Sinhale Buddhists – Your Nation Needs You more than ever
Posted on May 28th, 2018
You are the majority in our Island. History is witness to your status as majority. History is also witness to how you came forward to defend your soil & protect fellow citizens as the majority should when confronted by invaders from South India and the 3 Christian European countries. History stands witness to the many ways in which you have been divided & kept divided – some of you are even proud to be divided. History is also sadly witness to how your own betrayed for titles & perks and tragically the same is repeating again.
When the island needed to be defended – there were no PR firms or modern day communication channels that beckoned people to come forward to serve the nation. People knew their duty & they did what they knew was the right thing to do. To serve the nation there was no salary and it came with no strings. No one compromised. The nation came first. For Sinhale Buddhists the nation & its alignment with the Buddha’s teachings was a sine quo non – both could not exist without the other. This is what is being now targeted for annihilation & that is exactly why we need to rally in defence of it.
Sinhale denoted essentially the civilization of the Sinhale Buddhists together with others who were living with them. Plugging new nomenclatures as ethnic, races, religion began only after the Europeans invaded & left a legacy of new terms which could keep people ever divided.
In the island of Sinhale, before these Europeans arrived the people were not divided by race, religion was never a problem & they were all citizens of Sinhale – the royal governance followed the dasa raja dhamma, the people followed the concepts of Buddhism while there has been no instances of Hindus & Islam logging any qualms of complaint.
People knew their limits, they knew to respect the other’s space & any incursions were dealt with punishments that were equal to all & known by all. There was certainly better law & order than what exists today!
All that simple living that prevailed across majority of the ancient civilizations changed as a result of the sword & military might by groups that sought to terrorize people & take over their territory & expand their turf. People were forced to replace their hearts & minds with things foreign, they were taught to live & adjust to new cultures, they were presented a totally cosmetic notion of the pastoral life they had been living. Thus, a society that was divided, segregated, separated came into being.
You were also divided. A new socio-religious group came into existence – the Sinhale Christians/Catholics. Unfortunately, many of them have become pawns in the greater game of politics. They religious hierarchy decides which leaders they ought to bring to power. Some are wiser, well-read & they know they have to put country first. Now, more than ever, we need many more of them to come forward to defend the nation.
With time our people were made to forget the great men that built our ancient marvels – the world’s only man-made irrigation systems, the magnificent dagobas, chaityas, Buddha statues – we even built ships on foreign orders. Today we cannot even manufacture a toy ship! There were no architects, there were no engineers, there were no heavy machinery or quality or even quantity surveyors. These marvels stand erect & epitomizes everything we should be proud of. But are we proud? Have we forgotten? Can we forget? There is no future or present without the past. Are there programs in place for us to forget? Can we forget all that our forefathers toiled to achieve? Should we allow our education syllabus to omit this all important past simply because to some it is not fashionable enough or some other foreign cultures are deemed more fashionable?
Is it more fashionable to memorize the achievements of nations with blood soaked hands? The very countries that are bombing the world are the very countries that stole nations & territories, committed genocide of man & animal, disenfranchised people who had been living on lands for centuries & these are the people dictating & writing human rights laws & how international laws should be adjudicated!
That is a question for you to ask your heart & mind. You can copy any other tradition, values, cultures but your roots as a Sinhalese are found in this soil, in these marvels created by our ancient forefathers & mothers. The soil that has shed blood and sacrifice to safeguard it from foreign invaders. These roots cannot be easily broken. Those who deem it a pride to copy & follow other cultures & values, all that we ask is, do not demean the heritage Sinhale culture & its people. Go your own ways peacefully.
Every person who says ‘I hate being Sinhalese’ ‘I hate being a Buddhist’ exactly what have these people as Sinhalese done to even be associated as a Sinhalese. What have they done as a Buddhist to find fault with Buddhism? Their statements only make the world laugh at them and we must pity them.
Of course, we must learn to respect other cultures, other traditions but we don’t need to replace ours with theirs or have theirs replaced with ours.
Respect comes in understanding that there is no reconciliation without reciprocity. You cannot take or demand what you are not prepared to give or forsake. Such a simple thought but people today make demands only. What have they given in return. They ridicule our nation, they have countless lists of its faults – but what have they contributed to make the nation a better place? Our actions decide the state of a nation. Our inputs turn a nation to greatness. If our nation is on the decline it depicts the weaknesses of our own inputs. We need to uplift ourselves to turn Sinhale once more into a great nation.
