Editorial - Tight-lipped indifference at the massacre of heritage

Sri Lankans are a sentimental lot. However, the peculiarity of the sentimentalism lies in the fact that, those who do not brook even the slightest insult to the ‘Sri Lankanness’ at the hands of the foreigners tend to go tight-lipped and closed-eyed, when a damage of a similar nature is caused by a native.

These patriotic sentiments caught fire last week when the BBC reported that a garden doorstep at a home in Devon in the UK which had been identified as a rare Sri Lankan moonstone was expected to fetch more than £30,000 ($47,500) at the auction.



No doubt, if it is an authentic moonstone, every possible action should be taken to restore the rare artifact; for its rightful ownership is with Sri Lanka. Yet, the situation raises the question whether Sri Lankans react with the similar verve about the destruction of ancient monuments and artifacts at the hands of the locals on the very land they were rooted.

Hardly a day passes without news hitting the press about a historic temple in a remote corner being destroyed by the treasure-hunters. The places that are not destroyed thus, have been left to the mercy of elements.

In the face of such a disaster, it is unfitting for a patriot to act the statue.
So much for the public display of love for the heritage, the National Museum in Colombo was plundered by a group of robbers; a place that ought to have been armed with the highest form of security was left helpless at the time of the incident with its CCTV cameras broken and the security alarms (if there were any) unheard by anyone.

What was more disturbing however were that the epitomes of patriotism in the higher echelons, who are ever-ready to go on hunger strikes in the name of sovereignty, did not think it a grave enough reason to take to the streets.
Of course, nothing is as tempting as an international conspiracy!

Hence, what makes us unfit to boast about our culture is our silence at every plunder that is made at home, while making ultra-patriotic statements such as demanding the return of Sri Lankan artifacts in European museums.
Patriotism cannot be double-faced, neither can it be rationalized!

It is in fact, the responsibility of the native to present the traveller with the correct picture.
There is a disgusting nakedness in the jingoism purported by those who think they are Sri Lanka; a sentiment that arises in abundance when one feels harping on it makes one look like a martyr without inviting real trouble.