To unsubscribe click this link, to change preferences click this link
An Article from the Asian Human Rights Commission
SRI LANKA: The debate on multiculturalism, uniculturalism and monoculturalism
Dr Leonard Pinto
We need to define the concepts of multiculturalism, uniculturalism and monoculturalism before entering into a debate on
their application, practice and future direction in Sri Lanka. Multiculturalism refers to that trend in the society
where the different cultures are made inclusive, tolerated and accommodated, and these trends are institutionalised in
legislation to respect other cultures. Canada, Australia and other western countries, where multiculturalism is the
national policy, respect religions, ethnicity and cultures of different communities and their cultural rights, while a
secular law common to all protect their human rights. They are not allowed to have a legal system (e.g. Sharia law) or
practices (e.g. honour killing) that are contrary to the laws of the country. Some say that multiculturalism tend to
divide and erase the original ethos of the nation and they suggest that uniculturalism is more appropriate, where
minorities enjoy full expression of religious and ethnic cultures, while the historic continuity of the majority and
their culture is recognised as the national ethos. Uniculturalism encourages integration, where cultural identities are
lost in time. Monoculture is the social consciousness of the majority that dictates its culture is the right culture and
only allowed culture, and people of other religions, ethnicity and cultures have the freedom to live, but their cultures
have no place in the national culture. Monoculturalism aims at a homogeneous society through assimilation. This is not
acceptable in modern heterogeneous societies. Sri Lanka seems to be moving in the direction of monoculturalism.
The debate on multiculturalism, uniculturalism and monoculturalism in Sri Lanka is current. Although illusive, it
emerges in subtle forms in its applications. In my discipline of ecology, diversity is preferred to dominance, because
diverse communities are healthier, fit and sustainable. Co-existence is preferred to mutual-exclusion, and cooperation
to destructive competition. In the field of social science, the acceptance of diversity seems to be more difficult,
although cultural diversity is said to be an indictor of a healthy society. In support of monoculturalism, many Sri
Lankans assert that first settlers and their descendants have a priority rights over others. If this is taken seriously,
Vaddhas the aborigines of Sri Lanka should have the priority rights in the country. Paradoxically, they have no say in
the country's affairs and their land rights are restricted to the jungles of Bintanne. At the height of Tamil separatist
war, President J.R. Jayewardene trumpeted multiculturalism to attract international support to defeat the LTTE. After
the triumph over LTTE, multiculturalism evaporated and political agitation changed direction towards Buddhist-Sinhalese
monoculturalism.
Culture is a complex concept. In Sri Lanka, culture refers to the past, but internationally, it also refers to the
present and the future. How cultured the nations are is reflected in their policies and how cultured the individuals are
is reflected in their behaviour. Common to both are the right values and attitudes (i.e. samma sankappa) arising from
tolerance and 'gentlemanly' behaviour (metta, karuna, mudita and upeksha), elegantly elucidated in Buddhism. While Sri
Lankans are proud of the 2500-year old Buddhist culture, many leaders don't demonstrate signs of a cultured nation. For
instance, after the Sri Lankan government invited Ms. Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
to see the progress of rehabilitation and reconciliation in the country, three cabinet ministers abused her during her
recent visit in Sept 2013, one proposing to marry her so that she could stay in Sri Lanka and study human rights issues
there. She was also racially insulted calling her UN Tigress, Tamil supporter etc. in the Internet and Buddhist monks
asked her to go home. Prof. G. L. Peiris made a mockery of himself in London by trying to attack her quoting a UN
report, which clearly showed the militarization of north and east. Being truthful and honest are important aspects of
any culture, and if Sri Lanka is truthful and honest in what it says, there is no need to fear any independent and
international investigation.
Sri Lankan society is hell-bent on Buddhist-Sinhalese monoculturalism. The strategy towards monoculturalism in Sri Lanka
converges from different angles. The political path is through Hela Urumaya, the militant path is through Bodu Bala
Sena, Ravana Balaya and Sinhala Ravaya, and the intellectual path is through history, archaeology, education, media and
even law and business. Some say that we were a law-abiding nation before the Roman Dutch law was forced on us. Others
say that Portuguese destroyed temples and built churches on them and converted people by force to Christianity. A few
say that pirivena education was better than the 'Judeo-Christian' based science and mathematics brought to us from the
West by colonialist. They imply that we go back to our pre-colonial times, when there was one nation, the Buddhist-
Sinhalese monoculture. Wrong! When the Portuguese were invited by the Sinhalese king Bhuvenekabahu VII of Kotte to fight
his brother Mayadunne of Sitawaka, there were five kingdoms; Kotte, Sitawaka, Raigama, Kandy and Jaffna. They say that
in our religious land (Dharmadeepaya) there was no cattle-slaughter or exploitation of the Sinhalese by Muslim and Tamil
businessmen in that pre-colonial era. They say that we must repeal the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, lest the
Tamils become powerful and wealthy once again. The Defence secretary who is known to be the patron of Bodu Bala Sena, in
his 2013 Defence Seminar address, blamed the Muslims and Tamils of insularity, accusing the Muslims of links with
Islamic fundamentalists and Tamils with Tamil Nadu, while his secret service men were harassing at midnight those who
have spoken to Human Right's head during her visit. There are accusations and counter accusations. There is no nation
building or building of trust and confidence in the north and east, but massive construction works that are naturally
accompanied with financial benefits and inducements.