As we look around the world, what is the happiness we see. All but 11 countries in the world do not have some sort of conflict. What 8 people own is equivalent to the combined wealth of 3.2billion people. There are millions of people who are hungry, who do not have a roof over their heads, who earn just $1 a day, who have no access to water, who cannot read or write & these figures are not relevant to only the third world but to first world developed countries too. So where or who has developed? Is this the formula we want to continue?
We suffered for over 400 years under colonial rule – are we to suffer another 400 years of neocolonial rule?
Why must Sinhalese defend our nation?
In 1815 our own handed over our island to our enemy. That sealed our fate for 133 years. We are in our 70th year of independence and the signs we see are no good. Handing over land ownership to foreigners, allowing them zones that treat citizens as trespassers, signing detrimental agreements without exit clauses and overlooking the national security aspects in such agreements are all signs that our island is seeing the same betrayals as that which happened in 1815.
Our people were showered with goodies in return for handing over an entire island and the same is happening now probably the same treacherous DNA bloodline continues. If that be so, the DNA of those that defended the nation must still be in those that must now come forward to defend the nation, to inspire others to do the same.
Sinhale Buddhists remember & never forget – We have nowhere else to go to. No other nation will welcome us.
We evolved on this island. We have a distinct language, distinct culture, values & an unbroken Buddhist heritage. We must protect, defend & preserve that.
People who say they live in fear here have not seen how people are tased, how people are pepper sprayed, how people are even anus searched in other countries simply if a police claims he is suspicious of a person. The incidents taking place in the West are really shocking & it should make any to value our island as a real paradise.
No country is perfect. No people are perfect. We are all humans with shortcomings. We may have different colour skins, follow different religions, customs, traditions & cultures but we all die one day & death makes no differentiation whether a person is rich or poor, comes from the First World or Third World, is educated or not.
We all, have a duty – we have a duty to first be good people, lead lives of integrity, follow a virtuous path, look after our elders our children & home, respect others & be good citizens. All that cannot prevail if we do not have a safe country to call our own & for that we must together protect the land of our birth the land that has roots to our heritage & the land that our history evolved from.
Come forward – protect & defend all that you grew up in because you need to keep our nation in tact so that your child can pass it down to his/her children and they need to pass it down to theirs too.
Imagine One Nation for Our children. That is Our future.
When the enemy comes to your doorstep – what do you do?
Runaway or Defend your Nation?
Shenali D Waduge
May 27th, 2018 at 11:33 pm
The author has not mentioned the thousands of Sinhalese Buddhists who have permanently migrated to Christian dominated countries like Britain, US, Canada, Australia and Europe. ???
May 28th, 2018 at 12:24 am
Thank you Shenali!
Hope and wish this nicely done article will contribute to the awakening of this sleeping giant.
They are sleeping in ignorance.
May 28th, 2018 at 12:45 am
It is Maha Sanga who should take the initiative. (NOT IN BBS STYLE) We should have the likes of Soma hamuduruwo and Ballanvila Wimalarathana hamuduruwo.
Our Maha Sanga is also divided politically. all UNP and JVP supporting monks are blindly supporting what ever they do without thinking of Mother Lanka. They act as petty politicians shouting from the top of their voices.
Maha Sangha should take back the leading role and lead the nation in Dhamma way, not in violent way as portrayed by BBS.
This should start from village level temple to the top level Malwathu Asgiri. Otherwise one day we all will wake up to a divided country without our knowledge. That is the way this clandestine Federal and Separatist Agenda is carried out.
May 28th, 2018 at 5:49 am
Kudos to Shenali for presenting a very convincing article why we Sinhalese should defend our motherland.
Sinhalese, (in spite of some ass-liking colonial lovers) should be proud of our long Sinhala-Buddhist heritage which our ancestors defended against many colonial invaders.
Unfortunately, our idiotic and non-patriotic leaders like JR, Chandrika, Ranil, have destroyed our country with the help of the old colonial West and their loyal puppy India. Today we have a regime – probably the worst regime since independence – which is willing to sell the country, with its disastrous economic and social policies.
It’s is time that all patriotic Sinhalese should come together, regardless of their political differences, for the sake of saving our country – which is the ONLY country Sinhalese have.
May 28th, 2018 at 6:50 am
හරෝ හරා ගෝවින්දා
ඇවිත් අපේ ගේ බින්දා
ඒ මදිවට අපේ මොලේ
හූරල හෝදල දම්මා
May 28th, 2018 at 9:31 am
Great article Shenali. The problem today is that we have no true Buddhist leader.We need to get organized like Muslims and the Tamils, not to harm them but to protect our country and the Sinhala nation. Just before I left the country, I worked for a company owned by a Sinhala Buddhist but it tuned out to be that he was running a Ponzi scheme. I was employed in a factory belonging to them and had nothing to do with the the financial side.
