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Faulty Indian made computer in use for six years - A/L results scandal
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magha
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28 Jan 2006 05:41:32 GMT Report for Abuse
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When ariyalai-SB, had been much more lenient than me with his previous posts suggesting that Buddhism should be the State religion , I wished Sri Lanka to be a more secular country, but as we both are supporters of the concept of compromise, his view may be more appropriate than antagonizing a large percentage of people of the Majority at this stage of development of the country .
However there will be strong opposition for any changes to the constitution to eliminate the Singhalese Buddhist Chauvinism made by Singhalese opportunistic politicians exploiting Buddhism . One example is full moon days being public holidays. Is Federalism or devolution of power going to change these unnecessary public holidays since North and East has few Buddhist ? I believe making Sri Lanka more secular is one of the most important aspect of bringing peace to the country.
History is an important element to any country and it?s society. History of Indian subcontinent is poorly written. Proper historical records has not been kept in India by Indians. It happened that the monk Mahanama had decided to write about what he had known about the dynasty of the rulers of this country ,and Mahawamsa had become partly a historical and partly a fiction about history of Sri Lanka. Many historical events found in Mahawamsa are true , and modern day Historians refer to Mahawamsa for clarification. It is true that Singhalese Buddhists had interpreted Mahawamsa in favour of them. Interestingly it was the late 19th century revival of Buddhism and Singhalese culture which led to this misinterpretation of Mahawamsa. Is what?s written in the Holy Bible absolute truth?
Did Singhalese have to revive their culture and religion Buddhism? If somebody disagree with that then they are ignorant about the oppression of Singhalese culture and the Buddhism of 400 years of European Colonialism or deliberately ignore those facts to promote one?s own agenda.
When Singhalese Buddhists misinterprets Mahawamsa they do not say that they are a superior race but show hegemony over the ownership of the country above every body in order to protect their religion. If they were confident that Buddhism would come to no harm then there had not been any conflict between different ethnic groups in history and at present. Singhalese Buddhist Chauvinism is a later development of early 20th century. Political opportunism played a major role in that.
Hinduism had not been a threat to Buddhism nor Tamils as a minority to Singhalese after the 12th or 13th century. So what changed this relationship? It was the 400 years of European colonialism which had changed this relationship. I have already written about my view on this after analyzing historical facts in this same thread. It was due to Portuguese invasion in 1505 and it?s occupation of the North, East and the coastal belt of the country. Members of this forum , Please refer to page 9 of this thread and it is closely linked to the development of Western type of Education in Sri Lanka and the disparity of opportunity of education to the Singhalese compared to Tamils. What I did not say in that posting, but mentioned else where in this same thread was, that even those who received Western type of education among Tamils due to circumstances of geographical nature of the country leading to easy occupation of the said regions by Colonialists, they were the people who exploited their own community Tamils using the Hindu tradition of discrimination and exploitation of people by cast . Compared to the rest of the Tamil population they were a again a minority . They enjoyed not only the privileges during the colonial times but were able to hold on to those privileges after independence. The nature of this mentality of the privileged class of the Tamils was best demonstrated with the demand for 50:50 representation of the Tamils to Singhalese in Governance prior to independence from British when the percentage of Tamils in this country was less than 20% where as the Singhalese represented 70% of the population. Unfortunately a decade after independence in 1958 The ?reactionary? as well as ?opportunistic? politics of the SWRD Bandaranayake representing the Singhalese Majority , wanting to make 'Singhala only' in 24 hours, has brought an unexpected blow to the privileged class of Tamils who had misinterpreted this as suppression of Tamil minority in education, though vernacular education introduced to the both communities Singhalese and Tamils benefited the under privileged class which in fact comprised the majority of the population irrespective of their ethnicity , cast or creed. However even after the demise of SWRD the privileged class of Tamil who lost their privileges were able to misinform their own community whom they dominated taking the opportunity of the 19th century ideology of the Singhalese polity carried out by SWRD Bandaranayake?s spouse Sirima B.
I have posted here in this same thread about the higher education discrimination of Tamils by Sirima Bandaranayke?s government. At the same time I like to reiterate that at present there is no such discrimination towards Tamils of Sri Lanka in higher education. I have also posted that Vernacular education had given an opportunity for Singhalese and Tamils, not only to Tamil elite to obtain education,. Over the last 50 years the standard of education improved among the Singhalese as well as the Tamils but preparedness of the Singhalese for university admission had increased not linear but exponentially challenging the reactionary concept that Tamil minority is cleverer than the Singhalese in education.
Our modern day conflict between the Singhalese Majority and the Tamil minority is not because there was a war between Elara and Dutugemunu more than 1500 years ago but the impact of 400 years of European colonialism to the Singhalese and their Buddhist culture. I think that the facts had been misinterpreted to Singhalese by the post independent Singhalese political opportunists as well as by the same type of Tamil political opportunists to their Tamil community.
So educating both Singhalese and Tamils is an essential step in building relationship of both communities.
