Death Penalty in Sri Lanka: Who deserves to be put to death?
Posted on July 15th, 2018
This government loves to keep the people busy by regularly throwing issues to keep them busy. These are excellent methods to divert people’s attention from the real issues that questions the governments inefficiency. We’ve had a string of such public diversions – New York Times, Wijayakala and now it’s the death sentence.
When the subject of death sentence arose only people remembered to claim Sri Lanka as a majority Buddhist nation. Undoubtedly that is true, in ancient times the Kings followed the dasa raja dhamma concept – what was applicable to all was also applicable to him. The level of crime was certainly not what is seen today. If anyone was found stealing he was duly punished – there were no lawyers to argue & find some loophole to save the culprit & certainly none of the crimes that exist today, existed then.
Every nation has some form of judiciary with courts, judges, lawyers & judgements. But how far have these been deterrents for non-repetition is questionable. Everywhere crime is not only increasing but the types of crimes are shocking. How often have the wrong persons being put behind bars? Why should the man caught stealing be hanged when he was part of a larger group where the main culprit runs a crime syndicate & tells his group what to steal & from whom? Who is then the bigger culprit? How far has money helped to ensure the wrong doers are not sentenced. How fair have these decisions been. If the legal profession is corrupt can bringing death penalty solve anything?
We are living in a very confused environment. We presume we are being led by a government we elect but in reality the government is being ruled by sets of invisible people to whom no laws are applicable. They commit the biggest crimes but they never end up getting caught or punished. In such an environment how fair or moral is it to hang the small sprat while the sharks get away & feel happy that death penalty serves its purpose? According to the FBI, the annual cost of street crime in US is $15 billion compared to nearly $1 trillion for white-collar crime, but who end up in prison?
Recently, the news showcased people getting rigorous imprisonment & fine for stealing biscuits /mangoes but then people who have masterminded bigger crimes get away because of loopholes in laws or because they have the money to retain the most experienced & most expensive lawyers who know how to wriggle out of a sentence. How morally correct is the law in such instances & would such not encourage hatred & distrust in the system whereby already people are beginning to feel the law is applicable only to the small man & the rich get away with anything.
America is the only Western country that has death penalty. In US, 31 states have death penalty, 19 states don’t. Close to 1500 people have been executed since 1977. But in the states that death penalty prevails, crime rates have not reduced as a result of putting people to death? It is said that in California since 1978 to execute someone it costs the state $4b with the legal process taking 25 years. Executions costs more than a life time in prison!
And what about sending the wrong people into prison or even to death?
In the US since 1989 there have been over 2000 exonerations – 22% exonerated by DNA evidence, 19% exonerated after their death – 4.1% of defendants who are sentenced to death in the United States are later shown to be innocent! https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-cost-of-convicting-the-innocent/2015/07/24/260fc3a2-1aae-11e5-93b7-5eddc056ad8a_story.html?utm_term=.c523203522e1
The United States of America and Canada actually have the highest overall crime rates in the world. In India more than 33,000 rapes were reported in 2014.
How can we live with the fact that the system has sent innocent people to death? That life can never be brought back to life!
No criminal system anywhere in the world is or can be 100% perfect. If people claim it to be then they are living in some different planet.
Globally, 53 countries have death penalty.
Ironically, inspite of the West boasting of its good governance system Japan & Singapore are the 2 countries with the world’s lowest crime rates. Certainly the lower end crimes are non-existent primarily because everyone has a job & money to support themselves so petty crimes such as theft & robberies are more or less non-existent. However, white-collar crimes are increasing in Singapore. In a 2018 global financial secrecy index, which rated nations for factors including illicit money flows and tax haven status, Singapore ranked fifth — behind Switzerland, the U.S., Cayman Islands and Hong Kong. With globalization we are now dealing
If the argument that people who commit grave crimes must be punished… then why punish only some, how come those who commit graver crimes are overlooked? A crime done by one against one is nothing compared to a crime masterminded by one, carried out by many affecting thousands of people!
Today’s illegal drugs, such as marijuana, opium, heroin etc have been used for thousands of years for both medical and spiritual purposes. In the case of narcotics/drugs – Who are the manufacturers, the suppliers & doesn’t the drug dealers come way after that initial supply chain? Will eliminating one or two drug dealers end the chain? Wouldn’t the dead dealer be replaced with another & business goes on as usual? Shouldn’t the main or the root of the curse be eliminated not the pawns? An estimated 230 million people around the world are drug-users. Of those, some 27 million are considered to be dependent or drug addicts.
