| by A Special Correspondent
( August 4, 2014,Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Birth is celebrated in Western countries and yet, in third world countries birth is regarded as economic burden and sometime it is regarded as a shame as well. Sri Lanka is not exceptional to this description. In Sri Lanka BBS and its cohorts see the growth of Muslim and Tamil population as a threat to their racial domination hegemony. It is said that Sri Lanka got its freedom and independence without shedding any drop of blood and yet, since it got the independence it has been bleeding and many thousands of people died. There is no ending for this bloodbath. It is sad that since independence each community in Sri Lanka has been working for its own communal welfare and interest rather than for national interest of this country. Communal politics has done a greater damage to this country and yet, no one cares about it. Every one puts communal interest over national interests. No politician is exceptional to this general social phenomenon in Sri Lanka. It is sad even president of this country thinks acts and behaves like this. Rather than representing the entire Sri Lankan communities he acts as if he represents only his own people.
It is sad that this communal feeling was created initially by some Sinhalese politicians. since then, each community openly started working only for its communal interest. This communal thinking at the expense of national interest cost the country dearly: Billions of rupees were spent on wars for the last thirty years. Thousands of people died and properties worth of billions are destroyed. Economic cost of war is unimaginable and yet, some racist Sinhalese still do not realised this. They still want to create more and more divisions among Lankan communities. It is said that in 1957 Lankan GDP was far better than Malaysian’s. And yet today Economic situation is pathetic in Sri Lanka. After all these destructions, some irrational Sinhalese do not realise the danger of creating communal unrest and violence. Now these senseless Sinhalese are worried about population growth of Tamils and Muslims. I do not know where they live on this virtual global village of modern world.
This mentality of people has to change if we need to build up this country once again. All community should put aside their own communal interest. We all should think in line of national interest so that we could build this country once again. Today in this modern world the qualities of human resources bring wealth and prosperity to nations and county. Unlike in the past today we all should think how to enrich our human resources of Sri Lanka. Today, human resource is the great wealth of any nation. The more your human resources are rich the more you could become rich today in this modern world. Today population growth is the real wealth of the country. Rather than enriching and enhancing Sri Lankan population growth with good education and training these BBS and its cohorts spread the virus of racism and decimations.
Look for instance, India and Singapore with multi-ethnic identity they managed to build up their national identity. They think nationally not communally. Look how minorities hold high level of political and leadership positions in those countries: yet, narrow-minded Sinhalese do not think in line of national interest of this country rather they think in line with their own communal interest. . This is the main cause of all ethnic problems in Sri Lanka. They do not think that each child born in Tamil or Muslim community in Sri Lanka is a national assert of this country. Rather they think that only Sinhalese should have children, only Sinhalese should hold high positions in Sri Lanka, only Sinhalese should live in Sri Lanka. As if only Sinhalese are human beings and all other communities are not worth to be called as human beings. This is the racist agenda of BBS and its cohorts. Just listen to some of speech of BBS to know more about this. What conclusions one could come after listening to some racist remarks made by BBS on minorities?
Based on this racist agenda, BBS has been calling to control the population of minorities in Sri Lanka. They are worried about explosion of Muslim population and yet, it is not true that Muslim population is increasing than Sinhalese population. It is noted that Sinhalese population has dramatically increased than other communities. Of course, Tamil migration was the one of main causes for the decrease of Tamil population in Sri Lanka. Yet, Muslim population growth is natural increase. Many factors contributed to this.
It is a firm Muslim faith that God alone gives food provision in life. Human life is in a sense already predestined by God. This does not mean man sits idle doing nothing to make a living and yet, Man cannot play around with nature. Birth control for fear of want and poverty is not allowed in Islam because. It is God who provides food and livelihood. A family planning in an unnatural way, killing foetus in wombs are Haram in Islam. This trust in God and faith encourage Muslim to have a good family life. They do not do abortion as other community people. This is one of the reasons for the natural growth of Muslim population.
Millions of abortions are carried out in India and China. The gap between male and female population is increasing in India and China. Males in China find it hard to find partners. Same thing would happen to our country as well if we play around with nature or try to meddle with nature. Same religious faiths of other religions contribute to the population decrease in other community. Take for instance, Buddhism it prohibits Buddhist monks to marry. You may say it is only less than1% of Buddhists is monks and yet, this contributes slightly for the decrease of population in a long run.