Singhalese have eliminated the discrimination of higher education to Tamils, however they have done very little to ensure the job opportunities to Tamils . They have failed to implement Tamil Language as an official language for 50 years. Singhalese have failed to eliminate the Singhalese Buddhist Chauvinism and hegemony . After introducing an open economy in 1977 by JRJ though being one of the reactionary leaders who allowed the 83 massacre of Tamils, there was an opportunity in this country to do better to both communities, but one track minded Tamil ideology absorbed the armed struggle which was still popular in the 20th century.
Tamils being 18-20% of the population is demanding 1/3 of the territory and 2/3 of the coastal area of the country where as close to 8% of the Tamils will permanently live in the south where Singhlaese dominate.
The Tamils will have hard time justification of their demand and it is unrealistic in reference to the territorial control they want to have . They need to modify their approach to win their rights. The Singhalese have to eliminate their Chauvinism and Hegemony.
Tamil Diaspora?s investment on guns and ammunition giving ?carte blanche? to LTTE had turned out to be nothing but funding terrorism and displaying hypocrisy of enjoying the benevolence of the Western democracy, yet failing to win the rights of Tamils of Sri Lanka for 30 years. Looking at the history of opportunism of the Tamil elite and the Hindu Ideology of discrimination of its own people according to their cast , it is not surprising that Tamil Diaspora had made little effort to understand the reality of the dialectical process of the society or to make any changes to the leadership of a well organized movement to bring real peace and harmony of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Edited By - magha - 28 Jan 2006 09:12:10 GMT |
magha
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28 Jan 2006 06:53:58 GMT Report for Abuse
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Genemate,
Thanks for your acknowledgment, but rather than accepting what I had posted as a conclusion let us read the differences in opinion to educate our selves and make compromises which will promote democracy which ariyalai_SB, lula, Kanthun, noel william , kula and few others working hard to achieve.
Edited By - magha - 28 Jan 2006 07:22:12 GMT |
Gaja
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28 Jan 2006 11:35:53 GMT Report for Abuse
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Thank you Lula. Tamil is more or less common to both sides. If Magha was using Sinhalese, that would have been fine by me. Not some alien language.
YOu are comparing apples with oranges.
love
gaja |
Gaja
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28 Jan 2006 11:40:30 GMT Report for Abuse
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Magha,
Religion and culture die when they are not translated into current language. Your historical accounts display knowledge but not wisdom through your direct experiences.
Are you able to summarise and state in current language what YOU see the problem is and what YOU consider to be the solution?
love
gaja |
Ariyalai_SB
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28 Jan 2006 11:47:07 GMT Report for Abuse
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Dear Magha and Gaja,
I have just scanned through your posts; I am a bit busy today; we are off to London to attend my niece's birthday. I will write tomorrow; its fantastic to see an intelligent debate taking place. I am also enjoying the debate LuLa is having with Muncha.
I don't know about the others, but am finding it difficult find time to engage further! |
tamilcanuck
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28 Jan 2006 16:27:40 GMT Report for Abuse
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''When ariyalai-SB, had been much more lenient than me with his previous posts suggesting that Buddhism should be the State religion , I wished Sri Lanka to be a more secular country,''
good on you magha. a secular country wouldve definitely avoided the issue or atleast we couldve worked around/with the issue and come to a compromise.
i say again religion & politics == deadly cocktail
(read somewhere over 80% of the worlds conflicts are religious.) |
LuLa
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28 Jan 2006 16:41:07 GMT Report for Abuse
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Ariyalai_SB
I need your valuable support in my debate with Mucha, he asked me several times if I am really serious, then he gave me a warning phrase. A good frightening strategy, fortunately there are only a handful of such people.
Please do not hesitate to pop in and give your valuable comments/support.
LuLa
Edited By - LuLa - 28 Jan 2006 19:08:42 GMT |
magha
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28 Jan 2006 22:23:31 GMT Report for Abuse
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Gaja Lakshmi,
I have posted my view, no time for a summary , solutions come through discussions.
Latin and Russian are not alien languages and I have provided translations to what I have posted . |
Gaja
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28 Jan 2006 22:51:57 GMT Report for Abuse
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Thank you Magha for your response.
Using Russian and Latin would tend to promote Communism and Christianity.
As for the value of summaries - you need them if you are genuinely representing a group - so every member of the group will be able to easily identify with and agree or disgaree with your values. By saying that it is in the discussion, you are revealing that it is for your personal satisfaction only. That is like a holy person in the woods and not like a guru who places him/herself through the education provided.
The CFA is breaking down because of too much discussion and very little summary that the common citizen can identify with.
love
gaja |
magha
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29 Jan 2006 04:14:11 GMT Report for Abuse
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?Using Russian and Latin would tend to promote Communism and Christianity.?
Gaja Lakshmi,
I have my doubts whether I could have an intelligent discussion here with your attitude or may be your ignorance.
You communicate with each other in this forum , in Australia and many other places not in your native Language Tamil but in English. You use the Latin alphabet which had been used to write English since 7th century. Are you promoting Christianity?
Have you ever read works of Tolstoy, Dosthoyewsky, Gorky? They were written in Russian . Is reading those great works promoting Communism?
Discussions fails because of the ignorance of those who participate or their attitude.
I will not waste my time here debating with you.
Edited By - magha - 29 Jan 2006 04:21:15 GMT |
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