A South East Asian Solution for the Muslims - II

Kalpitiya Fisheries Harbour By Izeth Hussain-April 18, 2014,

I now approach the question of why the SL Muslims should emulate the e ample set by the !hinese in South "ast #sia$ particularly in the %hilippines& First of all I must draw attention to the si'nificance of the fact that the protracted anti-Muslim hate campai'n and demonstrations failed to i'nite mass Sinhalese action a'ainst the Muslims$ as I noted earlier in this article& It is worth recountin' my first-hand e perience at Kalpitiya fishin' harbor last year& I went there with the Muslim owner-dri(er of a (an$ whose family were nati(e inhabitants of the place and were thorou'hly familiar with it& It was sunset and the fishin' boats were comin' in$ and in the absence of ethnic mar)ers in the clothin' all the fishermen loo)ed ali)e to me& I was told that they consisted of all three ethnic 'roups$ Sinhalese$ *amils$ and Muslims& How were they 'ettin' on with each other+ ,uite well$ no problems& But -ust a few days earlier there had been an impressi(e BBS anti-Muslim demonstration in Kalpitiya$ with the usual bellowin'$ bawlin'$ yellin'$ screechin'$ screamin' fury a'ainst the Muslims& *he ne t day the Sinhalese and the Muslims continued to li(e to'ether in peace$ amity$ and co-operation& .ne conclusion can be drawn from the anti-Muslim campai'n& *he Sinhalese racist e tremists are to'ether on one side with the Sinhalese state racists - by which term I mean the Sinhalese racists who ha(e their hands on the le(ers of State power and their associates - while the people$ includin' the Sinhalese people as a whole$ are on the other side& It is belie(ed that the ma-ority of the members of the /o(ernment and of the rulin' party are also with the people a'ainst the e tremists& It is )nown also that the political party bac)in' the e tremists$ the 0H1$ has ne'li'ible support amon' the mass of the Sinhalese Buddhists& *he power of the e tremists probably comes from the ne us with the State racists$ and possibly also with a 'roup or 'roups within the armed forces& I am postulatin' here somethin' li)e a dichotomy between the State and the people& It has to be e pected in a country such as Sri Lan)a where somethin' li)e 2ousseau3s conception of representati(e democracy pre(ails$ in which the ci(il society and the .pposition are wea)$ in

which the people can be treated li)e sla(es in between elections$ and an unrepresentati(e power elite can e ercise inordinate power o(er the people& *his dichotomy can be seen in the (iolence to which the *amils were sub-ected by the racist State in past decades& From 4567 to 4588 there were no anti-*amil riots at all& *he incident in which at a cultural festi(al in 0affna a li(e wire came down and se(eral *amils were electrocuted was not a riot& *he so-called anti-*amil riots between 4588 and 4579 were not authentic riots in which the people 'ot out of hand& *hey were in reality po'roms or'anized and e ecuted by the State terrorists and their a'ents& *here was authentic people3s participation in anti-*amil (iolence only on Blac) Friday$ for a few hours in a limited area of Sri Lan)a$ because of a fear psychosis caused by the story that the *i'ers had come into !olombo& In the subsequent period also the dichotomy of State and people can be seen& :hile the thirty year war ra'ed our ethnic 'roups 'ot on well with each other$ in what can reasonably be described as peace$ amity$ and co-operation& # noteworthy fact is that the L**" attempts to pro(o)e the Sinhalese into another 0uly 379 - such as the outra'es in #nuradhapura and Kandy failed completely& *here is more than one way of e plainin' the remar)able restraint of the Sinhalese people in the face of repeated L**" pro(ocations& .ne e planation is cowardice; the Sinhalese felt free to attac) the *amils in the period 4588 to 4579$ but not later on after the L**" showed its stren'th$ as there could be reprisals& But as I ha(e pointed out abo(e the anti*amil (iolence in the period between 4588 and 4579 was mainly an affair of the State$ not of the people& #t the present moment there is the hi'hly si'nificant fact that the BBS and other e tremist 'roups ha(e been failin' - e(en thou'h they ha(e State bac)in' - to i'nite mass Sinhalese (iolence a'ainst the Muslims& I come now to the e ample set by the !hinese in South "ast #sia& Here in Sri Lan)a we ha(e a State that has been in(eterately Sinhala supremacist$ racist$ with a powerful hierarchical dri(e that has made the State deeply a(erse to 'i(in' the minorities fair and equal treatment& But at the same time we ha(e the Sinhalese people with whom the minorities can most certainly li(e in peace$ amity$ and co-operation& # si'nificant factor is that we now ha(e a substantially e tensi(e pri(ate sector$ much of which is outside the 'rasp of the tentacles of the predatory State$ constitutin' an area in which the minorities can thri(e& *he !hinese e ample su''ests that the Muslims should eschew the State as far as mi'ht be possible and focus on ma)in' 'ood in the pri(ate sector& *hat seems to be part of the essence of the !hinese success story in the %hilippines& I had two spells of ser(ice in the %hilippines from 458< to 458= and from 457= to 4576$ and could obser(e at first hand the !hinese success story there& .ri'inally the !hinese in S" #sia came mostly from South !hina with not much more than the clothes on their bac)s$ but (ery quic)ly they started ma)in' their socio-economic ascent$ and e(entually became the most affluent ethnic 'roup& !ultural characteristics deri(in' from the !onfucian ethical system is usually ta)en as the foundation for their success& *hey did not 'o into the state sector$ and instead e ploited the ample opportunities in the pri(ate sector& *hey were at the top in the world of business and in the professions& #nother important characteristic is that they were not prominent in the world of politics& *hey tended to be disli)ed for bein' pushful and a(aricious as businessmen$ but there was no hatred a'ainst them$ and there was no !hinese ethnic problem

