Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and Sepal Amarasinghe – Part III
October 12th, 2022C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.
Introduction
Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) is acting to discard the old map (Colombo black-white model).”
-An observation made in 2013, which became true with OC-OL report in 2022
As stated in Part-II, the essay below is resurrected for the benefit of people like Sepal who go for the Marxist path of system change by revolution. This was the difference between the two approaches of Gandhi and Mao Zedong. Gandhi and to some extent Mao believed in individual self-discipline which the late Buddhist philosophy Prof. W. S. Karnaratne described as internal and external revolution (සන්තානගත හා බාහිර විප්ලවය) within a human being. Metta-Karuna-Muditha-Upekka (මෙත්තා-කරුණා-මුදිතා-උපෙක්ඛා) as well as indulgence in material things such as desire for big cars, big houses, imported food etc. We in Sri Lanka has the Buddhist Middle Path, which all the anti-establishment YouTubers like Sepal neglect to understand. Comments to the essay are not removed to assess the essay in an objective fashion.
… ජනතා සහයෝගය (විභවය) උපයෝගී කරගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගාන්ධිගේ හා මාවෝ ගේ ක්රියා පිලිවෙල ගැන අගනා විග්රහයක්, HOMO FABER: Technology and Culture in India, China, and the West from 1500 to the present day (1980) යන ඔහුගේ පොතේ C. A. Alvares විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත (පිටු 195-199). ගාන්ධිට අවශ්යවූයේ කොන්ග්රස් පක්ෂය විසුරුවා හැර ග්රාමීය ප්රතිසංස්කරණ ව්යාපාරයක් ආරම්භ කිරීමටටය. ඔහු මානව සංවර්ධනය පිළිඹඳ බටහිර ක්රමවේදය (පැරඩයිම්) ප්රතික්ෂේප කලේය. නේරු හා රාජෙන්ද්ර ප්රසාද් (අගමැති හා ජනාධිපතී) ඇතුළු ප්රභූ පැලන්තිය (elite) එය අනුමත කලේ නැත. ලඟදීම තමන් මේ අයට විරුද්ධව සිවිල් නීති කඩකිරීමේ ව්යාපාරයක් ආරම්භ කරණ බවට ගාන්ධි අනාවැකියක් පහල කලත්, ඊට පෙර ඔහුගේ ඝාතනය සිදුවිය. එසේ වුවත්, ගාන්ධිගේ මූලික අදහස් සර්වෝදය ව්යාපාරය (a rural reconstruction force) වශයෙන් පසුව (evolved) ක්රමයෙන් ගොඩනැඟුණේය. 1947 ට පසුව ඉන්දියාවේ ග්රාමීය සංවර්ධන නිල වැඩසටහන් මෙම ක්වෝමින්ටන් ක්රමයට සමාන විය…
ලියැන්ට වෙනස්ව, බටහිර ක්රමයට, නූතන විද්යාත්මක ග්රාමීය ගම් (modern ‘scientific’ rural villages) බිහිකිරීමට ඇමෙරිකාවේ අධ්යාපනය ලද ජිමි යෙන් වැන්නන් ක්රියාකලේය. ගාන්ධි මෙන් ලියැන්ට ද අවශ්යවූයේ බටහිරින් එන හානි වලක්වා ගනිමින්, චීන දාර්ශනිකයින්ගේ ප්රඥාව හා සංවිධානාත්මභාවයට අනුගතවන පරිදි නූතනවීමේ වාසි ලබා ගැනීමටය. ලමයින්ගේ මූලික අධ්යාපනයට-කෘෂිකර්මය, සාමාන්ය විද්යාව, සෞඛ්යය, ප්රජාචාරය, සදාචාරය හා උදෑසන භාවනා කිරීම පවා-ඇතුලත් කලේ ගාන්ධි අනුව යමින්ය…
ගාන්ධි මෙන් ඔහුද සමූපාකාර සමිති හා භාරකාර අයිතිය යෝජනා කලේය. ලියැන් හා මාවෝ මිනිස් පරිසරයේ බලපෑම හා, ග්රාමීය හා ප්රඥා වර්ධනයේලා කිට්ටු සාමූහික සබඳතාවල ඇති කාර්යක්ෂමබව පිළිඹඳ කොන්ෆියුසිස් අදහස් වැළඳ ගත්තේය. ගාන්ධිද මේ මතය පිළිගත්තේය.