When I lost the job before the Central Banked swooped in, Had no job and only a partially built one bed roomed house with two children and a wife. I manged to immigrate with idea of coming back but our children and the grand child do not want come.So, two years ago, I sold my 20 perch property. Despite many offers from Muslims who already have bought 7 other properties originally owned by Sinhalese, I sold it to non Buddhist Sinhalese although I could have sold it for higher price. I encountered some problems with the Mayor, I think who wanted a bribe. In spite of my friends telling me and advised me to sell to a non Sinhalese who would take care of everything, I refused
I am not an organizer or a good leader but am willing to join any organization that works to safeguard the interest of the country and Buddhist nation and support financially in the small way I can.
I do not hate the Tamils or Muslims and have close friends. Individually they are OK but as group they out to destroy us.
May 28th, 2018 at 6:08 pm
The first step is to abolish executive presidency.
In 2015, over 60% Sinhalese opposed Sirisena but still he won the presidential election. Such gross injustice to the majority can never happen with the parliamentary system. Post-war population growth rate of Tamils and Muslims is astronomical in comparison to Sinhalese. As a result, this 60% will increase. In a decade even if 65% of Sinhalese oppose a presidential candidate, he/she will win with minority votes and do whatever he/she wants with executive power.
Sadly, politically aligned Sinhala people cannot understand reality. They will do more harm than the LTTE. If a large section of Sinhalese wants Rajapaksas or Bandaranaikes, Wickramasinghes or Sirisenas, etc. they certainly don’t deserve a nation.
May 28th, 2018 at 9:15 pm
@ Dilrook,
I totally agree with your point. But I have a couple of things. Following is the race wise and religion wise distribution in 2012 Census
Sinhalese 15,250,081 74.90% if 70% voted in favour it is 10,675,057 = 52.43%
SL Tamils 2,269,266 11.15%
SL Moors 1,892,638 9.30%
Indian Tamils 839,504 4.12%
SL Malays 44,130 0.22%
Burghers 38,293 0.19%
Others 25,527 0.13%
Total 20,359,439 100.00%
Buddhists 14,272,056 70.10% If 75% of Buddhist Votes in favour = 10,704,042 = 52.58%
Hindu 2,561,299 12.58%
Muslim 1,967,523 9.66%
Christian 1,552,161 7.62%
Others 6,400 0.03%
Total 20,359,439 100.00%
In the first chart, only 70% Sinhalese have to vote for the patriotic leader with the total number 10,675,075 to get over 52%. This leaves another 4,575,024 Sinhalese traitors to vote against the national leader.
68% Sinhala only votes is the lowest it can go which will secure a 50.93% standing with the total number as 10,370,055, leaving 4,880,026 for Sinhalese traitors. However there are some minority votes definitely in favour
In the second chart, if only 75% Buddhists voted for the patriotic leader, a 52.58% can be secured with the total number on 10,704,042. This leaves another 3,568,014 Buddhist traitors to vote against the national leader. 72% Buddhist only votes is the lowest it can go which will secure a 50.47% with 10,275,880 in total leaving 3,996,176 Buddhist traitor votes against the national leader. However there are some 987,025 Sinhalese Christian votes to bank into in favour.
I think this time around keeping the EP is safer since there are more than 85% chance that Gota will run for the presidency. If he comes to power, he will definitely abrogate 13A, which will eliminate the biggest separatist risk Mother Lanka has. By watching Viyathmaga, I gathered their feeling towards 13A by several speakers wanting 13A to go.
Please note that these numbers were done only assuming “0” Minority votes. There are patriotic minorities who will vote a good national leader looking forward for a great country.
In the second chart
May 28th, 2018 at 11:26 pm
@Hiranthe
Thanks for the factual argument.
Going by past elections, 70% is higher than in 2010 when 68% of Sinhalese voted for Mahinda.
Gotabaya needs 63% of Sinhala votes to win the 2019 presidential election assuming minority votes will follow the 2010, 2015 and 2018 trend and large scale election malpractices don’t happen in the north and the east. He can win it with some difficulty. However, if Gotabaya is prevented from contesting, I doubt anyone else can win it outright. Minorities will bargain for maximum extortion.
