India’s sudden interest in Buddhism seems to be driven by militarization than anything noble. India uses Buddhism as a weapon against China, a bargaining tool against Burma and Bhutan and as an extortion tool against Sri Lanka. All this happens while India’s Buddhists endure acute discrimination, marginalization and deprivation. This has many learnings for Sri Lankans. Taking them to heart early can mean the difference between survival and extinction.
According to India’s recent censuses (2001, 2011) and estimations, total Buddhist percentage is only 0.7%.
However, what is worrying is 98% of them are from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes (Dalits”).
If India’s population is 1.4 billion (current estimate), only 200,000 Buddhists live with fundamental rights.
In wide contrast, almost everyone in Sri Lanka enjoys all fundamental rights and privileges irrespective of faith and language.
As the island nation is rapidly Indianized militarily, economically, culturally and religion-wise, the plight of Buddhists in Sri Lanka will be no different. It goes against logic that India will treat Sri Lanka’s Buddhists any better than they treat their own Buddhists.
Whatever one’s faith is, most Sri Lankans are touched by Buddhism in some way. Unlike other nations in the South Asian region where persistent religious animosity is the order of the day, the Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka has a way of self-correcting course which is the result of Teachings they adhere to. Arousal takes them only so far and soon the silent majority takes over replacing agitation with compassion. Protection of Buddhism guarantees the dignity and equal rights of everyone. India’s continuing suppression of Buddhists and Indianization of the island are bad news for everyone.
Tilottama Rani Charulata, an independent researcher.
The Rohingya are the most persecuted minority group in the world. Such persecution has forced Rohingyas into Bangladesh for many years, with significant spikes following violent attacks in 1978, 1992, and again in 2016. More than 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee from Myanmar following a brutal military crackdown in 2017. Currently, Bangladesh has been hosting nearly 1.2 million Rohingya refugees for six years. At this point, there are more Rohingyas in Bangladesh than in Myanmar.
Due to this massive refugee crisis, the socio-economic and security situation of Bangladesh is worsening and there seems to be no other way except a repatriation, which has been a hanging case for the last six years. The issue remained at a deadlock and to bring momentum, Bangladesh needed an initiative from Myanmar. A breakthrough finally happened on May 05, when a team of 20 Rohingya accompanied by seven Bangladesh government officials visited two of 15 villages in Rakhine State, at the invitation of the Myanmar government.
Bangladesh welcomes the pilot project
The Rohingya team left for Myanmar on Friday via the transboundary Naf River to visit a settlement in Rakhine State. The visit was considered a part of a confidence-building measure” for repatriation to encourage Rohingyas for a self-willing return. This is the first time any Rohingya delegation visited Rakhine to assess the situation there as the Rohingyas have not volunteered to return home despite two attempts, arguing that the situation was not conducive.
Earlier, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement to repatriate this huge number of Rohingyas to Myanmar in 2017 and 2019. These attempts failed to repatriate the Rohingyas because the Rohingya refused to return to their homeland for fear of fresh persecution and lack of a congenial environment for repatriation. Bangladesh has raised the issue at every international forum, with the support of many countries. But Myanmar had been indifferent to international laws and norms. Finally, it is taking this symbolic step, most possibly to “lighten the responsibility” in its next submission to the International Court of Justice in May regarding the Rohingya genocide.
The foreign ministry of Bangladesh welcomed this effort and appreciated Myanmar’s willingness. The development comes amid a series of events that took place for Rohingya justice and repatriation. The UN refugee agency said it was aware of Friday’s trip, which was taking place “under a bilateral arrangement between Bangladesh and Myanmar”. Some experts and rights activists have observed that the UN’s involvement in the visit would be more conducive for the parties involved in the pilot project to initiate the repatriation. However, Refugee returns must be voluntary, in safety and dignity and no refugee should be forced to do so. And this pilot project is following those steps sincerely.
Facilities offered by Myanmar
Upon their arrival, Myanmar authorities briefed the team about the possible benefits they would likely get in the villages. After the Rohingyas return, each family will be given a house in the model village, land for agriculture, fertilizer, and seeds. The government will provide Rohingyas ‘with national verification cards (NVC)’ and within half a year would be able to travel outside Maungdaw Township. Hospitals, mosques, and playgrounds are being housed in the model villages, which were not present in Rohingya settlements in the past. The model village of Mangdu is much better than the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh in every possible way.
For those who will stay in the model village, each family will be allocated one acre of land for cultivation. Those families who wish to build their own homes can do so and the regime will pay for them. There will be no barbed wire fence around the villages. A Maungdaw official informed the team that Rohingya children will be allowed to study and go to Sittwe University. Most Rohingyas who are now living in Maungdaw, are working, and moving freely in Maungdaw city, the returnee will enjoy the same.
Response from the Rohingya
It is undeniable that this visit by the Rohingya team marks a new beginning of the Rohingya repatriation. Rohingya repatriation will largely depend on the voluntariness of the Rohingyas, and their confidence in security and equal rights as citizens of Myanmar. The purpose of the visit was to inspect infrastructure built in Rakhine’s Maungdaw Township with grants from the governments of Japan, India, and China for the repatriation and resettlement of refugees”. Regarding that, no member of the delegation team had any complaints.
Rohingya refugees, who have spent nearly six years living in overcrowded and squalid camps in Cox’s Bazar, have been hopeful of the scheme since it became public knowledge in March. Though their queries about security or recognition of their right to citizenship in Myanmar has not been answered. But the bilateral talks have just begun, so there is always room for bargaining as Rohingyas have international support. Soon a team from Myanmar would visit the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar to try and convince them to be repatriated.
Bangladesh and international concerned communities are optimistic about Rohingya repatriation this time. There was a need for a ‘pilot repatriation project’ to send back refugees where both countries have historical experience and references to repatriate Rohingyas. Through this initiative and China’s mediation, both countries can resolve the long-pending Rohingya crisis. As every refugee has an inalienable right to return to their place of origin and such returns must also be voluntary, this confidence-building measure will play a crucial role to encourage Rohingyas to return their home.
Erina Haque, Researcher, analyst and freelance contributor and columnist.
The issue of whether Rohingyas should return to their motherland Myanmar is a complex one, and the recent discussions about repatriation have sparked debate. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has registered approximately 1 million Rohingyas who are currently residing in Bangladesh. A pilot project to repatriate over 1,100 Rohingya refugees is currently in discussion, with both Bangladesh and Myanmar seeking to start the repatriation before the monsoon season, mediated by China. However, the Rohingyas’ return is contingent upon whether Myanmar provides an environment supportive of repatriation.
According to media reports, the Rohingyas did not see a supportive environment for repatriation when they visited Myanmar. Nevertheless, Bangladesh is optimistic about the possibility of Rohingya repatriation. The Bangladesh foreign ministry has stated that upon their return, each family will be given a house in the model village, land for agriculture, fertilizer, and seeds. The model village of Mangdu offers better living conditions than the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, with hospitals, mosques, and playgrounds being constructed for them. The Rohingyas will also have the opportunity to work and do business independently. Myanmar authorities have stated that Rohingyas returning from Bangladesh will be kept at the Maungdu transit center for only three days before being transferred directly to the model village. There, they will be issued National Verification Certificates (NVCs) as citizens of Myanmar, with the National Identity Card (NID) being issued in phases if they can show the necessary documents as residents of Myanmar.
During the visit, some members of the Rohingya delegation opposed the NVC and demanded resettlement in Janmvita instead of NID and Model Village. However, most of the members of the Bangladesh delegation accompanying the Rohingya expressed satisfaction with the environment. They claimed that the environment and situation in Rakhine were good, and the Rohingyas roamed freely in Maungdoo city, busy with work. Bangladesh’s Commissioner for Refugees, Relief, and Repatriation, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, said that the environment was very good and that they were optimistic about starting the repatriation process as soon as possible.
While it is important for Rohingyas to return to their own country, it is also important to ensure that their civil rights are not further violated. An entire population cannot live as refugees of another country for years, deprived of their natural civil rights. Rohingyas have the right to return to their own country, their land, and their homes, where they will work with full civil rights to build a better life and a better future for themselves and their children. The programme may be seen as a start of the long-overdue repatriation process, which may build confidence for future repatriation in greater numbers. However, it is crucial to remember that it is only the beginning. If the initiative is successful, more Rohingyas will follow and return to their ancestral home.
Over 80% of the refugees in Cox’s Bazar rely on external aid to survive. Every family gets a monthly food ration of Tk 1,030 per person. Rohingyas have repeatedly stated that running a family with this allocation is very difficult. The influx of refugees has also put immense pressure on the host communities and the environment in a densely populated country. The host communities in Cox’s Bazar are highly vulnerable and at high risk of hunger like the Rohingyas, according to a WFP report.
The Rohingya’s willingness to return to Myanmar is also a factor that must be considered. They may be afraid and unwilling to return if their rights will be violated further. Bangladesh will have to deal with this refugee crisis for potentially years to come, involving funding, administration, inclusive and equitable treatment of the refugees and host populations, and national security issues, among others.
Can the ‘pilot project’ that has been taken to resolve the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar provide any solution at all? This question is being voiced quite loudly now. Especially after the arrival of the delegation from Myanmar, there is no hope for the Rohingya repatriation in the light of what the Rohingyas have seen after going to Myanmar.
This ‘pilot project’ to take back the Rohingyas was basically accepted through the mediation of China. This is the third round of initiatives to repatriate Rohingyas.
In fact, the Rohingyas are expecting resettlement in their homeland Rakhine. If not, they are not interested in returning, will such an attitude solve the problem at all? Because of the Myanmar government where the Rohingya have been displaced. It is under pressure from China, but wants to take it back to Myanmar. In this case, both parties have to make concessions, isn’t this the case? Absolute satisfaction in such situations is indeed relative. The problem that is not being solved even today, is not possible in a very short time. In this case, it is necessary to make a concession on the part of the Rohingyas in the case of starting repatriation. Again, this repatriation should not be pushed to the death of Rohingyas as before, it must be ensured.
It is difficult for us to shelter this huge population for very long. Therefore, it is essential to find a permanent solution to this crisis through repatriation and rehabilitation. However, it should be done in a safe, voluntary, and dignified manner with the full participation and cooperation of the Rohingyas themselves. Any repatriation initiative must address the root causes of the crisis and ensure that Rohingyas can live safely and with full citizenship rights in their own country. Until then, the international community should continue to support Bangladesh in providing essential services and protection to the refugees while also pressing Myanmar to create a conducive environment for their safe return. The repatriation of Rohingyas is not only a moral obligation but also a necessary step for regional peace and stability.
Despite being granted asylum on humanitarian grounds, the Rohingyas are now a burden for Bangladesh. The amount of foreign aid that came in at the beginning has also decreased. Meanwhile, the Rohingyas are prohibited from going out of the camp, but it cannot be controlled. They came out of the camp and were arrested while trying to go abroad using fake NID, fake passport. There were also incidents of casualties in terrorist attacks in the camp. Basically, the fact that the Rohingyas are sheltered in this country does not show in their lifestyle. It is also not possible to allow them to merge into the mainstream. As such, we want honorable rehabilitation of Rohingyas. In this regard, the Myanmar government is not sincere, it cannot be said unilaterally. Again, the issue of exemption from the Rohingyas must be confirmed. For this reason, sending back 1 thousand 176 Rohingyas as a ‘pilot project’ can be seen as experimental. But in fact, the crisis of trust is emerging as a major problem in this regard.
Because in 2018, Bangladesh gave a list of 882 thousand Rohingya to Myanmar for repatriation. After verifying that list, Myanmar finalized a list of only 68,000 Rohingya and sent it back to Bangladesh. Therefore, the sincerity of the Myanmar government can be questioned. In this case, despite the limited number of Rohingyas that the Myanmar government wants to take back, diplomatically there is no opportunity to ignore this sincerity. Despite this, since a large number of Rohingyas will remain in Bangladesh, diplomatic efforts must be maintained to take back the rest step by step in the future. That’s why it is necessary to make sincere efforts of all parties to make this ‘pilot project’ successful at least in the first phase.
The tragic death of Michael McNeil of the Canadian Armed Forces has raised many questions. According to the news reports Warrant Officer Michael McNeil who suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) had committed suicide at the Canadian Forces Base Petawawa in Ontario. He was one of three Canadian soldiers to commit suicide this week.
McNeil had a distinguished military career. He joined the Canadian forces in October 1994 and served in Bosnia in 1998, Kosovo in 1999, and Afghanistan in 2009. His death is a tragedy that is filled with an irreplaceable void.
Annually significant numbers of soldiers commit suicide. Sadly Warrant Officer Michael McNeil became another victim of combat-related PTSD.
Military suicides are complex in nature. Often life stresses and ongoing battle stress could negatively affect the combatant. Lack of social, administrative, and professional support is seen as predisposing factors. Military suicide can occur as a sudden response following an acute stress reaction or it can be well-planned. Sometimes soldiers contemplate their suicides for a number of years.
