"Mr. Anandasangaree and God Vishnu By C. Wijeyawickrema ”

Victor Gunasekara

This is a brief comment on the post of Chand Wije (CW) below who is writing under his full name. He seems to rely on God Vishnu to save Sri Lanka when any "saving" has to be done by the people and Government of the country. CW is no different to Muslims who pray to Allah five times a day, or to Jesuhelas who pray to their God. This is contrary to Buddhist teaching which recommends self-action, not help from external saviours.

Like many others CW seems to be disappointed with Ananda Sangaree whom they had regarded as an ally because of his opposition to the LTTE. However I had pointed out the error of this in a critique of an article by HLD Mahindapala some time back who also expressed approval of Sangaree. I had shown that Sangaree as leader of the TULF had the same ultimate objective as the LTTE although using different methods. They seem to have forgotten that the "liberation" which the TULF is seeking for the Tamils is not liberation from Prabhakaran but liberation from the Helas. I hope that Sangaree's criticism of the Supreme Court decision to declare the amalgamation of the North and the East as unconstitutional has opened the eyes of CW and those who think like him. Comparing Sangaree to Martin Luther King or anyone else is completely inappropriate.

My main point here is once again to criticize CW's theory that so-called "black-whites" are responsible for the precipitous decline of Sri Lanka. These "black-whites" may have had been responsible for the situation before independence, but since 1948 the country has been ruled by a Government voted into power by an electorate which far exceeded the 200 black-white families which CW claims to rule SL. In fact the vast majority of the electors are Sinhelas and Boduhelas. So if anyone has failed it is these Sinhelas and Boduhelas and the governments they have elected.

An example from the US, where CW lives, may help to enlighten him. The Iraqi war may have been urged by the oil lobby but it is President Bush who is ultimately responsible. So criticism for this should be directed to President Bush not the oil lobby. Similarly criticism for what has gone wrong in SL has to be directed not to the "black-white" lobby but to GOSL. At the current time, when most of the disastrous policies of the past have come to roost, GOSL is led by President Rajapakse. Why CW blames the "black-writes" as scapegoats is that he is a devotee of the MahindaR cult, just as he seems to be of Vishnu, the Putapati godman, etc.

As usual CW spends a great deal of time comparing SL with other countries. Every country has its own unique features and this kind of simple comparisons are simply futile. What he has to look at are the circumstances in SL and why it has failed and why GOSL has been incapable of tackling the LTTE insurgency. The precipitous decline of SL can be dated from the Great Hela Revolution of 1956. The revolution enthroned the new-sinhala mentality and it is this mentality, not any black-whites as such, that are responsible. Many of these neo-Sinhalas are clad in the spotless white "national dress", not top hats and coat tails. Yet their mindset is as distorted as that of the worst black-white. So long as this mind-set is not corrected the decline will continue, through devolution to federalism to separation. And we will still see the likes of CW blaming the black-whites and hoping that a non-existent Vishnu will save the bacon for the Helas!