The BBS That My Mother Likes = An Emblem for the Sri Lankan Equivalent of Middle America

Darshanie Ratnawalli  courtesy of the Nation and the Colombo Telegraph, with the latter drawing a volatile discussion which readers may wish to view … SEE note below pertinent to that discussion

I am the legitimate issue of a woman who unabashedly claims to admire the Bodu Bala Sena. This affords me a critical perspective into the issue, without which everyone is floundering like headless chickens. There may be other people, whose mothers etc. harbor soft spots for the BBS. But because they are not me, they would either try to keep these mothers in the closet or, in contradistinction, empathize with these soft spots; whereas I…Well you shall see.

My mother represents the Sri Lankan equivalent of Middle America and, as such, the demographic bloc that makes or breaks any movement dependent on mass support for its success. In Middle America (SL), one becomes a Buddhist by being a stakeholder of the Buddha Sāsana (deliberately called henceforth, the Buddhist Church of Lanka) and by emotionally aligning oneself with the age-old mission of fostering this Sāsana on this soil for the allocated five thousand years.  Once one has fulfilled this basic requirement adherence to Buddhism proper becomes peripheral and is largely left to personal discretion.

Bodu Bala Sena and the global context of Islamophobia

Chandre Dharmawardana

The Bodu-Bala Sena (BBS) is a political movement crystallizing mainly around Sinhala-Buddhist advocates of strong anti-Islamism. The knee-jerk reaction of opportunist political observers is to regard this as an example of a majoritarian populace behaving brutally, after having `caused Sinhala-Tamil terror’ by allegedly provoking the Tamils with ‘Sinhala-only’ discrimination. The BBS has also provided fodder for anti-government critics as well as the usual `I told you so’ liberals who believe that mass movements can be corrected by a little bit of sermonizing by `good monks’ holding vigils around the Lipton circus.

BBS and Burma – Given Parallels, Any Links? A BBC Account

Jonathan Head, BBC, 4 April 2013 : “What is behind Burma’s wave of religious violence?”

 ”After Muslim neighbourhoods were levelled, only scavengers could be seen at the site of the destruction”

Last month more than 40 people died in violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the central Burmese town of Meiktila. The BBC’s South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head looks at the causes of the violence. At first sight it appears that Meiktila has been hit by a natural disaster. Entire neighbourhoods have been levelled, homes of brick and cement smashed to rubble. Then you notice holes pounded into the walls that are still standing, clearly made by human hands. It was anger, not nature, that wreaked this destruction. The families and shop-owners that occupied these buildings have disappeared. The only people are the scavengers, salvaging anything of value left in the ruins. A Muslim community that dates back many generations has been wiped out.

Restrictions a Joke: Rejected Boatpeople sail through Tribunal

Jared Owens, in The Australian, 16 March 2013

THREE-quarters of boatpeople who appeal their failed asylum claims to the Refugee Review Tribunal are rewarded with permanent residency in Australia. As the Opposition affirmed a pledge to prevent maritime arrivals detained in Australia from seeking independent review of their cases, figures obtained exclusively by The Australian indicate the tribunal has overturned 503 departmental decisions to refuse refugee visas to boatpeople from a total of 676 cases heard since July last year. Those refugees will join more than 3200 other boat arrivals whose negative refugee assessments have been overturned on appeal since Labor introduced an independent review system in 2008.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the figures made “a mockery of the initial assessment of asylum claims” by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. “These latest figures have confirmed that under Labor’s appeals process a ‘no’ almost always turns into a ‘yes’ and the prize of permanent residence for people who arrive illegally by boat,” he said. “Even if they get a no they can just keep appealing.”

A Measured View on the Halal Controversy in Sri Lanka

ACL Ameer Ali, courtesy of the Sri Lanka Guardian

The Arabic word halal simply means permissible and is the direct opposite of haram meaning prohibited. In between these two extremes there are several shades of permissibility and prohibition, and in none of which, including the two extremities, there is unanimity of opinion among Muslim religious scholars. This categorization in cover not only the narrow field of food and drinks but also the vast terrain of personal and societal behaviour and actions, such as economic transactions, social interaction, national governance, and so on. There are a number of contradictory and conflicting fatwas or religious rulings in relation to each of them. However, the bottom line is that they are all meant for Muslims and to Muslims only. Even in Muslim countries like Malaysia and Indonesia non-Muslims are not compelled to consume halal food. For example, the Chinese in these countries are allowed to produce, consume, and trade in pork and pork related products even though such products are declared haram in Islam and even though some extremist Muslim groups would prefer them to be prohibited in the name of shariah laws. Hence, in Sri Lanka or anywhere else if any one forces a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Christian to eat halal food that action itself will tantamount to haram.

The Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on Constitutional History, Theory and Practice

Type of Publication: Edited Collection…..Publisher(s): The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), and the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF) 

Place Publication: Colombo, Sri Lanka ….. Date of Publication: 21^st December 2012…….

Size of Publication: 1168 pages in two volumes (Vol. I: pp.1-660; Vol. II: pp.661-1168)

ISBN: 978-955-1655-93-8 ………..Bar Code: 9 789551 655938

Editor: Asanga Welikala

Website: http://republicat40.org (entire contents downloadable in complete volumes or as individual chapters)

 Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu of CPA

Purpose and Scope of the Publication: In 2012, Sri Lanka marks the fortieth anniversary of the founding of its republic. With the promulgation of the first republican constitution on 22^nd May 1972, Ceylon severed its remaining constitutional links with Britain that had survived the grant of independence as a dominion in 1948. Both the process adopted in the making of that constitution as well as its substance were historic – a decisive ‘constitutional moment’ – reflecting dramatic political currents that had dominated the late-colonial and post-independence period, and establishing a constitutional order that has, despite being replaced by a second republican constitution in 1978, retained its essential substantive character as a highly centralised unitary state to the present.

The Other Side of the Impeachment Drama

S. L. Gunasekera, in the Daily Mirror, 20 January 2013

The impeachment of a judge of a superior court is indisputably a tragic event to be dealt with  due solemnity and wholly divorced from all considerations of extraneous matters such as party affiliations and `loyalties’; prospects of rewards; political gain etc. It is a solemn occasion where Members of Parliament are required and indeed bound to discard and ignore completely their party affiliations, the  decisions of their respective parties on such matter as well as the instructions of their party whips and decide wholly dispassionately and objectively whether on the evidence adduced before them, the Judge concerned was or was not guilty of any one or more of the charges against him that gave rise to the resolution for his impeachment and whether such charges were of sufficient gravity to warrant his dismissal.

Reconciliation through trust and participation

Somapala Gunadheera, in The Island, 22/24 December 2012

Pare ca na vijananti
mayamettha yamamase
ye ca tattha vijananti
tato sammanti medhaga.  …… (Antagonists do not realize that they must all die someday. The wise realize it and so end their quarrels.)

National reconciliation has attracted the attention of its stakeholders ever since Independence, though much headway has not been made in that direction up to now. Interest in the subject reached an unprecedented level with the physical unification of the country after the conquest of the LTTE. Much has been promised in the meantime but the ground situation does not appear to have improved that much. There is a vociferous debate on the level of reconciliation attained and the methods employed therefor. I do not wish to enter that fray. Naming and blaming begets emotion that can never be productive. What is proposed here is to look at the realities of the situation objectively and explore what could be done within current restraints, to bring the North and the South closer together, preventing the re -escalation of friction to unmanageable proportions. I look at the problem from first principles with no coloured spectacles on, in the background of my personal experience of working among Tamilians.

Aussies point fingers at Lankan criminals in people smuggling

Cameron Stewart and Paul Maley, in The Australian, 1 December 2012, with title reading: “Criminals moving in on asylum rackets” **

FOURFOLD increase in people-smuggler networks in Sri Lanka is driving the surge of boats that threatens to overwhelm Australia’s border protection regime.  Australian authorities have identified about 12 major people-smugglers operating in Sri Lanka – up from three a year ago. The expansion has been driven by criminal opportunists seeking to cash in on the lucrative trade by spreading false promises of jobs in Australia. However, the Gillard government believes it is now seeing early signs that its controversial policy of returning more than 700 arrivals to their homeland is making Sri Lankans, especially Sinhalese, reluctant to purchase a boat passage to Australia.

A Son stands bravely and simply by his Mother, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, Chief Justice

Shaveen Bandaranayake

My mother is the 43rd Chief justice of this country. She is also the 1st female Chief Justice in this country’s 200+ year history. She is an academic, one who possessed a PhD in Law before it went on sale. She is also a loving sister, mother and a wife. She is a hardworking woman who loves her country dearly and wishes to preserve its seemingly flailing integrity. She is not a politician. She is not the kind of person who expects to do something and expect something in return. She is also not the kind of person who would waver or change under pressure or intimidation. She is not going to change her conscience on a whim. There have been many occasions in which she could have given in and been rewarded lavishly. Most people are unaware of who my mother really is. Until recently, seldom would anyone have heard anything from her or about her. She has always believed that as a judge and as the Chief Justice, she must not socialize or be seen to favour any party. It is not that she is not a sociable person. It is purely because she feels it’s a burden she must carry in order to uphold the integrity of the august position which she holds. Is that incapacity? Is that misbehaviour? The powers that be claim the impending impeachment to be one to uphold democracy and the concept of separation of powers. Frankly, in my humble opinion, it is one of vengeance. It is one of spite and pure hatred.