World War 1 to Afghanistan
Combatants of WW1 faced extremely harsh conditions in the muddy and rat-infested trenches. The soldiers suffered physical and psychological consequences of the trench war. Estimated suicides during World War One still remain unknown. According to Military Historians, a large number of combatants committed suicide between 1914 to 1918. Depressed and physically worn-out soldiers took their lives inside the trenches. Trench suicides became common during WW1. Some suicides occurred after the demobilization. Captain Guy Nightingale was one of the WW1 soldiers who witnessed the horrors of the war in Gallipoli. He was haunted by combat-related reminiscences and in 1935 he took his own life. At the time of his death, Captain Guy Nightingale was 43 years old.
During World War 2 combat fatigue consumed thousands of soldiers. Many suicides in the battlefields were covered up on the Western as well as in the Eastern fronts. By the end of the War hundreds of German and Japanese soldiers committed suicide. The combat trauma of WW2 still echoes around the globe. The analysis of official death certificates on file at the California Department of Public Health reveals that 532 California veterans over age 80 committed suicide between 2005 and 2008 (Glantz, 2010).
Nearly 8,744,000 personnel were on active duty during the Vietnam War. The average age of 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. (Vietnam War Statistics) Since 1975, nearly three times as many Vietnam veterans have committed suicide than were killed in the war. Over 150,000 have committed suicide since the war ended. (Dean 2000). Kang (2010) indicates that the level of combat trauma as indirectly measured by having PTSD and being wounded in action was associated with the risk of suicide among Vietnam veterans.
Persian Gulf War veterans’ PTSD rates are similar to Vietnam and Iraq combat vets (Rubush, 2010) Studies examining the mental health of Persian Gulf War veterans have found that rates of PTSD stemming from this war range anywhere from about 9% to approximately 24%. These rates are fairly consistent with the rates of PTSD found among Vietnam veterans and Iraq War veterans. (Rubush,2012). The suicide rate has increased among American troops as numbers have reached nearly one per day in 2012, according to new Pentagon data. Based on the report over the first 155 days of 2012, 154 active-duty troops have committed suicide.
Military Suicides: Problem without a Solution
According to Dr. Charles P. McDowell of the US Air Force, military suicides had been viewed as an individual rather than a collective problem; therefore, they have been seen as a problem without a solution because the death of the victim precluded any possibility of a more favorable outcome. There may even have been some general sense that someone who attempted or committed suicide could not be a great loss to the service. In short, suicides within the military have historically been viewed as an individual problem rooted in the pathology of the victim and therefore beyond the control of command authorities. (Homicide and Suicide in the Military-Charles MC Dowell)
Suicides Triggered by Post-Combat Depression
The component of depression was evident to Dr. Mendez Da Costa who introduced the term Irritable heart during the US Civil War and Lt Col (Dr.) Fredric Mott coined the term Shell Shock during World War I. Depression is common among the combatants. The feeling of guilt and despair plays a major role in post-combat depression. Post-combat depression is evident among some combatants who were exposed to traumatic battle events. Apart from common depressive signs, Post Combat Depression is usually characterized by unresolved mental conflicts, survival guilt, negative interpretation of combat events, and a pessimistic outlook on the post-combat environment (Jayatunge 2010).
Depression is a mood disorder in which pathological moods and related vegetative and psychomotor disturbances dominate the clinical picture. Post combat depression is described as a group of symptoms such as anhedonia (feeling of sadness and loss of ability to experience pleasure) low energy, decreased libido, reduced life interests, somatic pain, alienation, numbing, self-blame and survival guilt that is experienced by combat soldiers after exposing to traumatic battle events. Depression causes a disturbance in a soldier’s feelings and emotions. They may experience such extreme emotional pain that they consider or attempt suicide.
Soldiers could suffer from depression as a result of survival guilt, collateral damage to the civilians and constantly living in a socially deprived environment. Many soldiers become desolated about their lives and tend to have nostalgic feelings. They gradually shift away from rational reasoning and find death as an answer to their agonizing problems. Social isolation, moving away from their buddies, and lack of unit help and cohesion aggravate the situation leading the soldier to commit suicide.
Suicides and Combat-Related PTSD
Studies have shown that PTSD could be a disabling condition that affects war veterans. Norris et al. (2002) indicate that Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) represents a common, if not the most prevalent, mental health problem in community studies in post-conflict areas. Numerous researches indicate that there is a correlation between combat trauma and suicidal behaviors (Knox, 2008). Studies suggest that suicide risk is higher in persons with PTSD (Ferrada, Asberg, ., Ormstad, & Lundin 1998). Many researchers believe that disturbing symptoms of PTSD increase the suicide risk and others are of the view that comorbid psychiatric symptoms that are associated with PTSD drive the victims to commit suicide. Studies estimated that patients suffering from PTSD have up to a seven-fold increased incidence of suicide, and a four-fold increased risk of death from all external sources (Bullman &Kang, 1994).
Preventing Military Suicides
Military suicides denote the unproductive way of managing the soldiers during the war and in the post-combat era. It is the duty of the military organization to prevent suicides and self-harm among the soldiers. Suicides do not occur in a vacuum and sometimes soldiers plan their suicides for months and in some instances for years. Many victims show suicide warning signs prior to their fatal acts. The unit members and the unit leaders should be trained and educated about suicide warning signs.
Combat trauma can cause depression and anxiety-related ailments and often the victims are overwhelmed by stress and could become psychologically vulnerable. As a result of these complications, a combatant could think of suicide as the final solution. Therefore combat stress reactions should be detected effectively and extensive screening and potential case identification would be important to prevent suicides in the military.
War trauma is not specific to ranks and it could affect soldiers as well as the officers. The stigmatization of mental health issues is a debilitating problem in the treatment of traumatized war veterans. Sometimes stigma and discrimination prevent combatants to seek psychological help. Therefore de-stigmatization and health education are key components in preventing suicides in the military.
Special attention should be given to the combatants with a past history of hazardous combat exposure and if any signs of PTSD or Depression emerge they should be referred for medical treatment. The health staff should actively screen for potential victims and offer support with respect and empathy.
References
Bullman, T. A., & Kang, H. K. (1994). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and the Risk of Traumatic Deaths Among Vietnam Veterans. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 182(1), 604-610.
Dean, C. (2000). Nam Vet : Making Peace with Your Past Wordsmith Publishing.
Ferrada-Noli, M., Asberg, M., Ormstad, K., Lundin, T., & Sundbom, E. (1998). Suicidal behavior after severe trauma. Part 1: PTSD diagnoses, psychiatric comorbidity and assessment of suicidal behavior. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 11, 103-112.
Glantz, A. (2010). Older veterans twice as likely to take their own lives as those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bay Citizen.
Norris, FH, Friedman MJ, Watsan PJ, Byrne CM, Diaz E, Kaniasty K. 60,000 disaster victims speak: Part 1. An empirical review of the empirical literature, 1981–2001. Psychiatry. 2002;65:207 –2239.
MC Dowell , C. Homicide and Suicide in the Military
Rothberg JM, Rock NL, Del Jones F. (1984). Suicide in United States Army personnel, 1981–1982. Mil Med ;149(10):537-541.
Belgium is expected to officially recognise Buddhism after the federal government approves a draft Law on March 17, opening the door to federal funding, official delegates, and school classes.
The Belgian Buddhist Union had requested recognition in March 2006. The union estimates the number of Buddhists in Belgium at 150,000. The only other EU country where Buddhism is recognised is Austria.
There are currently six worship services officially recognised in Belgium: the Roman Catholic, the Orthodox, the Israelite, the Anglican, the Protestant Evangelical and the Islamic, recognised in 1974.
Buddhism would be recognised as “a non-denominational philosophical organization” alongside organised secularism, recognised since 2002. It would receive federal funding of up to €1.2 million.
Once voted by the Parliament, the Law will pave the way to the creation of local institutions, to the sending of Buddhist delegates in ports and airports, in prisons, in the army, hospitals, the opening of Buddhism courses in official education alongside teaching of the other worships services.
All Belgian provinces and the Brussels Region would then also have to each finance a local Buddhist centre.
‘Political parties could have used this year’s May Day to emphasize the gravity of the situation thereby preparing the population to face the deepening crisis.
Instead, all of them engaged in meaningless rhetoric……such useless propaganda receivedprimetime television coverage as well as coverage by Sinhala, Tamil & English print media.’– former General Secretary of the Communist Party, DEW Gunasekera (See: eeRandom Notes, for more)
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Even the most vicious snakes moult their skin quite often. But not the corporate media. Well-bribed by their multinational corporate sponsors, led by Unilever, Ceylon Tobacco Co, CIC-ICI, Standard Chartered, etc., they see no need to renew the country. Yet they preen themselves in constant claims to ‘newer’, ‘diverse’, inclusive’, etc. The media’s job is to trivialize or ignore what is vital, and highlight what is paltry. They claim to be whiter than white and love to point fingers at politicians (who usually wear ‘national’ & are ‘corrupt’ – though the media never call their corporate sponsors such names). Or highlight the petty crimes of working-class criminals (usually given Sinhala monikers, Makandure Madush etc). Despite the whiteout, there are those who would still attempt to discuss the roots of our disquiet. Yet, their words never obtain repetition and saturation in broadcast media. Meanwhile, all of them are totally prevented from examining one tap root: the prevention of modern industrialization.
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‘Special Loan Conditions on Upper Kotmale Hydropower Project (UKHP):
1) 50% of goods & services from Japan;
2) All main & subcontractors from Japan;
3) Consultants should be from Japan’
– ee Industry, Wimalasurendra Memorial Lecture 2022
Such ‘loan conditions’ are demanded not just by Japan. It’s part of the imperialist game of keeping us underdeveloped. ee was directed this week to examine the 1935 Report of the Technical Advisor on Industries in English-colonized Ceylon. He (KD Guha) noted how in India every Province already had a Department of Industries by 1935 (due to being ‘rudely shocked’ by world war & depression). Yet in Ceylon, despite ‘the bitter experience of Ceylon in recent years as purely an agricultural country’, all that was allowed over the previous 2 decades had been an overabundance of ‘mere speculation’ on the need for industrialization. He noted how in India, the Department of Industries had to battle the Department of Education to take control of Technical & Industrial Education (so today in 2023 India’s Institute of Technology or IIT is a leading institution in machined modernity).
The 1935 report records drawbacks (in Bengal then, as) similar to developing a modern producer culture in Ceylon, which still apply to us almost 100 years later: ‘An absence of familiarity’, ‘want of zeal’, ‘lack of technical knowledge’, ‘want of necessary tools & appropriate machinery’, ‘lack of necessary funds for developing cottage industries and saving cottage workers from the clutches of the middlemen’, ‘ignorance of market conditions’, and ‘lack of advertisement’.
Well, as to ‘lack of advertisement’ of our real needs, we can very well ask Unilever, who controls the propaganda (aka public relations or PR) machinery (which was behind the recent ‘Aragalaya’) in Sri Lanka (and has captured our home market!).
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• Which brings us to this tiny gem found midst the mountain of doo-doo that is the English media in Sri Lanka today. Within a mistitled excerpt from A Cabinet Secretary’s Memoirs by BP Peiris – ‘Writing the Soulbury Constitution’ – we learn of the stenographic ‘native’ copyeditors of the English dictat to inscribe a body of useless principles that would prevent our economic transformation at ‘independence’. Note the reference to 19th century comprador families, English universities, and Colombo clubs, where all the so-called ‘separations ofpowers’ between executive, judiciary, legislature and raw capitalist cravings vaporize in a tipple of alcohol:
‘PC Villavarayan – Classics man from Oxford; HNG Fernando – Oxford & Orient Club;
BP Peiris – No Clubs; Abeysundera – One-time Private Secretary to DS;
S Namasivayam – Oxford, Grandson of Arunachalam;
Fred de Silva – Son of George de Silva, Member, State Council;
A Mahadeva – Grandson of Ramanathan;
The fact that I was drafting the Constitution was kept secret by my colleagues…
The Ministers’ Draft, which had been prepared by Sir Ivor Jennings,
was in a most confusing form as a draft and,
although it contained all the essential points, had to be entirely redrafted.’
– ee Politics, Writing the Soulbury Constitution.
Such hubris! All those essential points by ‘Sir Aiyo!’, serving to maintain English political, military & economic interference in the country to this day, were dictated by England’s Foreign Office!
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• This ee covers the continued US destabilization of Asia & Africa. The 14 May elections in Thailand offer a template of what is in store for Sri Lanka. In SL elections have been postponed while there is blatant auctioning of public resources (under the guise of SoE restructuring) to pay for the upcoming buy-off of politicians. As one observer points out (ee Workers), the IMF is only concerned about corruption by the empire’s enemies, than political and economic repression of the masses.
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• Nazis & Fascists of Europe always saw the genocidal white settlers of the Americas, Africa and the Pacific, as their ‘older brothers’ (no ‘sisters’ are mentioned but they no doubt ‘intersect’). So, it is no surprise that Europe is so easily capitulating to US control of their politics and economy. At the same time the Nazi (& ZioNazi) grip over US & Canadian political power grows even more dire and shrill.