More recently Johnson & Johnson was fined $4.7billion in a lawsuit that linked its baby powder with cancer – millions of people the world over uses its products but if they have caused cancer then what should their judgment be against the company & its owners who have caused cancer in millions of people? Similarly, our food is being poisoned with all types of chemicals from which many end up suffering all types of health issues – diabetes, blood pressure, cancers etc… what should happen to the owners of these food industries who are purposely & knowingly poisoning us for profit?
The world’s biggest arms manufacturers are manufacturing weapons for profits as such they need conflicts to sell arms, often to both sides of the conflict, these arms end up killing innocent lives – shouldn’t these entities also be duly punished for their crimes? We often go behind the terrorists but who funds them, who trains them, who drugs them & who supplies them arms – are these not the bigger culprits while the same can be said of those who provide oxygen to these terrorists because it provides a means of income to them. Isn’t treason far greater a crime than drug dealing? Who are guilty of treason at least in the public tribunal as people are better judges of traitors of the country than the system as often the system is controlled by the culprits who have nicely placed ‘their’ people so that their crimes never get the gavel of justice.
What about the human smuggling industry – the transportation of economic migrants often causing complete demographic change – who are the culprits behind these crimes & why do they evade sentencing? Then we have a plethora of sex crimes, paedophilia all associated with cults & other satanic practices but most often it is the elite circles who are involved in these sadistic crimes and it is hardly likely they would end up getting the noose. Should the death penalty be only for some exonerating the bigger criminals?
Often it is those who commit the crimes who stand in judgement. This refers to all of the former colonies who have yet to account for their heinous crimes committed on indigenous nations for 500 years, ironically it is these same countries that are illegally invading & bombing countries & now they are using drones to do the dirty work. How come those who issue these directives that leave thousands of innocent people dead are not hung too? Those who argue that death penalty is a closure must explain then what about closure for the innocent people whose lives were nullified by geopolitically motivated bombing campaigns (Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Libya, Syria just to name a few)
People must be aware of the ground realities instead of being mesmerized with the concept that seeing a criminal executed is proof that there is a system & the system has worked while the system is non-active against the bigger criminals.
As humans we all make mistakes – some make bigger mistakes than others while there are others whose mistakes are cleverly hidden. Humans can never be compartmentalized. People’s thinking changes with every second. People are complicated. However, the power of law & law enforcement comes in its ability to dish out the law without bias. That does not happen anywhere in the world & that is the reality. With the west controlling the world media, they often decide what we are to believe & not believe & often the minds of people are brainwashed into thinking the West to be superior to that of others.
For starters a country must have a clear law & that law must be applicable to all equally. A theft by a poor cannot be any worse than a theft committed by the rich. A sex/drug crime committed by the poor cannot get death sentence while the same crime committed by the rich ends up with a loophole excusing his crime. We have seen of late how a man who raped & killed a school girl was released by a Minister who is now wailing about the rise in rapes in her area!
Returning to Sri Lanka, the death penalty for the drug dealers is hardly likely to stop the flow of drugs into Sri Lanka, its distribution or the crafty ways in which it is spread to gullible & innocent people who end up the addicts. Ironically, whether a drug addict is rich or poor, that family is devastated for life. Illegal drug industry is not the only criminal syndicate in Sri Lanka or anywhere else in the world – there are a plethora of illegal transnational crimes, trace the trail & we will be surprised that the same crime syndicate are controlling & manipulating the supply chain – unless these are dealt with there is little point in putting people to death & feeling happy that justice has been served. Once any drug dealer is arrested or put in prison either he continues inside in prison or he is easily replaced by others. We have seen how even financial criminals inside prisons are operating with duplicate sim phones …. therefore where is this justice people are boasting off?
Shenali D Waduge
July 14th, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Death penalty must be reintroduced.
In ancient Sri Lanka, despite the Buddhist majority and governance, death penalty was there; killings were also there. For instance, “ula thabeema”, “gas bandeema”, trampling the criminal by elephant, severing the head (“hisa gasa dameema”) were practiced widely.
Japan and Singapore have the lowest crime rate partly due to the death penalty! Both countries have it.
Although extreme, Saudi Arabia also has one of the lowest major crimes rate thanks to the same reason.
Only some US states have it and the numbers are very small given the massive population of USA.
Mainly western funded NGOs and Christian NGOs are opposed to death penalty.