මොවුන් තුන් දෙනාම (ගාන්ධි, ලියැන් හා මාවෝ) මිනිසාගේ සන්තානගත පිරිසිදු බව (internal virtue), බාහිර දේශපාලන, මිලිටරි හා ආර්ථික සාර්ථක භාවය සමඟ බැඳී ඇතිබව පිළිගත්තේය. ඔවුන්ට අනුව යහපත් සමාජයක් කරා ලඟාවිය හැක්කේ සමස්ත සමාජයේම සිදුවන අඛණ්ඩ පිරිසිදු පරිවර්තනයක් (continuous spiritual transformation) මඟින්ය. මෙය නිමක් නැති සදාචාරත්මක රංගනයකි. රටේ දේශපාලන හා ආර්ථික නොදියුණු බව ජයගත හැක්කේත්, නාගරික තෙම්පරාදු (dehumanization of urban bourgeois society) සමාජයේ විකෘතිවීම වලක්වා ගත හැක්කේත් එමඟින්ය. ආත්මාර්ථකාමී නිෂ්ඵල ආශා (selfish mundane desires) නිසා පරිත්යාගයේ වටිනාකම නැතිවී යා හැකිය. මිනිසාට සදාචාරත්මක (moral) හේතු මත ඔහුගේ බාහිර ව්යාජ ආත්මාර්ථකාමී (material self-interest) කමෙන් නැවත නැවතත් ගැලවී යෑමේ හැකියාවක් තිබේ. මාවෝට අනුව ආත්ම පරිත්යාගයේ (self-sacrifice) අරමුණ ජාතික රාජ්යය හා එහි ජනතාවය. එහෙත් ගාන්ධිට හා ලියැන්ට අනුව පරිත්යාගය අවසානයම මිස වෙන අරමුණකට වාහනයක් නොවේ. එය ටාඕය. සමූහයේ වාසිය ද්විතීයකය….
පොදු හික්මීමක් යටතේ (common ethic) චීනය පුබුදුවා ඒකග්රාහී කිරීමේ ලියැන්ගේ අරමුණ ලබාගැනීමට මාවෝ අන්තිමේදී සමත්විය (කොන්ෆ්හියුසිස් වාදය ආගමක් නොවන ආගමක් යයි ලියැන් පැවසුවේය).සුළු පරිමාණ ග්රාමීය කර්මාන්ත, ලෝකල් ස්වයංශක්තිය, විදේශ අදහස් හා ආධාර වලින් නිදහස්වීම, කුඩා සමූහ වශයෙන් කටයුතු කිරීම හා ගොවියන් විසින්ම කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය නඟාලීම යන ලියැන්ගේ අදහස් මාවෝ විසින් උපයෝගීකර ගත්තේය. මාවෝ හා ගාන්ධි-ලියැන් අතර වෙනස නම් විප්ලවීය (radical) ලෙස 1949 ට කලින් බලය හා දේපල නැවත බෙදා හැරීමට මාවෝ ක්රියා කිරීමය. ලෝන් මාච් එක යද්දීම බොහෝ ඉඩම් හිමියන් නැතිකර දමන ලදී. ගාන්ධිට එවැන්නක් කල නොහැකිවිය. චීන ජනයාට, ඔවුන්ගේ අතීත සූරාකෑමෙන් නිදහස්ව, අළුත් විප්ලවය සමඟ වැඩ කිරීමට සුදානමින් සිටියේ, විප්ලවය රැක ගැනීම ඔවුන්ගේ වගකීමක් වූ නිසාය.
මෙම දිග විස්තරය කොපි කලේ එහි ඇති කරුණු සමඟ ලංකාවේ කතාව සසඳා බැලීම උදෙසාය. අරගලයේ පැතුම් කර්නර් වැන්නන්ගේ අවධානය පිණිසය. අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමාගේ අදහස්, කළුකොඳයාවේ හිමියන්ගේ ග්රාම ප්රතිසංස්කරණ ව්යාපාරය, වින්සන්ට් සුබසිංහගේ සඳලංකා සමූපාකර ව්යාපාරය, සර්වෝදය, පානදුරේ ආතර් වී දියෙස් විසින් රට පුරා කොස් ඇට බෙදීම මෙන්ම 1977 දී මහාචාර්ය W.S. කරුණාරත්න JR වෙනුවෙන් මැතිවරණ වේදිකාවේ කල සන්තානගත හා බාහිර විප්ලව කතා මේ ඉන්දියන්-චීන කතා වලට කෙතරම් කිට්ටුද කියා සිතේ. දශ ලක්ෂ 300 ක් පමණ ඉන්දියන් ජනයා අන්ත දරිද්රතාවයෙන් පෙලේ. ඇති නැති පරතරය, පරිසර දූෂණය කෙතරම්ද?
