By Romesh Hettiarachchi – The Colombo Telegraph
Calls for former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to be appointed
as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka continue to grow. One vocal supporter of these
calls has been former diplomat and current academic, Dayan Jayatilleka who
described this movement as standing for a Sinhala nationalism that forms the
core of Sri Lankan nationhood and Sri Lankan patriotism. Dayan elaborates on
this stance in his previous article Smart Patriotism and the Marginal Majority
(“Smart Patriotism“), asserting that Smart Sri Lankan Patriots must acknowledge
the central role of Sinhala nationalism. Any failure to recognize Sinhala
nationalism is characterized by Dayan as being ridiculously artificial and
dis-organic.
The Duty of the Patriot is to the Country not to Former
Elected Officials
Given Dayan’s admitted soft spot for Mahinda Rajapaksa,
Dayan’s agreement with Wimal Weerawansa that “Mahinda is not a name, Mahinda is
a country!” should not be a surprise. However equating a former elected
official with a whole country is hardly the behaviour of a patriot. As United
States President Theodore Roosevelt said:
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean
to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the
degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support
him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to
oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in
his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell
the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.
Characteristics of Nationalist Thought
As astute and intelligent as Dayan may be, Dayans’ writings
tend to dwell on the victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations of the past.
Such tendencies are described by George Orwell in his essay Notes on
Nationalism (full essay here) as being essential for the nationalists quest to
secure more power and prestige for “their nation.”:
The nationalist does not go on the principle of simply
ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his side, he
persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief
even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him. Nationalism is power-hunger
tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant
dishonesty, but he is also — since he is conscious of serving something bigger
than himself — unshakably certain of being in the right.
The unshakeable certainty of being right is probably one of
the more distinguishing characteristics of Dayan’s writings. However given the
failure of nationalist thought to evolve over the past seven decades, Orwell’s
characteristics of nationalist thought continue to be relevant especially when
it comes to Dayan:
Obsession: Like their Tamil counterparts, Sinhala
nationalists are near obsessed with the superiority of their own race. In Smart
Patriotism, Dayan argues that the ancientness of the Sinhala nation, language,
history and civilization confer a central role upon the Sinhala Buddhist people
in the Sri Lankan nation. If this is accurate, then it is difficult to see why
the same principles should not apply for the Tamil community, considering that
the Tamil language is generally recognized to be at least as old as Sinhala, if
not older.
Instability: Dayan asserts he stands for a “nationalism that
is compatible with internationalism.” This is a nonsensical position:
Nationalism is compatible with internationalism insofar as the demands of the
international community are superseded by the interests of the nation state
i.e. the very definition of nationalism. Perhaps Dayan’s intense nationalism is
a byproduct of his intellectual affinity with Marxist Cuba and his historical
reservations with the Western states?
Indifference to Reality: Orwell described nationalists as
possessing two remarkable capacities. First nationalists have an inability to
seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. Smart Patriotism exemplifies
this inability splendidly: able to be transformed into an argument for Tamil
nationalism simply by reading “Tamil” for every instance of “Sri Lankan”,
“Sinhala” and “Sinhalese.” The second remarkable capacity for nationalists is
their inability to not only disapprove of atrocities committed by their own
side but not being able to hear about them: [For nationalists] a known fact may
be so unbearable that it is habitually pushed aside and not allowed to enter
into logical processes, or on the other hand it may enter into every
calculation and yet never be admitted as a fact, even in one’s own mind… Events
which it is felt ought not to have happened are left unmentioned and ultimately
denied. Again these capacities are equally demonstrated by Sinhala and Tamil
nationalists alike. It appears that when it comes to Sri Lankan and Diaspora
politics, acknowledging reality is clearly not a prerequisite to being taken
seriously.
Patriotism and Nationalism – an Antiquated Debate that Hurts
Sri Lanka?
I am well aware that nationalism and patriotism continue to
play significant roles in global politics. However history demonstrates that
concepts of patriotism and nationalism have generally been tools for those in
power to exclude and marginalize dissenting voices. You need to look no further
than the previous regime to see examples of this. It is no wonder why Oscar
Wilde called patriotism the “virtue of the vicious” and Samuel Johnson viewed
patriotism as “last refuge of a scoundrel.” Similarly it cannot be a surprise
that Albert Einstein referred to nationalism as an infantile disease – the
“measles of mankind” – while Eric Frohm referred to “nationalism as a form of
incest, idolatry and insanity” with patriotism being its cult.
With those who demand tribal ideologies be embedded at the
core of a national, multi-ethnic identity like betraying signs of their youth,
I would much rather hope a post-conflict society such as the society Sri Lanka
aspires to be would adopt the perspective of Martin Luther King Jr.:
Power without love is reckless and abusive.
Love without power is sentimental and anemic.
Power at its best is love implementing the demands of
justice.
Justice at its best is power correcting everything that
stands against love.
Sri Lankan Identity: Fragmented?
Speaking solely as a Diaspora observor, it seems to me that
attempts to define the smart/dumb Sri Lankan patriot and by extension Sri
Lankan traitors, only serves to exclude those who do not fit these narrow
subjective definitions. Indeed, similar asinine intellectual and institutional attempts
in Sri Lankan history has resulted in our Sri Lankan communities suffering
through decades of violence.
It may well be Sri Lankan identity has fractured as a result
of such violence and the ensuing rise of ethnoreligious idiocy. If true, its no
wonder that Dayan wants Sinhala Nationalism to fill the cracks in these
fractures. Hes simply reverting back to what he knows. With expressions of
patriotism and nationalism in post-war Sri Lanka proving to be effective means
for activists and politicians to ensure the cycle of conflict continues, it is
imperative that those opposing these expressions continue to work together
within and across geographic boundaries to find a different “glue” to hold the
Sri Lankan identity together.
In the interim, and to conclude, allow me to paraphrase Jon
Stewart: Efforts to define the patriotism of Sri Lankans as smart, dumb or
delusional isn’t bad as much as its hurting Sri Lanka.
Stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting Sri Lanka.
p.s. Also Dayan, as a fellow fan of The Boss, I hope you
recognize Springsteen would never support your brand of politics. Also, give
Glory Days a listen. You may find some relevance in the lyrics.
Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight
and I’m going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about
it
but I probably will.
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of Glory days.
*Romesh Hettiarachchi is a lawyer and mediator in Toronto,
Canada. A former director of Sri Lankans Without Borders, Romesh can be reached
@romesh_h. For those interested in continuing these discussions, particularly
those in Canada, visit the Kathae Kadai facebook forum.
No comments:
Post a Comment