“All our silences in the face of racist assault are acts of complicity”- Bell Hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism
In the aftermath of the Digana incidents, there were various programmes on visual media where the clergy from all communities, Muslim and Buddhist in particular, made appeals from their respective followers to exercise calm and restraint in the circumstances. Phrases like ‘the Sri Lankan identity,’ ‘sons of Mother Lanka’ and ‘harmonious living’ were bandied about in abundance. According to them, it was a simple matter of the clashing communities suddenly remembering they are all Sri Lankans, sons and daughters of Mother Lanka and living in harmony; a few who could not comprehend this causing mayhem.
Simmering Underneath the Surface
I wish it was so simple; I wish the rioters from both sides would pay heed to the counsel of their leaders and realise the folly they are engaged in. I am afraid that is not the case. The communal hatred and tension that flares up in violence leading to murder, assault, looting, arsonry and threats are merely expressions of a deep-rooted, racial and communal bigotry that simmers underneath the surface. The social media that has fallen into the hands of elements who are not good exponents either of society or media, has contributed to the explosion of incendiary hate speeches. Yet, that too has not appeared overnight. Casual observation would have revealed that social websites were increasingly being inundated with outrageous expressions of racial bigotry, particularly aimed at Muslims.
Came the 2014 Aluthgama riots, the wide margins of tolerance towards Sinhala racist elements on the part of the then government was all clear to see
When the government forces were warring against the LTTE and even after, it was the mantra of the Sinhala official media that it was not a war waged against the Tamils. But take a random example of social media conversations based on incidents like the death of Prabhakaran, fall of Kilinochchi or claims of war crimes. They fall nothing short of expression of utter hatred towards each other between the two communities. Present as well as the previous regime, which were quick to ban websites and online news portals criticizing them, were oblivious to this danger that was lurking online to the harmony, security and peace of the country. Either that or they were direct or indirect beneficiaries of hate speech in that they saw political mileage in the arousement of basic instincts of parts of the populace.
Looking the other way
Post independent local history is replete with periodical communal riots that remain as black spots in the national psyche among the three communities; 1958, 1977,1983, 2014 and now 2018, the latest! The sum total has brought the country to the verge of disintegration based on communal and sectarian lines.
Came the 2014 Aluthgama riots, the wide margins of tolerance towards Sinhala racist elements on the part of the then government was all clear to see. Hardly any perpetrator was taken to task and an attempt to whitewash the gravity of the brutality of the mayhem caused ultimately was one of the factors that contributed to the defeat of the Rajapaksa regime. The minority vote, if not 100% was predominantly against the regime. Just as the Black July made a split in the Sri Lankan society that has not yet been repaired even after the cessation of the thirty-year war, 2014 was a very clear fault line in Sinhala-Muslim relations which is now showing signs of deepening.
As always, we console ourselves with tales of the extremist few in either community who engage in this type of mischief. Hardly any soul searching is carried out in earnest. Propping the clergy on television to preach harmonious living and having calendar pages in January with children from all communities dressed in their national costumes hardly improves harmonious living. Admittedly, Sri Lankans do not take part in pogroms or ethnic cleansing in the classical sense; yet that is not necessarily an indicator of immunity from racial bigotry in our minds. In ordinary and mundane things as marriage, business and place of residence, a Sinhala supremacist attitude is common. If we were all ‘children of Mother Lanka’ a Sinhala Buddhist mother would have no issue with her daughter marrying a Muslim youth from Walachchena; conversely a Hindu Tamil would not shudder at being proposed to a Buddhist from Matara. But we know things are not that rosy.
There are politicians who use these for political mileage and others who are by nature ethno-religious bigots
The Islamophobia that seems to have permeated some segments of the Sinhala society does not seem to be based on rational or tempered evaluation; for that matter, no racist sentiment ever is. That is what it is; a sentiment, one at the base plateau of the human being that could be whipped up more easily than any other such sentiment. Such base instincts are not uncommon even among developed civilizations and refined individuals; yet what stands out is the instant flaring up of violent and heated action that crystallizes into acts of assault, arson, intimidation and rioting. The difference is that there are politicians who use these for political mileage and others who are by nature ethno-religious bigots.
Sins of omission by the State
Communal rioters have the assurance of past examples where no action has been taken by the State to punish them, Black July being the glaring example. The legacy of impunity they enjoy encourages more such elements to have a free reign in situations of anarchy. As always, the lethargic and lacklustre response of the police and the security apparatus is mind-boggling. There always seems to be that reluctance to act swiftly and decisively when members of the majority ethno-religious block take the law into their hands. Racists do not need active or positive support from the authorities to get emboldened; lack of punitive action is all they need. That, in fact, is more than enough support and even a casual word by a political leader in playing down the gravity of such rioting is sufficient to send a green signal to them.
As always, a scapegoat was found in the social media and online groups which led to the banning of social websites such as facebook, twitter and whatsapp; no evidence has surfaced that any of the rioters were egged on by what they saw or read online. Rather it all seemed premeditated and a result of a very tense relationship the two communities have had in the recent past. None of the more violent riots of the past has been due to social media as there was no such thing until very recently. Hate speech, whether online or off, is just a symptom of a deep-rooted bigotry that has existed over generations; suppressing the symptom is no cure to those entrenched evils.
Spectators and cheerleaders
As far as I am concerned, and as I have written in this column before, the most disturbing part of the whole episode is not the brutality or violence committed by the rioters of either community, but the indifference of the many who were not part of it.
Were the non-rioting majority mere spectators or were they cheer leaders?