For those taken in by the fake claims of DIE (Diversity, Inclusion, Equality), former US ambassador Charles Freeman explains exactly what defines a ‘European’ (White, Christian & Docile). Hungary PM Viktor Orban exposes the US war as cover for the US to cut Europe off from Russia and China, to set up a new architecture of power in Europe – this is no Polish joke! (See ee Random Notes)
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• This ee covers SBD de Silva’s charting of the retardation of the growth of indigenous industrial capital – as evident in the post-1977 sabotage of an indigenous textile & garment industry (when it had features of real industry) leading to the rise of the fakers (Brandix, MAS), which mirrored the multinational capture of Singapore’s garment industry. He also noted the rise in imports due to so-called ‘access’ to export markets. (ee Focus, Political Economy)
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• England’s Pre-emptive Judicial Tricks – There’s an ongoing suit in Scotland by over 1,000 injured tea workers employed by James Finlay and Unilever in Kenya. Finlay insists Scottish courts have no authority to preside over the case [and] that letting Scottish courts determine the class action suit would be a direct attack on Kenya’s sovereignty! Workers argue that policy is made at the multinational’s registered parent company in Scotland [and] the ultimate beneficiary of the profits derived from labour rights violations are domiciled in Scotland’. What may interest Sri Lankans is that these injuries are also linked to Finlay’s ‘mechanical harvesting department, with a 9-year-old boy decapitated by a tea-plucking machine at a 100-year-old James Finlay tea estate. Tea plantations have refused to mechanize production in Sri Lanka, relying on its over-150-year methods of labor-intensive musculoskeletal movements. Though no such law suits appear to have been launched from here. As to how these plantations were built on land stolen from Sri Lankans, see Random Notes. The story also refers to a recent BBC documentary of sexual abuse of workers by Unilever management in Kenya. The issue for us is that Unilever is BBC and BBC is Unilever. So what tricks are the English up to now? (ee Focus, Kenya)
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• This week saw ‘Sri Lankan firm’ Browns Investment buy into aforementioned multinational tea firm James Finlay Kenya. Also, Swiss multinational Nestle, which monopolizes milk production in Sri Lanka, declared itself a private company. Nestle claims that the ‘company manufactures over 90% of its products sold in Sri Lanka locally at their state-of-the-art factory in Kurunegala’.
Further, England’s Unilever claimed to ‘get more Sri Lanka-rooted’ by setting up a malted beverage plant in Sapugaskanda. Again, the media provides no details on where their machinery and chemistries come from, nor how much imports are required. Then, we get the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Delegation of German Industry & Commerce (AHK SL) together with the Export Development Board (EDB, which has a German offficial housed within its offices) organizing an ‘awareness program on German Act on Corporate Due Diligence in Supply Chains.’ This ‘diligence’ will then insist that local production does not meet their high ‘green’ standards, and we must only use their machinery!
One must ask how prepared Manila is to weather potential economic reprisals, especially from Beijing.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and US President Joe Biden walk to the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC. Photo: Twitter / Screengrab / Pool
As US-China rivalry intensifies, pressure on allies and partners grows. Strategic access in return for economic concessions or security assistance plays out in the Indo-Pacific region. Cases abound, from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines to the Marshall Islands and the Solomons.
Rational countries weigh in on the risks, push back or drive hard bargains as they – willingly or reluctantly – accommodate great-power interests. The pace at which such development is unfolding makes the Philippine case instructive.
Despite a new government in Manila barely a year in office, the shift from striking a balance between the US and China to openly taking the US line has become manifest. The Philippine-US alliance is in high-octane mode.
Four new sites for US military access have been granted. One of the biggest iterations of annual joint military exercises was just concluded. The two sides are discussing plans to conduct joint naval maneuvers in the South China Sea.
Manila is being looped into the thickening web of hub-and-spoke trilaterals (US-Japan-Philippines, US-Australia-Philippines), as well as US-led minilaterals like the Quad and AUKUS.
Marcos in Washington
On the third day of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s second visit to the US, new bilateral defense guidelines were issued. Indeed, the alliance has evolved rapidly.
The revival of the alliance under Marcos is a sea change from rocky times during the previous Rodrigo Duterte government. Possible irritants like human rights, ill-gotten wealth, and lawsuits faced by the Marcos family in US courts are unlikely to unsettle ties.
This leads to speculations of a quid pro quo between Marcos and the US. It highlights how personal and filial interests can influence foreign-policy swings for a crucial country on the front line of geopolitical flux.
Washington seems poised to insulate renewed relations from these issues lest access to Philippine military sites gets compromised. It is a déjà vu of how US dealt with the president’s father, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr, decades ago.
Under the second Marcos administration, not only is the alliance reborn, it is breaking new ground. For the first time since the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) was signed in 2014, the US was given access to a Philippine naval base. Renewable every 10 years, EDCA allows the US to deploy troops rotationally and pre-position supplies in agreed locations throughout the country.
Broadening US presence
Four new sites were added to the existing five. The locations of these are telling. Three – a naval base, an army base, and a civilian airport – are in northern Luzon, close to Taiwan, and can be quickly activated to respond to a cross-Strait contingency.
In contrast, the fourth one on Balabac Island does not have infrastructure that can immediately bear on the South China Sea, Manila’s primary security concern. A lush island far from the country’s outposts in Kalayaan, it has more value in monitoring maritime traffic crisscrossing the West Philippine and Sulu Seas.
Developing the naval detachment in Ulugan Bay, closer to the oil-and-gas-rich Recto Bank, might have been more sensible in enhancing Manila’s posture in the flashpoint.
The US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019. Hence the use of such armaments as Patriot and Avenger missiles and HIMARS rockets in annual war games raises suspicions that they may eventually be installed in EDCA sites.
China deployed missiles in the Spratlys in 2018, and Manila, in response, aims to field a BrahMos battery this year. The stationing of US missiles in EDCA bases may thus worryingly elicit a Chinese reply. More toys in an already crowded pond may only raise the specter of accidents.
Where the additional EDCA sites are situated, and the choice of recent Balikatan exercise areas (which includes Batanes and Cagayan close to Taiwan), reflect an accommodation of US priorities.
The pretext of boosting the capacity to react to disasters is doubtful. If humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) is the priority, southern Luzon or eastern Visayas should have been more appropriate as these regions are at the forefront of ever stronger typhoons coming from the Pacific due to climate change. At the very least, one should have been put in either area to make the HADR pitch more tenable.
It is also doubtful how greater military access will address China’s gray-zone activities in the South China Sea and whether other claimants will be amenable to joint patrols in contested waters. Manila is not the only target of Beijing’s incursions in the strategic waterway. But other disputants are able to push back and even make headway.
Vietnam, with no foreign troops, no foreign bases, and no alliances, was able to occupy and control the most number of features in the Spratlys – more than the combined rocks, reefs and submerged banks held by the Philippines, China, Malaysia and Taiwan.
While Beijing’s Great Wall of Sand got much attention, Hanoi’s modest reclamation attracted less attention. While China’s unilateral fishing bans invite protests from other littoral states, Vietnamese – not Chinese – fishermen remain the most frequent poachers in the Philippines’ western exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
In 2016 and 2017, out of humanitarian considerations, former leader Rodrigo Duterte personally sent off two batches of Vietnamese fishermen caught in the country’s waters.
Costs vs benefits
This raises the question of whether EDCA expansion is an effective calibrated response to Philippines’ major external security challenge and whether the costs and risks attendant to it outweigh the expected gains.
EDCA expansion stoked fears among concerned local leaders and legislators that the Philippines might be drawn into a superpower clash over Taiwan. Marcos allayed such fears, saying that the country’s bases would not be used for offensive purposes or serve as staging posts for action against another country.
He also reassured Beijing, meeting with Foreign Minister Qin Gang a week before his trip to Washington. Marcos is in a difficult spot, hoping to soothe persistent domestic and regional concerns but not wanting overly to constrain the use of EDCA sites lest it diminish their supposed deterrent value.
And while much focus was given to defense, one must ask how prepared Manila is to weather potential economic reprisals. This is especially so if China imposes sanctions in response to US missile deployment in new EDCA sites.
America’s oldest Asian ally is not only the most militarily disadvantaged in the South China Sea, it is also the most economically vulnerable in the First Island Chain. How can a country be so gung-ho on security issues and be a laggard in cornering trade and capital flows redirected to Southeast Asia?
While endorsing the Quad and AUKUS, the Philippines was the last member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (other than war-torn Myanmar) to ratify the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and has yet to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
If Manila wants the US and the international community to be invested in its security, it has to climb up the value chain. It should wisely leverage the alliance to this end.
If Taiwan has the Silicon Shield and Vietnam is the rising manufacturing powerhouse, the Philippines cannot just have call centers and strategic real estate. It should play its cards well to turn a crisis into an opportunity.
P. Sainath and Karan Thapar discuss the steady decline of press freedom in India for almost 20 years.
P. Sainath, one of India’s outstanding journalists and a winner of the Magsaysay Award, says India’s collapse in the Reporters Sans Frontiers World Press Freedom Index to 161 out of 180 countries is extremely embarrassing but only for those possessed of a sense of shame”. In the index released last week, India is 11 places below Pakistan (which is at 150) and 26 places below Sri Lanka (which is at 135). Worse, India is just 19 places above North Korea, arguably the world’s worst dictatorship.
However, the sad truth is that India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index has been steadily falling since 2005. It was 106 in that year. By the time the UPA regime ended, it was already down to 140. Now, under Narendra Modi, not only has India’s position fallen for four consecutive years but its sunk a further 21 places to 161. So, clearly, press freedom in India has been steadily declining for almost 20 years. This is the big issue discussed with Sainath in a 39-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire.
Mass Media Minister Bandula Gunawardana bemoaned yesterday saying that the local media failed to give due attention to highlight the ferocity and savagery of the acts of terrorism staged under the guise of the so-called ‘Aragalaya’ on May 9, 2022 targeting the SLPP.
It was solely a barbaric attack unleashed on the then government and its leaders by a politically motivated group of hooligans. During the attack, they brutally killed a parliamentarian, set fire to private houses and assets of 72 SLPP government politicians and did bodily harm to 800 SLPP supporters. The preplanned violence was not something done spontaneously. They were monitored and organized by those who have experience in staging this kind of acts of terrorism similar to the reign of terror staged in 1989 – 90 period. But sadly, the media’s role in underscoring the inhuman nature of these atrocities is not satisfactory notwithstanding the fact that the media is the fourth estate or the pillar of democracy,” Minister Dr. Gunawardana said.
If the extreme left thugs won on May 9th last year, it would have been the end of not only the democracy but the media too in this country, Minister Dr. Gunawardana emphasized.
The attack that targeted politicians was barbaric, inhuman and beastly and marked one of the darkest days of Sri Lanka’s history. No any other country in the world has experienced something like this. Those who did it also wanted to destroy Parliament and put an end to participatory democracy but failed to do it thankful to the armed forces. Those who launched the acts of terrorism on May 9, 2022 attempted to grab power because they know that they can never come to power through an election, Minister Dr. Gunawardana noted.
Making a statement to mark the ‘World Press Freedom Day’ Minister Dr. Gunawarnada said the government has given full freedom to the media even to attack the government fairly or unfairly. Pics: Minister Gunawardana. (Sandun A Jayasekera)
If you are a certain age, the phrase artificial intelligence” will almost certainly bring up one specific mental image: the T-1000, a regenerating robot sent back in time to 1995 by Skynet to kill the future of the human resistance John Connor.
Just about anyone who was a teenager in the 1990s will remember with a mixture of joy and horror the central conceit of the Terminator movies – that once computers have achieved consciousness, they will come for us mere flesh and blood mortals.
It’s fair to say that since ChatGPT hit the headlines in late Autumn – and I started to have a tinker with what it could and couldn’t do (and found it could do a lot) – the capabilities of Arnie and the gang have been close to the front of my mind.
Then this week came the news that the father of AI”, the scientist Geoffrey Hinton, had resigned from Google so he could speak freely about how worried he was about what would happen once the AI bots were cleverer than humans.
Outlining the horrifying potential impact his discoveries could have, and the millions of jobs that would be rendered redundant, Hinton said he was now terrified by the impact of his own work.
The Turing Prize-winner is not alone. A few weeks ago, several of the world’s most successful tech entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, wrote a letter calling for an immediate pause on the development of AI while society attempts to get a handle on what it has invented. But they may as well have been shouting into a void for all the good it did in terms of governmental policy.
We appear to have arrived in the opening scenes of a clever sci-fi film, in which normal people go about their daily business oblivious to the horror that is about to overwhelm them.
I’m not just saying that: recent polling supports this assessment too.
A major survey carried out last month by Public First, where I am a director, found that the great British public simply does not share my terror.
When we asked people what words would best describe their feelings toward AI, the words curious” (46 per cent) and interested” (42 per cent) scored top. Meanwhile, just 17 per cent described themselves as scared.” And, as it stands, currently, more people describe AI as providing an opportunity for the UK economy (33 per cent) than posing a threat (19 per cent).
