulers.

Even after shifting from the hometown to the concept of homeland I believe the Tamil people are still largely capable of resigning themelves to live in a united Sri Lanka with their Sinhala brethren. May be that is their sincere wish too. But one cannot live by wishful aspirations alone. They might keep on clinging to the inclination of co-existence as long as they manage to perceive themselves as equals with Sinhala-Buddhists. But having to carry the national identity card in one hand and a military attestation in the other hand to prove your worthiness as a resident of a particular region would push you to run an extra mile in claiming a separate state where you won’t be an outcast anymore.

Sometimes I wonder whether while we have been habitually misreading our history, Tamils have been writing the history for us. Those who sympathize with the terror unleashed by the JVP as a “youth uprising” in the south, do not hesitate to brand the LTTE as a terrorist outfit. Those who still curse the ruthless state suppression in the 80’s cheer the same when meted out on the north.

Self-deception is fascinatingly soothing, of course. We have to believe that we are winning the war, in the first place. We have to believe that Prabhakaran’s last birthday has passed, once and for all. The day we hoist our patriotic lion flag in Kilinochi is “in the sight”, for sure!

Therefore, let us keep “Waiting for Godot”.

Gviyangoda@hotmail.fr

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It is not clear whether his sadness is caused because the cattle population is being dwindled as an economic resource or because he is upholding the cattle’s right to life as a supreme principle. As he is a Buddhist monk, drawing on the Bhuddist tradition and going by the spiritual values of Bhuddism, we can safely presume that it was his pure compassion for animal life that had inspired him in bringing this matter up in the Parliament. If that is the case, we would further expect him to stand up for the cause of other animals’ rights as well, like cocks, pigs, sheep, fish etc, for in Buddhism no animal is to be deprived of life for whatever reason.

Brigitte Bardo, a popular actress up to 70’s and today very old, who is spearheading an animals’ rights organization in France had a poster campaign some time back to sensitize her society to the plight of animals at the cruel hand of the so-called civilized Man. In that poster I can remember some of the animals depicted like dog, cat, seal fish and horse. One thing, I vividly remember: there was no animal that is taken as a delicacy in the western menu!

Brigitte Bardo does not subscribe to the Buddhist creed. Hence she has the right of preferential compassion towards the animal kingdom. That is why there was not a single animal that she liked to eat in this list of so-called “poor creatures” depicted in the poster.

But Athuraliye Thero being a Buddhist monk cannot claim to have the same right. As long as he is in a saffron robe he is duty bound to protect not only cattle but also all other animals, including chicken, goat, pig etc that are voraciously consumed in Sri Lanka.

This special compassion for cattle is to be generally seen in our society, which I suspect to be a Hindu influence. Those who don’t eat beef but eat other meat always rationalize the discrepancy by pointing out to the usefulness of a cow in our daily life. So, as a mark of respect to the service a cow had rendered to man in the agrarian society, we should refrain from eating its meat, argument goes. Usefulness may be a strong ground for Brigite Bardo to use a discriminative yardstick to love animals and eat animals at the same time according to her palatable desires, but Buddhism has no place for such discrimination.

On Poya Days all butcheries are closed in this virtuous Sri Lanka. Even in super markets meat is not available but fish is in plenty. Not only that, by-products of meat like sausages can be bought. Once I asked a salesgirl jokingly whether it was not a lesser sin to sell one bullock’s meat than selling thousands of sprats on a Poya Day. How the flesh of a fish is not considered as meat is beyond my comprehension.

Such contradictions are abound when a country is going to be governed by pseudo ethos no one seriously adheres to. The prohibition of showing scenes of smoking and taking of alcohol even if such scenes constitute an integral artistic part of the film is laughable, to say the least. In some films, while the scene where the offending bottle of Arrack is discernible is ruthlessly censored, its follow-up, namely the same drunken man staggering towards his home and beating his wife or killing someone under intoxication is shown with no qualms!