in the %hilippines& #ll this seems to be broadly true$ with (ariations of course$ about the !hinese in South "ast #sia as a whole& *he SL Muslims were traditionally absent from the state sector and focused on the pri(ate sector$ but this has been chan'in' in recent decades with more Muslims 'oin' into the state sector& Howe(er$ the 'lamour and presti'e of ser(in' in the state sector has now practically (anished in Sri Lan)a$ and today$ amon' all the ethnic 'roups$ it is the students who are mediocre who -oin the state sector while the abler ones 'o in for the professions and business& So the SL Muslims are already emulatin' the !hinese throu'h force of circumstance& But there is$ in my (iew$ a crucial difference in that the SL Muslims ha(e a salience in politics - indeed a salience si'nificantly 'reater than their numbers warrant - while the S" #sian !hinese are hardly there in the world of political power& *hat is certainly true of the !hinese in the %hilippines$ and it is probably true also of the !hinese in other S" #sian countries as well& #t this point my ar'ument requires that I ma)e a clarification about political power in Sri Lan)a& :hy do people want power+ Firstly$ they want to do 'ood to the people$ to ma)e Sri Lan)a a better place than it used to be& I am placin' this reason first because it tends to be for'otten& Indeed in Sri Lan)a it is re'arded as non-e istent& Secondly$ people want to become prominent in society$ to cut a fi'ure$ to strut about& *hirdly$ they want to ma)e money& *his has become of o(erwhelmin' importance in Sri Lan)a in recent decades& Fourthly$ they want to e ercise power o(er people& *his desire produces the worst type of human bein' that there is& *he a(era'e politician has a mi ture of these moti(es$ but in Sri Lan)a the third and fourth of these moti(es predominate& Sri Lan)ans today can hardly belie(e that power should be held as a sacred trust to be used for the benefit of the people as a whole& *here has been a horrifyin' de'radation of our politics in recent decades& It has to be e pected$ therefore$ that racists will ha(e a (ery special a(ersion to the e ercise of power by minority members& %erhaps that is why they ha(e a (isceral hatred of the idea of de(olution on the basis of ethnicity& *he racists who want to re'ard the Muslims as the lowest of the low can be e pected to ha(e a (ery special a(ersion to the e ercise of power by them& %robably that is the e planation for the fuss about the issue of halal certification$ which bewildered me o(er a lon' period& *here ha(e been so many other issues which ha(e bede(iled Sinhalese-Muslim relations o(er a lon' period$ notably that of cattle slau'hter which could ha(e stirred anti-Muslim emotions far more effecti(ely than halal certification& :hy did the BBS pic) on that+ In cattle slau'hter the Muslims were not e ercisin' power o(er the Sinhalese& .n the other hand$ the #!01 in issuin' halal certificates not -ust to the Muslims but to the Sinhalese as well was e ercisin' Muslim power o(er the Sinhalese& *hat could not be tolerated& *here should be no problem about our Muslims emulatin' the !hinese by a(ailin' of the opportunities pro(ided by the pri(ate sector& *he Sinhalese people ha(e shown$ as I ha(e ar'ued at len'th in this article$ that unli)e the Sinhalese State they are prepared to li(e in peace$ amity$ and co-operation with the minorities& But the other part$ the more important$ of the !hinese e ample$ the distancin' from political power$ cannot be emulated at present& *he problem requires in-depth e amination& #ll that I can say at the moment is that the salience of

the Muslims in Sri Lan)an politics should be reduced& !oncluded