It is possible of course that the public is just slightly behind the story, and they’ll soon catch up with the likelihood that AI is rather less handy-internet-shopping-helper”, and rather more terrifying-future-robot-overlord”, but I’d rather our political masters didn’t take the risk and started actually warning people of the dangers we face.
At the very least, surely we need an informed national debate about these new technological advances and how humans ought to respond?
Someone much funnier than me explained recently that he gets his kids to say please” and thank you” to Alexa because once the internet bots rule the world, they’ll remember who was rude to them”. This is wisdom, for sure.
We could all do with learning from my friend, and start treating our internet servants with respect. Unlike most of the British population, we need to be aware that the rise of the robots is happening all around us – before it’s too late.
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Location. Location. Location is reason why Sri Lanka is being earmarked to end in pieces on the guise of peace. Unfortunately, we have not had astute leaders or advisors to sail Sri Lanka out of muddy waters. Instead we are kept eternally firefighting with politicians happy to survive on petty political gains. We proved we can fight wars with terrorists but we have failed to identify the enemies bearing gifts in the form of cultural-diplomatic-relations-economic pacts etc as well as the enemies within. We have failed to see the larger geopolitical terrain to understand the bigger objectives at play. As the world’s power players compete to acquire resources & gain geopolitical control of choke points that control the land, seas & air, we have failed to take advantage of their aspirations to fulfill our national goals.
A noteworthy aspect of every terrorist movement is the underlying religious element to it. All of the global jihadi terrorists sustain their base using religion warped to manipulate the followers. LTTE had the Church, religious NGOs backing it though the majority of its combatants were Hindu. The ceremonial aspects, their burials, rituals etc were all non-Hindu. At no point did India come forward to save the Hindus from becoming victims of Church-led LTTE manipulations, when it could have. Why did India not show concern for Hindus then?
This was the scenario pre-LTTE defeat. Post-LTTE, India is playing a bigger role across Sri Lanka, while US & allies are making more strategic advances using the UN apparatus to subtly change Sri Lanka’s state administrative apparatus with politicians & policy advisors simply looking on. So the challenges Sri Lanka face are many confounded by the dummy attitude & actions of Sri Lanka’s leaders including the State admin apparatus.
The new religious aspect to the scenario emerging in North & East of Sri Lanka should be a cause for concern in particular how key departmental heads frequently visiting India are permitting a new form of history to be re-written & agreeing to a mythical Ramayana trail as well as the placement of the Siva Lingam across all 25 districts of Sri Lanka. These developments tie to Panikkar’s Doctrine (the Bible of Indian Foreign Policy). The Panikkar doctrine follows the naval doctrine combined with Kautilya’s Arthashashtra & Mandal theory ‘your neighbor is your natural enemy’. Indira Gandhi did what Kautilya did – craftily creating a war”. Kautilya in Patiliputra & Indira Gandhi in Sri Lanka.
According to Native Indians the white man spoke with a forked tongue, implying that they meant they did not say & they said what they did not mean. We get the same mixed signals from Indian politicians & their policies. On the one hand, speeches & overtures of friendships & historical links abound but Sri Lanka experiences no shortage of political landmines, the result of which leads to Sri Lankans distrusting Indian policies.
At no point since Independence has Sri Lanka by its policies put India’s national security under threat. In fact, if India looks back, it is Indian policies that have made India’s borders vulnerable. All of the Western poodles that came to help LTTE are now subtly spreading wings to Tamil Nadu & influencing geopolitics as part of Western agenda to eventually balkanize India. Is this why India is in a hurry to annex Sri Lanka to prevent being balkanized?
While different schools of thought assume India was manipulated to train Tamil militancy, what cannot be denied is how India took advantage to draft the Indo-Lanka Accord to its advantage & the clauses clearly point out to securing advantage to India & not the Eelam cause. When LTTE killed an Indian Prime Minister, we expected India to eliminate the LTTE, but that didn’t happen, instead India helped draft the 2002 infamous ceasefire agreement & courted the TNA that LTTE created. India did not object when TNA manifestos of 2001 & 2004 openly declared LTTE to be the sole representative of the Tamils. Ironically, India claims to be the godparents of Tamils while LTTE became their sole representative. Political correctness practiced only by our politicians stopped asking the questions that would have put an end to the charade behind bogus Tamil Nation & Homeland as well as the fictitious genocide & war crimes claims. By India’s silence on TNA, it only showcased India was not on the side of truth but was playing politics to wrest bigger control pretending to be savior of Tamils & riding on the TNA bogey. How can India ask Sri Lanka to devolve powers to Tamils so they could live with ‘respect & dignity” & then vote against Sri Lanka at UNHRC? Sri Lanka defeated terrorists & we do not need to beg for applauses by those that stood in the way of victory.
Though Buddha was born in now Nepal, we are made to feel indebted to India, in fact Prime Minister Modi recently held an International Buddhist summit & takes pains to present the notion that he upholds the teachings of Buddha. That maybe, but does he know elements of Indian intel & elements from radical Hindu sects are aligning with separatist Tamil politicians in Sri Lanka to target Buddhist heritage & archaeological sites & forcibly take them over influencing even law & order & legal apparatus. We can recall how Indian intel sided with LTTE against its own Indian army resulting in scores of Indian army deaths at the hands of the LTTE. The memoirs of former IPKF heads clearly shows this duplicity. Therefore, if PM Modi is sincere about Buddhism, he must take immediate action against these elements who are now going overboard in their actions using Hindu faith to start a new religious terror. We have had all forms of terror, we do not wish to have a new religious form of terror among two communities that have lived in harmony for centuries. This message must be clearly articulated by Sri Lankan Buddhists & Sri Lankan Hindus to PM Modi & the Indian Hindu elements at play in Sri Lanka. The current incursions violate the Shared-Buddhist Heritage” agreement signed by India in 2020.
Kautilya or Chanakya was the advisor to King Chandragupta. His book Arthasastra” advocated a 6-fold crafty policy to interact with neighbors. The Panikkar Doctrine propagated by Indian diplomat K M Panikkar forms the basis of Indian diplomacy & Indian Foreign Service. Panikkar wanted Sri Lanka to become an integral part of India’s defense structure. How many in Sri Lanka’s Govt, foreign service or advisors know of this? What is the doctrine the Sri Lankan diplomats & politicians follow to safeguard Sri Lanka? We could have picked from Kautilya’s own words Your neighbor is your natural enemy and the neighbor’s neighbor is your friend”– but have we? Where are our alternate alliances?
Prime Minister Modi is weathering India well, balancing being part of US-led QUAD while also cementing strong bonds with BRICS nations aligned with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil etc that would change the course of geopolitics in time to come. Sri Lanka is behaving like the proverbial ostrich!.
Ryp Van Winkle ( Sunday Times) wrote to JR Jayewardene in February 2023. My dear JR, I thought I must write to you, though it has been over a quarter of a century since you left us, because your name is being mentioned frequently these days. That is after your nephew began doing the job you did 45 years ago. What we have now realized is that his actions are very similar to yours”, said Ryp Van Winkle.
Your nephew seems to have learnt so much from you in his 45-year apprenticeship for the top job. In just a few months, he has shown us that whatever you did, he can do better. With him in charge, it feels as if you never left us! For example, there was the time when you sent a grim message to workers who staged strikes, sacking 40,000 of them in July ’80. Your nephew hasn’t sacked anyone yet, but he deals sternly with any protest, water cannons and all, concluded Ryp Van Winkle.
Daily News cartoon 25.7.2022
The election of 1977 was a landmark election, following the election of 1956. It marked a critical stage in the history of Sri Lanka, bringing with it many changes in the political and economic sectors. But these changes were not for the good of the country and JR became increasingly unpopular.
JR contested the Presidential election of 1982. He won with 52.9% of votes cast but only 42.3% of the votes in the register. Kobbekaduwa got over 39% of the votes. That was good, said Vittachi. The strong showing of Kobbekaduwa came as a shock to JR, said Sarath Amunugama.
Then came Black July 1983. Esmond Wickremasinghe had told Sarath Amunugama that JR never anticipated that this would spiral out of control. Cyril Matthew had overstepped his brief, complained JR. JR was scared of a violent overthrow of his regime, that was why he did not address the nation immediately and stop the violence , said Esmond .
JR lost popularity when he signed the Indo –Lanka Accord (1987). Sarath Amunugama was there at the signing. The whole of Colombo was shut down and there was an eerie silence in President’s office area. Area was strongly guarded. As soon as the Accord was signed, two Indian destroyers steamed into Colombo harbor said Sarath. Before the ink was dry on the Accord, 3000 Indian troops had landed in Jaffna including several Generals who outranked Brigadier Silva. There were Indian warships in the sea, added Vittachi.
A few hours before, a large contingent of protesters led by bhikkhus and the SLFP had staged a silent protest at Fort railway station. Violence was unleashed by UNP goons against them. About a dozen protesters were killed. There were reports that gangs of protestors were approaching Colombo city from the suburbs. JR was worried though he looked unfazed, said Sarath Amunugama.
JR Jayewardene is also remembered with contempt as the person who got the 13th Amendment accepted in Parliament. The Amendment was passé with 2/3 majority. MPs were taken by bus with an armed escort to Parliament and back to a heavily guarded hotel in Colombo. There was strong opposition to this Accord and there were many killings. UNP MPs such as de Silva of Habaraduwa and Tikiri Banda of Galagedara as well as many UNP party officials were killed.
JR began to fear a military coup, said Sarath. JVP burned down JR’s holiday home at Mirissa in late 1980s. Media said that the two persons who were to propose JR’s name to the UNP working committee, for the third round, Keerthinanda and Lionel Jayatilleke, were killed and JR backed down out of fear for his own life. JR did not attempt a third bout as President. JR’s term as President ended in January 1989. He died in 1996.
JR was to spend his last days with his reputation in tatters and ignored by the UNP which he had had done much to build. Only Japan remembered him for his intervention in San Francisco, said Sarath Amunugama. SWRD is still remembered on his birthday, but JR is not, he observed. JR has drawn the most criticism concluded Sarath. In 2023, JR was criticized at the May Day rally of the Uttara Lanka Saubhagya.
In 2010 Island newspaper ran a letter praising JR. There came a reply listing all the wrong things JR had done including taking Mudu Katuwa estate, the best coconut estate in the country, for himself. (Island 19.5.10 p 9)
Can JR be considered a traitor after Vadamarachchi asked Izeth Hussain writing in 2015. His nationalism has always been suspect; He was known as Yankee Dickie. ‘There are Sri Lankans who believed that in reality he hated the Sinhalese. The problem is really JR he hates the people of this country and therefore he can only bring disaster to the country, they said. Sir John had said that JR wants to be PM and when he does so ‘he will destroy the country’, recalled Hussein.
JR brazenly amended and manipulated the Constitution. Sam Wijesinha Secretary General of Parliament said that he had advised the Speaker not to allow something that JR wanted. JR had told him, ‘If you had not been here, I would have got away with it.’
JR was not prepared to tolerate any opposition. He did not allow Premadasa to function on his behalf as acting President. He obtained undated letters of resignation from all his MPs other than from S. Thondaman of the Ceylon Workers Congress . He engineered the Rajadurai Amendment that allowed MPs from the Opposition to join the government but not the other way about. He arrested radical leftists of the NLSSP and CP.
JR was intent on silencing all dissent and criticism from whatever source. In 1982, the chief monk of Getambe temple had called JR a traitor. The government temporarily acquired the temple land and barbed wired it, reported Vittachi.
JR did not hesitate to use violence. His major domo for this was Cyril Mathew who was the boss of the UNP trade unions. Mathew proceeded to staff his numerous boards with violence prone unionists who in turn packed the unions with working class stalwarts. When his plans met with organized resistance JR turned to Mathew and used thuggish trade unions under Mathew to attack his opponents. JR was behind the attacks on persons like Sarachchandra.
JR” ushered in political, economic and electoral changes that utterly changed Sri Lanka. Whether this change has made Sri Lanka better or worse remains debatable said DBS Jeyaraj remembering JR on his birthday in 2022. The changes he brought about in Sri Lanka remain unchanged.
Rajiva Wijesinha (2021) spoke of JR’s destructive contribution, his willingness to encourage exploitation of our resources with little benefit to the country, economic mismanagement based on unthinking commitment to capitalism and reliance on trickledown effect, a cavalier approach to constitution making . The destruction of CTB caused disarray in transport. I was eye witness to the CTB debacle as I was a transport executive at the time, said a reader in a letter to me.
JR set in motion the wave of political and economic corruption which is operating in the country today, said critics. Political interference by police, thuggery by government MPs, law breaking by police to curry favour with government, became features in JR time, said Vittachi. .JR concentrated power in his hands and allowed ministers to make money. This is the system that has prevailed thereafter, said Victor Ivan. Data on the establishment of liquor bars in Sri Lanka starting from 1926 showed that many had been issued in the period 1977-1997.