Cattle population (9 million) in New Zealand is double that of human population (4.5 million), our Thero pointed out. The fact that a country where there are more cattle than human beings happens to be more developed than Sri Lanka is interesting material for some academic research, I suppose.

It is true that environment friendly political thinking is firmly taking root in the developed world. We can see green parties exercising immense power in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. But one thing is certain: that these people have ventured into rights of the animal kingdom only after ensuring – not only in legal terms but also in social conventions- the basic rights of human beings. Before the 70s when human rights were not firmly codified and faithfully adhered to, there were no Greens as such in politics.

Now, what is the principled stand of the political party that Athuraliye Rathana Thero represents in Parliament on this point? According to them, there is no ethnic problem but a terrorist problem in Sri Lanka, which has to be crushed militarily. What instantly comes to my mind is the ancient story of Angulimala who was a bloody terrorist to whom Buddha preached Dhamma.

Before protecting the cattle population, we as laymen in general and they as Buddhist monks in particular, should strive to protect human beings. If President or any other minister campaigns for war and asks for blood of the enemy, as Bhikkus who are coalition partners in the government should discourage that destructive tendency and make some concerted efforts to seek a peaceful solution. Under no circumstances are they permitted to condone violence, directly or indirectly.

Last week, the parcel bomb at Nugegoda took 19 innocent lives including that of a little school girl. LTTE is alleged to be the perpetrator of this heinous crime. Three days prior to that, 11 school girls traveling in a bus near Kilinochchi were killed by a claymore bomb alleged to have been masterminded by government security forces or their paramilitary groups. Now, is there any difference in the value of life between that of the girl killed in the south (Nugegoda) and the girls killed in the north (Kilinochchi)? We witness this type of killings in Iraq on a daily basis. Even today (7th) a female suicide bomber has exploded herself in killing 16 people and injuring 27 in Iraq. There, rather than accusing those human bombs we tend to hold George W Bush as culpable for making Iraq a killing field. The picture of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq that George W Bush tried to portray as a menace of terrorism at the beginning of the invasion is in tatters today even in his own camp.

Adolf Hitler was an animal lover to the extent of being a strict vegetarian. While loving animals like this, he slaughtered 6 million human beings from the Jewish community alone during a short period of 5 years. That Brigitte Bardo, today in her old age is an activist in the extreme right anti-Semitic National Front in France, which denies the historical existence of concentration camps and gas chambers in Europe, does not stop her still fondly loving animals!

It is good to love animals. But better to love human beings first.

Gamini Viyangoda
gviyangoda@hotmail.fr

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How did Karuna obtain a British visa for this forged passport? It is on the strength of a Third Party Note furnished by our Foreign Ministry to the British High Commission in Colombo. In this letter the Foreign Ministry is reported to have stated that the holder of the passport called Kokila Gunawardana was going to participate in an international conference on “Climatic Changes”. Taking the details on the passport and the authenticity of the passport holder for granted, as is the normal practice of diplomatic protocol, the British High Commission in Colombo readily issued a visa for this forged passport on the 05th of September.

So, where this Kokila Gunawardana was employed? As the details given in his visa application suggest, at a Department of the Ministry of Environment that comes under the Jathika Hela Urumaya Minister, Champika Ranawaka. And, what was Kokila Gunwardana’s profession? “Director General- Wild Life Conservation”.

A reported discussion that took place in Geneva on 15 June with President Mahinda Rajapakasa and Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda by a third person called K.T. Rajasingham was crucial in the sense that it was at this discussion that they had decided to get rid of Karuna Amman. This K.T. Rajasingham is the editor-in-chief of Asian Tribune, an online news magazine. As the Sunday Leader exposure reports, in pursuance of the above discussion, K.T. Rajasingham subsequently wrote to President’s adviser Mr. Sunimal Fernando requesting him to do the needful as regards the matters decided upon in consultation with the President in Geneva. It is learnt that child soldier recruitments by Karuna, role of the Defense Ministry in protecting Karuna, changes that should be effected in the Foreign Service, setting up an effective propaganda network to combat the LTTE on international arena and a program to win over India are the matters discussed on that day.

