Accolades for President and Prime Minister

By Carlo Fonseka

For me the highpoint of our 68th Independence Day celebrations came when I heard a group of children singing our national anthem with great feeling and enthusiasm, in Tamil. The heart of our anthem is its enchanting melody imbued with a flavor of Tagorean music. It was composed by Ananda Samarakoon, an alumnus of Tagore’s Shanthinikethana. Being a direct translation of AS’s rather long-winded lyrics, the Tamil version of the anthem enshrines nothing but AS’s sentiments, such as the ennobling thought that Sri Lankans are the children of one mother. The musical arrangement of the Sinhala and Tamil versions of the anthem was exactly the same. The only difference, therefore, was that the children sang the anthem in a language they instantly understood, their mother-tongue Tamil. Good things do happen in our country every now and then!

Understanding

Prof. Y. Karunadasa taught us that the Buddha resolutely refused to sanction the documentation of the Dhamma in "chandas", the official language of religious discourse in his time. The language policy of the Buddha was that everybody should learn the Dhamma in the language they understood best. Against such a backdrop, when certain litigious politicians who are unmistakably more tribal than Buddhist in their outlook, tried their diabolical best to prevent Tamil people from paying homage to Mother Lanka in their mother-tongue, I wondered what the name of their game might be. They voiced the fear that Tamils paying homage to Mother Lanka in their mother-tongue would be the beginning of the end of the territorial integrity of our motherland. Such primeval fears might have been natural in the late Stone Age, when human social evolution took place by bloody conflicts between tribes. A lesson of evolutionary history is that in more modern times, social unity in a country is built on the recognition of and respect for human diversity.

Tribalism

I remember arguing this subject with a "helaurumakaraya" many years ago. He unashamedly enjoyed to the full all the benefits of modern scientific civilization- motor cars, television, computers, mobile phones, microwave ovens, the lot, to the development of which helayas contributed little or nothing. Nevertheless, he passionately declared that the future advancement of our nation required the implementation of the "helaurumaya". At that time the population of the world was about six billion (6,000,000,000) of which about 15 million ( 15,000,000) were Sinhalese. Because he found elementary mental arithmetic a formidable challenge, on a piece of paper I divided 15,000,000 by 6,000,000,000 and explicitly demonstrated to him what the answer (1/400) implied. Of every 400 people on earth at that time chosen at random, only one would be a "helaya". And if that helaya believes that he has nothing to learn from the other 399, I told him that he is fit only to be a "helauruma bod". Unfortunately, as Bertrand Russell says in his Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954) "men are passionate, headstrong and rather mad". By their madness some politically ambitious men can raise hell in a country in the short run. For example, with a show of legal erudition these self-proclaimed patriots argue that for Tamils to sing the national anthem in Tamil is unconstitutional and unlawful. Quoting to them the hackneyed Dickensian phrase that, if so, the law must be an ass, is of no avail. Telling them about Dr. Samuel Johnson’s view that "patriotism is the last resort of a scoundrel" is a waste of time. Fortunately, today such "helaurumakarayas" are merely an irritant and not a danger.

Two Languages, One Country

At the time of the Sinhala Only debate in 1956 Dr. Colvin R de Silva, a great leader of the LSSP, prophesied that imposition of one language on the nation would result in two countries. This proved to be remarkably prescient and the unification of the country at a huge cost took place only in May 2009. Now we have two national languages but some politicians seem hell-bent on preventing Tamil people from singing the national anthem in Tamil which is a national language. How come? Is there any method in their madness? Buddhism has the answer.

Mental Defilements

According to Buddhism we are all born with the mental defilements of delusion (moha), hatred (dosa) and greed (lobha). These defilements are present in different people to different degrees. That Tamils singing the national anthem in Tamil will lead inevitably to the territorial disintegration of the country is a whopping delusion that some people suffer from. The Tamils, of course, will continue to sing the national anthem in their mother-tongue. This will provoke hatred against them in the deluded politicians. And their hatred will fuel their greed for political power which they will pursue on the promise of protecting the supremacy of their language in the national anthem. This is surely the game plan of the pivithuru helaurumaya types. Nor is this surprising. It is compatible with their stage of social evolution (late Stone Age). What distresses me, however, is to see my dear friend President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Member of Parliament, also plugging the pivithuru line. He earned my profound admiration by learning Tamil in order to communicate with the Tamil people in their mother-tongue. To digress for a moment: in the practice of medicine, communication with patients in their mother-tongue greatly facilitates the total healing process. Perhaps because President MR instinctively sensed that "politics is medicine on a grand scale" he disciplined himself to learn Tamil in late adult life, which is not easy. For such a man, now to repeat the brainless pivithuru helaurumaya inanity that Tamils should not be allowed to sing the national anthem in their mother-tongue is I fear to fall into the lower depths of political degeneracy. My friend should model himself on the noble Dutugemunu who showed the world how to honour even a political enemy. If he knows what is good for him, he would avoid the ignoble pivithuru putrescence like poison.

Conclusion

Singing the national anthem in Tamil became a controversial matter in the run-up to the 68th Independence Day celebrations. In that context, our President and our Prime Minister had the options of doing what they judged to be the most expedient thing, the most popular thing, the most practical thing or the most cowardly thing. Instead they chose to do what they considered to be the RIGHT THING. In this they have my heartfelt concurrence. For this I salute them and offer them accolades of unqualified admiration.