Today JR is remembered angrily whenever anything goes wrong in Sri Lanka. .When Sri Lanka entered its present financial crisis, JR was blamed. Sri Lanka was till 1977 a country that was not in debt. How did a country that had no foreign debt degenerate to have a foreign debt of $ 56 billion, within the five decades, from 1978 to today asked one critic. JR was cause, said a retired senior officer of the Central Bank.
Sri Lanka became a debt ridden country when from 1978 she followed the IMF teachings to be liberal in spending foreign exchange, allow imports freely and when the expenses exceeded the available foreign exchange, was advised to borrow and continue spending, said Garvin Karunaratne.
While our country seems to have had IMF agreements since about 1965, Sri Lanka’s most unproductive IMF period started with the UNP’s landslide victory in 1977, when the UNP government decided to “liberalize” the economy in true capitalist mode and invited IMF to dictate economic policy, continued critics. The IMF abolished many development programmes in 1978.
IMF gave loans freely on condition that Sri Lanka follows neoliberal economics and allowed the rich to spend foreign funds that the country had obtained as loans. In 1978, the IMF even gave grace periods, when Sri Lanka did not need to pay the interest and repayment installments on loans so that the leaders would not be burdened with the repayment. The burden was shifted to future leaders, added Garvin..
JR was mesmerized by the West and capitalism. That is all. He was not able to harness the power of capitalism for the greater good of the people. JR lacked vision, critics said. (Concluded)
Lanka can be on path to recovery by 2024: IMF official
The International Monetary Fund Director Asia and Pacific Department Krishna Srinivasan on Thursday said if Sri Lanka comes through with all the reforms, fast-track the proper implementation and warp-up the debt restructuring by September, the economy will be on a path to recovery from 2024.
The program itself is a very ambitious one, in terms of fiscal, monetary, governance and social safety net reforms. The next step in the process for Sri Lanka is to engage in good faith with all creditors and be done before the first review. If the Government can fulfill the reforms and implement them successfully, the country will be on a path to recovery going forward,” he said at the media briefing of the IMF Economic Outlook for Asia and Pacific on the sidelines of the Board of Governors 56th ADB Annual Meeting in Incheon, Republic of Korea.
His remarks come ahead of an IMF mission review meeting to be held in Colombo by the end of the month.
We will be in Sri Lanka in two weeks’ time to see how the implementation is coming along. We will also be looking at the whole issue of debt restructuring,” he added.
Noting that the program has lots of reforms embedded, Srinivasan emphasised that implementation is key. Although we are projecting a 3% economic contraction for this year, we have earmarked a positive growth of 1.5% for 2024,” he added.
In terms of the IMF Economic Outlook, he said despite the gloomy external outlook, Asia and the Pacific will remain dynamic, contributing 70% to the global economic growth — a significant improvement compared to recent years.
The IMF has also upwardly revised its October 2022 projection by 0.3% to 4.5% in 2023. The growth in the region will be led by China with a 5.2% growth rate this year after reopening the economy post-pandemic. The growth in the Chinese economy is expected to generate from consumption goods, and not from its usual investment goods.He also said countries that are depending on Chinese travellers will benefit from the economic boom in China during this year.
An Eastern analogue is found in the Suvannahamsa Jataka, which appears in the fourth section of the Buddhist book of monastic discipline (Vinaya). In this the father of a poor family is reborn as a swan with golden feathers and invites them to pluck and sell a single feather from his wings to support themselves, returning occasionally to allow them another. The greedy mother of the family eventually plucks all the feathers at once, but they then turn to ordinary feathers; when the swan recovers its feathers, they too are no longer gold – Wikipedia
The above analogue may be interpreted to describe the open economy policy introduced in 1977 as a misguided, short-term fix to address a situation that prevailed at the time where some hardships were being experienced by the population due to import restrictions and the local industrialisation policy prior to 1977. These hardships could have been temporary if the policy and practice were improved where improvements were required rather than abandoning it or causing it to be abandoned as a consequence of the easy, quick fix. A nation of traders rather than industrialists was the consequence of the open economic policy.
The regime that came to power in 1977 had two major failings amongst some positive development initiatives. Introducing a no holds barred open economy was one of them. Not pursuing a reconciliation path to nip the evolving armed struggle of the Tamil militants was the other.
The introduction of the local industrial development strategy of the previous regime was stopped on its tracks and the stable doors were opened fully to allow imports of virtually everything from pins, match sticks, to more complex engineering goods. Many industrialists, large and small became traders and the nation lost many of its industries and the evolving industrialization focus. Although not perfect, the local production of many items that had been imported hitherto had set the country on an import substitution path and had given opportunities for entrepreneurs to embark on new ventures.
The negative effects of the open economy continued to be felt as succeeding governments chose the open economy path rather than giving an impetus to local industrialists to improve their industries. One could say that the economic debacle being experienced today has its foundations in the 1977 decision to open the economy without any thought given to the future of import substitution industries considering the country has been dependent on imports since the advent of the open economy and the current debacle occurred as the country had no money to import even some essentials.
Opening the economy per se was not the sole issue. But, doing so without an economic and social analysis of the impact on many industries, industrialists and those employed in the industry directly or indirectly, and an assessment of the long-term effect on what should be imported and what should be made locally was the issue. It is disheartening to hear some leaders saying even today that opening the economy was a significant achievement, rather than talking about its weaknesses as it tends to demonstrate the country has not learnt from its past mistakes in introducing policies without any thought given to the long-term effects of such policies. The blow inflicted on the local industry, particularly the import substitution industry, was not addressed and is yet to be addressed. The country is yet to see a policy on local industrialisation and how inputs for it including technical education, incentives to promote quality improvements, and mechanisms to identify and promote the potential for exports of finished products and/or components for finished products being made elsewhere.
Import restriction forced on the country due to the economic debacle has given some thought to import substitution industries. This however is not strategic thinking but rather on the hop circumstantial thinking as had been done in the past. It is more than likely that an avalanche of imports would commence if the country had the money to do so, smothering the local industrialists who may have been misguided by a belief that opportunities they thought were there, and commenced some industries.
The 1977 regime also had a great opportunity to introduce policies and mechanisms to foster a better understanding amongst all communities in the country, especially amongst the Sinhala and Tamil communities. Its inaction led to consequences that the country is very familiar with. No doubt there were sensitive political issues and stakeholder resistance to avenues for compromise on individual positions. Perhaps, looking at the issue from a humanitarian point of view rather than a political or historical point of view, both closely interlinked, may have been the stumbling block. More than 40 years later, there is no significant advancement on stakeholder positions as politics still seem to define the path to a solution.
The challenge now is to look at the present rather than the past and look towards the future of the current younger generation and generations to come. Very few of the younger generation seems to have confidence in Sri Lanka and any faith on a future for them in the country judging by the numbers who have left the country last year and who are likely to leave the country given a chance to do so. Politicians of today do not inspire any confidence in the younger generation and more of the same is the last thing they would wish for. But, that seems to be what they are in for judging by the politicians inability to think of the country before them and their welfare.
However, could one lose hope as without hope there is no light at the end of the tunnel? Despite individual reservations, the President appears to be genuinely attempting to chart a new course for the country. As with all politicians, people do have scepticism about the President as a politician. There would have been less of this had the Opposition parties buried their hatchet and with it, at least for the time being, their politics, and agreed on a medium term (at least 3-5 years) program of economic and social governance, and even better, a national government where every party takes equal responsibility for the governance.
In order to generate the badly needed confidence in the minds of the younger generations, besides an agreement on an economic and social governance compact or a national government, a new political governance system needs to be introduced to replace the current system at the end of the 3–5-year period. If the same system producing the same calibre of politicians were to resume the same type of politics, the younger generations, who are certainly not insane, could well echo what Einstein said, quote” Insanity Is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results” end quote.
The ball is therefore well and truly in the court of the politicians to rise above partisan politics and discuss ways and means of agreeing on an economic and social governance model. In such a model, there can only be a President and a small cabinet of ministers and perhaps some State ministers for specific subjects to assist the cabinet ministers, but not a Prime Minister nor a Leader of the Opposition. Both positions are irrelevant, unnecessary, and counterproductive to a unity model. Will the politicians have the guts to contemplate a model of this nature? Perhaps not.
In regard a futuristic governance model, readers are referred to an article the author wrote, and which was published including in the Daily FT titled Contours for a new constitution with a difference, for the future, not the past” (https://www.ft.lk/columns/Contours-for-a-new-constitution-with-a-difference-for-the-future-not-the-past/4-723830). This model was submitted in order to generate a discussion on what might be different to what the country has had for 75 years. Basically, it proposed the direct involvement of non-political experts in different fields of expertise in policy development and monitoring, a differentiation of political devolution and administrative devolution, political devolution to grass roots by strengthening the structure and role of local government so that the social compact between the people and the politicians will be stronger, the establishment of regional councils and the introduction of an electoral college to elect members of regional councils and even the national Parliament.
There is no evidence that the country has learnt from past mistakes. Successive governments have not continued the positive policies of past governments, with improvements where they were necessary. The import substitution industrialisation policy was one of them, with the open economy policy smothering it to nonexistence. There have been other major development projects begun by one set of politicians and abandoned or scaled down by others without proper assessments. Abandoning of the LLRC report implementation process, the Missing persons investigation and report presented by the Paranagama commission are just two others amongst many initiatives taken by one lot and abandoned by others purely for political reasons.
We can learn a lot from our mistakes if we have the guts and the courage to admit them and learn something positive from it. Your worst mistakes are your best teacher, making you better than before. The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing, and the successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way – azquotes
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, based in Dharamsala in the state of Himachal Pradesh in India, flew to New Delhi to attend the two-day Global Buddhist Summit held in Hotel Ashok there on April 20 and 21, 2023. The event was the first of its kind. This inaugural Global Buddhist Summit was organized by the Union Ministry of Culture under the auspices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation, an NGO headquartered in New Delhi where it was formed in 2011. Delegates from nearly thirty countries including Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka participated. Among them were prominent scholars, leading members of the Sangha, Dhamma practitioners, and Buddhist monks. The theme of the conference was: ‘Responses to Contemporary Challenges: Philosophy to Praxis.’
Prime Minister Modi, in his opening speech on the first day of the summit, said that Buddhism is the biggest strength on earth today (for resolving the many issues – conflicts between countries, climate change, environmental degradation, economic instability through Buddhist wisdom and compassion). HH The Dalai Lama participated in the event on the second day. He emphasized the importance of the Bodhicitta (enlightenment mind or thought of awakening through wisdom and compassion) and of Buddhist resilience in facing crises. The Summit concluded on the theme that ‘peace is the foundation for human happiness and wellbeing’.
Tenzin Gyatso, better known as His Holiness Dalai Lama XIV, is arguably the most popular spiritual leader of the world today. Though he doesn’t radiate ‘spirituality’, he demonstrates it by his practice and his precept; he is the most relaxed looking ‘holy man’ that people of all faiths are inspired to look on and listen to; his smiling face looks hardly saintly; by his own account, he is ‘a simple monk’; he is the Buddhist ‘missionary’ who advises potential converts from other than Buddhist backgrounds to stick to their original religions if they feel comfortable in them, saying that he believes ‘that all the major world religions have the potential to serve humanity and develop good human beings’; by ‘good’ human beings, he says he means those who ‘have a good and more compassionate heart’. (In the same context he also said: ‘This is why I always say that it is better to follow one’s own traditional religion, because by changing religion you may eventually find emotional or intellectual difficulties’. But he adds that for those who think their traditional religions are not effective for them and for those who have no religious beliefs, the Buddhist way of explaining things may have some attraction’. Source: a talk given in London, contained in The Heart of the Buddha’s Path”, Thorsons, Harper Collins Publishers, London, 1995) What better healing advice can a spiritual and ethical teacher give to humanity that is living today, as it is, in a world riven by brands of hate driven religious fanaticism?
The extremely politicized Nobel Peace Prize might have accidentally recovered some of its lost prestige by being awarded to the Dalai Lama in 1989. But all the adulation that he inspires leaves him unaffected. He is an example, if not an epitome, of egolessness; his relative freedom from ‘the illusion of the self’ is the essence of his magnetic personality. This does not, however, stop him from being identified as a controversial political figure in robes. In fact, that is the other side of his public image, for he is also a man of the world, a consummate politician, as he ought to be, as both the spiritual and temporal leader of his unique tradition governed community, the Tibetans. Tenzin Gyatso may be called a willing philosopher-king who is not being allowed to rule his kingdom. Historically speaking though, he is the deposed or self-exiled 14th ruler in a line of God-Kings that ruled the country from the mid-17th to the mid-20th century.