Rajasingham has emphasized in this meeting with the President and Douglas Devananada that Karuna was an unbearable liability to the government and a spent force that had no value, politically or militarily, any more. Karuna’s second-in-command, Pilleyan was about to arrest Karuna but waiting, since he was not sure of the government’s reaction. Therefore, the best course of action as suggested by Rajasingham was to get rid of Karuna as soon as possible and seek the support of Pilleyan who is quite popular in the East. Whatever may be the case, finally, Karuna has siphoned off Rs.500 million he had amassed by way of resorting to abducting businessmen and extortion, as well as the money lavishly provided by the government for the upkeep of his cadres, according to Rajasingham.

What is a forged passport? Most probably, name and other details given on the passport might be fictitious, or the photograph attached therewith does not conform either to the person holding the passport or to the details given on the document. In this case, the photograph may have been of Karuna, I guess, for otherwise it might have posed problems very easily either at Katunayaka or at Heathrow. But Karuna’s name, as we all know, is not Kokila Gunawardana. (What a nice Sinhala name for a Tamil, by the way!). Economically marginalized desperate Sri Lankan youth, when caught in the attempt of emigrating to the developed world on a forged passport are mercilessly put in remand prison, if not convicted into imprisonment by law enforcement authorities, and ridiculed by publicizing such incidents in the media.

Now, from the first stage, that is, issuing a fictitious passport under the name Kokila Gunawardana and getting a British visa by knowingly providing wrong information to a foreign diplomatic mission, up to the last act of accompanying Karuna to the aircraft personally by no less a personage than the deputy chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, clearly testifies to the involvement of the government in this sordid affair. So, the question arises as to whether this “legal Mafia” that consists of the bigwigs whoever that may be that recommended a diplomatic passport to a pseudo personage and Champika Ranawaka as the Minister of the relevant Ministry responsible for attesting to a non existent post called “Director General- Wild Life Conservation”, is to be prosecuted forthwith. In retrospect, what seems to be somewhat ironical in this affaire is that this Jathika Hela Urumaya which was initially said to be formed to make Sri Lanka a Buddhist state is now allegedly involved not only in selling duty-free Mercedes Benz in the black market by their monk politicians but also in forging passports and human trafficking too, by their lay leaders! Remember, amending our Penal Code in the last year human trafficking was criminalized!

When Karuna broke away from the LTTE, instigated on a whim by parochialism camouflaged in championing a separate liberation for the Tamils in the East, I wrote at that time in my column called “Avaradiga Avarjana” in Ravaya newspaper, thus: “It is quite evident that Karuna plays an important role at this precise moment in the national crisis in Sri Lanka. He is neither a Douglas Devananda, sustained by the Sinhala state, nor a ‘Mahatthaya’ spirited away like a baby rat at the hand of the LTTE. But, as soon as this moment fades away, no other alternative but these two would be left for the character called Karuna”.
Let me “read” this affaire in a somewhat semiotic fashion. According to the passport used by Karuna, he is a high-ranking official in the Sri Lankan state bureaucracy. Yet, the sworn stand firmly maintained by our government all along was a point-blanc refusal of any kind of direct or indirect dealings with Karuna, in its military or political matters. It was this view that the government relentlessly maintained nationally, and before the international community. Now, the conference Karuna had intended to attend to was on “Climatic Changes”. Yes, certain drastic climatic changes in the field of political opportunism of Sri Lankan variety to the detriment of poor Karuna have been taking place for some time now, which definitely entitle him to be a true participant in that Conference of “Climatic Changes”. As stated earlier, according to the application form for the visa, his profession is “Director-General, Wild Life Conservation”. That position fits him so nicely that the immense weight of the cruel truth underlying that apt terminology crushes all sense of humor, if there is any in this farcical drama.