පිටට පෙනෙන චීනයේ නැගිටීම මිස ඇතුලතින් චීනය තුල වන කොටි වලිගයක් අල්ලාගත් වැනි අසීමිත සංවර්ධන ක්රියාවලිය ජනයාට කරණ විනාශය ඉදිරියේදී අනිසි විපාක ගෙන එනු නිසැකය. හොවැන්හෝ ගඟ මුහුදට වැටෙන්නේ ලෝකයේ වැඩිම විෂ පිළිකා කාරක අපද්රව්ය පිරි දිය කඩිත්තක් ලෙසය (National Geographic Special Issue, China: Inside the Dragon May 2008, pp.147-168). බටහිර අනුව යමින් චීනය හා ඉන්දියාව ලියැන් හෝ ගාන්ධිගේ පාරෙන් පිට පැන ඇත. කුඩා ලංකාව ගැන කුමණ කතාද? ජපානය මෙන් ගම රැක ගතයුතුය. ජන සභා මඟ ගතයුතුය. පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයා-නිලධාරියා-ngo කාරයා/බිස්නස්කාරයා යන දුෂ්ඨ ත්රිකෝණයෙන් ගැලවිය යුතුය. සිස්ටම් චෙන්ජ් මිස රෙජීම් චේන්ජ් කුමන්ත්රණයට අසු නොවිය යුතුය…”
Source: ගෝල්පේස් අරගලය: ජන සභා පාලන ක්රමයකට <සිස්ටම් එක චේන්ජ් කිරීම> (විප්ලවයක් රහිත) විප්ලවයකි – Part-II
Posted on June 21st, 2022
LankaWeb – ගෝල්පේස් අරගලය: ජන සභා පාලන ක්රමයකට (විප්ලවයක් රහිත) විප්ලවයකි – Part-II
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Bodu Bala Sena and LLRC (Buddhist self-reliance)
Posted on March 31st, 2013
C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.
Need for a new map of terrain
What empowers a Sinhala/Tamil medium graduate left Sri Lanka in frustration to become a professor, a scientist, or a research director for example, in USA facing world-wide competition? How was it possible for young men from poor Sri Lanka to win the world cup of cricket by team effort? What reasons were the behind the capacity of village girls and boys in Sri Lanka to end a thirty-year war in less than three years surprising the whole world? In each case the old map of terrain which was not real and not true was replaced or revised with a new map, new model. Since 1832 Sri Lanka used the Eurocentric-colonial map/model. Prior to that Sri Lanka had a map based on the trinity of village, tank and the temple guided by a philosophy set out in the Buddhist Jataka Stories, 550 of them. That model was based on truth and reality. In 2013 the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) is acting to discard the old map (Colombo black-white model). We cannot escape from freedom and avoid challenge. We must be open to challenge.
Compare you-tube video clips of monks Dambara Amila, Bellanvila Wimalaratane and Baddegama Samitha with the monks Kirama Wimalajothi and Galabodaaththe Gnanasara. You can almost touch the pain the latter two monks undergo in their feeling of responsibility (Those who are genuine in their public service mission get angry and agitated like what we heard of the Anagarika Dharmapala). The former three are reading old unreal maps without any feelings, like those Marxists happened to be in front of Jetavanaramaya, Somawathiya or the Tissa weva. For them they are just brick and water. There is no national pride, no goose bumps. Meanwhile the types of Azath Salley sents secret SMS to mosques!
