Champika Ranawaka and the Buddhist monks all spoke of the great Satan, the LTTE, and a monk harped back even to the Chola invasions of the past, 70 million or was it 50 million Tamils in South India etc., but none of them had a kind word for the minorities of Sri Lanka.By: Dushy Ranetunge in London
On Wednesday, Al Jazeera TV aired its second in a series of short documentaries about the Sri Lankan conflict. The focus was on the JHU.
Champika Ranawaka, the JHU member of Parliament and several Buddhist monks were interviewed. Although the program itself was balanced with JHU and anti-war monks and campaigners being interviewed, those representing the JHU and those sympathetic to their point of view did not do any favours for Sri Lanka.
Instead they came across championing a point of view articulated by the likes of the racist National Front (NF), the British National Party (BNP) or even the Protestant militant terrorists of Northern Ireland.
The National Front and the British National Party represents the face of British fascism, who offers nothing to the Jews, blacks and other minorities other than hostility and racism. In the United States one finds a similar movement known as the KKK, or the Klu Klux Klan, a white supremacist group. The Protestant militants and their sympathisers do the same in Northern Ireland and they are mobilised against the minority in Northern Ireland, the Catholics, who are considered by them as terrorists sympathetic to the IRA. Foremost among these Protestant firebrands is the Rev. Ian Paisley, now tamed by the British government into power sharing with his one time terrorist opponents the IRA.
What is common among all these groups and the JHU is that they are fringe political formations of majority communities feeding on majority insecurities and warped perceptions about minorities to secure political power.
Within the last 2 years, the British National Party made significant gains in local authority elections capitalising on the insecurities of English voters in certain deprived constituencies in the United Kingdom where some minority communities are concentrated.
In the British and American political landscape, these fascist fringe political formations are abhorred and marginalised by the major political parties as they bring back memories of Nazism and contributes to political destabilisation. In Britain the major political parties work together to undermine and squeeze out these fascist political groups from the political arena.
In October 1999, Joerg Haider's Freedom Party's rise to power as a partner in the Austrian government made headlines and raised alarm in the West, because of Haiders fascist links. This led to calls for the political isolation of Austria.
The interviews on Al Jazeera of Champika Ranawaka and pro-JHU Buddhist monks retraced the classic lines of this brand of fascism. It plays on the perceived great threat to the majority from the minority and then tries to justify oppression of minorities on the basis of this perceived great Satan.
Champika Ranawaka and the Buddhist monks all spoke of the great Satan, the LTTE, and a monk harped back even to the Chola invasions of the past, 70 million or was it 50 million Tamils in South India etc., but none of them had a kind word for the minorities of Sri Lanka.
The Tamils of Sri Lanka today cannot be held responsible for the atrocities of the Cholas. Listening to the Monk, it was like listening to the Serbian nationalists trying to justify their claim to Kosovo based on past history. There is a global pattern to this brand of fascism.
We were informed of a great conspiracy for Tamils to link up from the North with those in the East, with the Indian Tamils on the estates and then with the Tamils in Colombo and trap the Sinhalese on the island. Add to this the 50 or is it the 70 million Tamils of South India all waiting to swim over.
All these characters seem consumed by the great Satan, the LTTE, the main thrust of their argument.
But like the KKK, the National Front, the British National Party, the sympathisers of the Protestant paramilitaries, there was never a kind word for the weakest and the most vulnerable in society, the minorities. There was nothing in it for them. It was all about the majority and their perceived insecurities and rights. The fact that the JHU wore the uniform of Buddhist monks made no difference. The ideology was the same. On Al Jazeera, they were too busy pointing at great maps of Sri Lanka or was it “Hela” and to the great Satan, to realise that the Satan had consumed them and left them devoid of humanity towards fellow man.
Perhaps it is too much to expect the Nazis to spare a kind word for the Jews.
Like these other radical political formations around the world, the JHU has every right to express its views and participate in democratic politics. As long as it champions these political views, the JHU will remain a fringe group and runs the risk of political oblivion in future elections.
Meanwhile, Joerg Haider this week called for a ban on the construction of Mosques in Austria. "Muslims have of course the right to practise their religion, but I oppose erecting mosques and minarets as centres to advertise the power of Islam," he said. We can be thankful that at least Joerg Haider is not wearing the uniform of a Buddhist monk.
This week the Daily News stated that Buddhism was rising in Europe. Joerg Haider may have something to say about that. One wonders if he will bring something similar to the 50 million or was it the 70 million Tamils from South India threat argument to convince the Europeans about Buddhism rising in Europe.
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