Need for promoting entrepreneurship aimed at national integration

By Frances Bulathsinghala

Sri Lanka is just recovering from what could have been another 1983.

The fear of Sinhala Buddhism and Sinhala Buddhist population being threatened by other Sri Lankans who happen to be non-Buddhists is the bane of this country. 

And it re-surfaces every now and then in diverse forms, steered on by various interested groups for the survival of their very questionable self-proclaimed ‘patriotism’.

Against a background of no clear policy in terms of practical, genuine and efficient implementation for encouraging wide-scale entrepreneurship of Sri Lankans as a whole, any madman with a communal volcano building up in his head has an ample playing field to work with the widely existing economic insecurity among the masses.

This lack of policy that is felt by all Sri Lankans (where even a middle class person has to undergo an enormous struggle to obtain a bank loan to start a business) can be viewed by those affected, if they are Sinhalese, as neglecting the welfare of majority Sinhala Buddhist masses in comparison, say, to the Muslim community who can be viewed as flourishing in business. 

In a country where people largely think within ethno-religious cocoons, it is easy for the Sinhalese to be oblivious to the fact that there are fellow Lankans who are suffering acutely from a lack of a cohesive development policy. Needless to say, after a three-decade-long war the affected people in the north of Sri Lanka have been languishing without a national post war recovery policy that should have been put into place post 2009. 

Some Sri Lankan Tamils, especially in the interiors of Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi, who were at one time businessmen and entrepreneurs are still struggling to get back on their feet after being made paupers by a needless war. 

Sinhala Buddhist economic insecurity



However, back to the dilemma of Sinhala Buddhist economic insecurity, what has to be recognised is that although it could be rationally seen as incongruous and even unpardonable for the Sinhalese, which make up of over 70% of the population to think of themselves as ‘isolated’ or ‘neglected’ when the country’s governance is led by this community, this view exists. 

This economic inferiority among the Sinhalese is caused by the lack of proper mechanisms for addressing poverty and facilitating economic upliftment towards the path towards entrepreneurship as a feasible path for all Sri Lankans, but has created a base for economic self-pity among the Sinhalese.

The economic insecurity which in 1971 and 1987 took on a context of social class is now taking on the hues of communal antagonism driven by envy over a minority community (in the current scenario - Muslims) who are seen as holding economic power and falsely seen as arrogating what is due to the majority.

The Muslims of Sri Lanka, born and brought up in a culture where trade acumen is common sense, take to business, thrive in it and have some community led safeguards to succeed, in a background where there is a lack of State policies to support individual economic initiatives of citizens, as a whole impacting the poorer segments of all communities, including the Muslim community. 

However, fears of purported ‘isolation’ and ‘neglect’ live in the mind of Sinhalese and not just those holding extremist views. This has to be recognised and addressed in a manner that the title of this article suggests.

It is wrong to think only the Buddhist ‘extremists’ hold these sentiments. These fears only manifest themselves in violent action through the ‘extremists’. But economic insecurity is also felt by sections of Sinhalese who hold no particular rancour towards Muslims but see Muslims as having the support of their own community while holding the view that there is no similar support for the Sinhala community. 

An interesting example Here is an interesting example. 

S.B. Ekanayake is the owner of a small shop selling packeted tea and is surrounded by Muslim traders in the Digana Rajawella Veediya.

Ekanayake’s shop was partially burnt when mobs torched the neighbouring Muslim shops, completely destroying them. His comments to this writer were made alongside his friend and neighbouring trader, A. R. M. Lafeel whose shop selling phones and accessories was charred. 

For the two traders, protection of the neighbour’s shop was equivalent to protecting their own. As evident in the discussion with them, in their ten years of trading together and with others in the vicinity, ethnicity had not been a point of contention. 

In this backdrop here is the narration of Ekanayake whose home is in the completely Sinhala village of Narampanawa, about seven kilometres away.

