Dr. Sudath Gunasekara

18.9.2017

This article is in two parts. Part 1

This country had been the undisputed Motherland of the Sinhala race from 543 BC and the home of Sinhala Buddhist civilization from 307 BC and it had been ruled continuously by 196 Sinhala Buddhist Kings until it was deceitfully conquered by the Colonial British in 1815. No other country in the world can claim such an unbroken and unique tradition. The Buddhist concept of Bahujana hitaya, Bahujana Sukhaya’ was the pivotal underpinning of its statecraft. Throughout the history of the Sinhale Kingdom, except in few rare occasions like the very short spell during the  Kotte period,  the king had always been a Sinhala Buddhist and the King was expected to have the qualities of a Bodhisatva as described in Buddhist literature. Mahavamsa is very explicit on this when it noted in this country the King, People and the Religion have been always one”, Ever since Arahat Mahinda established Buddhism on this Island in 307 BC Buddhist Monks were the guiding catalyst and also the guardian deities of the destiny of this Island nation. The ruler had always ruled the country according to the advice of the Maha Sangha and anyone who violated this age old tradition was removed by consensus reached after deliberations by Mahasangha or by public revolt. As such the role of the Monk in the Sinhala Buddhist society has always remained supreme and unchallenged.

This situation changed completely after 1815 with the deceitful annexation of the Island by British and as a result the Sinhalese not only lost their King and the country but also all their traditions and cultural elements like their language, religion, native administrative system , the dress and everything that are pivotal in the Sinhala culture.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          We are told that we got political independence in 1948. But unfortunately even after 70 long years we still continue to be governed by the remnants of western colonial powers or their local proxies trained and left behind when British left in 1948. It is a tragedy we never had a true patriotic Sinhala Buddhist Head of State in the post-Independent period, though certain signs of national resurgence emerged during the times of SWRD (1956-59), Sirima Bandaranayaka (1960-77 and 65-70)  and Mahinda Rajapaksa once again in (2005-2009) period.

SWRD created history in 1956 by giving birth to the child of freedom struggling to be born for 141 years, after it was conceived with the 1818 rebellion against the British rule   long years after hard midwifery performed by patriotic Buddhist monks and lay leaders among whom Anagarika Dharmapala was the most outstanding. Bandaranayaka gave a new lease of life to a dead nation by initiating a number of measures like making the Sinhala the Official Language after 141 years since 1815 and restoring the socio-cultural and religious values of the masses like restoring the pride of place to Buddhism, Ayurveda, their dress, food, Pirivena education and recognition to socially depressed classes in society. But before Banda completed his mission he was assassinated by the reactionary forces. Sirima his widow successfully engineered the takeoff. But anti-Sinhala and anti-Buddhist reactionary pro-western forces, both within and outside the country again put the socio-cultural revolution initiated by Bandaranayaka on reverse gears.

A minor resurgence of 1956 nationalistic forces was seen in 2005 with Mahinda marginally winning the Presidential elections thanks to Prabhakaran who stopped the UNP vote bank from the North and the East. Thankfully he unlike all his immediate predecessor Presidents did a wonderful job from 2005 to 2009 culminating in the defeat of the ruthless LTTE terrorists on 9^th May 2009 and unifying once again a country that was already divided for nearly 30 years, with actually  two governments, one in the South and another, a Tamil terrorist regime in the North and the East. That was undoubtedly a historic victory in the annals of history of this nation that could be compared only with the historic achievements of unifications done by our patriotic Kings lie Dutugemunu and Vijayabahu in the past.

But unfortunately MR could not consolidate the historic win after the war. I cannot say for certain as to why, whether it was due to wrong advice or lack of good counseling, his refusal to take such advice, over estimation of the victory, failure to assess the reality, underestimation of reactionary forces and conspiracies and ramifications of world politics or above all his failure to do the right thing at the right time. Had he abolished the Provincial Councils and scrap the JR/ Rajiv Accord of 1987 taken sufficient precautions to prevent any future minority resurgence and consolidated the status quo of Sinhala Buddhist imprint that was there for the past two 2600 years, he would have gone down in history as the virtual incarnation of  warrior King Dutugemunu.

Once again reactionary forces raised their ugly heads and won on Jan 8^th 2015 and MR was ousted by the dormant reactionary anti-Sinhala and anti- Buddhist forces both at home and outside, India playing a major role in this conspiracy. The country at large is the looser. Was it the misfortune of the nation or the ex-President or the failure on his part to do the correct thing at the correct time, only the future historians will be able to say? The ugly stigmas and the historical injustices committed on the Sinhala Buddhists for 450 years of colonial rule by three Christian invaders Portuguese, Dutch and the British starting from1505 are still to be rectified. The influence of colonial remnants still persists up to date.

Whatever it may be, it is now known in all circles that on Jan 8^th 2015, once again, we see the dawn of one of the darkest periods in the history of this illustrious nation. I see it like a political, social, economic and cultural Tsunami submerging this Island nation which was emerging from the dusts of a 30 year barbaric terrorist war. Today apart from a total collapse of the entire social system there is absolute anarchy all over the country. The whole nation is fast nose diving like a jet without a pilot.

Whoever comes to power next will need years if not decades to restore the damages and destructions this unpatriotic government has done during the past 2 years. .Recovering from this Augean mess will be even more difficult than defeating the LTTE.

The need for a strong and ultra-patriotic Sinhala Buddhist leader, blessed by the Mahasangha and all the patriotic Sinhala Buddhist people discarding party politics  to rescue the country.

