Some young men who had been motivated to destroy themselves in order to assassinate a number of others and cause damage to property, carried out a coordinated set of suicide bomb attacks on St. Anthony’s Church, Kochchikade, Kotahena, St. Sebastian’s Church, Katuwapitiya, Negombo, Zion Church, Batticoloa, and three hotels, Shangri La, Kingsbury Hotel and Cinnnamon Grand in Colombo. It is said that the bomber who exploded himself at Dehiwala intended to go to the church in Dehiwala. During the past recent years, there had been a number of attacks on places of worship of Christian denominations and sects allegedly instigated by a local Buddhist organisation called the Bodu Bala Sena.
CASUAL ATTITUDES
All governments in Sri Lanka since 1956 have been weak-kneed in facing up to those who harassed ethnic and religious minorities and tried to exert power over them. These governments had a few who indulged in flamboyant political oratory but were collectively irresponsible. The Government authorities have shown themselves lethargic and indecisive in the legal and disciplinary handling of organisations about which reports that merited investigations were ignored. Most MPs are casual and generally flippant in their attitudes and behaviour during sessions in Parliament, that they are not listened to even when they speak seriously.
INEPTITUDE AND LETHARGY
This shows not only the lack of intelligence of the government and administration, it shows a glaring lack of social sense. These evil defects have so undermined the sense of responsibility of the authorities so as to put the whole country in great danger and create in her social chaos and anarchy. That the Prime Minister himself is excluded from matters concerning the defence and security of the people of this country is so surprising; though it is an issue very crucial to the good governance of Sri Lanka. Petty personal animosities of top politicians stand in the way of peoples’ well-being and national security.
After each of the calamitous happenings of the past, the governments have declared that steps will be taken that such like tragedies will not happen again. Governments naively forget that such empty declarations have been made a number of times, thus showing their want of sufficient understanding and knowledge as well as lack of brain power with will power and collective ability to govern. Messages of condolences and sympathy from politicians are devoid of meaning in view of their ineptitude, complacency and lethargy.
And the steps to preventing any further attacks of this kind should be conducive to the intelligence and humanity of the investigators and even to considerations of the value of human life of the brutal suspects themselves who completely disregard the human dignity and the just rights of innocent people including children who are in no way connected to issues in the minds of these suicide bombers. It is indeed a problem to fathom how extreme religious fanaticism could cause such mass murder ‘in the name of Allah’ as they say. No one could justify such gross evil in the name of any religion. Carrying out such evil in the name of any religion and rejoicing in the success of shedding blood and inflicting gruesome tragedy on any community, is a sign of a criminal thought process emanating from inhuman attitudes.
When ten to twenty attackers have been identified and taken into custody, it is often forgotten that there are a couple of hundred candidates who are getting indoctrinated and brain washed into a martyr syndrome and are being prepared for suicide bomb attacks.
When attacks like the ones on Easter Sunday take place, there is a stereo-typed pattern of response by the politicians and law agencies to those suspect attackers who are physically taken into custody. The tendency to take revenge is very great, especially when the damage caused is very high.
Following a political stance, the law agencies try to quickly get at the reasons for their actions by all sorts of pressure tactics from starving them, denying them sleep or rest and all kinds of torture to waterboarding. This is nothing less than responding to terrorism with state terror and inhuman tactics to extract information as to what has induced the terrorists to do what they have done. But the surviving terrorist collaborators are stubborn and readily undergo all manner of suffering for their cause and the inquirers are often frustrated.
But intelligent investigators patiently strive to understand their suspects, spending time with them and seeing even to their normal human needs. Surely the government agencies concerned are conversant with up-to-date methods of investigations. They are able to confidently enter into a fruitful and reasonable dialogue about the beliefs, inspirations and motivations of the terrorists and arrive at reliable conclusions. They are then able to systematically attend to possible solutions that ensure protection to all communities of people in our land. However, unimaginable negligence, careless inattention and naivety has resulted in the neglect of duty opening the way to the monumental tragedy of Easter Sunday.
RESPONSE OF CHRISTIANS
Christians too like everyone else may get very upset and disoriented by what has been done to them by the terrorists. Indeed some of them, get emotionally impassioned and call upon the authorities to impose the maximum possible punishment on the perpetrators of this crime even to the extent of extinguishing their life. To act thus would not be according to the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. It is in the context of being wounded and injured in the extreme that the Christian is called upon to be loving and forgiving.
Jesus Christ, while hanging on the Cross and undergoing excruciating suffering, had the loving compassion to pray to God for his executioners, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. By saying so, Jesus implied that they may not be doing what they do had they fully known Jesus’ innocence, like the thief on his right hand who acknowledged that Jesus had done no wrong. It is indeed gratifying that the Catholics and all other Christians who suffered so much have accepting the guidance of the Bishops restrained themselves and remained calm without reacting violently against any other community.
Buddhists too are called to adhere to a similar attitude because the Buddha has said, “Hatred does not cease by hatred but only by love. This is the eternal rule”. The truth that ‘Evil cannot be eradicated by evil’ should be applied to the concrete situation in the present context of Sri Lanka. This is a challenge only the individuals strong in intelligence, mature in spiritual character and insightful wisdom can face. This is the response of the humble people who follow the path of their religious leaders who direct them to pursue peace.
Those who sit in the summits of power should realize that they are not the wisest persons acting in the wisest possible way in all circumstances with the purest of motives. They should be humble and prudent enough to obtain good counsel from advisers known for their wisdom and good character that they may not make irreparable blunders that cannot be easily rectified. The folly of the failure at the highest level is evident to all.
A MOULAVI’S ATTITUDE
At a meeting at Badulla, in which religious leaders too participated, a leading Moulavi of a mosque spoke to a Catholic priest and said, “Father, I am ashamed to look at you in the face”. With that simple and humble expression he not only dissociated himself and his community from the hatred and destructive action of the suicide bombers quite unknown to him and yet were Muslims. This was a dignified, healing and reconciling attitude of a Moulavi the like of which is very much needed to inspire the people in Sri Lanka.
The Buddhist prelates too have expressed sympathetic solidarity with the Christians and all others who have suffered. All people have unitedly come forward to offer blood to the blood banks and whatever other help they could give. This is a very radiant light illuminating this dark hour.
All of us Sri Lankan citizens could be corrected and converted to enlightened ways by intelligent, wise and spiritual persons who could help in strengthening the fraternal bonds that should link the Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians and all others in our country in one fold. We should hope that all those young people whose suicidal abandon has been channeled to socially destructive and evil ways by fanatics could also be rehabilitated and reintegrated to civilized society, even though it may be a very protracted, purifying process that is humanizing, life-saving and humanly enhancing.
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