In 1980s, Dr. Susantha Goonatilake the president of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science made a blunt
attack on the research findings of Prof. Peter Schalk of Uppsala University Sweden, who concluded that (1) the ethnic
problem in Sri Lanka was really an economic problem, on who could be rich and powerful (2) and, according to the
preaching of monks, Buddha has indicated that Sri Lanka belongs to the Buddhist-Sinhalese. Although we disagreed with
Prof. Schalk then, the post-war period events in Sri Lanka proves that his conclusions are indeed true. Further, in his
book 'A 16th century clash of civilizations, the Portuguese presence in Sri Lanka, Goonatilake rewrote the history of
Sri Lanka in 2010, highlighting only the atrocities of Portuguese, laying a framework for attacks on Catholics and their
churches in a subtle manner. The central Idea was that present day Catholic churches were built on the foundations of
Buddhist temples, implying that attacks on churches are justified, concealing the fact that when Dutch came to power
Catholicism was banned and they took over all Catholic institutions. With unconvincing evidence, Gamage (2001) went on
to say that Madhu Church was built on a Hindu Patini temple, with affinities to Buddhism, obviously to bully Catholics.
In the West, British, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, American and other nations have fought with each other,
but they don't dig into historical artefacts of atrocities, but move forward with modern values and attitudes seeking
good relations.
Sri Lankan expressions at international forums show that Sri Lankan cultural values are different from those of the
international community. They allege that we have violated human rights, but we say we have not. The Tamils say that
they have no confidence in Sinhalese governments, but the government says, we have developed north and east. The need of
the hour is confidence building and acceptance, so that every citizen feels that the police, judiciary and the State
administration respect the individual rights of all, irrespective of their religion, ethnicity, wealth and political
party affiliation. Most of us rightly, don't like the horizontal division of the society; the division of police and
ownership of land according to provinces. We also rightly, don't like the vertical division of the society;
superiority-inferiority based on politics, money, caste, religion or ethnicity. Buddhism must be given the right place,
so also the rights of all citizens. Politicians must get out of their comfort zone of power and riches into sound
ethics, morals and economic planning. Minorities must realise that they should not segregate in business ghettos, but
work in partnership with the majority. They should research and find means of integrating and working with the majority,
removing ethnic and religious barriers, while maintaining their identity. Unfortunately the attempts of inculturation by
Christians have been misunderstood, and the moonstones at Maggona and Katukurunda Catholic churches came under attack
from Buddhist Sinhalese militants, who insisted that Buddhist architecture should not be in Catholic churches. Buddhist
monks must be educated to obey the laws of the country, without performing the duties of the police and judges for which
they are not trained. They must also be educated to renounce monoculturalism, as Buddhist philosophy strongly leans on
multiculturalism and uniculturalism.
We can learn a few lessons on multiculturalism, uniculturalism and monoculturalism from Singapore. The State of
Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965, because the Chinese in Malaysia felt that their future was bleak with the
Bhumiputra policy that favoured the Muslim Malays in a monocultural policy. But, when Mr Lee Kuan Yew, a first class
Chinese Cambridge graduate became the first Prime Minister of Singapore, Malay people in Singapore were treated equally
and Malay language was made one of the four national languages. But, in due course English became the preferred
language. He kept the Muslim symbol of star and crescent in the Singapore flag and his parliament elected Mr Devan Nair,
an Indian Tamil as the President of the new Republic. Mr Lee Kuan Yew admired Sri Lanka of 1940-1950s and commented, "I
will make Singapore another Ceylon", but after 1960s when he saw the ethno-religious policies of Sri Lanka, he concluded
that Sri Lanka is a good example for bad policies. His success was in winning the confidence of all ethnic groups (i.e.
Chinese, Malays, Tamils and Eurasians) by eliminating corruption, inducing discipline and robust financial and economic
strategies that benefited all by creating a true multicultural society.
Dr Leonard Pinto
(This article was sent as a Letter to the Editor of Sunday Times –Sri Lanka, but for some good reason the editor refused
to publish it)
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in
Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of
these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
Read this Article online
powered by phplist v 2.10.17, © phpList ltd