Only the emergence of a strong and ultra-patriotic Sinhala Buddhist leader, blessed by the Mahasangha and all the patriotic Sinhala Buddhist people joining hands under the Lion  flag, discarding stingy and dirty party politics, who will behave and act like a real Sinhala Buddhist leaders of the yore will be able to rescue this nation. He must be a person of the highest stature who strictly follow the principles and values laid down by Dharmasoka, Sirisangabo (who said Iman saraththan pisitan sareeran Dharemi lokassa hitatta meva (this body of mine composed of blood and flesh, I bear for the wellbeing of my subjects only), Dutugemunu (Mage me vyayamaya hudek rajasepa pinisa nove, Sambhuddha sasanyage chirasthithiya sandahamaya) and Prakramabahu the Great.  Certainly it is not that easy to find a human being like that. But, I am more than convinced that if we all try hard with dedication, commitment, patriotism and love for the motherland, religion and our hollowed social values, there is absolutely nothing under the sun that we cannot achieve.

A Sinhala Buddhist leader is a Statesman who rules the country according to the rules of Statecraft as laid down in Buddhist scriptures, namely the Dasarajadhamma (The Tenfold Kingly Principles of Statecraft) and Satara Sangraha Vastu (The Four Virtues of a King; Dana (Alms giving), Priya Vachana (Civility), Arthacharya (beneficence) and Samanathmata.

This new leader of cause has to start anew from scratch completely under a new political culture with a new approach and a new policy. He has to design the new governance in the light of the following background.

The British ruled the Island under Royal Proclamations from 21^st Nov 1818 with suppression until fake Independence was granted in 1948 with a Dominion status. This independence was preceded by 133 years during which time they did everything to maximize their exploitation and destroy the physical environment and the native political, administrative, legal, economic, social and cultural fabric of the country beyond redemption. The political system they introduced including the universal franchise (1931),  the party system (1948) and the administrative and legal systems that were introduced to this country completely replaced the native system of people centered Statecraft that flourished in this country with an alien and exploitive colonial system.

The voting and the party systems divided the nation in to rival camps. The most disastrous outcome was the division of the nation on ethnic grounds by the colonial powers as Sinhala and Tamil in to rival ethnic communities in different parts in the Island on a provincial basis and proving all facilities to Tamils to raise them above the Sinhalese to take over governance of the country or in the minimum to nurture a formidable force to suppress the majority Sinhala people. Emergence and proliferation of political parties after 1948 in order to make the political system completely destabilized and destroyed the native political, administrative, legal and social fabric of the country. Although Tamils started their communal political groups and agitations in early 20^th century Muslims formed their communal parties only after 1948. Even though earlier they joined the major national parties later they also formed separate communal parties following the footsteps of the Tamils in order to increase their bargaining powers. The rise of the Middle East to prominence seems to have given them new inspirations to do so. Still later minority political parties became mere tools of ethnic and religious agitations sans any economic or any other broader national policies. Meanwhile the Sinhala electorate polarized around the UNP and SLFP till about early 1970s until the JVP emerged as a radical and militant group. This made things even worse by splitting the Sinhala vote further thereby reducing the strength of the Sinhala vote. Today these parties have come to stay not only as their political parties but also their religion and the nation as well. The biggest tragedy is that even the Buddhist monks are divided as UNP, SLFP, JVP, and LSSP.

On the other hand Tamils and Muslims stay united solidly as separate ethnic and religious groups. Muslims vote only for a Muslim while the Tamils maintain the same solidarity when it comes to elections. Sinhala people on the other hand are divided like cobras and mongoose (nai and mugati) on party basis cutting each other’s throat. This disunity among the Sinhala electorate has made it impossible to form a government without the support of the Tamils and the Muslims. The Sinhala politicians have been psychologically to the incurable syndrome of identifying their political party to be one with their religion and nation. This situation has made the minorities the king makers. As a result their bargaining powers have risen to the heavens. Under this scenario the net value of the 75% Sinhala vote and 70% Buddhists have become almost zero. This is the tragedy of the Sinhala nation as well as the Sinhala politician

Today as a result all Sinhala political parties have become virtual victims of ethnic minorities compelling them to go after the Tamil and Muslim votes. Sinhalese will perish like the proverbial fox that followed a goat greedily hoping its dangling testicles will fall soon and finally got fatally kicked and died. All our politicians had been doing this mistake throughout and betrayed the Sinhala Buddhist majority for their personal political gain for the past 70 years. The fact that Sinhalese are divided on these cancerous party lines like UNP, SLFP and now JVP has made the Sinhala people weaker than the minorities even though they comprise 75 % of the total population in the country. The root cause of this disaster lays in the fact these political idiots and morons do not know their own history, religion, the country and traditions and their responsibilities by the country and the people. I wonder whether they know the fact that even today we have 75% Sinhalese and 70% Buddhists in this country. As a result the country is being virtually ruled by the dictates of the minorities. This situation has persisted from the day we got Independence.

That is why all governments are being dictated by the minorities. This is the main reason for the political instability in the country and the downfall of the Sinhala nation. If someone can win at least 60 % of the Sinhala votes, Tamils and Muslims will have to fly a kite, and they want behave arrogantly like today. They will never ask for parity or self-determination and claim separate Kingdoms within this country thereafter. Instead they will learn to live amicably with the majority Sinhalese. The Sinhala nation has fallen to the status of the ‘silly Barber’ to whom even the goat shows its beard as the famous Sinhala saying goes Nivata Karanavemiya dutuvita eluwath revula panava’

To be continued as Part 11