We all know he lived for a long period in the dense jungles of the eastern province. And then, as a person who voluntarily used a large dose of violence whilst living there makes himself to be labeled as “wild”, ferociously then and mildly now. As there is an imminent danger to the very existence even of this “reformed” wild life, due to unforeseen political “climatic changes” in the prevalent political atmosphere, “Director General of Wild Life Conservation”, who now happens to be none other than Karuna, decides to represent himself at the Conference of Climatic Changes.

There is a human mechanism in the western world where a person like Karuna can claim protection to his life, if in danger of being likely to be harmed by a third party on political or ethnic grounds, although he himself has previously harmed others’ lives. It is called the Right of Political Asylum. Once Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe, the present Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna enjoyed this right in the same country as Mr. Kokila Gunawardana alias Colonel Karuna Amaman happens to be today, who has reportedly applied for the same refugee status now.

I hope this facility, which is an accepted human right privilege largely sustained and afforded by the Western World would not be attacked or ridiculed by the like of Mr. Wimal Weerawansa as another ploy of the Imperial Conspiracy financed by the Catholic Church against our Sinhala Buddhist Motherland!

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Then, the assassins of President Premadasa were from the same stock of the person assassinated now. Yet, the common perception of the South at that time amounted to a sort of implicit gratitude towards the perpetrators of the crime, for they did, in the Southern psyche, an invaluable favor in eliminating an alleged despot, on behalf of the South. In that sense, the LTTE was considered a savior in disguise. Today, when that savior was assassinated by an armed force under the command of another person sitting on the same chair as Mr. Premadasa occupied in the past, same partisans in the South celebrated as before with much fanfare. In relation to these two assassinations, how that former Messiah became a traitor to be done away with at present is mind boggling, to say the least. Perhaps, it was due to the change of the person in Southern command, or due to a series of sins allegedly committed by the former Messiah in-between then and now. Many would like to adopt the latter attitude against which I don’t have much grumbling.

Never being a UNPer myself, I have written at that time condemning the lighting of crackers in celebrating Mr. Premadasa’s death. Likewise, I condemn today with disgust the present fanfare on the death of Mr. Thamil Chelvam’s too. It is not because I have any special soft corner for any of them, but because of my firm belief that publicly rejoicing a death, even of an enemy is an uncivilized act unfitting in a largely Buddhist society. After the mortal dual between the prince Dutugamunu and the king Elara which culminated in the death of the latter, Dutugamunu enacted an edict prohibiting any person, even a king, of passing in front of the burial site of Elara, on horseback, where after, everyone had to dismount his horse in honor of the fallen king. How a people, who as a ritual, day and night professes to be glorifying the historical role played by Dutugamunu can forget that sublime principle of honoring the dead, established not only in words but also in deeds by their great King?

In war, either you have to kill or get killed. That is the supreme and everlasting truth in the war, whether it is in Sri Lanka or in Iraq. Even as a person who admits that violence in general has in some way contributed to the historical progress of the world on national as well as on international scale, and that it would under certain circumstances, may be under much restricted circumstances than in the ancient times, play the same role in the future as well, I firmly stand for peace, because on one hand, the modern civilization has opened up ample room for the man to be more humane and more civilized. On the other, at the expense of daring to be uncivilized and inhuman, the price to be paid in the future would be exorbitant as never before. And again, just like the weapons of violence, the instruments of peace too can be sharpened today than ever before. In contrast, the modern technology of human destruction has developed on a scale that would be capable of annihilating from the earth the whole human race within a matter of few hours, if not in a few minutes. Yet, non-violence is not, as some would like us to believe, an absolute virtue but a clear and concrete realization of modern complex social relations. In that sense, war is nothing but a cruel reality aggravated in proportion to the diminishing level of that understanding.

