Possible Mass Non Compliance in Sri Lanka and Role of Clergy
Posted on May 7th, 2019
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Government invoked emergency with two intentions.One is to carry out raids and inspections , not only to arrest culprits but to arrest the situation of excallating violence.Secondly to keep public indoor so that skirmishes in the streets are minimised.
What happened in Negombo is a clear example, where people were trying to lake the law into their hands.
Yesterday parents decided not to comply wither government ruling that children should attend schools.Percentage of children attending schools was abmisible.
It was not a strike per say but ignoring requests by the government.
As per the laws in Sri Lanka it is a must that children artend to schools.
This may be just a start of Noncompliance with the rules and regulations because people may not be trusting what government tells.
Next action may be that people will refuse to obey rules related to day to day to life.
People may dump garbage every where.People May drive without complying traffic rules.People may not obey judiciary and law and order.People may stop paying-taxes
Government should establish trust among people..So far government has failed.
Hats off to armed forces for controlling the situation.
Yesterday we saw how His Emminence Cardinal visiting Negombo and passifying aggrieved People.
Main-idea is that People should at least listen to religious leaders rather than rulers.
But none of the politicians like crying MPs in the area dared to go to the location!
If and When there are skirmishes in the areas of predominantly Buddhist ,have you ever seen any Chief Sanganayake visiting the areas and talk to both parties to avoid excallations.
Catholics may not be trusting government but they trust religious leaders.
Cardinal just preached what Jesus Christ advocated.
As a Buddhist I am ashamed to note that most of our Buddhist Leading Monks never go to people.
They want people to come to them.
Whenever they give TV interviews ,they talk aggressively leading to more and more discontent.
It is high time for the Government to impose Emergency Law in full force and gag the press so that they do not aggravate the Non Compliance with rules and regulations.
All the prelates leading Malwatu,Asgiri ,Rammana ,Siam Nikaya’s etc should visit the areas in turns and preach non violence.
No politicians should accompany them.
I am sure that people will abide by the rules after such action.
If an attack happened in a Buddhist Area in Sri Lanka there would have been a Killing Field” like in Cambodia.
Various interviews shown in TV and radio and published newspapers should be stopped with social media gagging.
Army with the help of clergy should visit people should take the lead and let politicians sleep for few weeks”
May 7th, 2019 at 2:22 pm
Q”If an attack happened in a Buddhist Area in Sri Lanka there would have been a Killing Field” like in Cambodia.”UQ
Nonsense ! Possibly 1000 Muslims could have been killed but not “killing field”.
May 7th, 2019 at 6:54 pm
I do not think ordinary Sinhela Buddhit would have acted violently on a scenario like this. We have learnt the lessons of Black July. Even in Digana it was probably a UNP engineered action.
When leaders of this country act in an irresponsible way one can easily say that this is Sinhela Buddhist conspiracy. All indications are that top leaders as well s security apparatus knew this. At least the discovery of explosives at Wanathawilluwa in a pointer in that direction. A government minister did not attend the mass that day because his father lying on a hospital bed advise him no to do so. Clearly all in the government knew this would happen and exactly when. Therefore all those responsible should leave.
However this is not the danger to Sinhela Buddhist; the disparity in population growth is.This is 1:7 if analysed from the census data of 1986 and 2012. In 1815 it was a Tamil king who was ruling us and Sinhalese were unable to conduct their affairs. In 2019 who is the defacto ruler?. It is non other than Rishard a proxy of ME and takes instructions from there from time to time. And we have got there by a trap in the constitution.
So, I tell all Sinhalese, if you do not free yourselves from this trap, you are going to lose this country in the near future.