Last week, State Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene bragged at a media conference that the Cabinet had rejected a proposal to decriminalize homosexuality. Then, two youthful Parliamentarians from the ruling UNP rushed in to reassure that “Sri Lanka’s 2500-year-old Buddhist culture was non-negotiable for whatever, even to regain GSP Plus.”
It should be clear to someone, who is not a bigot or an idiot, the type of buffoons who have dominated the decision making in this country. There is no immediate fix for that, even though the archaic Victorian Law could perhaps get stroke off someday.
The proposed amendment was intended to repeal Sections 365 and 365A of the Penal Code, which were enacted in 1886 and is a colonial relic.
The world has moved a long way since the Puritanical values of the Victorian era to become a freer and more inclusive place.
The two contentious sections of the Penal Code read as follows:
365: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature, with any man, woman, or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term, which may extend to ten years, and shall also be punished with fine and where the offence is committed by a person over eighteen years of age in respect of any person under sixteen years of age, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term not less than ten years and not exceeding twenty years and with fine and shall also be ordered to pay compensation of an amount- determined by court to the person in respect of whom the offence was committed for injuries caused to such person.
365A: Any person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any person of, any act of gross indecency with another person, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either description, for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both and where the offence is committed by a person over eighteen years of age in respect of any person under sixteen years of age shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term not less than ten years and not exceeding twenty years and with fine and shall also be ordered to pay compensation of an amount determined by court to the person in respect of whom the offence was committed for the injuries caused to such person.
The two sections are not confined to homosexually alone- so the Puritans beware.
They, nonetheless, have been used exclusively to target homosexuals, though no conviction has been delivered during the past five decades.
In practice, the section of the law entrenches the victimization and stigmatization of the most vulnerable members of our community. It is the economically and socially vulnerable, who get the beating, and not the Cocktail Liberals and LGBT Activists of Colombo 7.
One cannot see why we should not get this archaic and dormant law struck off the law books. However, peddling bigotry, xenophobia, racism, or whatever you name it, it has been an industry in this country for decades.
It had driven the nation through the perilous path it took, costing hundreds thousands of lives, and reducing a country that held so much promise at its independence to its current precarious existence.
Our public discourse has been hijacked and to a large degree been monopolised by a small minority of loud mouthed bigots, who on every occasion in the independent history, have stood on the path of enlightened decisions, be it finding an acceptable solution to ethnic minority grievances, revamping the economy so that it could work, or now to end legally enshrined victimisation of sexual minorities.
The equally disturbing truth is that the wider and saner society and the so called civil society activism, which is also an industry-size business, has not dared to call the bigots as bluff. Bigotry does not just target Gays and Lesbians, it is part and parcel of a broader phenomenon of intolerance, monopolization and regulation of individual lives, that cannibalises our social fabric.
It confronts every shade of modern day individual rights, be it a woman to dress as she wishes, a rape victim to choose an abortion, a kid to pick his medium of education, or a teenager who cannot go to a public university to have an education.
Gay rights are also human rights, but the inability to come to terms with it is part of this broader phenomenon that traps us in the past and prevents us from emerging as an inclusive and forward looking society that respects all its members.
The roots of this problem lie at a sad miscarriage of the British effort to implant democracy in its colonies. Democracy entails three fundamental attributes: Economic, Social and Political.
Rushing through political empowerment prematurely before reaching the adequate level of social and economic empowerment is akin to giving a sword to the monkey.
That strategy was not only naïve, but also dangerous, as it has been shown with devastating consequence in many times in the history, by the illiterate, the ignorant and the despondent, who pounced upon a minority of moderates, rolling back the progress and creating largely flawed and insular societies.
Ours was less disruptive though, partly because the Sinhala Buddhist culture was less invasive of public life and the social welfare and free education pre-dating independence, alleviated the venom of the mass impulses.
However, it slowed the progress, economically and socially, and was made worse over time as long term effects of Swabasha education began to manifest.
The Swabasha education and the closed economic model at the time shut off the masses from the world and modernising effects of a wave of social revolutions, which swept across the world. It also promoted a horde of mediocre individuals to the high positions of governance. Our politics now reflects the sad outcome of that process.
Sri Lankan public in general are not bigots, they have not considered the sexual orientation of their political representatives as a determinant in their electability.
There were and are senior politicians and Ministers who are Gay and their sexual orientation was their business alone.
However, our politics is cheap. It stoops to the lowest of low to score any potential political advantage. What is happening now is such a cheap manoeuvring. What is equally sad is politicians, who claim they are Liberal have shown little resolve to stand up to bigotry.
People like Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera can do much and that would enable him to be taken more seriously in the capitals around the world.
Why even the most enlightened politicians fear to tread in, is because of the sinister invocation of culture. That is no less than an attempt at bastardization of the Sri Lankan culture. Does Sri Lankan culture condone bigotry? Do the individuals brought up in this particular cultural milieu stand for implicit approval of bigotry? Highly unlikely!
