Sri Lanka Watch: Racism Is the Problem!

[suchandra 1]

<table class="contentpaneopen"><tbody><tr><td class="contentheading" width="100%"> Racist-speak even after fifty years, an insult to Buddhism </td> <td class="buttonheading" align="right" width="100%"> </td> <td class="buttonheading" align="right" width="100%"> </td> <td class="buttonheading" align="right" width="100%"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="contentpaneopen"><tbody><tr> <td colspan="2" class="createdate" valign="top"> Monday, 02 June 2008

http://www.srilankawatch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=593&Itemid=2

</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top"> Victor Karunairajan answers a critic

 

 

My simple scripture-based Sunday message (June2, 2008) He came not to be served but to serve appears to have caused some pains to Mr Halitosis. While congratulating the Editor of Sri Lanka Guardian for publishing his views though it was quite racially explosive and equally religiously bigoted, Mr Halitosis should have appreciated that Sri Lanka Guardian speaks for all the people of Sri Lanka; this includes the Christians too.

 

A few days ago, an excellent article on Buddhism was published and I promised that we will have something on Christianity, Hinduism and Islam too in the fine traditions Sri Lanka Guardian is sowing among our people now trapped viciously in a kind of nightmare chaos all because some fifty years ago racial and religious bigots took over the leadership of the country. They clearly showed that they would not tolerate the Tamils at all. This cannot certainly be the wish of a Buddhist.

 

Quite sadly Mr Halitosis – and quite unnecessarily too, who calls himself a devout Buddhist which I really have to suspect, talks about the Bunker Boy and the kind of violence that comes from that sector and equally he damns the Tamils living in Canada as racists. Today violence comes in Sri Lanka from all directions. So much so a Minister of the State, obviously a political Buddhist, walks into the offices of Rupavahini and has the temerity to physically attack the staff there with impunity.

How miserably wrong Mr Halitosis can be! He is conducting himself like the racist monks who were an insult to Buddhism, the way they ran riot in the country especially in 1956, 1958, 1977 and then the terrible ordeal of 1983. Who created the Bunker Boy Mr Halitosis? Come, come Mr Halitosis! Please do not call yourself a keen Buddhist and still indulge in this kind of verbal tirade and attitude, and that even after 50 years.

 

There are still Tamils even in Canada who hope one day their land will become a haven for all the communities and once again it will attain its rightful place as a paradise on earth. But reading Mr Halitosis this morning and his reaction to a simple Christian message makes even this writer wonder whether this dream will ever be realized.

 

In the sphere of inhuman violence, the Bunker Boy only showed that if a racist maniac can mete out ruthless brutality to members of another community, he could do a better job of it and both are totally unacceptable.

 

Please Mr Halitosis, do not be an agent of defilement of the Buddhist faith and the hope of peace and amity it stands for the global community by right thoughts and right conduct. Gautama Buddha could not have been clearer about these ideals with which he founded this great faith.

 

Even in respect of Hinduism from which Buddhism sprung, Mr Halitosis is so poorly informed. He talks about a pantheon of Hindu gods when a real theologian would have described it as a pantheon of concepts of the sole Creator of the universe.

 

If Sri Lanka has to seek its liberation from the current muddle, morass and misery, people like Mr Halitosis must necessarily take the rear and keep their feelings under complete control, and even more, their mouths shut and sealed up. </td></tr></tbody></table>