Sri Lanka’s law prescribes death penalty to narcotics offences and a number of other offences. Only problem is the law is not implemented. Executions were stopped for good with the introduction of executive presidency. No surprise! We never had executive presidents with half the courage of DSS, Sir John, SWRD or Sirima (a case in point).
Drug dealers, rapists and offenders against children must be given the death penalty. Otherwise very soon Buddhist Sri Lanka will surpass Hindu India as the rape capital of the world. It is already a narcotics and prostitution hub.
Death penalty does work. Sri Lanka’s major crime rate was very low compared to today when death penalty was in operation. Carrying out the death is just the implementation of the law because the law clearly prescribes death for a number of offences already.
Killing innocents by mistake is very rare and more innocents are killed in a day! So in the scheme of things it is nothing. The advantages are far greater.
However, I will be utterly surprised if Sirisena, Ranil, Rajapaksas or Anura Kumara and their followers will ever allow the death penalty. They all lose by it as their very loyal people will be put to death for horrendous crimes.
If the government cannot find willing executioners, it should call for volunteers and most likely thousands will line up to end the miserable lives (and their continuing crimes from prison) of drug dealers, rapists and child molesters. If not, Sri Lanka has ended its journey as a civilised entity.
July 14th, 2018 at 9:01 pm
Minister Samaraweera has said drug dealers on the death penalty row are the second level dealers.
Those who are on the Apex of the drug pyramid are Indian Colonial Parasites.
They are the ones who finance our politicians. They have been doing it from the time they arrived here with the British.
Good examples are Eswarans who recently imported 400 kilos of Cocaine from South America in Containers of Sugar.
Our country has become one of the central distribution centers of drugs in the region and far.
No Sinhalese are on the top of the drug pyramid here.
July 15th, 2018 at 3:55 am
A country that takes no action against Ministers/VVIPs & their cronies for drugs CANNOT be allowed to bring any death penalty that will put to death only some while others get away
Aug2017 – Personal Assistant of Minister Mangala Samaraweera was arrested for possession of drugs
Aug2017 – Cabinet ministers may be fueling drug trafficking – NUTA
July 15th, 2018 at 2:03 pm
THIS IS, DRAWING A RED HERRING ACROSS THE TRAIL. THE BUGGERS WHO SHOULD BE HANGING BY THEIR DICKS, ARE THE VERY BUGGERS WHO JUST ROBBED THE CENTRAL BANK TO BILLIONS, AND ARE FLOATING LIKE ANGELS, WITH ABSOLUTELY ***NO PUNISHMENT**… WHY ? BECAUSE THE BUGGERS WHO ARE MANDATED TO METE OUT PUNISHMENT, ARE THE VERY SAME BUGGERS WHO HAVE ROBBED. JUST LOOK AT THOSE BUGGERS FACES, LIKE **ANNEY MAMA NUM HOREK NEVEY, MAMA MONOWAK WATH DANNEY NA NEHE** SO THIS **HITAN** AND **HUTAN** ARE GLOBE TROTTING WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
July 15th, 2018 at 3:54 pm
@Shenali
There is no such requirement in law. Drug possession carries the death penalty as at current law. It has to be implemented. Of course all those crooks must also be hanged but the process must not be put on hold until they are hung. It must start from somewhere (if Sri Lanka is to survive as a nation). I very much doubt Sri Lanka has any civilised future which is already on world map as an international drug hub, Asian prostitution hub (still behind Thailand) and very high in offences against women and children because no one including Sirisena is interested in fixing the problem.
July 15th, 2018 at 5:00 pm
As Jesus said “Those who have not sinned cast the first stone” is quite relevant to this issue. My3 is no saint as he has protected the biggest crooks in the history of Sri Lanka. Those crooks have ruined the lives of many as the Bond Scam crooks have helped to ruin the economy and other funds which have created hardships to many. As Shenali said those who are in that list of 18 are only sprats. The government has no intention of going after the big sharks who have the backing of some powerful people. Of course those 18 can save their lives by naming the big wigs behind the racket if the government gives their families protection.
July 15th, 2018 at 10:32 pm
Dilrook – EU reminds Sri Lanka that Sri Lanka voted in favour of the moratorium on the death penalty at a UN forum in 2016 (quite hilarious) the Govt doesn’t know what it has voted for at the UN :)
http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/EU-says-no-to-Death-penalty-152730.html
July 16th, 2018 at 12:53 am
Hilarious indeed. As expected Sirisena is not serious about the long overdue death penalty reintroduction.
