Sri Lanka’s biggest hypocrites!

We are all hypocrites, more or less. These people top the chart.

1. Animal lovers...

...who fight for the rights of selected animal species. We protest bull races, but love watching horse races in Nuwara Eliya. We can’t bear the sight of chains around the feet of elephants but walk our dogs with chains around the necks. We condemn dog meat but don’t think twice before wrapping our two tongues around goat meat. We ceremoniously release caged birds and then barbecue some chicken wings for the after-party. We fight against caging animals, but boast about our gigantic fish tank at home or office. The Buddhists who chant and meditate for hours wishing utmost love and compassion for all animals, and immediately afterwards gulp down chicken curry and fish cutlets are the worst of this kind. And we sure have some mind-boggling philosophical explanations to justify it.

2. Women’s rights activists...

...who care about only some women’s rights. We speak with heavy voices at conferences about how girls are being raped every day in Sri Lanka, but are nowhere to be found when Islamic extremists violently demand in public for the right to marry underage girls! I mean here are the culprits hands-down right in your face! How much worse can it get? Yet no candlelight vigils for Muslim girls. We fight against banning mothers wearing mini-skirts to schools but never say a word about forcing Muslim women to cover every inch of their body. We accuse men for not giving women equal rights in the workplace, but I have seen some of those very women doing everything in their power to stop the promotion of another woman.

3. Anti-racists

These people are the most dangerous because this is their job. We protest Sinhala-Buddhist extremism but never say a word against Tamil-Hindu extremists or Islamic extremists. We are offended by the loud chanting at Buddhist temples but are deaf to the daily call for prayers at mosques. We fight against the Sinhala people who are fighting against being forced to leave their homes but dare say a word against the Muslims who are forcing the Tamils from their lands. We fight to take back the lands of the Tamil people but conveniently forget the thousands of Muslims that were chased away from their lands by the Tamil terrorists.

4. Politicians

I remember watching Dr. Harsha de Silva sitting in the audience at a CEO forum aggressively criticising Ajith Nivard Cabral, the then Governor of the Central Bank just on the definition of inflation. And now the same person is aggressively speaking in favour of another Governor, Arjun Mahendran, who has been accused of orchestrating the history’s biggest bond scam! Hypocrisy at its best. We have all seen how Sajith Premadasa comes on news dressed in white, with his hands clasped together, bowing down to village folk with a big smile on his face, talking so lovingly, portraying himself as the little man’s saviour. And then we all saw how he calls the same people to his bare-naked legs, shouting at them, humiliating them, treating the very people who voted him like his slaves, and discriminating them based on their height! It is now the people’s turn to worship and sweet-talk him. The list of hypocritical politicians is too long.

5. Youth leaders…

…who desperately want that UN job. We talk passionately about climate change at UN Summits but are very careful not to talk let alone do anything about the massive deforestation happening right now at the Wilpattu National Park, because we are worried it’ll jeopardise our reputation by speaking against a Muslim politician Rishad Bathiudeen who is accused of the single largest act of deforestation since the British destroyed over 50% of Sri Lanka’s tropical forests during their invasion. We create our own Wikipedia pages and voraciously collect brownie points for our CVs just before an all-expenses paid trip to some exotic location where people gather to talk and talk and talk some more. I have seen the blood-bath during those recruitment seasons as they stab each other in the back, in the kidneys and often straight into the hearts. What a drama. But it all fades away soon after they return from the trip, and get that job at UN or some affiliated NGO.