Mrs. Chandrika’s new interfaith trick
Posted on January 27th, 2014
C. Wijeyawickrema
“Mr. Gandhi, you worship cow, and we eat cow. How can we be friends?”
Mohamad Ali Jinna
Introduction
I was always sympathetic towards SWRD’s three children because the killing of their father when they were so young devastated their childhood. Mrs. B was “forced” by SLFP supporters (example: Ven Henapitagedara Gnanaseeha, G. P. Malalsekera) to get into politics, after W. Dahanayaka’s short debacle, and the children got neglected. No other three children in the world of 6 billion people could claim that their father and mother both became PMs. If Hilary Clinton wins in 2016, perhaps, Chelsea too would be able to claim that title. But, the political behaviors of both Anura and Chandrika go on record as a disgrace to their parents. They even decided to cover their mother’s corpse with a blue saari, violating the Buddhist custom. Apart from Victor Ivan’s brave book, I had the rare opportunity of knowing lots of inside stories from a 77 year old fine gentleman who organized the political campaign of a CBK presidential election. CBK does not deserve to be in politics again due to what she did when she was in power for 8 years. Her mother described CBK acts as “pissu kelinava” (a lunatic). JRJ called it a school girl’s play. It is true all those came to power under JRJ’s bahubootha thing ended up with some form of lunacy, including JRJ himself, but CBK had cabinet meeting with her dog also present. When cabinet meetings became routine verbal assaults against her, the dog used to get agitated and angry at the abusers, for example at a person like Ravi Karnanayake, making him fearful of an imminent dog attack. Some said she had a secret camera in her hand bag, but what a smart dog trick she played with her guard dog! Mrs. C is now trying to play an interfaith trick to outsmart her friend MahindaR who has also become a new interfaith-multi-cultural freak.
Interfaith mistress
An interfaith mistress is more dangerous than an interfaith freak even though both are taking the wrong path asking the wrong question (one can understand the Jayalath-John UNP doctrine/behavior in this regard). The question should be why they have failed to pass a law to control unethical religious conversions and prevent the destruction of ancient Buddhist archaeological sites. Instead, they want to put Buddhists in a cage using some Buddhist monks as cat’s paw. One who becomes an interfaith agent/lover has one or all of the following three characteristics; (1) the person does not know what is Buddhism (2) the person expects some material gain by joining the interfaith bandwagon (this includes even some Buddhist monks) and (3) the person is a corrupt politician. If the politician is also a born again multi-culturist, copying London or Paris kind of politicians, then he or she is beyond redemption. CBK has all three characteristics and was even capable of carrying a bomb in her lap. Interfaith and multi-cultural twins are so attractive to politicians under the JRJ-Rpremdas system after 1978, because when the Sinhala majority is split between UNP and SLFP, then the one who can get minority votes become the winner. It has nothing to do with the Bible or Koran or the Baghavat Geetha. I do not believe any promoter of interfaith is a genuine, concerned Buddhist. He or she is a cunning politician tricking herself/himself as well as the voter. If one knows some basic facts about Buddhism and a the history of colonialism in Sri Lanka, both before and after 1948, or listen to a few video clips of the late Ven. Gangodavila Soma he or she will not take this shameless path. All what Ven. Soma said and predicted has come true already.
Interfaith is new colonialism
Interfaith is one of the new colonial tools similar to the R2P game. The ultimate goal of this interfaith trick, originated in some western Christian church organization, is to use religion to cover and continue economic exploitation in ex-colonies like Sri Lanka. Since 1505, western white people used religion as a tool in their conquest of natives. Capturing slaves and colonies became service to God’s wish. By converting native primitives to Christianity they were fulfilling god’s wish to civilize and save the infidel. In this work they used the Bible, sword, bribes, bottle and humiliation. For example, CBK’s ancestors became Anglican by translator turned spy agents. It was one of them who opposed making the Vesak a public holiday in the 1880s. One of them predicted in the 1840s that Buddhism will vanish from Ceylon in a few decades. These people then and their generations today do not want history discussed because history is an ugly reminder to them of ugly things they did to Buddhists and Buddhist temples. Most of the churches they have today were built at old temple sites or material collected by demolishing temples.