Reasonableness Doctrine
In these times of our seeing the Buddhist King Pasenadi Kosol’s Sixteen Dreams in real life, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) reminds one the idea known as the Pas Maha Balum. BBS is in the right place at the right time. If one surf the English medium websites like the anti-Sinhala Buddhist Colombo Telegraph and newspapers, what jumps out is venom and confusion against BBS. Those English-speaking local and foreign agents who refused to come before the LLRC then are the ones now in the forefront demanding the implementation of its report. This same – this war is not winnable boat – people are so confused, they think that BBS is all about Taliban-based halal and pretend that they did not know or see the BBS website. Under colonial assault the first Buddhist Renaissance began shortly after the 1848 genocide culminating with an ideological victory at the Great Panadura Debate in 1873. The public cheating of Buddhists by partisan politics since 1948 deteriorated so badly with a crook and criminal system of governing that began after 1978, forcing the arrival of the Bodu Bala Sena Movement in 2012. The business of BBS is open discussion and debate, no lurking in the dark.
BBS is an idea based on the Middle Path doctrine in Buddhism. In ancient Greece and in China there was the idea of the Middle Way, but the Buddhist Middle Path goes along with the phenomenon of impermanence and the cyclical nature of life (not linear). Buddhism is simply the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Noble path (4NT+8NP). This Middle Path is nothing but the reasonableness doctrine of the modern Western world. For example, it was this reasonableness which allowed women to become Buddhist monks 2600 years ago. In modern politics or global geopolitics reasonableness is equated as moderates or compromise of give and take. Majorities and minorities compromise in modern representative capitalist democracies. Rights as well as duties, not escape from freedom! Because BBS is based on reasonableness doctrine it was ready to discuss openly the merit and demerit of Halal certification and the gonibilla full face cover. What is reasonable in Afghanistan or dessert sands of Arabia or in Paris or London may not be reasonable in the context of Sri Lankan history and geography. Thus, marijuana can be legal in Bangladesh but not whiskey. If Muslim MPs did not like to see pork served in the parliament canteen, was it reasonable to ban pork from 90% of others’ choice of almost free lunch that all the MPs are enjoying?
When the Bamian Buddha statutes were dynamited and later ancient Buddhist documents uncovered were burnt, Sri Lankan Buddhists could not do anything to prevent this destruction of world civilizational heritage. UNESCO failed. But when an ancient Buddhist ruin in the Eastern province was bulldozed and the archeology department officers ignore it saying it was a pile of dirt, was it reasonable for BBS to preach non-violence and keep hands folded? It would be like accepting Stanly Tambiah’s stupid theory of ‘Why Buddhists kill?’ floated in his Buddhism betrayed book. This theory destroyed Buddhism in India, Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Philippines, Korea, and Indonesia. Buddhism will always be in books and computer disks, but Buddhist culture must be saved and protected. If taxpayer funded police cannot prevent assault on Buddhist institutions, then BBS must develop its own civilian police force based on non-violence but acting as thousands of eyes in the neighborhood. If the horse is not drinking water when it was taken to water, in these un-Buddhistic (abuddassa) times you must force it to drink. There is no doubt that thousands of retired people with valuable experience, skills, and talents, marginalized at present, will be a technical resource police of BBS, volunteering at the village level.
Monks in politics
Because politics has become such a dirty game in Sri Lanka — not only dirty politicians themselves say so, but even the Mother Teresa kind of a person like CBK has begun to say it lately– there is blind dislike of monks in politics. Since partisan politics has become a dirty profession, in Sri Lanka or in the USA, monks in party politics can get caught in corruption. BBS has declared that it will not support any political party, all 65 of them. The representative capitalist democratic system the modern world has is dirty and corrupt, but politics is after all a noble idea. Allocating limited resources, the most reasonable manner, resolving community and or ethnic conflicts in a reasonable manner, providing equality of opportunities to all, protecting valuable cultural heritage, preventing the tragedy of the commons such as public pollution, forest clearing, are all political acts. Buddhist literature is full of examples of why such politics is needed. The Buddha was a great public speaker. The Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Noble Path is a balancing act between inner purification and outer discipline: spiritual versus material. There is no perfect world and there are no perfect people: saint and devil both reside in human mind. Was it DNA or was it the environment: nature versus nurture. The late professor W. S. Karunaratne said this as a UNP candidate in the 1960s referring to a Santhanagatha and a Bahira Viplavaya.