Gotabaya’s chances can be dented if JHU fields own candidate with patriotic promises Gotabaya cannot match (e.g. abrogation of 13A, repatriating Indians stealing locals’ jobs, take back Hambantota, save Wilpattu, banning cattle slaughter, capping extremism). This will be a protest vote against weak leaders on both sides. UNP will launch a fear campaign of western sanctions against Sri Lanka (remembering 1970s, closing down garment factories, reducing imports) and war crimes investigations targeting all soldiers if Gotabaya wins.
However, that is only part of the matter. The moment a patriotic leader wins the presidential election, he/she will be thinking of the next presidential election. They see the lacking in minority votes and they start wasting money and political solutions on them trying to win them. CWC, SLMC, ACMC, EPDP and even sections of TNA join him/her and that’s the end of any patriotic leader. The executive with executive powers bring them under his/her wing. This is what happened to Premadasa, Chandrika and Mahinda.
JVP is a little too early for 20A. They should have waited a little longer when UNP will not have any hope of winning the next presidential election.
May 29th, 2018 at 12:48 am
@ Dilrook,
I agree with you that if Gota is prevented from contesting, no one can fill that space. Minorities will bargain to the maximum!! It is a risk the nation has to take collectively.
JHU has lost its ground already by having a marriage with UNP and being part of the biggest scandal of looting the public funds and the EPF. Pa-Cha Ranawaka has no followers now.
I agree with you on the UNP fear campaign.. But it will not be very attractive since the GSP plus has not given any benefit to the common man and they cannot market things like that anymore.
About an embargo by the West; the Gota camp will prove that the West is a toothless tiger now and they even could not help the Yahap team. Now the tide is turning towards Asia.
I think Viyathmaga are working on Short term and long term goals. They will only carryout people based development which can turn into votes. They will not repeat the MR government’s mistakes. It was discussed by someone in one of the conference.
Ordinary folks in the North also want a decent life with good income and without worries. I think if the money in circulation in return to their production either in agriculture or any other domestic industry, it will be hard for the selfish Tamil politicians with Separatist mind to buy them. These innocent people don’t have a voice now. Otherwise, they themselves know that they were liberated by our forces and MR is the one who gave the leadership to free them from the clutches of Velu.
More than that, now we are talking about 2019. All the new generation’s votes will go against the Yahaps. They hate the present administration. This new vote bank has more chances to move towards Gota camp due to the master plans they are proposing with a bright future. They will be looking forward for a prosperous country, not a win for a particular party.
With all these, I think we need the EP system to bring a person like Gota to power. Otherwise the country will lose the opportunity to make use of him.
I can imagine what transformation he will bring to the nation by comparing to what he had done to Colombo City to comprehend his ability.
May 30th, 2018 at 5:11 pm
Pacha Ranawaka doesn’t have the chance of a snowball in hell in becoming anybody in Sri Lanka, after his traitorous betrayal to the Christian UNP. The Christian UNP gave him the biggest dead rope in his life – Made him the Megapolis Minister. Now after nearly 3 years in this post – what has he done to Colombo and his megapolis? He is just another cat which crapped on a slab of rock now trying to lap all the crap in front of the nation. On the way to now, his unvarnished ambition to become the President of Sri Lanka, has left him berefit of any vestiges of decency. He took away all that Hela Urumaya stands for by capitulating to the Chrisitan UNP for crumbs. It was the Hela Urumaya the patriots built up to represent Sinhala interests that he destroyed utterly and irrevocably. He is a self serving individual with little respect for the fellow traveller or his followers. He will have a lot to answer in a new administration.
On the positive side, he is has many talents, but his darker nature has destroyed all that in a whimper because of his hurry to become the President of Sri Lanka. Just like the JVP and himself a former JVPer, his plan was to blacken both sides and come on top. His political ‘run’ over the heads of others is now exposed. Just like the JVP now he has become a looser and with him the Hela Urumaya faction he leads.
He should be made history at the next elections!
May 30th, 2018 at 6:42 pm
I disagree on JHU. Obviously they cannot win the election or win more than 2% or 3% of the national vote. But that is all they need to deny Gotabaya, etc. a win. Voters will not vote for JHU for anything positive they have. Instead it will be a protest vote against two sell-offs who will compete with each other to come to deals with CWC, SLMC, ACMC, EPDP, TMVP, etc.
Do not underestimate the support for abrogating 13A, fixing Wilpattu, etc. It has a sizable support sufficient to create cracks in the minority-worshipping patriotic camp.
In addition, JVP and Nagananda camps will also split the majority vote.
We may not like them, but they do have a sizable following among floating voters.