Come and examine versus come and believe
One can understand interfaith harmony among various Christian groups who killed each other in Europe or in Ireland for hundreds of years. Today if they want may be Muslims, Jews and Christians can have interfaith discussions. In Sri Lanka when Catholic Portuguese were eradicated by Reformist Dutch, it was the Buddhist king who gave shelter to refugee Catholics. So were the Muslims killed or chased out by the Portuguese.
This is why it is funny as well as strange why interfaith harmony is coming as another western saintly idea to Sri Lanka. When analyzed it is clear that this interfaith business is nothing but, another attempt to control the Sinhala Buddhist agitation against discrimination they faced and lived for 550 years of Christian control. After realizing that the politicians continued to cheat them even after 1948, Buddhists are getting organized and demanding corrective action from politicians in power. When unjust and discriminatory laws are not changed or new laws such as to prohibit unethical conversion to Muslim (Sharia Islam) and fundamental Christianity were not enacted, some Buddhist groups have taken law into their hands, Christians connected to political power thought of a new taming mechanism, called the interfaith. So this interfaith game is an attempt use religion as a platform to control Buddhists or Sinhala Buddhists. Mrs. Chandrika’s ancestors tried it and she is putting a neck out with courage to even invite the Mahanayakas. She got international training and funds in recent years to talk about it and come and give political leadership to it.
If interfaith is a comparative religious study it is a healthy sign, because all over the western world Christianity is facing a crisis. This means, like the Great Panadura Debate of 1873, Christians will accept Buddhism. But these interfaith gals and guys cannot even get a simple thing like allowing a Buddhist monk to chant pirith in a church or a mosque or even in a kovil whereas temples are always open for other religious ceremonies (in Chicago there is a Buddhist temple which allows Christians to come and worship). Like the cow as god and cow is beef situation in India during Ghandhi-Ali Jinna time, Buddhism and other religions cannot have an interfaith dialogue. Buddhism is a come and examine religion. Others are come and believe religions. In Buddhism life is cyclical, in others it linear. A Christian will go to a holding tank when he dies until recused by Christ when he comes back one day. Buddhism is not a historical religion depending on a master, god or an agent of god. In Buddhism god or devil is within man/woman. For example, if there was a Buddha or not the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path along with the Middle Path hold true for any human being to test/follow. Impermanence is a universal truth in Buddhism and a human is one among the plant and animal kingdom (systems ecology).
Buddhists are expected to respect other religions. But Buddhists do not believe a god can save them. So we have to wait and see how Mrs. Chandrika is going to save Sri Lanka or the Sinhala Buddhists. If she ever gets a chance to see this essay, I wish her to memorize the following Buddhist stanza which explains in a nutshell what Buddhism is:
“Avoid doing sins-perform good deeds-purify your mind”
Mr Gandhi
Muslim expert on Buddhism
Naked walk
January 27th, 2014 at 2:28 pm
Right now Sri Lanka is a play ground for Evangelical Christians and Muslims. Some Buddhist monks are supporting that.
We certainly don’t have good political leadership except the same old boys’ club who exploit anything and every for their profit and at the same time, if some one else do it for them, they would jump into that and help in order to get the credit.
We certainly need a third force.
I think, even you C. Wijewickrama would be excellent.
January 27th, 2014 at 4:04 pm
CW,
“Buddhism is a come and examine religion”
YES. But it is COME and examine, not STAY THERE and examine.
A lot of Buddhism lovers ( or pretenders) are STAY THERE and EXAMINE type. They don’t COME first.
COME means really go into it, study properly and unbiased way first before examining.
We have people from other religions here preaching KALAMA SUTTA to Buddhist ! Shameless interfaithers !
January 27th, 2014 at 4:07 pm
Mrs CBK,
We love Mother Lanka, you eat her. How can we be friends ?
January 27th, 2014 at 5:01 pm
How can we stop this rouge woman keep coming back? Exterminate her or deport her to UK to join her family. The woman did more harm than any good to the country. One can ask her to get married to Mangala S. But the tailor is no use to any woman.
January 27th, 2014 at 7:54 pm
Well said, Stanley!
