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Parajika Bhikkus can lead Sri Lanka into path of Destruction

Dharmasiri Weerasinghe, London

All true Buddhists are indebted to the unbroken lineage of Sanga who have consistently upheld and protected the Vinaya rules for almost 2,600 years that we find ourselves today with the luxury of receiving the priceless teachings of Dhamma. Were it not for the Vinaya rules, specifically Patimokkha rules in vinaya pitaka, and for those who continue to abide by it's golden rules even today, there would be no Buddhism.

It should be noted here that, throughout the entire Pali Canon, the Buddha never refers to the spiritual path he taught as simply path. Rather, he defined it as "Dhamma-vinaya" -- the Doctrine (Dhamma) and Discipline (Vinaya) amalgamated together to suggest an integrated body of wisdom and ethical training. The Vinaya is thus an indispensible facet and foundation of all the Buddha's teachings, inseparable from the Dhamma, and worthy of study by all followers -- lay and ordained, alike.

Valuable practical lessons concerning human nature, guidance on how to establish and maintain a harmonious community or organization, as well as profound teachings of the Dhamma itself are included in Vinaya Pitaka. But its greatest value, perhaps, lies in its power to inspire the layperson to consider the extraordinary possibilities offered by a life of true renunciation, lived in harmony with the Dhamma.

Despite of the strict codes of ethics (Vinaya Pitaka) introduced by Lord Buddha himself 2600 years ago, now the new generation of Sri Lankan Bhikkus, who are attempting to enter party politics using the pretext of saving the country from corrupt politicians, can have ramification which may be, at the moment, beyond our comprehension.

In order to examine this ramification, it is important that every one should understand the political reality what is prevailing at the moment in Sri Lanka.

The population of Sri Lanka is divided into the following ethnic proportions; Sinhala 74%, Tamil 18%, Muslims 7% and other 1%. Sri Lanka has a type of proportional representation system within a parliamentary democracy where parliament seats are roughly allocated according to the ethnic representation, since various ethnic groups are concentrated in different geographical areas in Sri Lanka.

Consequently, approximately, 74% members will represented by the majority Sinhala from the South, while 26% will be represented by the various ethic minorities from the North, East and Central provinces. In a country that has an entrenched bi-party democratic process, the Sinhala majority is naturally split right at the middle, giving approximately 36% seats to the UPFA and 36% to the UNF which are the main constitutional parties among the majority Sinhala people.

The situation has arisen after number of general elections, that an unusual alliance had to be forged with minority regional parties to form a majority government. So the ground reality is that, whether you like it or not, the winning majority party should get the support of one or more minority parties to form a stable government in future.

Now, let us look at what SU can do to these sense of balance, which has been traditionally established between two major parties. The following possible statistical scenarios can predict the probable outcome in the next general elections.

	SU	UPFA	UNF	Pro LTTE Tamils	Anti-LTTE Tamils	Muslims	Formation of Government	Comments
Scenario 1	24.6%	24.6%	24.6%	12%	6%	7%	SU+UNF	Hung Parliament
Scenario 2	20%	27%	27%	12%	6%	7%	SU+UPFA or SU+UNF	Hung Parliament
Scenario 3	15%	29.5%	29.5%	12%	6%	7%	UNF + Minority
Scenario 4	10%	32%	32%	12%	6%	7%	UNF + Minority
Scenario 5	5%	34.5%	34.5%	12%	6%	7%	UNF + Tamil
Scenario 6	3%	35.5%	35.5%	12%	6%	7%	UNF + Tamil

Assuming that the pro-nationalist SU, which is represented by 100% Bhikkus, can not get any support from the minority parties at all, let alone from the Catholic and Christian dominated coastal areas of Sinhala South, the voting pattern can be represented by 6 possible scenarios.

One doesn't need a university degree in mathematics or in engineering to understand this simple statistical permutations and combinations and it is obvious from above table that by diverting votes from the Sinhala Buddhist community they can definitely prop up the UNP and its coalition of non-Sinhala minority parties.

If anyone try to challenge these probability combinations and prove any alternate results, other than predicted above, will be greatly appreciated.

So the main argument put forward by the ardent supporters of SU in Sri Lanka and abroad, that they can split the Sinhala Buddhist votes in three way formation to create a king maker is far from reality. Do these Parajika Bhikkus supported by some political quacks, not only take us for a ride to get UNF and LTTE in to power, but they can put the whole Buddha Sasana in a destructive path?

If Sinhala Buddhists would like to win their final struggle for the preservation of 2600 years old existence and the Buddhist heritage, there is no other option, but to persuade UPFA to buy into their policies, as far as, UPFA is the only coalition that has not yet been responsible for any irreversible damages done to the country, nation and its majority religion and, at the same time, SU needs to be wiped out from the political arena in Sri Lanka, now, for ever.

Sri Lankan general public will not in a position to accept UNF as viable party for a future government as they are responsible for the much of the irreversible damages done to the country, by propagating, recognizing and granting of the indirect legislative power to the most ruthless terrorist group in the North and East of Sri Lanka, through the MOU signed by Ranil and Probhaharan.

Now it has come to a point that no government can undo the damage what Ranil and his cohorts have already done, the international community has already recognized LTTE as the primary voice and the legitimate representation of the Tamil minority. Soon, Sri Lanka will reach its point of saturation with regards to the Western loans, it has been securing during the last 15 years, before long, the people of Sri Lanka will not be in a position to select and decide their own economic policies, unlike their counterparts in India or in Thailand, without approval and interference by the world bank organization. We have lost our economic independence too.

Any future government will be forced to start where Ranil has stopped and the SU Bhikkus even under Scenario 1 will have no say at all. That is the ultimate reality.

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