The Dalai Lama that we know has come to us through the media, which is as good as if he came to us in person. However, behind the affably smiling, lovable, somewhat clownish, yellow clad Yeatsian figure of ‘a comfortable kind of old scarecrow’ is the sage who exemplifies in his conduct and speech the two cardinal virtues of wisdom and compassion taught in Buddhism. He easily reminds us of the Laughing Buddha, who is basically a part of Chinese Buddhist and Japanese Shinto culture. Though the Shinto religion predated Buddhism in Japan, the Laughing Buddha was later admitted into its pantheon as one of the seven gods of good luck. Actually, the Laughing Buddha is believed to have originated in a mix of Buddhist and Shinto religions during the latter part of the Liang dynasty in China. Pu Tai or Bu Dai (so called because of the trademark cloth sack he carried) was a Ch’an (Zen) Buddhist monk who lived in that period (907-923 CE). Though a beggar (a Buddhist bhikkhu is by definition a mendicant), he was contented and happy in the way a Buddhist monk had to be. His never failing smile (which expressed his loving-kindness, friendliness, metta/maitri) made people happy wherever he went, and this earned him another nickname, the ‘Loving/Friendly One’. He came to be honoured as a bodhisattva (a buddha-to-be). The Laughing Buddha is venerated as the Maitreya Buddha-to-be, the future Buddha according to the belief of Buddhists belonging to different sects. The Dalai Lama is regarded as an ‘emanation’ of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, an iconic figure that embodies boundless compassion. Just as the Laughing Buddha tradition is claimed to have brought Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and later, even Western cultures closer together, so can the Dalai Lama phenomenon be regarded as a force for easing East-West tension and for dowsing sectarian passions engulfing the world at present.
There is no monolithic version of Buddhism that is followed across the world. Seeds of the Buddhist teaching which were planted by ancient missionary monks in different parts of the world have given rise to a bewildering mass of sects, movements, and divisions of Buddhism coloured by local cultures. However, the basic teaching of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, is common to all these versions. Scholars of Buddhism recognize three main schools: Theravada (the Teaching of the Elders), the traditional Mahayana (the Great Vehicle), and its split Vajrayana (the Diamond Vehicle). Tibetan Buddhism, of which the Dalai Lama is the best known exponent, consists of elements from all three branches. Of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism Nyingma, Sakya, Kegyu, and Gelug, the Dalai Lama represents the last.
About eight years ago, it was reported that though the Dalai Lama was invited to visit Sri Lanka by some Buddhist monks, he was denied a visa by the government. The government’s denial of a visa was not something difficult to understand. In this regard, the Sri Lankan government had been caught up in a Catch 22 situation in that Sri Lankans could not extend their eager hospitality to His Holiness without antagonizing China, Sri Lanka’s indispensable friend-in-need. The reason for this dilemma is that the Dalai Lama is being used by the West as a bludgeon against the emerging economic superpower, for the Tibet problem provides the West with an ideal opportunity to rock on its liberal hobby horse. It was certain that the refusal of a visa to His Holiness by the government, while confirming our friendly relations with China, did not lessen the Lama’s compassionate goodwill towards us Sri Lankans, and that the government’s forgivable refusal to grant a visa to his Holiness did not cause us unnecessary disappointment in spite of it effectively denying us a chance to have him among us for a short time. But we are still able to see him well through his words and actions.
Dalai Lama XIV has been of interest to the West and to China in contrary ways from the very beginning. When the young Dalai Lama (then only 24) fled Tibet and reached the Indian border after a two week trek across the mountains disguised as a common soldier in 1959, it made world news, as Lynn M. Hamilton says in her short biography of the Tibetan leader ‘The Dalai Lama: A Life Inspired’ (Wyatt North Publishing, Oct. 2014) on Kindle. According to her, the then US president Dwight Eisenhower put a trail of pins in a map tracing the Lama’s escape route! Hamilton says that CIA operative John Greaney cabled to India asking on behalf of the US that the Dalai Lama be given asylum there. She is unable to say whether or not this US directive influenced the Indian response to the problem. But the Indian premier of the time, Jawaharlal Nehru, of his own accord, gave the Lama political sanctuary, and eventually settled him and his fellow Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala where he has been based to this day.
China acts as if the Dalai Lama is a threat to it. He may or may not be, for different reasons. But one thing is clear: It is that he has become a pawn in the chessboard of geopolitics where the two major players America and China try to move him as their interests dictate. Unfortunate though that is, it doesn’t concern those of us who are only interested in the moral or spiritual message he has to communicate to the world. We remember that there were anti-Chinese protests in Tibet in the lead up to the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, sometimes involving violence, which the Chinese blamed the Dalai Lama for. They said he was a political stooge in the pay of American intelligence. Chinese supporters maintained that there was no ‘ national liberation struggle’ as such in Tibet, but that ‘secessionists’ backed by America were causing disruption. Zhang Qingli, the secretary of the Communist Party in Tibet was widely reported to have made the following comments: (in translation) The Dalai Lama is a wolf wrapped in a habit, a monster with human face and an animal’s heart”. This characterization is not accepted by many including both pro-China and anti-China commentators. In 2008, Randeep Ramesh, a journalist attached to The Guardian, London (UK), ridiculed the Chinese concern as a case of a Chinese dragon (being) scared by a mouse that prayed”. I share that opinion. A Chinese change of heart towards the aging Dalai Lama, which is not unlikely, will be beneficial, not only to India and Sri Lanka but to China itself in terms of regional peace and cultural solidarity.
As far as that conflict (involving the Dalai Lama being wooed by the West and rejected by China) goes, it is hardly likely that Tibet will eventually be able to assert itself as an entity completely independent of the latter, despite or because of the fact that it is wedged between three nuclear powers, while being located in a watershed that plays an important part in the world’s water supply. On the other hand, Tibet’s cultural deracination as a cross product of these forces is inevitable, but that will not be the end of the 14th Dalai Lama’s influence on the peace loving rational people of the world. The institution of the Dalai Lama as the political and spiritual leader of Tibet may have already lapsed into obsolescence. Probably, no one knows this better than the present Dalai Lama himself. According to Donald Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, ‘the Dalai Lama has been one of the harshest critics of old Tibet”…’. He adds that the Lama would have introduced political reforms without the Chinese intervention. Professor Robert Barnett, Director of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University believes that ‘as a political leader, he asks for very little – he seems quite happy to accept a merely symbolic gesture like a cup of tea and a photo’. That may be to put too low a value on his actual political significance. In any case, he has tried to come to an agreement with the Chinese authorities by opting for a degree of autonomy for Tibet while remaining a territory of China, provided it is allowed to enjoy a status that is similar to the status of Hong Kong: a large measure of self-government with its own political and legal systems. He has even indicated his readiness to let Tibet have a communist government, with meaningful” autonomy, but China will not agree to such a settlement just yet. It may be that with the death of the Dalai Lama (87 this year, 2023) the world might forget Tibet as it was with him living; it will be the end of history for Tibet under its god-king. The Dalai Lama’s lasting legacy for the world will be what he stands for today as a spiritual leader, not as a mundane political figure.
Mainly because of its sizable Tibetan migrant Tibetan community of over 2500, Australia remained a regular destination for the Dalai Lama until about eight years ago. His last visit here, when he was 80, was in 2015 (his 10th visit since 1982). On that occasion, he went to the Uluru sacred site of the native aboriginal community in the Northern Territory to express his respect to their culture. He said:
In different parts of the world, Indigenous people, local people, they have their own cultural heritage, so that’s the main reason I am here, in order to express my respect to your culture,”
When in an interview with the ABC Television during his earlier visit in Australia in 2013 (he was 78 then) he was asked whether he was upset by the then PM Julia Gillard’s refusal to see him, he said No. I have no political agenda. … My concern is with the people…My main concern is to promote human values, affection, compassion, harmony….(among them)”. About relations with China, he said that the Tibetans could remain within China, like Hong Kong, but with its own distinct cultural identity intact. He stressed though that Real change must come from within Tibet, not from outside”.
Professor Barnett points out that the Dalai Lama declared in 2011, in an Important Proclamation”, that he would make a decision on the problem of succession after consulting with other high lamas and the Tibetan public, and that this would be in 2024. He has also hinted at the possibility of there being no 15th Dalai Lama. But if there is, the Lama has explained, there will be a child identified as his reincarnation after his death or an adult person as an emanation” chosen by him while he is still alive, and he will leave clear written instructions. In another source which I can’t now remember, he was reported to have confirmed that he will not return to Tibet. This was probably meant to send the Chinese a signal indicating that the time for a peaceful settlement was running out. He was also said to have suggested that his successor could be a woman. But it is generally the case that news hungry journalists misreport their own speculations as assertions allegedly made by the Dalai Lama. His promise to leave written instructions about his succession, Professor Barnett says, was presumably (intended) to help journalists and others get the story right”. All this goes to prove that the Dalai Lama is no less a politician than a monk.
He set up the Tibetan Central Authority (CTA) , aka Tibetan Government in exile, for the Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala who number about 100,000. But he has relinquished political control of the government in exile. The CTA operates as a democracy with an elected prime minister and parliament. Its constitution is based on Buddhist principles and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So, the Dalai Lama seems to have divested himself of serious political responsibility as far as the Tibetan government in exile is concerned. While remaining the head of Tibetan Buddhism, however, he has assumed the role of an ambassador of Buddhism at large to the world. The Dalai Lama remains a symbol of wisdom, peace, and compassion in a world threatened by violence born out of religious fundamentalism and hegemonic geopolitics. Sri Lanka is currently in the grip of the latter twin evils.
The diminishing political stature of the Dalai Lama is being compensated for by his increasing spiritual significance for the world. As a teacher of Buddhism should do, he provides guidance for spirituality without religion (though he does not describe it as such), an urgent need for the world today. Incidentally, I must make it clear that I am aware of the risk I am taking of annoying my readers who accept religions as well as those who reject them or have nothing to do with religions, but I beg that they bear with me, for I don’t mean to hurt their feelings. I am expressing some opinions (relevant to the subject of this essay) that are open to constructive criticism. It is necessary to distinguish between spirituality and religion in trying to explain in what sense the Dalai Lama is important as a spiritual teacher or leader, who is, strictly speaking, not ‘religious’ in the normal theistic sense.
In Buddhism, there is no belief in a creator god who supervises our lives unseen from above and rewards or punishes us eternally according as we obey or transgress his moral law. The Buddha Gautama taught the karma principle, that is, the principle of causality which says that the good intents and actions of an individual bring about good karmic results, and bad intents and actions bad results; no outside power is involved in that, so there is no need to praise, pray to, or otherwise propitiate such an agency. This is one of the senses in which Buddhism is not a religion. Buddha, in fact, did not found a religion, a system of prayer and worship, but explained a non-religious ethical system based on self-realization, on seeing things as they really are, i.e., on enlightenment. The whole of the Buddhist teaching can be briefly summarized as the Four Noble Truths: that life is suffering, that the suffering is due to a cause, that an end to suffering is available, and that there is a path leading to that end. The principle of causality known as karma underlies this four-term formula of the Buddhist teaching.
So while the concept of spirituality in religions involves a divine dimension, in Buddhism it doesn’t. What is considered spiritual in Buddhism is not tantamount to making contact with the so-called ‘divine’; instead, it consists in attaining heightened mental states through the extinction of the sense of self. A basic teaching of Buddhism is that there is no enduring entity that can be called self (soul); the idea of self is an illusion. ‘Spiritual’ experiences are heightened mental states such as self-transcending love, inner light, ecstasy, bliss which have been found to be common to people of different religions as well as to people who have no religion. Since religions are ideologically different, these phenomena cannot be explained in terms of their unchallengeable dogmas which contradict each other; so there must be a non-religious principle involved, which means that spirituality must be separated from religion. (A good source to consult, for an explanation of what ‘self is an illusion’ means is neuroscientist Dr. Sam Harris’s excellent book ‘Waking Up: Searching for spirituality without religion’ {Random House UK, 2014}. A Kindle edition of the same is also available. It is in this sense that the Dalai Lama should be taken as a spiritual guide, rather than as a religious teacher. The book elaborates a scientific argument that true spirituality consists in realizing that the sense of self is an illusion. Dr Harris refers to the Dalai Lama’s participation, representing the Buddhist perspective, in scientific discussions involving the study of consciousness.
It is because of these reasons that Buddhist scholar and former Tibetan monk Robert Thurman, author of ‘Why the Dalai Lama Matters’ (Atria Books, New York, 2008) says that his importance is multifaceted: it can be understood psychologically, physically, mythologically, historically, culturally, doctrinally, and spiritually.
Writing the Introduction to ‘A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for Our World’ by the best-selling author of ‘Emotional Intelligence’ Daniel Goleman, His Holiness says:
As a human being I acknowledge that my well-being depends on others and caring for others’ well-being is a moral responsibility I take seriously. It’s unrealistic to think that the future of humanity can be achieved on the basis of prayer or good wishes alone; what we need is to take action. Therefore, my first commitment is to contribute to human happiness as best I can. I am also a Buddhist monk, and according to my experience, all religious traditions have the potential to convey the message of love and compassion. So my second commitment is to foster harmony and friendly relations between them. Thirdly, I am a Tibetan, and although I have retired from political responsibility, I remain concerned to do what I can to help the Tibetan people, and to preserve our Buddhist culture and the natural environment of Tibet – both of which are under threat of destruction.”