If the government is incapable of acting reasonably for whatever reasons, BBS has to come forward to save Sri Lanka from socio-economic malaise and international conspiracies to destabilize and break it into two as the second U.S. resolution of March 2013 plans to achieve in the long run. Since Sri Lanka is an island, enemies cannot destabilize it by cross border arms transfers. But spies and enemies within can capitalize governments’ unreasonable, inefficient and unwise behavior in handling domestic affairs, for example food supply, healthcare management or education. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa prepared a new map of military affairs and ended the war, but in all other sectors of domestic affairs the old map is not changed. When some ministries say they changed the old map, it is only a new road added to the same old road map. People, especially the Sinhala Buddhist people, who got marginalized by governmental wrong action or no action who gave the benefit of time for the government to change road maps finally came out embracing BBS as the solution.
Public cheating of Buddhists has gone beyond reasonable limits. A president who got elected because of the Buddhist vote, Buddhist ministry PMs, a constitution which says it gave something special to Buddhists had failed to implement a single item reported by the Buddhist Commission Report of ACBC, 2009. Instead, Buddha statutes are smashed and urinated on the broken pieces by unethical evangelist-Islam converters. Actually, Buddhist PM Ministry did severe damage by linking Sambuddha Jayanthi with the Inter-faith fake. In any other country such PM will be fired. Anti-Buddhist officers lead these politicians like cows. Even the Dambulla Cultural Triangle is run by non-Buddhist agents. Thus, the government, if it takes a realistic assessment of the current situation could benefit from the BBS Movement. Government imporoper action and inaction gave birth to BBS. It must get out of the two-valued orientation, if you are not my friend, then you must be my enemy syndrome. It must be able to penetrate the cage created for it by its own yes men, UNP and Marxist ministers, top level and lower-level officers busy in making a buck for their personal gain. Who can deny that there is no corruption triangle of evil, ‘politician, officer, NGO, operating at local, regional and national level? It is this triangle scared of BBS.
BBS and the LLRC Report
LLRC had the opportunity to be on par with two previous commissions, Colebrooke-Cameron (1832) and Donoughmore (1931), in its impact on the future of Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, it did not have the capacity or courage to escape from the Eurocentric Colombo paradigm. It was less pain to read the old map rather than taking responsibility to design a new road map. Despite the fact that a new road map was presented to it as evidence, LLRC was willing to go only a politically correct (thinking to please Robert Blake) half way. Even in its desire to please everybody in the world other than the Sinhala Buddhists, LLRC could not escape from truth and reasonableness. It dismissed the existence of any ethnic homeland (Vadukkoddei, Oluvil declarations) in the island. This meant an indirect nullification of the 1987 Rajiv-JRJ agreement and the 13-A. LLRC stated the need for devolution of power (8.212-8.226) clarifying further that devolution means empowerment of people by people-centric devolution (9.231) and by maximum possible devolution to the periphery especially at the grass roots level (8.225). Health, education, and agriculture for families should have received priority over roads and bridges involving major contracts and commissions.
If the officer with a golden brain that was entrusted by the president with the task of implementing LLRC recommendations was not still a Marga Institute agent, he would have utilized this opportunity to act on the language-blind, ecology-based, and geography-guided GSN-level action plan presented to LLRC (Plan A), because it was the alternative to replace 13-A. This monumental blunder intended or unintended has landed Sri Lanka in a mess, all those who want to divide Sri Lanka hammering at it. Only BBS can now provide oxygen to the Mahinda R Administration to come out of this mess as what is reasonable was rejected by the officer. Action Plan (Plan B). A Jayalath Jayawardena-John Amaratunga-Tilak Marapona linked UNP government is no alternative to a MahindaR administration, and Plan B is like trying to cure a cancer by feeding it. Plan B will lead to a Tamil Eelam. In this context elections for a NPC will be a new disastrous Plan C, paving way for a South Sudan in Sri Lanka. Whose brains are behind these? Ghosts of Dayan Jayatilekes in the government?
