DEFEATING RACIST POLITICS­THE WAY OF RELIGION

By Jehan Perera
In ethnically divided democracies obtaining the support of the ethnic majority, by hook or by crook, has been a long proven recipe for electoral success.
Morality and principles of good governance, although spoken from the lectern for public consumption, are of little consequence in the pursuit of power. Over seventy years ago in Germany, Hitler created an enemy out of the Jews and came to power. Nearer home we have Chief Minister Narendra Modi of Gujarat state in India romping home to victory with a large majority of Hindus backing him, although he has been blamed for being one of the chief instigators of the riots that killed over 2000 Muslims in 2002.
In the face of racist politics that makes smaller ethnic communities the villains or the sacrificial lambs, those who speak of dialogue, inclusion and compromise find themselves being excluded. The demogogues who shout about how the race and religion are being threatened and promise to forcibly suppress their opposition with no quarter given are more likely to prevail. Civic and religious groups that speak differently go unheeded by the macro political forces that use their power and money to further the lines of division and to promote their own futures. The same holds true of Sri Lanka. At the level of appearances it might be the case that the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has devised an unbeatable strategy. It is using the ethnic conflict to mobilize the Sinhalese ethnic majority to a war that primarily oppresses the Tamil ethnic minority, tens of thousands of whom are refugees, and hundreds or even thousands who suddenly get arrested at the whim of the government.
Due to the non-democratic and terror-using nature of the LTTE, and the extremity of its separatist demand, the government has been able to project its war against the LTTE and the collateral and sometimes deliberate damage to the Tamil people as a justifiable one to the Sinhalese people. If the political leaders do not have compassion and understanding as their foundations they will misuse their power and make the people of their own country suffer. But the religious message of Christmas is that there is hope. The refugee child who was born on Christmas day eventually converted a large proportion of the world through his own exemplary life. As the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist has written, “Many of us believe that we are powerless, and that we cannot do much to change the situation around us, especially political situations.
The reality is that we can always be someone and do something to change the situation.” In 1969 the Ven. Hanh led a Buddhist Peace Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks that sought to end the Vietnam war.
CHRISTMAS REALITY
Christmas is the celebration of a child who was born as a refugee. His parents had to flee a government that was targeting those deemed to be enemies of the state for brutal execution. The government of that time felt this killing spree was justifiable to preserve the ruler. The concept of human rights, which was devised over many centuries to prevent such situations from occurring again is today a bad word in government circles in Sri Lanka. Tragically, Sri Lanka today has its own version of the ancient Christmas story, particularly in the ongoing experiences of the Tamil people. Several tens of thousands of Tamil people have been newly rendered as a refugee population due to the escalating fighting in areas of the north. There is also the targeting of civilians for brutal execution by extra-judicial means both by government-backed forces and the LTTE. The television news now shows the bodies of the victims in Jaffna. The daily death toll varies, sometimes reaching five or six, such as on one of the days I was in Jaffna recently. But it seems that those in positions of authority take this death toll in their stride because this is a time of war.
They see themselves as patriots and call the death toll collateral damage to appease their conscience. The terrible feature of present day Sri Lankan democracy is that fighting the war has become a matter of self-advancement to those in power. At the recent vote on the budget the government was able to prevail because the JVP, which had been speaking vehemently against governmental corruption and economic failure, decided not to vote against the government.
One of the main reasons for their controversial turnaround was the war. They did not wish to see the government unseated because they approved of how the war is being conducted by the government. In turn, government members constantly assuage the desperation of the people who are feeling the economic pressures of a 25 percent inflation rate by talking about the successes in the war. They promise that the war will be fought successfully and will yield military victory in the north as it did in the east.
The immediate targets that are said to be achievable are the opening of the Mannar-Jaffna sea-side road which, if that area is captured, will make it run entirely through government-controlled territory (unlike the A9 Highway that has to run through LTTE controlled territory) or the capture of the LTTE’s present administrative capital of Kilinochchi.
PEACE STRATEGY
Government strategists appear to believe that a fresh military victory, on the lines of the earlier eastern victory, would give the government a new lease of life. The end of the present rains could see the launch of a large scale military operation. Perhaps it might even give the government the confidence to go in for a snap general election and obtain a clear majority in Parliament. At present the government is hostage to the JVP, as it lacks a majority of its own in Parliament.
Accordingly the government’s strategy for the new year could be one of military victory followed by political consolidation followed, presumably, by further military victories. However, the likelihood of peace and justice dawning through this government strategy is extremely remote if not totally impossible. The Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh who was forced into exile by the US-backed South Vietnamese government has written thus: “My experience with several wars in Vietnam has led me to the firm belief that terrorism cannot be removed by force and that deep listening is more powerful than bombs.
Terrorism is born from wrong perceptions. The terrorists have wrong perceptions about themselves. They have wrong perceptions about us. That is why they want to destroy us, to punish us.” We in Sri Lanka have had the experience of the JVP, which took up arms to correct social injustice. They killed people brutally, burned down government and private property, and were equally brutally hunted down by the government’s security forces. But today they have changed. So has mainstream society that has accepted them as legitimate social and political actors, with a legitimate cause.
The venerable Buddhist monk suggests the way to dealing with those who are deemed to be terrorists. He says, “If we know how they think, how they perceive things, we can help them remove their wrong perceptions. The work of removing wrong perceptions is the foundation for transforming violence and terrorism and fostering peace.”
But it is not only those who fight against the government who need to be addressed. “Like us, political leaders have positive seeds and negative seeds. They may be surrounded by people who do not water the good seeds in them. Their advisers continue to water the seeds of fear, craving, anger and violence in them.
We need to find ways to get in touch with our political leaders and help them,” the Ven. Hanh says. The work for peace in the coming year will require people to see the other’s side point of view, to be willing to break ranks with past conditioning, to cease acting according to the fears and nationalist impulses of their own community, and to engage with those who hold positions of power on the basis of faith that change is possible in societies, politicians and militants alike.
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