However, technically, as president, he can do so and he is immune from any punishment. Sri Lankan laws have not been updated inline with the moratorium. Violating a UN commitment does not have punishments for the president. The matter first came up in 2008.
These are the countries that support it and oppose it. All Christian majority countries except USA oppose the death penalty.
“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_moratorium_on_the_death_penalty#/media/File:2008_UN_death_penalty_moratorium_votes.svg”
However, none of this means the death penalty is bad. It only means this government is not serious about its reintroduction (which was expected).
July 16th, 2018 at 1:11 am
“Who deserves to be put to death?”
No one deserves to be put to death.
However, during war , death is unavoidable.
Recent “death penalty for druggies on death raw” has no meaning at all. Whether deserve or not they have already been convicted and given the penalty according to the law of country. Therefore, not carrying out the penalty is against the law. However, reason given for re-introduction of hanging is ridiculous. If those druggies arrange murders operating from the jail the problem is with the jail administration and that should be addressed instead.
July 16th, 2018 at 3:58 am
If you are a true Buddhist, we should resolutely oppose to death penalty
when you undertake the training rule to abstain from killing as a basic code of ethics undertaken by followers of Buddhism . “පානාතිපාතා වේරමණී සික්ඛා පදං සමාදියාමි” Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi. , you do not exclude certain categories. Majority of the Sri Lankan who elected this government would also be indirectly responsible for this Heinous crime.
If they have managerial problems in prison system in Sri Lanka, rather they should solve that problems by getting into the root of the problem instead of introducing institutionalised legal murder by the political leaders.
I agree with you Randeniyage
No one deserves to be put to death.
July 16th, 2018 at 4:23 am
This is what Saman Gamage says in his article to the Island;
මේ වන විට බන්ධනාගාරගතව සිටින පාතාල කෙරුමන් සහ මත්කුඩු ජාවාරම්කරුවන් රට වනසන කෙරුම්කාරයන් වීමට ප්රධානම හේතුව වී තිබෙන්නේ ජංගම දුරකථන ඔවුන් අතට පත්වීමය. ඒ සියල්ල ඔවුන් අතට පත්වන්නේ බන්ධනාගාර නිලධාරීන් හරහා බව අද ප්රසිද්ධ රහසකි. සියල්ලට මුල් වන්නේ මුදලය.
ඒ අනුව මේ සියලු බාධක මඟහැර ගනිමින් පවතින ගැටලුවට විසඳුම් දීමේදී ආණ්ඩුව කළ යුතු වන්නේ කුමක්ද? එහිදී ආණ්ඩුව මුලින්ම කළ යුත්තේ පෙර පැවති සාමා ක්රමවේදය සක්රීය කිරීම බව අපි වගකීමෙන් යුතුව කියමු. එසේ කියන්නේ එය අවහිර කිරීම පවතින ගැටලුවට විසඳුමක් නොවන නිසාය. සමාව අහිමි කිරීම ප්රශ්නයට උත්තරය නම් එය ක්රීයාත්මක කිරීමට මුල් වූ “රීටා ජෝන්” ඝාතනයෙන් පසු මේ රටේ අපරාධ බොහෝ සේ අඩුවී අද වන විට නැත්තටම නැතිවී තිබිය යුතුය. එහෙත් එවැන්නක් සිදුවී නැත.
සමා ක්රමය ක්රියාත්මක කරන අතරේ දෙවනුව ආණ්ඩුව කළ යුතු වන්නේ බන්ධනාගාරගත කෙරෙන පාතාලයන් සහ මත්කුඩු ජාවාරමුන් දැඩි රැකවල් මැද හුදකලාව රඳවා තැබිය හැකි වැඩපිළිවෙළක් වෙත ගමන් කිරීමය. ඔවුන් අරබයා සියල්ල අකුරටම ක්රියාත්මක වන දැඩි පිළිවෙතක් අනුගමනය කළ යුතුය.
එය සිදු කරන්නේ කෙසේද? පසුගිය කාලයේ එල්ටීටීඊ ත්රස්තවාදීන් ආරක්ෂක අංශවලට කොටුවීමෙන් පසු අති දරුණු කොටි පවා රඳවා තැබුණේ බූස්ස බන්ධනාගාරයට යාබදව තිබෙන කඳවුරේය. අද එහි එල්ටීටීඊ සැකකරුවන් සිටින්නේ අතේ ඇඟිලි ගණනට සමාන පිරිසකි. එහෙත් පුද්ගලයන් දෙසීයපනහක් පමණ රැඳවිය හැකි මෙම ස්ථානය ඉහත කී කාරණයට යොදා ගැනීමට ආණ්ඩුවට නොහැකිව තිබේද?