One more point. All two of SWRD’s son-in-laws, Kumar Rupasinghe and Vijaya Kumaratunge tried their best to destroy Sri Lanka.
January 27th, 2014 at 8:34 pm
Bandit Queen CBK kept millions of cash under the name of her sister in a locker at the Suduwella branch of HNB. CBK betrayed everybody who had trusted her including her own husband, her best friends and her own party. Bandit Queen CBK got money, houses in foreign countries as bribe from secret deals including Airlanka, Shell Gas, Channel 9 etc. Remember Air Lanka /Emirates deal, Thawakkal affair, Telecom (with Mangala), Insurance Corporation scandal (with Harry), State Distilleries Corporation (with Harry), Water’s edge scandal
Even though Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike became a Buddhist to please the masses, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike was a christian till the day died. Dr. P.R. Anthonis testified that Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike was wearing a cross when he died.
January 27th, 2014 at 11:23 pm
CW,
Although your main point is Bandit queen, I am curious about your following statement which is serious:
“Most of the churches they have today were built at old temple sites or material collected by demolishing temples”
I have read similar statements from one other frequent writer in this website. Where is the proof?. These churches are physically existing, there are caretakers that include Cardinals and Bishops and priest. Colonials have long gone although each one of them constructed huge buildings, forts churches to stay here for ever. The context you have put that statement is that these acts were done forcefully.
If there is proof why not ask those in charge of these churches to give such temple land back with compensation?.
However we see that in Europe today there are very few church goers and those in charge of the churches sell those buildings to people from other faiths to covert them to mosques etc. Was it a similar case in this country under the colonial rule?. I have read that a few hundred years ago Buddhism came to such a low level that monks were seen fishing in yellow robes and they had to seek help from Thailand to revive the religion.
January 28th, 2014 at 3:19 am
Banda was a puppet of India like Parabakaran. He divided the Sinhala unity. There is no Sinhala identity any more.
January 28th, 2014 at 3:24 am
“Chandrika is the best person and the only person who could get rid of Mahindaya”. From the lips of a JVP diehard living in the West. India could not do it with SF and going back to Banda’s.
January 28th, 2014 at 4:46 am
Samanthi,
You say that “All two of SWRD’s son-in-laws, Kumar Rupasinghe and Vijaya Kumaratunge tried their best to destroy Sri Lanka.”
Some might well say that they were merely carrying on the job that their father-in-law started!
January 28th, 2014 at 6:37 am
I would like to put in a word in defense of our leaders who we Lankans have ourselves elected, past and present. They have done whatever they could for Lanka under the circumstances they were caught up in, and some of their traits may not have been perfect, but WE CHOSE THEM ! They are as perfect or imperfect as we ourselves are ….
Sri Lanka is a Socialist Democratic Re-public. Republic means that the Public and their elected leaders come first. The Public have chosen the Leaders. We have to hold ourselves Accountable for having elected these people to office. Are we Accountable ? Are we all doing our bit to make life better in Lanka for all here and see to it that our Leaders (we elected them !) are not wrecked due to Cold Wars and other wars coming from OUTSIDE ? Successful countries PROTECT their elected leaders.
CBK lost both her father and husband to political assassins and she herself lost an eye to a Tamil suicide bomber. If I were in her place, I would regret such a ghastly political career with too heavy a price to pay. She did go on record as saying “Some families are born to rule” – not necessarily true – not all members of families are born to rule, so she is incorrect.
All the members of the Bandaranaike family who rose to high political office had to do so during the Cold War. After some
500 yrs of Colonisation, the Cold War period commenced, which was the worst period for Sri Lanka, with Colombo going west and the rural areas (JVP) with the communist bloc.
When the British left, they left a legacy of ‘divide & rule’ in place with mostly Tamils in place for Administration work plus the tea estates full of Indian Tamil labor, with the Dutch brought in Tamil labor also in place in the North. There was only a Parade Army in place in Lanka at the time of Independence. Sinhala/Buddhists of Lanka lost heavily during both Colonisation and Cold War periods.
Similarly, the present day Rajapakses have inherited all the unsavory and unfair baggage from the past plus the present day internationalized so called ‘Tamil Problems’. The ‘Tamil Problem’ of Caste comes from Tamil Nadu and not made in Lanka.