In essence, the Dalai Lama’s message involves the importance of moral responsibility based on loving-kindness. This is of particular relevance to political leaders of all nations. The Global Buddhist Summit is sure to gain momentum in its epoch making endeavour for initiating solidarity among all the various sects of Buddhism that are found across the world today from HH Dalai Lama XIV’s exalted participation in its inaugural proceedings.
(The part relating to the Dalai Lama is an update of a previous article of the author written just over eight years ago.)
South AsiaMulti-religiosity in Contemporary Sri Lanka: Innovation, Shared Spaces, Contestation Mark P. Whitaker, Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake & Pathmanesan Sanmugeswaran (eds). Routledge, UK 2021. pp. 286. Maps. Notes. Index. Hb. £120.00. ISBN 9780367862343
This volume offers an in-depth and provocative glimpse of the complexity of Sri Lanka’s multi-religious heritage and its impacts. Chapters by established and emerging experts in the field, including Malathi De Alwis, Kalinga Tudor Silva, Dennis McGilvray, Sasikumar Balasundaram, and Alexander McKinley, describe the island’s deeply pluralistic religious traditions. They also raise questions about the overlapping influences of religious cultures, ethnicity and place and their responsiveness (or not) to external influences.
Three separate introductions by the editors are a refreshing acknowledgment of the intricacy of Sri Lanka’s religious landscape, its influences and impacts. They reflect the challenges faced by academics and policy makers in drafting a ‘diluted’ single narrative. Instead, each introduction provides an in-depth review of issues and approaches along with nuanced interpretation on the compiled essays. All three editors acknowledge ‘religiosity’ as a means of coping with life’s transitions, celebrations, disappointments, diseases, conflicts and violence and events such as birth and death, illness exams, marriage, divorce, the sense of the sacred, the auspicious and inauspicious”, in the words of Rajasingham-Senanayake. Additionally, they are cognizant of the challenges of navigating Sri Lanka’s pluralistic religious traditions, hybridity and inter-linkages in a country where ethnic tensions contributed to a 30-year civil war.
Whitaker considers three phenomena. Firstly, the ways that innovative religious practices and institutions achieved new public prominence after Sri Lanka’s civil war. Secondly, he highlights the notion of ‘innovative religiosity’ by looking at sacred sites held in common across Sri Lanka’s various religious groups, and thirdly he tries to gauge whether inter-religious tolerance is still possible in the wake of war and the continuing influence of populist Buddhist nationalism. Significantly, his essay draws attention to recent anthropological debates about the merits of comparative studies of religious practices while avoiding Eurocentric or universalistic notions/viewpoints, with the suggestion that a redirected focus across a religious field rather than simply looking up and down its named religiosities” is required.
Rajasingham-Senanayake raises provocative questions about historical and current geopolitical influences impacting the pluralistic religious culture of Sri Lanka, including its inter-mingling of religious practices. For her, the bombings of churches on Easter Sunday in 2019 by militants connected with the Islamic State group underline this complexity of what may be termed multi-religiosity in this strategically located island that is perennially at the cross hairs of great power geopolitical rivalry and their related soft power interventions … in the Indian ocean region”. She also draws attention to ways the civil war and its aftermath caused women to find spaces of expression and empowerment through piety and identification with Hindu goddesses associated with sakti (power). Several authors take up this issue in greater depth including Malathi De Alwis, Eva Ambos, and Mythri Jegathesan.
Sanmugeswaran focuses on post-civil war Hindu Tamil communities in the north and east of Sri Lanka. He contends that conventional ritual and bhakti (devotional) religious practices were altered by new intersections of a re-emergent Tamil Saivite ideology [worship of Shiva] and by new religious movements” sometimes imported from India as well as the diaspora. He asserts that some of these new practices were legitimised through the establishment of religious organisations in these areas, presumably supported by the diaspora and/or by India. His focus raises questions about similar alterations/interactions among other religious communities – Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim – during and after the civil war. Essays in the volume by Selvy Thiruchandran, Kalinga Tudor Silva, H.L. Seneveviratne as well by Whitaker and Sanmugeshwaran examine these transformations.
As a recently retired United Nations Political Affairs Advisor covering Asia and the Pacific, I found the volume illuminating. The case study approach, with its in-depth scholarship and perspectives, highlights the jagged edges of religion, politics and, most importantly, day-to-day life. The glimpses it provides of these interactions and innovative borrowings among Sri Lanka’s rank and file are encouraging, particularly in these unpredictable and turbulent times, both in the country and on the larger global stage. Similar challenges are apparent in other regions, including the former Yugoslavia, Myanmar, Nepal, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia where the plurality of religious cultures and traditions simmers under the surface. ‘Innovative religiosity’ would seem to be one coping mechanism in such situations. I recommend this volume to academics and policy makers, while encouraging similar approaches to examine other locales.
Nishkala Suntharalingam is an independent researcher. She retired in December 2022 from the United Nations; she was most recently a Political Affairs Advisor covering Asia and the Pacific.
Historians will not consider Kurunegala as a particular era during the Sinhala Kingdoms because four to five kings reigned during this era. It is not recognisable as a historical period.
According to ‘Dalada Pujawaliya’ during the Kurunegala era, approximately one hundred per cent of the Government’s income from ships was directed to the sacred temple where the Buddha’s Tooth Relic is housed. The income from the ships aided Sinhala kings in maintaining the country as a leading source of income along with trade.
Aryans
The Aryans who came to Sri Lanka dealt with agriculture and raised paddy farming to an excellent level up to the Twelfth Century. Whilst the water was obtained through irrigation systems during that epoch, through lakes and ponds, the people managed to do paddy farming in the North and Southeast. A decline in crops caused a colossal drop in production ultimately.
There was no reason for kings to abandon fertile lands and come to places like the Dhambadeniya and Kurunegala area, which was highly populated. Historians believe it was because of the geographical set-up, Climatic Changes, foreign invasions and nature. The Mahavamsa does not show any annexation of Dambadeniya with Kurunegala, but it mentions that after the demise of Parakramabahu III, Buwanekabahu’s son held the throne.
During the Kurunegala epoch, the King’s primary income consisted of the agricultural produce that farmers contributed to the King. The King’s second income was from precious stones such as pearls and various types of precious gems ranging from blue diamonds, moonstones and ‘Pishparaga’. The King’s third income came from the penalty courts served on King’s subjects known as the‘Marala Badda’.
Those who did the King favours were given several plots of land by the King, known as Prvaniya or Dival. Also, Royal servants who conformed to the king’s problems and went to distant places received several properties distributed by kings known as ‘Prvaveniya’ or ‘Divel’. Historical records also mentioned that Government servants who travelled up to faraway places did not incur any expenses to the monarchy, who went on official duties and were allowed to reside in such schemes, thereby incurring no extra costs because they were permitted to live in such properties.
Parakramabahu IV donated an ashram to Buddhist Monks. He planted in Paranagama king coconut, breadfruit, and fruit trees, such as morawaka etc., to assist the ashram. The King commanded that folks trained for military purposes should work free of charge for the nation’s sake on behalf of the King, but payment had to be made only for regular soldiers. During this period and a substantial amount of wealth King Parakramabahu II spent on religious activities. Parakramabahu II had given alms to one thousand Buddhist priests, whilst Pandit Parakramabahu IV built a three-level building and performed every aspect of religious observances.
During Parakramabahu IV’s reign, past battles with the ‘Soli’ reign in India were exposed. Still, the King brought several language professors and translated them into Sinhala from the Pali language, and distributed them throughout Ceylon.
During Dambadeniya’s reign, it is recorded in the folktales that many people visited on pilgrimage to see the sacred Dalada by using elephants, horses, cattle etc. And many rich people thought it would give rise to many accidents. These people would have been the officials or officers who were the favourites of the kingdom.
The country’s economy was greatly influenced by internal trade and exports. During this aeon, undoubtedly, Muslims were prominent tradesmen. It also proves that Roman coins were found in four dams made of Alexdarian metal by Kings Niro and Westphalian, with evidence of trade agreements with Rome. It differs from the country’s economy during the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa eras. However, there was evidence to prove how kings and the people were very pious. There was no foreign invasion during the Kurunegala epoch, as per Mahavamsa.
When Sri Lanka in view of its geopolitical position is vulnerable to a plethora of external destabilizing attacks (regime change, economic subjugation, cultural genocide, foreign-funded ethno-religious terrorism / diluting of heritage values, infiltration into Public Sector apparatus riding on accountability” trojan horse) Sri Lankans need to look at every proposal with caution. Anyone reading the draft Bill to set up a Parliamentary Budget Office should realize that the attempt is to outsource parliamentary functions to a corporate body. Anyone who followed the Millennium Challenge Corporation documents would see sharp resemblances.
The MCC presented as a gift” immediately after Easter Sunday in April 2019 was a meagre $480m over 5 years to be given NOT to the GOSL but to a Private Company set up by the GoSL.
GOSL signs MCC & passes in Parliament (sign first passing second – making MCC a domestic law though MCC agreement is valid only for 5 years). With that shelved, is the PBO an alternative?
GOSL establishes an accountable entity”- a Private Company – MCA Sri Lanka Private Limited (Primary Agent of GoSL to legislate on behalf of Sri Lanka ‘ AGENT of the Sri Lankan Government ‘)
Only after above, the disbursement of money will take place to a private bank & not to the Sri Lankan Treasury (just like the current Bill)
Refer: MCC Agreement / Program Implementation Agreement / Annex 1-34 of MCC Annex IV under Independence & Autonomy
Does Sri Lanka’s Constitution permit a Govt elected only for a term to hand over land & interests of people to a company who is agent of the $480m
This Company – MCA Sri Lanka is outsourced Govts role & able to enter undisclosed agreements (just like the current Bill)
Given that there was objection to MCC Private Company – is the Govt attempting to take a different path to achieve same objective via the PBO Bill claiming it is for accounting purposes but given the objectives under the MCC Private Company?
Sri Lanka’s legal luminaries must question if both are a violation of Article 76 of Sri Lanka’s Constitution
Parliament shall not abdicate or in any manner alienate its legislative power and shall not set up any authority with any legislative power” (golden words – is this why there are attempts to change the Constitution)
The present Bill omits the international law” that was applicable to US & US citizens who were given immunity, however instead the Bill gives the Parliamentary Budgetary Office immunity.
The present Bill also commits an entire nation to ‘unknown agreements’ which can be used as well
MCC Company Board comprised GOSL Secretaries / PBO is basically providing scope for same
GoSL undertook responsibility & accountancyity for MCA-SL private company (Section 3.2) – the PBO which also sets up a virtual separate entity under a CEO is about to do the same
MCA-Sri Lanka could enter into contracts, sue & be sued, hold MCC funding in a private bank – just like the present Bill
MCA-Sri Lanka private company was to get access to all Sri Lanka’s state records (just like the present Bill)
Why would the GoSL wish to pass on the work that the Auditor General & Elections Commissioner can do within their current capacity to a private body? This is the golden question.
Are the above aspired objectives not covered or cannot be covered under existing Article 148 of the Constitution?
Why would a Parliamentary Budget Office become a body corporate” exactly what is a body corporate” & what is aspired by perpetual succession”.
Why would a Parliamentary Budget Office wish to be sued”.
If the PBO is accountable to Parliament” how can it be independent” from Parliament?
What is implied by independence of PBO”
Who is implied as no person” influencing or interfering
What is the undue influence or interference” being implied?
Doesn’t Article 148 provide provision related to public finance?
What is this independent, non-partisan analysis related to the budget’ being referred?
The PBO seeks to provide services to 4 segments – a Committee in Parliament / a MP / a recognized political party or independent group or to Parliament
However, it is only fair to question why these aspects cannot be fulfilled within the existing apparatus?
Why should the Constitutional Council recommend to the President to appoint a Parliamentary Budget officer to be a CEO?
What is the purpose to be appointing a private role to a public service?
Does it mean that a person with at least 15 years of experience in government budgeting has to APPLY to the Constitutional Council who then recommends to the President to be appointed
Who is he reporting to?
Who can fire him?
This question emerged when the IGP could not be sacked as there was no provision in the independent commission to sack him
Is this appointment to be immediately after the election of a government?
Is it the Constitutional Council who decides to extend the term of the PBO?
Why is there a need for a Deputy Parliamentary Officer, who is recommended by the Constitutional Council, appointed by the President & eligible to become the PBO?
How can he be sacked?
Is this to encourage non-public servants or public servants now working in international or private roles to apply?
What a merry-go-round this is going to be – if the Constitutional Council does not accept the 1st list sent by the Secretary General of Parliament, a 2nd list is sent or fresh applications are called
The Secretary General of Parliament selects the PBO & Deputy PBO with assistance from 2 new roles (Chair of the Committee on Public Finance & Chair of the Committee of Ways & Means) & Deputy Speaker of Parliament
Ways & Means Committee” originated in the UK though abolished in 1967 yet the Chairman’s role remains with Deputy Function as Chairman (Chairman & 2 Deputies are voted by ballot in Parliament)
If the PBO or Deputy PBO cannot be a MP, or even from PC or Local Authority or from a political party or trade union – does this indirectly imply that the 2 positions are only for non-state sector persons?