If you assume that there are 400.000 thousands monks today in Sri Lanka and they are not allowed to marry. This monk population in each generation will not be able to contribute for population growth of Sinhalese. Hence, naturally Buddhist population bound to decrease slowly for this reason. This could be minimal and yet, this could contribute in a long run. For this reason, Buddhist people should rethink about their religious teaching on this matter. Perhaps, they should to give permission to monks to marry. This applies to some Christian denominations as well.
Secondly. Today, most of Sinhalese couples are working: Husband and wife go to work. Whatever these racist BBS say. Those working class people cannot produce lots of children: it would be burden on ladies to work and lead family life. Most women want to have one or two children. That is why they cannot have big families. This applies to western communities more than Sri Lankan communities. People in churches are too much worried about Christian population decline in western countries and yet, they cannot help. Moreover, when women are working they delay marriage age. Most of girls who go to higher education and employment delays marriage. This is very much common in Tamil and Sinhalese communities:
Tamil community is little bit complex in this regard. It is pathetic. Please go through some of matrimonial in Newspapers. For many social and cultural reason marriage is delayed in Tamil community and some even after 30 or 35 years later do not marry in Tamil community. Hence naturally fertility in Tamil community would go down and it is pointless to blame others for this fault. They should get rid of some of out-dated systems and traditions in relation to marriages: In India if a husband dies wife has to burn herself. In Sri Lanka too divorcee Tamil ladies will have to go through hard times to remarry second time. Unlike other communities Tamil ladies delay marriage for many reasons. This is one of the reasons for population decrease in them.
It is said Tamil should follow polygamy in marriage to increase population. What an unrealistic idea is this? We do not have any objection to this. You cannot copy one cultural life style of other community very simply as you reckon. First of all, No Muslim in Sri Lankan follows polygamy in marriage: it is only applied in some African and gulf countries. There are some conditions attached to this polygamy: you should be financially better off, you should get first wife’s permission to do that, and you should be able treat all equally. There are some more conditions as well. . I do not think Tamil ladies would be ready for these? Polygamy would not increase population rather it would increase: you should try to figure it out how it would decrease?
Buddhist population is decreasing for another reason: that is to say that a large numbers of Buddhists have been converted into Christianity. They are still being converted here in Sri Lanka and Abroad. There are some fascinating researches on this. It is said that Sinhalese constitutes 74% of Sri Lankan population and it is over exaggerated figure. If you set aside
Sinhalese Christian population from this total, Sinhalese Buddhists would be around 65% in Sri Lanka. Even if you minus some of those who migrated to western countries I do not think that their next generations would come pure Buddhists as these monks think. Consider for instance, Sinhalese who migrated to Europe most of them today eat Meat. Within next two or three generations they would not be Buddhists rather they would be someone else: it could be atheists or agnostics or humanists or Muslims as it happen all over the world. Such social changes are taking place around the globe and yet, some of these Buddhists live within four walls of their own houses.
Furthermore, family life in Muslim community is little bit different from other community: most of Non-Muslim people drink alcohol: No doubt alcohol destroys a peaceful family life: how could a lady live peacefully with a husband who is alcoholic? Peace will be shattered in those families: Thousands of alcoholic husbands beat their wives when they are drunken. How can these families have lots of children? How could these families bring up good children? How many families are destroyed by this in Sri Lanka? Be honest with you and tell the truth. I have seen this by my own naked eyes in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese people should rethink about this if they want to increase their population in Sri Lanka.
Yet, you can tell comparatively the problems of alcoholism are less among Muslims here in Sri Lanka and abroad. This contributes to the growth of population in Muslim communities. It is argued that one of best institutions in Islam is the institution family in Islam: lots of rules and regulations are stipulated in Islam about family life: hundreds of laws about maintenance, marriage allowance, inheritance and divorces are regulated to protect families. The institution of family is divinely inspired in Islam. That is why Muslims care about it and this contribute to the increase of population as well.
Yet, to say that Sinhalese population is decreasing is a really myth. Statistics show that it is increasing. But slower than Muslim population: one reason it may be because, farmers in Sinhalese villages are not doing birth control. They have big families and they are very much close to nature and they do not play around with nature. Thanks to them. It is not so called Sinhalese monks or high profile Sinhalese in Colombo who protect Sinhalese race rather poor farmers. It is with great difficulties and hardship that they contribute to the population growth and yet, politicians in Colombo play around with their life, cut their subsidiaries and do not help them at all. Rather during election time the political parties go to them and beg for their votes and after election they are forgotten. This is the Lankan story in politics. Those monks who speak out today they speak for politics not for Sinhalese race. They use race, religion for their own gain.
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