Both the Cold War and the Tamil Caste problems are NOT Lanka made. People of Lanka should NOT take responsibility for these two items or attempt to rectify these problems from the base soil of Lanka. These problems cannot and will not be solved by Lanka, and only solved from where the problems originated. Lanka political ideology remains a SOCIALIST REPUBLIC DEMOCRACY.
When electing Leaders, judge them for past performance only. Keep religion and State separate. The Singapore model will suit Lanka well with some adaptations.
January 28th, 2014 at 7:48 am
Some other relevant points :
What is happening re the some 600 Pakistani Catholic persons now in Lanka, under the auspices of the Catholic church of Lanka ? Presumably these Pakistani Catholic people came to Lanka under easy SAARC regulation of ‘visa on entry’.
First, we have hundreds of thousands of Tamil illegal migrants coming into Lanka during the LTTE rule. Rev. Reyappu Joseph (Mannar) must know a lot about this. Mannar was the main entry point for Tamil illegal migrants. Over a hundred Catholic churches in the North in preparation for the converted ? – (Shenali Waduge’s previous article on the subject).
So, first we had Tamil illegal migrants from Tamil Nadu for conversion to Catholicism, and now latest the same from Pakistan as well ! Why is Sri Lanka being USED to solve neighbor countries problems ? As it is, we have enough problems of our own.
Sri Lanka : A Nation constantly destabilized because the ordinary People cannot govern themselves properly ? We are a Democracy, so follow the Democratic norms to get what you want. There are plenty of govt. reps in all the Provinces. Work with them to get what you want.
Dear Budddhist Brothers & Sisters : Buddhism is NOT the law of the land. Our Presidents are NOT spiritual leaders either. We have Roman/Dutch Law with some British law in place in Lanka. Buddhism is only the main religion of the country. Do NOT mix the two – it only causes confusion which outsiders use to advantage.
Because we are under the delusion that the Law of the Land is Buddhism, we are losing the Land as well as Buddhism. Otherwise, why do all the dissidents from neighbor countries land in Lanka to create further troubles ? Prabhakaran himself was of illegal lineage. Abdullah Luthufee from the Maldives came to Lanka illegally to create a coup in the Maldives.
Pick up these points with your local govt reps and bring it up in Parliament. Something must be done to stop this ongoing problem, and deport all illegal migrants. Sri Lanka is a SMALL country and cannot afford to be generous to illegal migrants. Sri Lanka is being used as base to solve regional problems in the worst way possible. ‘Aney Pauw’ will become “Aney Kappothi’ for us all !
January 28th, 2014 at 11:28 am
We must be grateful to Pakistan. Without Pakistan’s help we could have not been able to get rid of smiling barber with the pin point accuracy. But our politicians have failed so far to pay a visit to Pakistan. Pakistanis catholics and muslims are better people than the smelly Indians. If Kallathonis come and reside in the north and east in truck loads, 600 pakistanis are only a drop in the ocean. There is plentry of land in the North and East for everybody to share. Our leaders have not said “thank you Pakistan” yet.
January 28th, 2014 at 12:05 pm
stanley,
You are missing the point. Both the Tamil Nadu kallathonis (your term : “smelly Indians”) as well as the Pakistani Catholic folk are ILLEGAL MIGRANTS. Both types were encouraged into Lanka by the Church, is it not ?
My point is : Do we or do we not encourage ILLEGAL MIGRATION into Sri Lanka, church or no church ? When do we stop ILLEGAL MIGRATION into Lanka from SAARC countries and other places ? When do we look after the needs of our local indigenous folk and stop dancing around Kallathonis ? All the billions of rupees spent on the North is being spent because the LTTE destroyed the North. That money could have been better spent, say, in installing pipe borne water for the whole of Lanka.
Gratitude can be shown in other ways to Pakistan (btw, pro-west Pakistan). Help was sent to Pakistan from Sri Lanka during the floods there, if I recall correctly. We should be there in real need, not ‘boru’ trumped up need.