Who can send complaints is not addressed
So the Secretary General of Parliament forwards complaint to the Committee on Public Finance (CPF) with copies to the CC. the CPF conducts an inquiry.
Why should the Executive President of Sri Lanka function to the dictates of the CC?
Can this role not be undertaken within the present existing system?
Who can replace the Deputy PBO in the event he is unable to perform duties.
If PBO is accountable to Parliament & remuneration is determined by Parliament, why should it be called a body corporate”.
Is this recruitment from within State service & as staff of state service?
What is implied as obtain services from any person” does this include foreign consultants?
What is implied by enter into agreements with any person” what type of agreements & who are the persons & is this without informing Parliament?
Why the emphasis on ‘digital transfer in mailable formats” … information possessed by any State Institution – is this to be sent abroad?
Again, why can’t these services be done within the existing set up?
What is the reason for this clause?
When a person is appointed for a specific task, why should that task need to be delegated to others. If so, it may as well be included in their job profile!
What is implied as undue influence”
How can there be transparency if 26 (2) (b) requires not to ‘disclose to the public any agreement entered into with any public institution” – what kind of secrecy is the PBO office expected to carry out under the guise of ‘independent’ entity?
Let it not be forgotten that if the Parliament is accountable to the people, and the PBO is accountable to Parliament, then the PBO has to also be accountable to the People.
There is little magic being done under this role & begs to question why it cannot be done in the existing set up?
Who is going to be funding these independent” inquiries some involving foreign as well, while keeping details secret from the Public?
Exactly what is the purpose of these inquiries?
What is going to be the outcome of all this analysis & who is going to be funding it?
When political parties are not legally registered, how can their manifestos be questioned?
Doesn’t the Election Commission have powers to check the funding to parties?
What is the role of the Auditor General as against this new entity?
Is there not likely to be not only conflict of interest but overlapping of work & roles too
What are the appropriate safeguards” the PBO can put in place?
Why would PBO wish to be privy to ‘national security information’?
Why are state sector employees being bound to provide all info to this new Office?
What is the danger of giving information when this ‘body corporate’ is also given scope for ‘perpetual succession’ and can even be ‘sued’ as well as able to ‘dispose any property movable or immovable’ belonging to the state of Sri Lanka?
What is the sudden hurry to analyze party manifestos which can easily be monitored by the Election Commission
This leaves just 14 days to scrutinize what the PBO has presented
It is now clear that the PBO is to run independently” with provision for perpetual succession” being funded by donations, gifts & grants” and we can guess where these will come from & how far such will undermine the sovereignty of Sri Lanka as PBO is accessing information of all State institutes & having their data in a format that can be emailed too!
Does any bank” imply that PBO can hold account in private banks or even international banks?
This is one key aspect of the MCC corporate body
What is the role of the Auditor General against this new Office with a vague set of ‘independence’ measures?
If this newly formed office is only collating statistics and compiling reports, why should they be granted immunity?
Also all Public Servants even under Scheduled Institution are prone to action against corruption.
If they are public servants why should they be immune?
Is this not cause for concern given that donations, grants & gifts from unknown sources are allowed to the PBO?
The PBO may make rules, which has to be gazette & PBO can take upto 3 months after publication to place before Parliament for approval? – what kind of arrangement & wastage of time is this?
Again why cannot the Auditor General’s department not take on this role?
cWhy can’t the Election Commission carry out what PBO is attempting to do via party manifestos?
With this new office being privy to State information, why are they given immunity?
The Parliament cannot outsource its delegated tasks to a company run by a CEO and with ‘perpetual succession’ – this is violating the constitution and the spirit with which the citizens delegate their powers to elected representatives to function as custodians of the State.
The International Financial System has been subjected to tremendous changes during the 20th century, and new currencies such as Euro emerged from time to time, with the support of powerful countries, and after 1930s the system was subjected to ad-hoc changes because some countries attempted to gain trade advantages changing the international value of currencies. The origin of the International Monetary Fund was a result of the financial crisis and this situation considered a major reason for reforms in the system, but when implementing reforms powerful nations gave priority for few developed countries and never considered the case of developing countries. Economic problems were related to currencies in developed countries and the reformists had no mercy for poor countries. In this background poor countries were lamenting without power.
Although common currency emerged such as Euro some countries within the Euro region and countries from outside the Euro region were not allowed to enter the region because it was based on the belief that allowing countries outside the Euro region would negatively impact on Euro. Many developing countries in the Euro region were subjected to harsh conditions, in fact such countries had to follow the conditions insisted by Euro Region dominating Germany and France. Britain did not agree with the currency policy of EU and it wanted to maintain the prestige of the Sterling Pound and is being continued the use of own currency.
International analysts in Asia have a feeling that BRICS countries in August conference in this year would authorise to initiate new international currency like Euro or to wide use of Yuan (Chinese monetary unit) for international transactions, and the stand of Mr Lula De Silva in Brazil has given a strong challenge to the status of the US Dollar. However, China wants to insist Yuan for the BRICS region that would be challenged to the emerging a new currency unit and this situation seems to be based on international uncertainty and political race among many countries. The independent opinion may be when new currency idea come to light, will the International Financial System go back to a more serious situation than the experience had in 1930s. I haven’t read any opinion expressed by international analysts.
It might be a considerable lost to the prestige of the US Dollar. If it investigates the status of the US Dollar since early 1950s has been subjected to many changes and the association of the US with wars such as Vietnam war, Iraq war and others must have a challenge to the refutation of the dollar. The major advantage to the US Dollar is the disunity among BRICS countries based on various reasons.
The authority of the Dollar has been considering this situation, but it was failed to manipulate the exactly appropriate policies for other countries because dynamism in the world has positively or negatively influenced the authority of the dollar. Is slavery mentality of the US authority contributed to this situation cannot be imagined by me as an analyst. The conclusions for these points should be made by research findings. The unexpected changes in financial, trade and social thinking also would have contributed to the dynamism and they highly qualitative factors than quantitative. The other vital point that has been influenced was the US authority had to deal with friendly countries respecting the views of such countries before taking policy decisions, and such consultation must have leaked the aims of the US authority to outside world, and gave an opportunity to manipulate policy reactions against the US authority. It is the nature of this world; nothing can be stable or take policy decisions secretly, and nobody can manipulate any policy that would be stable to work with dynamism, and only God can do such a creation. It needs to consider that the nature of this planet is changing in terms of the evolution theory and in such a situation, could the US dollar stay like God is a question and people need to understand the point in relation to the currency crisis in the modern era.
As expressed by Indian analysts Bricks countries have statistical power on various areas such as population, market factors and many directions and it couldn’t underestimate the power of the BRICS but it might support to changes and it doesn’t mean BRICKS could construct a system that maintain the stability. The major issue in BRICKS countries is they have a higher income disparity in population that might difficult to take to a positive agreement within own population. The other significant point is BRICKS also like the non-align movement may loss its influencing power during the operation of several decades.
The stability of a new international currency would be dependent on the trust of people, for example at the beginning EURO had issues related to the trust of public and such issues had been removed by the improving the trust of people and the agreement of EEC operational conditions. The issue here is could BRICS countries develop an environment like EEC had. BRICS countries have no a good welfare system for poor people within countries and People in the world have no idea what they are doing for poor.
Sri Lanka’s Political, Social and Economic issues on a daily basis continue to a degree unabated with little emphasis on the basic rights of her citizens relative to the Constitution which is circumvented in a subtle manner despite the rhetoric from the hierarchy where state intimidation and aggression are discharged to restrain people’s uprising thus particularly through the murmurings of the whys and wherefores of the State Terrorism Prevention Bill relative to silencing the people’s voices where The Government apparently has no real concern for people’s Sovereign Rights but says the priority is to restore the economy at any cost, neglecting social responsibilities which seems irresponsible for a leader of the Present caliber with so much experience behind him..
With these actions, the Government displays very specific characteristics of heading in an oppressive direction which some think may be intimidating and even autocratic.The burning question is, will people tolerate such a turn of events in the near future or will they react as they did before? The leaders should very well be aware of the
1971 and 1989 insurrections of the JVP and the civil war with LTTE which intensified since 1983 and ended with mass killings and the great harm it has done to the country, Lest the hierarchy forgets and continues to make negative decisions based on a cognizance which has no credibility in the eyes of many of the population!.
By carrying out screened albeit purported violence through State machinery and voicing a refurbishing or a revising of the State Terrorism Act, is the Government inviting the Dissidents aka Aragalaya to resort to similar arm struggles despite the lull within the Nation presently in the aftermath of the troubles past and the outbreak of violence which was quelled due to the timely action of a new President where the President has done extremely well to calm the Nation and people, disgruntled as they seem to be yet resigned to accept the President for the greater good which has invariably resulted since he accepted office which has also had approval from his Western Counterparts.?
To quote a recent News Item “Where normally State Elections are the core principles of a democracy and the sovereign rights of the citizens to choose the members to serve for the country and people for a set period, interestingly the modus operandi recently employed by the Government is to a greater degree in violation of democratic rights and against the norms of a Socialist Democratic Republic”
which has become a decorated label of the state and for marketing purposes only. The ruling of the Sri Lanka Supreme Court (SC) with three judges on the bench have unequivocally sent a clear message to the President and the respective heads of government who carry out orders scripted by the executive panel that this may not be acceptable or in keeping with the Constitution whether inadvertently or not by a President who probably means well but does not seem to stick to the correct protocols involved.
However, in the case of the People Vs the State the People are waiting for a new date to be announced by the Election Commission (EC) where the State Minister of Finance has assured that the Government will abide and honour the SC ruling. It is the fervent belief that the Government will not resort to any further twists to delay or null the local government election although in recent times the entire issue of the LG Elections seem to have been shelved for whatever reason where noticeably there is a distinct agitation among the people which is visibly apparent and does not augur well towards the future and should not be permitted to gain momentum where lessons from the past have to be learned..
The most outstanding religious festival in the world in the sense of moral eminence is Vesak. Why? Because no harm is caused to any sentient being in the celebration of Vesak, which is slaughter-free by both custom and law (in Sri Lanka).
Slaughterhouses are closed. Meat houses are shut. Supermarkets are prohibited by law to sell flesh foods on this thrice blessed day. If animals can speak, they will overwhelmingly pick Vesak as their most cherished day in the annual calendar for the simple reason that their precious life will be spared on this day as a tribute to the Buddha.
Almost all religious festivals, particularly of the Abrahamic faiths or non–Dharmic faiths are blood-soaked. Millions of animals are put to death as sacrifices to earn a reward for the perpetrator of the killing and not the victim. People make merry, e.g., Christmas, on these days at the expense of the lives of innocent animals. The spiritual element is markedly lacking when there is shedding of blood. All lives of all species (Siyalu Sathwayo) are precious. What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.
A truly sensitive person will think of the agony and suffering that an innocent animal must go through before death in a slaughterhouse. He will think of the animals who suffer dreadfully on the way to the plates of those who eat them.
You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Killing an animal is never a pious act. It is an immoral act. A high-handed abuse of power. One of Emperor Ashoka’s edicts clearly states, that the greatest progress of Righteousness among men comes from abstention from killing living beings”.
All beings tremble before danger, all fear death.
When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill.
All beings fear before danger, life is dear to all.
When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill.
Whosoever tries to find happiness through hurting other beings, will not find happiness.
Dhammapada
The looming choice in a world becoming more literate and civilized is to adopt a lifestyle of doing no harm, which the Buddha advocated throughout his life as a teacher. A key ingredient of such a practice would be to refrain from consuming animal products. It is not only kindness to animals that needs to be fostered but more importantly a planetary sense in all of humanity. It is abundantly clear that much damage is being done to the natural environment by raising animals for food, to our health by consuming animals, and to our sense of righteousness and justice for all species. Every living being has a moral entitlement to pity and compassion. Humanity’s claim to be civilized as a species is dependent on the extension of our compassion for the members of other species. That is the test of civilization that the Buddha displayed and shared with others, without qualification.
Kill and eat is not a Buddhist tenet. Vesak is cruelty-free, and slaughter-free. Sri Lanka can become a role model for the rest of the world if all religions adopt the Vesak model not only as a festival of colour and lights but by celebrating their festivals without harming animals.
ඩෙරික් බ්රෝස්ඩෙරික් බ්රෝස් (Derrick Broze) , ද ලාස්ට් ඇමෙරිකන් වගබොන්ඩ්හි (The Last American Vagabond) කර්තෘ මණ්ඩල ලේඛකයෙකි. ඔහු ගත්කතුවරයෙක්, ලේඛකයෙක් , දේශකයෙක් සහ ක්රියාකාරිකයෙක්ද වේ.ඔහු Free Thinker Radio on 90.1 Houston නම් රේඩියෝවේ සම නිවේදකයෙකි.එමෙන්ම දැනුවත් ප්රතිරෝධක ජාලයේ සහ හූස්ටන්හි නිදහස් චින්තකයෝ යන සංවිධානවල නිර්මාතෘවරයාද ඔහුය.