Spatial inequality
Plan A (language-blind, ecology-based administrative units) on the other hand is a plan based on reasonableness which concentrates on spatial inequality affecting the scrambled egg-like population map of Sri Lanka. Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim masses equally suffer under capitalist corruption system now in operation in the country allowing certain selected crowds to thrive. Only a movement like BBS can cut through this utilizing Plan A which merges three paths (1) the Buddhist Middle Path, (2) the Bio-regional Path (geography-ecology) and (3) the Reasonableness (Doctrine) Path in western jurisprudence to create a people-based democratic society in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is now faced with three kinds of threats: (1) Separatist gimmicks of Tamil Nadu love and politics family clans controlling Delhi political puppets (2) Prabakaran remnants in New York, London etc. with Christian evangelical and corporate imperialist plans aimed at balkanization of India (3) Emerging new threat of Talibanization of the traditional Muslim community in Sri Lanka. Plan A will make Geneva USA second resolution a case of a dogs barking at a passing caravan. Like the Gota’s War, only BBS has the people power to make it happen.
Plan A rejects the new imperialist strategy called ‘meaningful devolution by way of unmajoritarian institutions. This method promoted by white Eurocentric writers like Donald Horowitz creates regional ethnic minority elites and slowly weakens the central governments in former colonies (it may take a decade or two or more), until a new Kosovo or South Sudan (or even a separate country of Scotland) is established splitting countries. Thus, the new policy of creating unmajoritarian institutions, sanitized version of the old divide and rule policy, providing ladders to separatist monkeys to carve out separate countries at each other’s throat. Already, South Sudan started an internal war. No wonder Christian-Marxists like Dayan Jayatileke promotes this path calling it the Nye Soft Path! Dayan J has begun his new cold war against the Sinhala Buddhists.
Plan A is the real homegrown solution which offers a new kind of 13-A plus on the new map of terrain that BBS is now drawing. The real democracy of empowering people (not separatist party politicians) locally is not in Horowitz-Nye-DayanJ or Raliv Wijesinghe Eurocentric formula. This formula stops at regional ethnic politicians’ level, and it failed in Nigeria and Lebanon, two cases that Horowitz used to cite as success stories. It is also interesting to note that in his writings Horowitz did not mention even once the concept of Panchayathi Raj Institutes in India based on consensus politics (God speaks in five, if five people agree, God is with them), not western party politics of throat-cutting competition. International expert Horowitz was clueless about the Sri Lankan Gamsabhava! Sri Lankan villagers are today divided so hopelessly due to green, blue, and red party politics. Fortunately, LLRC did not buy the Horowitz path of devolution which would empower Tamil separatist TNA politicians. LLRC promoted meaningful empowerment of people at the village level to deal with social, economic, and spatial inequities prevalent in the island, but it did not propose a mechanism. For Example, Marxist Tissa Vitharana’s APC majority proposed a Tamil policeman in each Sinhala village! Plan A proposed a mechanism to escape from the death trap called 13-A.
Instead of asking how can we help Tamils and Muslims to achieve their aspirations, LLRC could have asked, Why most spatial units (districts, electorates, natural regions, villages or GSN units) in Sri Lanka are not developed, because poverty is not just a Tamil or Muslim problem. In that case LLRC could have focused on the issue of spatial rights or spatial justice. Tamils in villages are not asking group rights. They want water, rural roads, schools, more busses, railway line, radios, rural bridges, TVs, bicycles, and hospitals. When they have these basic human needs, they will copy Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and intelligently think on their own if an aspiration to have a separate Tamil country in Sri Lanka is viable, possible, or desirable. What is happening now is that Tamil and non-Tamil selfish separatist politicians, local and foreign, trying to manipulate innocent Tamils and Muslims villagers to satisfy their ulterior motives. Only BBS can prevent the government jumping into a domestic mess by holding NP elections.
Sri Lanka cannot expect any reasonable outcomes unless the electoral system is changed, and the public service is overhauled with performance evaluation and merit promotion installed. Ordinary citizens have no place to go for normal/usual services. They have to either know somebody in an office or give a bribe to somebody in an office. Increasing numbers in the government service or increase in expenditure on government projects cannot erase the frustration people have about the moral and ethical decay taken place in the country. If the head of unit is out shopping using office time can we expect the clerks of that unit to be at the desk or not on cell phone for hours? Despite preaching by ministers this is reality and only BBS civil volunteer force can stop this with thousands of eyes. How can we provide incentives to the public servants to serve better and how can we remove corrupt behavior with disincentives (carrot and stick) should be the number one priority. The introduction of mandatory income/assets declaration by public servants open to citizen scrutiny; community service method of punishment for crimes against society such as bribery and corruption; removal of illegal weapons in the hands of people and the utilization of military for civilian construction purposes are matters that need attention for any serious progress.
