Racism within us
by Chandra Athukorala

Whenever I am in hibernation in this country, even though never for too long, I always got a sense that this is a very dangerous place, that we are living on a volcano that is about to irrupt without warning. The main reason for that lies in what seems to be an extreme sense of parochialism when it comes to things such as ethnicity and religion that many of seem to entertain and even cherish.

It gets worse, when one realizes that such tribalist cultural baggage as caste still continue to be important to many of us even though it may be camouflaged behind some modernists and very contemporary cultural or social trappings such as a school's old girls' association or a cultural organization with a perfectly normal name. Whatever we do and say, our seemingly racist and bigoted attitudes manifest on many occasions.

The recent incidents in Mawanella and their aftermath in Maradana are such moments, which we have to understand as symptoms of an ingrained disease as well as a sign of what is to come. But usually we fail to see the writing on the wall until it is too late. Like any political fiasco, Mawanella has many stories and many twists. But certain things are clear: thugs linked to an area MP of the ruling regime have been collecting protection money from the town's merchants for quite some time. But like all normal thugs with rational economic goals (such as to collect protection money), they were not racist or bigoted in the way they practised their trade. So they collected from both Sinhala and Muslim merchants, and were paid off for a long time. No one protested, knowing their opponents' political clout.

But when one merchant protested, he happened to be a Muslim. All indications are that this was an accident, but if the protestor was Sinhalese, he still would have been beaten up. Nevertheless, the Muslim merchant was severely injured by our heroes the political thugs, and instantly the issue got an ethnic flavour. Soon after, Muslim owned businesses were also destroyed. Of course, despite the complaints to the police by the injured Muslim merchants, no action was immediately taken, which lead to the violence in the town and for curfew to be declared. But by their inactivity the police acted in exactly the correct way in which they are supposed to act in a highly politicized police force in a basket case democracy such as ours. If they acted the way a real police force in a proper democracy is supposed to act, then they would have averted all that violence, but the entire station would have been transferred to some outpost north of Mankulam.

In this fiasco we miss certain important issues. Sinhala as well as Muslim merchants had been milked by these thugs for quite some time. But even after the injury to the Muslim merchant, traders in Mawanella did not protest as traders. Even in Maradana, those who protested did so as Muslims: If we do not think essentially in racist and bigoted terms all democratic forces should have been part of the protest in Maradana; traders in this country should have been part of that protest irrespective of ethnicity and religion; NGOs screaming about peace should have been part of that protest. But instead, it became a semi-violent protest of counter thuggery by Muslim groups, who according to some sources were also armed.

And all the Colombo middle class liberal types could do was to sigh as they usually do. Pretty soon they would apply for some funding and organize a few seminars and in good time a few crappy books would be churned out. And we will continue to burn.

What more do you expect in a country where the deciding factor in many everyday activities has become ethnicity and religion for the wrong reasons. The emerging trend in our political parties is to be ethnic or religious in orientation: The Muslim Congress, All the Tamil parties from the north east as well as from the hill country, the Sihala Urumaya etc are examples of this very parochial trend. On the other hand, this is perhaps the only country in the known universe where a government committed in principle to ideals of national integration has set up ministries and other government agencies which go against such ideals. So we have separate ministries for Buddhist Affairs, Hindu Cultural Affairs and Muslim Affairs.

This has assured that government funds are spent to promote ethnic or religious exclusivity rather than any kind of integrative functions. We have a Ministry of Ethnic Affairs where the minister is Sinhala and two deputy ministers are Tamil and Muslim respectively. Here the deciding factor should not have been ethnicity or religion but intelligence and knowledge in tackling issues of ethnicity, religion and conflict. This is one agency that should not have been in the hands of politicians but run by technocrats or other hand picked individuals with a proven track record. But then, it is quite possible that we do not have such persons who are not over 80 years of age still dreaming of good old days in the twilight of their own lives.

That rather backward Central Province has three regional Ministries of Education: one each for Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist education. That is the height of absurdity. In general, our schools are segregated on ethnic or religious lines as are our teacher training institutes. So are the universities: Jaffna and Eastern Universities for Tamils, South Eastern University for Muslims, Ruhuna for the Sinhalese and the JVP, and the others which may teach in Tamil and Sinhalese but classes would be internally segregated except in engineering and medicine and some of the other 'sciences.'

It is obvious that even our children and those who are supposed to teach them have not been spared from this disease of enforced racism and bigotry. It seems that contrary to declared policy, state practice is well organized to divide and polarize this country on the basis of ethnicity and religion.

In such a country and under such circumstances, it is not surprising that Muslim groups are agitating to create a separate Muslim administrative district in Kalmunai. On top of that, some Christian groups are asking for a Christian district encompassing the Catholic areas of the north western coastal belt. Of course, all this is in addition to that main problem of Elam: ethnicity again. If we give into these kinds of parochial demands, simply to be fair, we will have to give into other similarly parochial demands as well. If for political expediency, the regime decides to make Kalmunai a separate ethno-religious administrative district for Muslims, the Christian demand would only be reasonable on the same grounds. Then why not a Kandyan Kingdom headed by some of the residue of those individuals who claim to be descendants of Kandy's rather unsophisticated petty aristocracy. After all, it was the Kandyans who first demanded a separate state within this land for themselves from the Brits way back when. Why not tiny caste based administrative divisions wherever each caste group wants them? Then as a visionless collective of pathetic human beings we can be parochial in impunity.

In this parochial and terribly unpleasant circumstances, we have learnt to become tolerant of intolerance. So the liberal intellectual types interpret the exclusive tendencies of Tamil and Muslim exclusivists as their legitimate right to self determination. Parochialism among Christians would be seen as their right to profess their own religion. Strangely however, similarly parochial tendencies among the Sinhalese or Buddhists would be considered 'the tyranny of the majority.'

The bottom line for me is that this situation is unpleasant and unacceptable. Taking a cue from all of these I want to declare a secular mini state where people from all ethnicities and religions can resettle as long as they do not have any racist or bigoted tendencies. Vegetarians and meat eaters can also invest money there. Gays, lesbians and straight people are welcome as well. But since everybody else is intolerant, we should also practise our right to be intolerant in a more humane and rational way: A sign at the border of our mini state would insist: "Racists, Bigots, Caste Ideologues and Politicians not Allowed."

I only hope that this utopia would not disintegrate into a boring politically correct land of nerds where one would not be allowed to crack an ethnic joke even if it is funny because it would be construed as being racist. The day that happens, I will be on my way to Mars hoping that it is still uninhabited but habitable.