“I am the only Sinhala trader in this row of shops. Overall in this street and the adjoining one, there are 85 Muslim shops and well over 65% are Muslim-owned. When I have to attend urgent family or other work that would keep me away from my shop, it is the Muslim traders who I would give the shop key to and they handle my business in my absence. I do the same for them. This is how we have worked. Just before the mob attacks in Digana, we had closed the shop because we were told by the Sinhalese in the area, that white flags were being put up Sunday and a day of mourning to be observed on the 5th on account of the funeral of the Sinhala man killed by four men who happened to be Muslim. Our shops being attacked had first been seen by Faleel on television news and he telephoned me. Faleel tried to immediately rush here and then he was accosted by Sinhala mobs throwing stones at both shops and also Muslims. 

“Look at what this mayhem has caused. How will I repair the damaged walls of my shop? I have no help from any group in my community. I am a Sinhala Buddhist in a nation that calls itself Sinhala Buddhist but I am alone (mama Sinhala Bauddha kiyana rataka thaniwela). Now see, Faleel is affected, badly affected by this violence, but his mosque is fully supporting him. His mosque is supporting him with dry rations and his community will support him to restore his shop. If his business fails or is going through a bad patch, the mosque supports. What about us? Who supports? Look at me, sitting in a burnt shop, with soot all over, selling packets of tea because I cannot afford to close it until it is repaired, because no one will support me till then.” 

At this point Faleel interrupts and says ‘Aiya, don’t ever say you are alone. We have been together earning our money for our families in an honest way. There is no division of humanity in our mosques. I am sorry I could not ask you earlier, with all this going on. Our mosque will help you.”

All that was cited above is interesting material for social psychology and socio-economic related analysis and for the perceptive policy maker.

Triggered by envy

Sri Lankans have a tendency to wash their hands off an issue once violence diminishes until the next incident or incidents occur, and hasty patch-work done only to see that fissures come back again, sooner or later. 

From 2014, Sinhala Buddhist-led violence against Muslims have specifically targeted their economy and seemed to be triggered by envy. Attacks on Muslim shops surfaced in the latter part of 2016, continued weeks on end in 2017 and then occurred again in March 2018. 

While carrying out a series of interviews last year in Aluthgama, when a mysterious series of ‘torching’ of scores of Muslim business establishments was playing havoc in the country, with the culprits largely not identified, the writer was speaking to some affected Muslim businessmen in the south as well as their Sinhala and Tamil suppliers.

The following narration is the near equivalent of that of Ekanayake: 

A Sinhala supplier of readymade garments for a large Muslim owned apparel shop in Aluthgama that was totally destroyed for the third time in the mysterious attacks of 2017, was condemning the acts in the most vehement manner possible. He was economically affected by the senseless act. 

The destruction of the Muslim-owned shop had meant that his own factory had to be indefinitely closed and thereby the five other persons working in the factory would also lose their livelihood. The Muslim textile shop owner had been the main buyer of his readymade garments. He and the Muslim businessman had worked together for over 10 years. 

The Sinhala supplier saw the burning up of Muslim-owned business establishments as a ruination of the country’s economy and not that of the Muslims. 

However as the conversation progressed he became pre-occupied with the difficulty faced by Sinhalese in starting and managing a business. Here are some of his comments: 

“You do not know how hard I had to struggle to set up this small factory. Getting support to start my business was a Herculean task. No banks would help me. There was no State scheme to help me. I do not think the Sinhalese have a government – all governments are the same for us – what is the Government doing for us, the Sinhalese? I work extensively with Muslims. The Muslims have full support from their mosques, from their culture of extended families, from their politicians. What help can we get from fellow Sinhalese? Who is the Sinhalese politician who truly represents us? What is the training the Sinhalese gets to carry out a business? To be a businessman one has to have utmost patience – the Sinhalese are unsuccessful at business because they expect their customers to feel privileged to be served. I have learnt the art of business from the Muslims of Sri Lanka in a background where no Sinhala government is interested in caring to foster entrepreneurship among Sinhalese.”

Encouraging unity through trade

If the two case studies given above are carefully looked at, a policymaker dedicated to carrying out his or her task with wisdom would have ample opportunity to merge the goal of fostering communal harmony with national entrepreneurship development and search for ways and means of encouraging unity among Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims through the channel of trade. 

Carried out insightfully, an action plan based on the above, involving active integrated participation of especially rural Sri Lankans would pre-empt the average Sinhalese from crossing the boundary of economic helplessness (imagined or not), to economic envy and be made pawns of by the kingpins of communalism.