That is my mundane vision of Thamil Chelvam’s death. But what will be the potential political repercussions of his assassination? Here, our attention should be drawn to the last Presidential Election. That Prabhakaran badly wanted to replace Ranil Wickramasinghe with Mahinda Rajapakse is now common knowledge. It was that feat that Prabhakaran achieved by obstructing more than seven hundred thousand people in the North from voting at the last Presidential election, which otherwise would have most probably resulted in the victory of Ranil Wickremasinghe. For that immense service, whether Mahinda Rajapakse’s camp bribed the LTTE and if so, how much was paid and whether with that money LTTE bought aircraft or not is irrelevant here. Even if there was a huge money transaction occurred between the two parties as alleged by some sections of the present Opposition, that sum must have been accepted by the LTTE not as a first prize but as an extra bonus. Their main objective of defeating Ranil Wickramasinghe at that time was political, that is to say, to get rid of the rigid commitments they were hard pressed to honor, and to claim to an ideological upper hand in terms of national aspirations on the International arena by bringing into power a hardcore Sinhala Buddhist nationalist leader in the South. In that scenario they heavily counted on potential anti-Tamil sentiments nourishing in the South, pressurized by that, the Government initiating some limited military offensives against the LTTE in which large scale displacements of Tamil civilians with a serious situation of human rights violations by the armed forces reaching a record high. That would transform the government into a pariah state where it would be at the receiving end of International rebuff. Finally, on the strength of this critical situation, LTTE may have hoped that they could convince the International opinion as to their legitimate claim to have their own state.

But Prabhakaran’s calculations were not that accurate. It is true, as he expected, the civilian displacements were widespread, government got the beating from Human Rights organizations and even the UNO suggested to station a permanent International Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Sri Lanka in a situation of increasing incidence of abductions, disappearances and killings. These are victories for the LTTE on a political front. But the problem lies in some of his other expectations being frustrated than he previously thought. Instead of a limited military offensive the Government went for a full-scale onslaught, as a result of which LTTE lost the East. Not stopping at that, the Government turned its military offensive towards the Northern Theater as well. Therefore, the political gains claimed by the LTTE vis-à-vis the Government by way of publicizing innumerable hardships the Tamil people had to undergo and indiscriminate aerial bombings that killed innocent civilians including women and children in the North East were not enough to compensate for the losses he incurred in the battle field. On top of all this now came the death of his political wing leader and his trusted politician, Thamil Chelvam. This is why Pottu Amman, the Intelligence Head of the movement, criticizes and blames the International community for not doing enough for their cause, in his condolence speech at Thamil Chelvan’s funeral.

Since the person, who held all communication with the outside world and coordinated with other peace-loving local bodies aimed at reaching a negotiated political settlement has been murdered, future space for a peaceful solution is now severely curtailed. Anyway, making better of this assassination, Prabhakaran may gain some plus points internationally by accusing the government of irresponsibly opting for a military solution, which may not in any case amount to much, but the fact that the Government has manifestly acquired the wherewithal and ground intelligence to accurately target any leader of stature in the LTTE at their own timing is a serious threat that a guerrilla leader can not simply ignore.

Therefore, I surmise, that the misplaced opinion he held some two years back as to the proper Southern leader to be made into the President at the Center will have to be drastically changed from the day Thamil Chelvam died. This is not because the person lost was an invaluable leader but because the alarming tendency of the way he was lost.

No doubt, the demise of Thamil Chelvam will be a boost at least for the time being to the military mindset of the common man nurtured for the last couple of years in the South under President Rajapakse. But taking this incident, either as a turning point in a potential military victory or as a proof that there is a military solution to the ethnic problem is nothing but a dangerous self-deception.

It is the premonitory feeling of a terrible danger inherent in this self-deception that makes me sadder about the South taking this death as an occasion to celebrate, instead of, as an occasion to mourn.

Gamini Viyangoda

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