January 28th, 2014 at 12:20 pm
ජනපතිවරණයට එන්නේ නෑ – චන්ද්රිකා
යලිත් වතාවක් ජනාධිපතිවරණයකට ඉදිරිපත් වීමේ කිසිදු අදහසක් නැති බව හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනි චන්ද්රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක කුමාරතුංග පවසයි.
හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනිය ඒ බව කියා සිටියේ, ඇය නායකත්වය දරන ආසියාතික ප්රතිපත්ති සහ අධ්යයන කේන්ද්රයේ රැස්වීමක් අවසානයේ ඒ පිළිබඳව මාධ්යවේදියෙක් ඇය ගෙන් විමසීමක් කළ අවස්ථාවේ.
“අනිත් අය ඉල්ලීම් කරනවා හැබැයි මගේ එහෙම කිසිම අදහසක් නෑ,” බවයි, ඇය පවසන්නේ.
මෙතෙක් එවැනි අදහසක් නැතත්, අනාගතයේ එම තීරණය වෙනස් වනු අත් දැයි මාධ්යවේදියා කළ විමසුමට පිළිතුරු දුන් හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනිය කියා සිටියේ, “හොඳ බෞද්ධයෙක් විදියට අහල තියෙනවනේ හැමදේම වෙනස් වෙනවා කියල මොහොතින් මොහොතට. ඉතින් ඒක කියන්න බෑ, දැනට එහෙම අදහසක් නැති,” බවයි.
දෙවරක් ජනාධිපති ධුරය දැරීමෙන් අනතුරුව යලිත් වතාවක් ජනාධිපති පදවියට ඉදිරිපත් වීම වලක්වන විධිවිධාන දහ අට වැනි ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය මගින් ඉවත් කෙරුණු අතර, එළැඹෙන ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඇය ඉදිරිපත් වීමට සැරසෙන බවට මාධ්ය වාර්තා පළ විය.
සබැඳි තේමා
January 28th, 2014 at 12:31 pm
I beg to differ Stanley.
SL “thanked” Pakistan by sending the SL cricket team against all security advice, when Pakistan was starved of all international cricket. Think we all know what happened don’t we?
GOSL was quite prepared to place our cricketers at risk (yes- there was a quid pro in playing the IPL as opposed to touring England in April). I recall senior players playing under protest and the ICC remonstrating to the SLC- told you so!
600 Pakistanis are a drop in the Ocean you say!!. Strange i recall a Kumar Moses advocating that we should be accepting all Maldivians should the atolls get flooded!!
In Diplomatic circles Pakistan is possibly last on the list. However, in the past 12 months we had many Pakistani diplomats, Armed service personal visiting Sri Lanka. That’s a thank you in itself.
January 28th, 2014 at 12:42 pm
Fran,
But SL govt. is doing NOTHING to DEPORT illegal immigrants.
As long as Tamil is an official and national language illegal migrants will keep coming.
January 28th, 2014 at 12:44 pm
Our president is a RELATIVE of Endia. So he will not thank Pakistan!
January 28th, 2014 at 2:18 pm
Lorenzo,
What has to be done by the local people is to press their local govt. reps. to deport illegal migrants. This is the democratic way. No Democracy I know takes in illegal migrants in the west. Why should they and why should we ?
Who is going to spend on all these people ? It will impoverish local Lanka people even further. It seems ridiculous for Lanka to take in illegal migrants when the local folk go on strike on a weekly basis as well as have demos all the time demanding pay hikes, and other benefits.
In Europe, the countries that are doing well allow NO illegal migrants. Especially UK is very strict in this regard.
We saw what the last lot of Tamil Diaspora is doing to Lanka. If Lanka authorities want to get hammered again, that is their look out.
January 29th, 2014 at 9:58 am
Nalliah Thayabharan
Please write your comments in English (not in Tamil or Sinhala) to understand all.
Onnume puriyala ulakaththile ( all confusing in world ) !
Who is Demilaya , who is Sinhalaya, who is modayas, who is sakkiliyas !!!!
eg: Christen Lorenzo want Bhudist Lanka, Tamil Nalliah want Sinhala Lanka !!!
Pothumada Samy !!!!!! ( enough is enough) Samy Kannak kadduthu ( eye getting blint) !!!