Divineguma based on old map
All kinds of development work are taking place in Sri Lanka today. But similar work of national magnitude was attempted in the past by Mrs. B, Dudley S, and R. Premadasa, respectively. How efficient and effective were they? Did officers act as yes men and women and deceive politicians? Or were there systemic defects that even dedicated officers cannot succeed? Development work cannot be successful unless it improves the living standards of the local people impacted by it. That is the yardstick of progress. There are programs like Gami Diriya successfully empowering people marginalizing the politician-officer-NGO corruption trio. Divineguma will be a sitting duck to this evil axis. The funny thing is that Samurdhi officers were given the impression by politicians that the Samurdhi program was created to give jobs and pension rights to them, and not for the purpose of uplifting village life!! Unfortunately, Divineguma is a mega job security project. It is not people-decided village development. It is officer-imposed directions to plant vegetables and save money in the bank. BBS can help change Divineguma giving its control to people at village (GSN) level which was proposed to LLRC by Plan A. One need to remember that even the Sarvodaya which says it has 6000 villages in its bosom cannot submit an impact report.
Empowerment of people – Plan A
The problem in Sri Lanka is spatial inequality, not racial inequality (Teaching Tamil and Sinhala to school children will remove within ten years any opportunity Tamil or Muslim politicians now have in trying to manipulate Tamil-speaking people). Since the government is a prisoner to Eurocentric thinking BBS can help the government to reconsider implementing the Jana Sabah concept based on polling station or GSN unit-level. Reminiscent of the Road Development Committees or Sanitary Boards during the early colonial times what Sri Lanka needs today is grass roots level non-political party entities elected to handle basic needs of people such as garbage disposal, road building and maintenance closer to home dwellings, basic health services, quality improvements in schools, prevention of soil erosion and environmental conservation and cooperative efforts to protect local farmers and producers from exploitation. Election of ten members per each entity and then one from such entity making an electorate level unit proceeding further up to the national level with whom the President of the country can have direct communication. This plan can be implemented by creating an office reporting directly to the president. A separate ministry or a department not needed.
This idea is not new (MagaNaguma and DiviNaguma are two programs on these lines). Several witnesses presented similar concepts for consideration by LLRC. But Plan A is the simplest and most effective way to monitor how big projects impact on local communities and to give people an opportunity to decide and control their day-to-day affairs. Each unit will prepare a land use map (plan) for their locality and monitor how government and NGO projects are implemented in their area. If a contractor is corrupt and doing sub-standard work local committee can prevent it. If schoolteachers are not teaching and promoting private tuition the local committee can interfere via parent-teacher associations or old schoolboys/girls association. Education ministers cannot solve these problems. If people are dumping garbage on to the road, local committee can act against them. There is no doubt that politicians of all shapes would not like this idea, but Sri Lanka cannot become a Singapore in economic development and cleanliness if local people are not linked with the governance structure. At present there are no checks and balances to prevent political and official corruption rampant at the local (local government and GSN) level. A citizen affected by inefficiency of a local government, district, provincial or central government officer must be able to go to the local non-political party committee for redress.
Get people behind the government
The need to empower people at the grass root level is not just a political strategy to meet the external threat backed by local separatist agents. It is a necessity to protect peoples’ democracy while promoting sustainable development. In the West, local level administration was done by counties and parishes for generations which are more recently supplemented by groundwater management districts, river basin management districts and more specific functional districts such as solid waste management districts. In New Zealand, a smaller country like Sri Lanka, all local administrative units are demarcated using river basins as boundaries. Long before ‘think globally, act locally’ became a popular concept Sri Lankan society was guided since antiquity by a sustainable development-related trinity of village, water tank and the temple. Ironically, what a few enlightened, people-sympathetic, western professors are now prescribing to Sri Lanka and other countries are so like the principles enshrined in the concept of trinity of ancient Sri Lankan society.
