from the concluding chapter - Reflections on Failure of Talks:
"....The Maha Sangha and its organised clergy constitute the
most powerful institutionalised structure of the Sinhala-Buddhist racist ideology. As the
ideological apparatus of Sinhala Buddhist hegemony the Sangha wields unlimited power. The political system is subordinated
to this religious Order which functions as a form of neo-theocracy imposing its will
on the affairs of state. The Sangha as the divine
guardian of the Sinhala race and religion has always championed the cause of
majoritarian absolutism; the tyrannical system of the rule of the majority that does
not allow any from of accommodation for the rights and liberties of other ethnic
formations: particularly the Tamils. Embedded in a closed system of ethno-religious
dogmatism the Buddhist
monks regard the Tamil quest for national identity and homeland as intolerable heresy
and any attempts to resolve these demands as treason. In this scenario where Sinhala
Buddhist racism dictates the rules of politics, the Tamil national question has become
more complicated and intractable...
...The international governments who are genuinely
concerned about restoring peace and ethnic harmony to the island, should not ignore the
threat posed by Sinhala-Buddhist racism to the peace processes aimed at ethnic
reconciliation. This racism, well entrenched and widely institutionalised in the religious
and political structures of the Sinhala social formation has been the real impediment for
peace and for the negotiated resolution of the Tamil ethnic conflict. The tragic political history of the Tamils, that spans more
than half a century, with instances of deceits double
crosses and treacherous betrayals, illustrates a salient truth that Sinhala-Buddhist
racism has been the real culprit behind all ill-fated attempts at resolving the Tamil
ethnic conflict.
It is not
the so called 'Tamil terrorism' that stands in the way of a negotiated political
settlement but Sinhala-Buddhist racism that remains the stumbling block for peace. What is
characterised as 'Tamil terrorism' is a bogey created by Sinhala-Buddhist racist forces to
demean and discredit the armed struggle of the Tamil
people and to justify an unjust war against the
Tamil nation. Those who have taken up arms as the last resort to defend their people
against racist oppression and tyranny are not terrorists. The real terrorists are those
who preach the satanic doctrine of pure race and pristine religion and call for war,
violence and bloodbath against the Tamil people.
Under the facade of a new
constitution, the Kumaratunga regime aims to bury the national aspirations of the
Tamils: their aspirations for a homeland and national identity. The racism that is hidden
in her political discourse is very subtle and sophisticated. It is hidden behind the grand
eloquence of one nation, of one people bound together by one and the only identity: the
Sri Lankan identity. The subtle and invisible chauvinism of Kumaratunga is hidden behind
her pluralist political doctrine, whereas the racism of the Sangha is crude and transparent. It
is expressed openly in violent demonstrations,
protests, fasts and speeches.
Though there are qualitative differences in the manifestation of anti -Tamil racism in
the political and religious orders, it is on the question of war, on the war against the
Tamils, on the 'war for peace' that both the Sangha and the government stand together as a
single voice of Sinhala-Buddhist racism. It is in this realm, the realm of war, the subtle and the crude converge in a conspiracy to
subjugate the Tamil nation. Only when the international community realises that the
war unleashed against the Tamil people is an objective manifestation of Sinhala-Buddhist
racism, will it desist from supporting the war effort by the Sri Lanka government which is
aimed at the genocidal destruction of the Tamil nation."
From the backcover: The author of this
study, Anton Balasingham, is the political advisor and theoretician of the 