SinhaLey – just a bumper sticker?

Wednesday, 27 January 2016 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Much has been written on the so called SinhaLey movement and what it means in the context of race relations in Sri Lanka. What began as a seemingly harmless bumper sticker or Facebook profile picture to proclaim one’s ethnic pride has, within a matter of weeks, escalated to the gates of Muslim households in a Colombo suburb being spray painted with the word SinhaLey – which literally translates to Lion’s Blood, although some have argued that it’s simply another name for Sri Lanka derived from the ancient ‘thun Sinhale’ or Tri-Sinhalese lands. Just this week, a vehicle parade was organised from Colombo to Kandy, with participants shouting a chorus of ‘SinhaLey’ and carrying a distorted version of the national flag, stripped of its orange and green colours representing the minority Muslim and Tamil communities. Supporters of the movement claim that, as this was once the official flag of the land, it represents all ethnicities as a single people. But their actions to date, as amply evidenced by their strong anti-Muslim rhetoric, betray a far less noble agenda.

Even taxi companies have not been spared, with some web-based start-ups being forced to issue statements distancing themselves from threewheelers listed on their apps that display the sticker. There is at least one page on Facebook dedicated to posting pictures of vehicles that carry what many have called a threatening symbol of hate and intolerance. This, some argue, is tantamount to doxxing, or publishing private information online – a kind of naming and shaming – something that is very much frowned upon on the internet, no matter how righteous the cause. Freedom of expression means that if a person wants to display a sticker or wear a t-shirt, no matter how offensive or objectionable, it is perfectly within his or her rights to do so. It is hard to argue with that logic. What then, should be the solution? Can there be a solution?

Caution must be taken when tackling this particularly thorny issue. It’s a delicate matter. People’s basic freedoms should not be stifled in the name of fighting racism. At the same time, it is something that must be addressed and addressed right now. A large majority of Sinhalese people supporting these types of movements are an inherently peace-loving but misguided lot who feel threatened by minority communities. The minorities, for their part, can do a lot to build trust between them and the majority community and must also take every step possible to fight the extremist elements that exist within their own communities.

The Government, perhaps rightly so, has so far been stoically silent on the matter. President Maithripala Sirisena implied in a BBC interview recently that the SinhaLey issue was not something worth talking about. He has a point in that a state level intervention could give this dangerous yet largely fringe movement an unnecessary legitimacy that a country still recovering from a 30-year war could do without. However, one wonders whether ignoring it is the answer. At the risk of sounding alarmist, this has the potential to blow up into something far bigger and costlier than losing a few votes. Brushing it under the carpet and pretending it’s not there might not be the wisest course of action.