from the concluding chapter - Reflections on Failure of Talks:
"....The Maha Sangha and its organised clergy constitute the most powerful institutionalised structure of the Sinhala-Buddhist racist ideology. As the ideological apparatus of Sinhala Buddhist hegemony the Sangha wields unlimited power. The political system is subordinated to this religious Order which functions as a form of neo-theocracy imposing its will on the affairs of state. The Sangha as the divine guardian of the Sinhala race and religion has always championed the cause of majoritarian absolutism; the tyrannical system of the rule of the majority that does not allow any from of accommodation for the rights and liberties of other ethnic formations: particularly the Tamils. Embedded in a closed system of ethno-religious dogmatism the Buddhist monks regard the Tamil quest for national identity and homeland as intolerable heresy and any attempts to resolve these demands as treason. In this scenario where Sinhala Buddhist racism dictates the rules of politics, the Tamil national question has become more complicated and intractable...
...The international governments who are genuinely concerned about restoring peace and ethnic harmony to the island, should not ignore the threat posed by Sinhala-Buddhist racism to the peace processes aimed at ethnic reconciliation. This racism, well entrenched and widely institutionalised in the religious and political structures of the Sinhala social formation has been the real impediment for peace and for the negotiated resolution of the Tamil ethnic conflict. The tragic political history of the Tamils, that spans more than half a century, with instances of deceits double crosses and treacherous betrayals, illustrates a salient truth that Sinhala-Buddhist racism has been the real culprit behind all ill-fated attempts at resolving the Tamil ethnic conflict.
It is not the so called 'Tamil terrorism' that stands in the way of a negotiated political settlement but Sinhala-Buddhist racism that remains the stumbling block for peace. What is characterised as 'Tamil terrorism' is a bogey created by Sinhala-Buddhist racist forces to demean and discredit the armed struggle of the Tamil people and to justify an unjust war against the Tamil nation. Those who have taken up arms as the last resort to defend their people against racist oppression and tyranny are not terrorists. The real terrorists are those who preach the satanic doctrine of pure race and pristine religion and call for war, violence and bloodbath against the Tamil people.
Under the facade of a new constitution, the Kumaratunga regime aims to bury the national aspirations of the Tamils: their aspirations for a homeland and national identity. The racism that is hidden in her political discourse is very subtle and sophisticated. It is hidden behind the grand eloquence of one nation, of one people bound together by one and the only identity: the Sri Lankan identity. The subtle and invisible chauvinism of Kumaratunga is hidden behind her pluralist political doctrine, whereas the racism of the Sangha is crude and transparent. It is expressed openly in violent demonstrations, protests, fasts and speeches.
Though there are qualitative differences in the manifestation of anti -Tamil racism in the political and religious orders, it is on the question of war, on the war against the Tamils, on the 'war for peace' that both the Sangha and the government stand together as a single voice of Sinhala-Buddhist racism. It is in this realm, the realm of war, the subtle and the crude converge in a conspiracy to subjugate the Tamil nation. Only when the international community realises that the war unleashed against the Tamil people is an objective manifestation of Sinhala-Buddhist racism, will it desist from supporting the war effort by the Sri Lanka government which is aimed at the genocidal destruction of the Tamil nation."
From the backcover: The author of this study, Anton Balasingham, is the political advisor and theoretician of the 