The Majority Community is Racist, the Minority Communities are not racists

by Charles.S.Perera

(October 12, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) One of the definitions of racisms is discriminatory or abusive behaviour towards members of another race, the other is, the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races.

Is it a pattern of behaviour confined to the Majority in a country ? If so the minorities are not racists they are only vindicating their rights as minorities. That may be so because a few articles on trying to justify the fact of belonging to the Majority Community, was taken as being racist against the minority. The minority justifying their right to being part of the country, might not stop at merely making demands for their rights, they may even take arms against the majority racists, to make their just claims.

If the minority, or a group from the minority, who had taken up arms refuses all negotiations and demands a part of the territory to set up their own State and threaten the government to cede or prepare for an all out war, and kill the opponents, recruit children by force, attack civilian targets, that would be terrorism.

Hence, when there is both terrorism, and a demand for equal right, the majority who turns to fight the terrorists, or asserts the fact of their majority, are labelled racists, supremacists, and chauvinists.

In a way the extreme- prejudice (without calling it racism) of the minority against the majority, could set off extreme racism of the majority . That is far more tolerable as long as the minority stays at that level of making demands, and making all sorts of accusations against the majority, without taking up arms to claim a part of the country for themselves.

In the latter situation racism is not after all reprehensible, as the racist majority will defend the country against any minority group, that may go to the other extreme of becoming terrorists to break away a part of the territory of the country to set up a homeland. The racist majority will thus guarantee the minority communities, that their motherland remains intact- as a whole, un-mutilated by any over zealous minority group turning terrorists.

Therefore, the majority will be doing a service for themselves, and to the other minority communities, by being racists. Hence, there is no problem having an Army Commander from the racist Majority. He will fight against all intruders with his racist soldiers and assure the defence of the motherland for the greater good of all Communities. What does it matter if the Army Commander makes a statement which has a racist flavour, as long as he does his duty to defend the country ?

The Tamil minority too do not want terrorism. They want to live in peace as much as the other minority communities and the majority community. They only claim for "equal political rights". The Tamils and the other minorities, as much as the majority deplores any attempt by any terrorist group to break away the country to form an Eelam State.

In this respect the Sri Lanka Guardian carries an interesting article by a Tamil writer Satchi Sithanandan, written three years ago, in which he writes about the damage caused to the Tamil Community by the terrorists who had taken away the cream of the Tamil Community. He laments for the poor Tamil people who are caught between the two demons the terrorists of the north and the racists of the south.

We are all with him in these saddened circumstances in which the treasured blooms of a community, had been crushed by a crude worthless terrorists. However, between the two demons the terrorist of the north, and the racist of the south, the former is distinctively destructive, and the latter nonetheless is protective (or at least serves a purpose) .

The majority community has also sacrificed to terrorism a good number of their much loved leaders. Even if these "dead leaders" are to be considered racists by the minority communities giving them just a passing thought. They have nevertheless rendered service to their mother land, which is also the motherland of the other communities.

The role of the majority to protect the minority, appears a universal fact. In Afghanistan, it is the Americans , British and the French that fight the terrorist to keep Afghanistan free and united. Because, the Talibans though they are a terrorist group are also a part of the larger Afghan community with a strong religious link. Afghanistan on its own cannot fight the terrorist Talibans. Hence, the intervention of the international Community to help them.

In Sri Lanka the terrorists are a group that belongs to the Tamil Community, therefore, even if the Tamils do not like terrorism, they are unable on their own to fight against the terrorists. Despite this fact the rich Sri Lanka Tamil diaspora, which is not suffering ( had not or will not ) as the Tamil people in the terrorist controlled areas financially help terrorism.

The Tamil diaspora is doing so, perhaps, to help the terrorists defeat the racist Government Forces, to teach the majority racists a lesson for having forced a generation before to leave their motherland after riots in 1983- which should not be forgotten !

But, we do not want any foreign Country to interfere. We have an army (even if it is considered a racist army) strong enough to defend against terrorism. Therefore the Government Forces are doing it for themselves, and for every other community, as no body –neither the minorities nor the majority, want Sri Lanka decapitated to form a Tamil Eelam in the north and East.

Therefore, for the Tamil diaspora who are opposed to terrorism, ( "….The Tamils have been caught between two demons for too long a time, the Southern Racists and the Northern Terrorists and they are crying to be liberated."), the army of the southern racist "demons", is doing what they should do to defend the country (which is their duty), from which other minority (non racist) communities could benefit.

Under these circumstance the majority serves a positive purpose , remaining as racists, supremacists, and chauvinists. - Sri Lanka Guardian