“අපි පසුගිය වසර තුනක පමණ සිටි මේ ස්ථානය ඉල්ලුවා. එය අද තිබෙන්නේ පොලිස් ත්රස්තවාදී විමර්ශන කොට්ඨාශය යටතේ” මේ අද බූස්ස ගැන බන්ධනාගාර දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව කිය කතාව බවට පත්ව ඇත. සැබවින්ම බූස්ස රැඳවුම් කඳවුර යනු යුද හමුදා මුර කපොලු තුනක් පසු කර යා යුතු ඉතාම දැඩි රැකවල් සහිත ස්ථානයකි. එසේම භූගෝලීය පිහිටීම අනුව ජනාකීර්න නොවන හෙයින් ජංගම දුරකථන සංඥ වැළක්වීමේ උපකරණ (ජෑමර්) එහි සවි කිරීමද ඉතා පහසුය.
එසේ නම් අද බන්ධනාගාරගතව සිට වැඩ දමන සියලුම පාතාලයන් සහ කුඩු ජාවාරම්කරුවන් බූස්ස වෙත ගෙන ගොස් දැඩි රැකවල් මැද රඳවා තැබීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළකට යැමට ආණ්ඩුවට නොහැකව තිබෙන්නේ කුමක් නිසාද? මෙහිදී හමුදා රැකවල් හෝ යෙදීමට ආණ්ඩුවට පුළුවන. එයට නීතියෙන් බාධාවක් එල්ලවීමටද පවතින ඉඩකඩ සීමිතය. එසේ කළහොත් ඔවුහු ජීවිතයේ බොහෝ සේ හුදකලා වන්නාහ. ඒ හුදකලා බව තුළ මේ මිනිස්සු මනසින් කඩා වැටීම අනිවාර්ය ය.
එසේ කඩා වැටීම තුළ සිදුවන තවත් වැදගත් දෙයක්ද ඇත. ඒ සූක්ෂම මානසික මෙහෙයුමක් තුළින් ඔවුන් සතු මත්ද්රව්ය ජාවාරමට සහ පාතාලයට සම්බන්ධ අවර දැනුම මෙන්ම ඔවුන්ව ද සියල්ල සාර්ථකව මර්දනය කිරීම සඳහා යොදා ගැනීමට හැකිවීමය. එය සිදු කරන්නට මේ රටේ ආරක්ෂක අංශ තුළ ඕනෑ තරම් දක්ෂයෝ සිටින්නාහ.
එහෙයින් බන්ධනාගාරගත වන සියලුම කුඩු ජාවාරමුන් සහ පාතාල කෙරුමන් වහාම ක්රියාත්මක වන පරිදි එදා එල්ටීටීඊ ත්රස්තවාදීන්ට සිදු කළාක් මෙන් බූස්ස කඳවුරේ හුදකලා කිරීමෙන් පවතින ප්රශ්නය පහසුවෙන් විස¹ ගැනීමට නොහැකි වේද? මෙහිදී සීමිත බන්ධනාගාර නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක් යොදා බන්ධනාගාර දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සහ ආරක්ෂක අංශවල සම්මිශ්රණයක් තුළින් මේ කාර්යය පහසුවෙන්ම කළ හැකිය.
එවිට රට පුරා පෝස්ටර් අලවා දේශපාලන සංදර්ශන පවත්වන අතරේ මොවුන්ව එල්ලා මැරීමට අවශ්ය වන්නේ නැතුවාක් මෙන්ම සමස්ත දකුණු ආසියාවට මෙන්ම ලෝකයටම වැදගත් වන මත්කුඩු සහ පාතාල ජාවාරම්වලට එරෙහි අති සාර්ථක මෙහෙයුමක යෙදෙන්නට අපට නොහැකි වේද?
සමන් ගමගේ
July 16th, 2018 at 5:09 am
Traitor chief die hard catholic token Buddhist walking crime bomb (against the Sinhalese, Buddhsim and Sri
Lanka only) with the timer set for 10-20 years mega thief mega thakkadiya bay gal karaya Batalande
Wandakaya Pol Pot r@ni_leech wickrama Sinhala killer must be first in the queue for the gallows. The traitor
chief and its catholic buddy top police brass were instrumental in murdering so many youth for being Sinhalese
Buddhists in its torture chambers in Batalanda camp plus elsewhere in the country during BHEESHANA SAMAYA.
