Coronavirus politics: Rajapaksa denies minorities in Sri Lanka basic dignity in death

According to the guideline on the safe management of Wuhan virus victims, the World Health Organisation(WHO) says: "people who have died from COVID-19 can be buried or cremated according to local standards and family preferences. The belongings of the deceased person do not need to be burned or otherwise disposed of,"

In short, it is safe to bury Wuhan virus victims since science does not say burial poses a healthcare risk. However, majoritarian politics does. The pandemic is the perfect opportunity for the government in Colombo to play politics and pander to Islamophobia.

Sri Lanka has been divided along ethnic and religious lines. The Sinhalese Buddhists form the majority. The Tamil Hindus and the Muslims are Lanka's minorities.

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Muslims make up 10 per cent of the population. Their lives have been thrown into a turmoil since the 2019 easter bombings. The attack was carried out by Muslim groups. It killed 269 people and marginalised Lankan Muslims as Buddhist nationalist groups led the ethnic tension. Groups like Bodu Bala Sena floated the idea that Sinhala Buddhists were under threat from overpopulating Muslims.

It was with this backdrop that Sri Lanka entered its presidential election. Gotabaya Rajapaksa played heavily on his Sinhalese Buddhist credentials. He was elected to office in November 2019 with 52.25 per cent of the vote.

Rajapaksa's election was seen as a shift towards majoritarian politics and since coming to power he has only proved his critics right. In September, Sri Lanka banned cow slaughter but eating beef is still allowed.

When the pandemic struck, a section of Sri Lanka blamed Muslims for the spread of the Wuhan virus as the country's Buddhist monks sold factless stories. They said burying Wuhan virus victims would contaminate groundwater and apparently spread the Wuhan virus.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa played to the Sinhala emotions and in AprilSri Lanka made cremation mandatory for all Wuhan virus victims. The move was 100 per cent political. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had told a news channel in November.

"It is no secret that the majority who voted for me then were Sinhalese. They rallied because they had legitimate fears that the Sinhala race our religion, national resources and the heritage would be threatened with destruction in the face of various local and foreign forces and ideologies that support separatism, extremism and terrorism. The main appeal made by the people to me was "to protect the country".

This is the president protecting his position. He is, in fact, is protecting his votes and in doing so, he has the backing of the Parliament and a green signal from the court. Rajapaksa is denying the minorities of Sri Lankaeven the basic dignity in death.