Taking lid off Golden Bowl

(Introduction to Sena Thoradeniya’ s book- Galle Face Protest: System Change or Anarchy?)

By Gunadasa Amarasekera
(Continued from yesterday (04)

‘US foot prints at GF protest site’ deals with the international players involved in the Aragalaya. In the article ‘Who were most afraid of Galle Face protesters?”, he deals with the main group and sub groups of local players in the Aragalaya.

The sub-groups involved were so diverse and numerous it is almost impossible to keep track of their composition. They ranged from altruistic youth to tele drama actresses, criminals, terrorists, rapists, perverts, and drug peddlers. They were all well-looked after by the benefactor. One such actress admitted to having earned seven lakhs.

The main groups were easy to be identified. ST had been able to identify twenty such groups. They ranged from the Anti-Rajapaksa group, to differently abled youth, ex- servicemen, LGBTO activists. I do not want to reproduce them here.

Sena Thoradeniya’ s article on Wimal Weerawansa’s speech at the SLFI is a panegyric full of praise for the valiant task he had performed. I too cannot think of anyone in the opposition ranks who would have had the guts to perform that task.

Quoting Mao, Thoradeniya refers to it as a cyclone. It was certainly a cyclone which by now has swept many off their feet. Julie Chang has been hit by it so hard, she has not only been swept off her feet but has also lost her balance.

Within twenty-four hours, she without even reading the script or the book has concluded it as fiction. Apparently, she does not seem to realise that good fiction is based on facts. Probably she is influenced by the fiction that is manufactured today in the West and served globally bolstered with such prizes as the Booker. They are certainly not based on facts or reality. They are based on fantasies of alienated sick minds far removed from reality and a sense of social awareness. The recent Booker prize for a novel by a Sri Lankan living abroad is a good example. Obviously, there is an undisclosed pro-Western, anti-nationalist ideology that guides the selection of these works.

While praising Wimal for his valiant revelation ST refers to two events that mired the occasion.

The introductory speech by the professor was a distraction.

ST calls it a ‘hotch-potch of sterile theory which has no practical value’. Apart from being hotch-potch it was a distraction for many in the audience who were eagerly waiting to listen to Wimal Weerawansa.

The other event that mired the occasion was trying to make a hero of that protester who belonged to the Aragalaya fraternity. He was shot by the Police when he attempted to set fire to the petrol bowser. The following observation by ST is valid.

“The author makes the fallen protester a hero also dedicating the book to the wife and children of the dead person. The author fails to see that the protesters countrywide were looking for blood, a dead body and how this death caused to stage funeral proceedings, dirges and wailing at the Galle Face Protest site.

(Nine; The Hidden Story Wimal Weerawansa’s valiant Revelations, May 1st 2023)

In spite of these minor shortcomings, we should be indebted to Wimal Weerawansa for exposing the truth contained within that Golden Bowl which deceives many even today.

In concluding this fragmentary review of ST’s articles I wish to bring into focus an aspect of Aragalaya of which there is hardly any awareness among many, including some Buddhists who were ardent supporters of the Aragalaya. ST has made brief references but has not delved deeply into it.

According to what I observed it was obvious that within the Aragalaya there was a well- planned strategy to denigrate the Buddhist Civilisation of this country. To do it successfully they knew that the younger generation, the generation after ’77, had to be mobilised, for they are the heirs and bearers of that civilisation.

The Colonisers who came here realised that it was the Sinhala Buddhist Civilisation that had kept this country intact for millennia. And they knew once that civilisational base was destroyed, the edifice was bound to crumble.

Prior to Independence this was done with the Bible and the sword. After Independence more subtle methods were used. Those methods were too numerous and diverse to be enumerated. I will provide a bare outline since it would take me pages to provide an exhaustive account.

Bandaranaike founded the SLFP in 1952 to resuscitate the Sinhala Buddhists Civilization that was in decay. In 1956 people put SWRD in power to bring back the Sinhala Buddhist society that was there prior to the advent of the coloniser.

According to the US State Department papers released recently, US State Secretary Foster Dulles had spent five million dollars to defeat Bandaranaike at the elections. Bandaranaike was assassinated in 1956.That the hidden hand of the CIA was there behind this assassination came out at the Commission investigating this assassination. Sirima Bandaranaike who came to continue the Bandaranaike legacy had to face a military coup- to dislodge her, by anti-Sinhala and anti -Buddhist elements. The Rajapaksas were put in power by the people to carry on this Bandaranaike legacy. With the help of the Sinhala nationalist Buddhist forces Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to destroy Prabhakaran and his terrorist outfit. This was an unbearable humiliation for the Western powers (Defensce Ministers of the UK and France flew down to take away Prabhakaran). In 2015 Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated at the elections for which 30 million dollars were spent as admitted by John Kerry.

In 2019 when the entire Sinhala Buddhist people voted to bring Gotabhaya back to power; it would have been a shock to these Western powers. The only way to prevent a repetition in the future was to alienate the youth who were destined to continue the traditional role as bearers of that civilisation, and also, to get them to despise and disown their inheritance.

Some of them were for a secular multi-religious, multi- cultural multi-ethnic State, some others went further. They were for a completely secular materialist state. With that end in view, the eyes of the Bandaranaike statue were covered with a black cloth. Religious symbols were desecrated. The Tooth relic was called a labba. A female named Tirikkale of a city university, donned the cassock of a catholic nun. Many drug peddlers were put in saffron robes. Catholic nuns were offering dana to sarwaagamika priests. Then there was that bizarre spectacle- Wesak was celebrated with the lighting of black Wesak lanterns, probably to indicate what is in store for the Buddhist civilisation in this country. No doubt Jerome and Natasha (activist at Aragalaya) would have been emboldened to contribute their share to the campaign.

That this campaign was a total success was announced by no lesser a person than Omalpe Sobhitha thero, one of the God fathers of the Aragalaya when he made the following pronouncement jubilantly. Aragalaya has destroyed the Sinhala Buddhist supremacy’. That is exactly what Uncle Sam wants. Omalpe Sobhitha thero should congratulate himself for achieving what was not possible during the last two thousand years!

This aspect of the Aragalaya should draw the attention of the Sinhala Buddhists who get agitated by the slightest insinuation as an insult to Buddhism.

I am honoured to have been invited to write this introduction to Sena Thoradeniya and his contribution.

Sena Thoradeniya needs no introduction by me. He is far more knowledgeable on these matters than I am.