A response to the article under Suicidal Attempt by Patriotic Section of the Sri Lankan Society-Candidacy at elections. "How fatal is the decision of the Mahasangha to contest elections in Sri Lanka. An Appeal to the Patriotic sections"

Mohn Senaratne Canada

Let us begin to consider this gut wrenching appeal which is almost bordering on hysteria, amongst many such articles on the web. Authors of this appeal attempt to establish the following.
Politics is not a taboo to our Maha Sangha but their role must be in a purely advisory capacity. Because current political scenario is "dirty" & therefore any Buddhist monk engaging in politics become dirty? Authors look for the emergence of a Venerable Theraputhabaya as depicted in the Mahawansa.
That "certain dastardly individuals" are partitioning our country. Therefore we need to join hands with the demons because they are not bad as the devils? That UNP+ LTTE together with the NGO's are a threat. So drive them away & work 'together' towards the goal. Buddhist monks contesting separately is desired by LTTE + NGO's to counter the tide created after the passing away of Soma Thera?
Sri Lankan's are so politically divided between the 2 major parties & therefore are unable to consider a third force which would cause the ' Buddhist priests to receive a humiliating defeat'! That would enable the LTTE/Fundamentalists to declare "that is why we are being invited by them( the Sri Lankans I presume) to preach them the gospel and hence we are not forcing ourselves into SL but been invited into the country"
People themselves will start hating the Buddhist priests even more vociferously....
"This is an act engineered and a plot hatched by the anti Sinhala and anti Buddhist forces.. to make the battle easy for UNP+LTTE and other forces who back them."
Writers assume that they are well known because they were instrumental in launching the the JSS & the SU. They say this is a trick played by the anti national forces through their agents planted inside. Many members inducted into SU by these authors are now forcing the authors, hence this appeal! Buddhist priests to contest elections is a national calamity
"They ( presume this is a reference to the contesting Sanga) might do better by making a public statement advising the people to do away with the worst enemy first and then rally round the next best (enemy?) to demand to do what should be done.
"...arriving at the correct and wise decision .. will save the Mahasangha of the disgrace"
Responding to item 1.
Authors of this article if Sri Lankan by birth probably would know that, the members of Maha Sanga are individuals who have chosen live their lives as "Buddha puthras". Their life is spent totally immersed in the effort to comprehend & experience the Buddha Dhamma, seeking their salvation from suffering . Lay society sustain the Bhikkus thus enabling them to go forth on this noble effort & in return receive advice, guidance from the Bhikkus when requested on mundane or spiritual matterss. Accordingly we could infer that the grasp of the Dhamma of a Bhikku, usually supersede that of the lay members of society. Therefore as lay members of society we are simply NOT qualified to instruct a Bhikku, as to what or what not to do.
Item 2 & 3.
True, for the last 50+ years of "self rule" we Sri Lankans have landed ourselves in to a hopeless position. A corrupt society will bring about corrupt leaders into power. Yes the situation in Sri Lanka is desperate indeed.

Item 4 & the rest.
This group of members of the Maha Sanga reacting to this conundrum faced by the people of Sri Lanka, are highly respected 'scholar' Bhikkus. They have clearly communicated their objectives for such action. Namely;

(a) To form a National Government to preserve the unitary state of the country and to defeat Tamil Terrorists ;
(b) To formulate a policy to protect the national resources and have a national development policy ;
(c) To prevent unethical conversions ;
(d) To adopt pancha seela policy to arrest moral degradation of the nation ;
(e) To appoint a Prsidential Commission to probe into the death of Ven Soma.

Now are we going to argue that such ideals are unnecessary for the people of Sri Lanka? Or do we stick to those grandiose election manifestos that delude our people periodically? To infer that such action from this group of Bhikkus arise from collusion with anti national or corrupted parties is a far fetched notion. Perhaps an explanation of this term "scholar" is needed. Scholar is a definition given to one who has done advanced study in a special field : a learned person. But scholars by themselves are not immune to greed. This is quite visible! But then we are talking about Buddhist scholar Bhikkus. Therefore we could state that this group of Bhikkus are very well aware of what they are doing. There is also no doubt that this is the will of the people.

To negatively pre suppose the ultimate out come of such an endeavour citing disaster to Buddha sasana etc. would be attempted by the ignorant or by those who are partial & desire the continuation of the current corrupt status quo. Such individuals are busy introducing spin on various aspects of this effort of this group of the Maha Sanga, an art perfected by the Nazi Gestapo during the second world war!