Traitor anti Sinhalese, anti Buddhist, anti Sri Lanka UNPatrioitc_rats sacrificed 60,000+ Sinhalese in the first Sinhalese Buddhist cull!
Then UNPatriotic_rats sacrificed another 100,000+, mainly Sinhalese Buddhists, to itscatholic tigers of
tamil drealam by dragging the war for 30+ years saying the terras were invincible. MR came, invincible terras
were running for their lives. Then traitor UNPatriotic_rats created ever Sri Lanka hating diasporats all over the
world by dispatching them abroad (sorry, developed countries only please). Now the diasporats are hell bent
on breaking up Sri Lanka to go on holiday to their drealam while its kith and kin living all over the island
very comfortably. Then traitor chief gave half the country to its catholic buddy hilter mala paharan on a plate
in 2005 with its CFA. Then traitor chief broke into CB with its catholic buddy arjun maha horandran and got
away with Rs 5585 billions. Traitor chief treachery list goes on and on. Still some Sinhala modayas (booruwas)
revere the monster. Still traitor chief going round the country/world fooling people, calling others
hora, murderer etc etc. Lajja baya nathi aga matta! This mega thief mega murderer mega thakkadiya mega
liar has been getting away with murder, robbery, lies, treachery for so long thanks to the C brigade. Sri Lanka should send r@ni_leech Pol Pot to be the first in the queue! To set an example for all deshapaluwan of today and
tomorrow!
July 16th, 2018 at 6:27 am
“Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.”
Pāṇātipātā does not mean you do not kill.
It means you respect or wish for life.
Buddhism is about middle path.
So when there is a situation one has to take the life of another you have to do it.
July 16th, 2018 at 3:15 pm
Christie
Do not try to interpret the basics of Buddhism the way you want.
In Buddhism, the most basic things that a lay Buddhist should know is the 5 main precepts. The precepts offer the basic training rules for lay Buddhists to practice everyday, anytime and anywhere. They are not commands or kind of imperatives but only training rules that someone can take them voluntarily. It means whether someone undertake them or not is not a problem. As if someone practice the precepts, he/she will attain good behaviours, good thoughts, good actions, good speech, peacefulness, calmness, and happiness.
Meaning of “Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi” I undertake the training rule to abstain
from taking life.or I undertake the training rule to abstain from killing.
July 16th, 2018 at 4:04 pm
You cannot carry out death penalty in Sri Lanka under current conditions, that is, without proper law and order. Police and even other armed forces people behave like criminals. Some judges too are criminals and some are corrupt of eager to obey politicians. It is impossible to really find out who are the criminals. We know very well one (or two ?) parliamentarians too got death penalty. Not sure whether their pension is transferred to wives after they are hanged ( if ever happens).
July 16th, 2018 at 6:14 pm
If you are a true Buddhist or a Christian you must oppose death penalty. However, rightly or wrongly, Sri Lanka is not a Buddhist nation. Period.
The Constitution only states Buddhism shall be given the foremost place. It does not state Sri Lanka shall be a Buddhist country. It means Buddhist concepts must not be allowed to interfere with governance. Sri Lanka does not follow Dasaraja Dharma or Lichchavi System in its legal system either. Instead it follows the Judeo Christian legal system which strangely supports the death penalty. They have been wise enough to keep Christian beliefs out of the law. Therefore, bringing Buddhism and Christianty to the matter has no relevance.
If one wishes Lanka’s legal system to follow Buddhist teachings, relevent Constitutional changes must be done first. No serious presidential election candidate will ever promise these; certainly not a Rajapaksa. Only Ranil and Sirisena promised these (Lechchavi governance) but that was for a joke. In 2001 Ranil’s team made another mockery of ‘Piruwana Poth Wahanse’. JR also promised ‘Dharmishta’ society and once again it was a joke. Politicians must be prevented from misusing religious/Buddhist concepts in their politics.
Sirima – the most Buddhist Lankan leader overcoming severe Christian influence on her life – didn’t hesitate to allow the judiciary carry out the death penalty which her Christian-born husband once stopped. No executive president had half the courage of Sirima.
July 17th, 2018 at 3:54 pm
Word “Pāṇātipātā in pali is formed by conjugating of two word “Pāṇā and ātipātā
Pāṇā in pali is living beings’
atipāta is slaying; killing.
So “Pāṇātipātā is slaying; killing.of living beings