Sustainable development via three merging paths
The Jana Sabha or Gam Sabha (or GSN unit level peoples committees) system can be justified utilizing three interrelated approaches. The Horowitz path (the infamous 13-A is an example of Horowitz path) can be easily dismissed as unwanted burdens (inviting snakes crawling yonder) placed on this tiny island nation by any one of these approaches. Presented as a model the three approaches (paths) are like the three sides of a triangle. The base of it is the moral and ethical foundation of a society. In the West, it is the Judo-Christian norms and values. In Sri Lanka this base has been Buddhism, Buddhist Jataka Stories. The sides of a smaller triangle inside the larger triangle indicate action, perception, and location. Location is also described as space consisting of places. Inside this triangle at the center is the triangle of spatial inequality, a result of not following or abusing the three paths. By following them inequality and inequity could be erased allowing Sustainable development to take root. The close affinity that exists between law and geography on the one hand and between law and Buddhism on the other in their applied interface generating socio-economic processes creating spatial (geographical) patterns deserves scrutiny by all who genuinely wish for a prosperous Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has laws in books, but no action!
The reasonableness doctrine in law and the Middle Path in Buddhism are like the two sides of a coin. What is reasonable has a geographical context; in some places people eat dog meat, in some other places stray dogs are not eliminated and the kinds and types of some activities of the Eight Fold Path are also influenced by the human and physical geography of an area.
Whether it is reasonable to think of separate homelands or demarcate language-based or religion-based spatial units considering the population geography of Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka becomes a legal as wells as a geographical issue that goes beyond separatist politics by non-Buddhists. When ethnic distribution is like a scrambled egg is it not better to have smaller spatial units so that ethnicity pockets have an opportunity to have full local representation? For example, in the Panadura electorate there are at least three Muslim pockets: Totawatta-Ambalanduwa, Sarikkammulla and Eluwila. A GSN unit-based division will allow Muslim majority units, which the Sinhala people in proximity will not consider as an ethnic threat, unless Islam extremists from overseas try to spoil them. Muslims will have to be reasonable in developing their group aspirations. Unlike India, Canada or Belgium, geography does not support language-based spatial divisions in Sri Lanka.
Western capitalist representative democracies love the doctrine of separation of powers to death as seen from the constitutional crisis in the USA today. However, it is now uncovered that Montesquieu did not suggest a strict separation of powers among the three branches of government. In fact now there are about five such branches. What he wanted was to distribute the sum-total of governmental power (including even some judicial power) to as many spatial/political units as possible. It was as if Montesquieu thought about our Gamsabha system or the sovereignty enjoyed by the village-level Buddhist temple chief monk, who is free from central control unlike the local Christian church. The Buddhist Republics in ancient India were like the Tribal Councils Native Americans later had in North America, which Benjamin Franklin wanted the fighting 13 states to follow. These ideas later influenced the western political science theories of governance.
Bioregional vision
Empowerment of people means giving people governmental power at the lowest possible spatial unit level. The American, Kirkpatrick Sale described this human scale in his book, Human Scale (1980). He says everything works best if it is at a scale (size) manageable by local people. This is akin to what we generally identify as grassroots politics. In a global village one thinks globally but acts locally. Or, as the former U.S House Speaker Tip O Neil once said all politics is local. Empowerment works best at the Small Is Beautiful scale. With global warming and local floods, droughts and landslides, massive development projects and environmental degradation, sustainable development at local level becomes a top priority.
A paradigm shift has taken place in (physical-economic) development from things to people as reflected in the increasing use of Participatory Rural Appraisals and people-centered methods of endogenous development‚ Local knowledge (local farmers and villagers) is more valuable than an agriculture or civil engineering graduate can learn from books. The value of this social capital is now recognized by the World Bank and other UN development-oriented agencies. After fifty years of technocratic misadventure, in Sri Lanka these methods are now employed in irrigation settlements in the dry zone.
Spatial justice atlas
Empowerment of people at the local level is not just a political affair. It is a scientific endeavor. Each locally elected non-political party committee will base their work on a locally developed land use map. Each unit will have a graduate research assistant. Ironically, in the Vavuniya District such maps are already in use as a research tool. Tamil tigers had an elaborate land use planning system developed after CFA 2002. Tamil officers are ahead of Sinhala officers in this regard. Most districts in the South now have data tables displayed at GSN unit level. Volunteer students from local high schools and their geography/biology teachers will no doubt take part in updating such maps available at the survey department. This will help in identifying natural boundaries for the local unit. For example, such action could help to reduce 14,000 GSN units to a more reasonable number (it was only 4,000 in the late 1980s).
An ecologically demarcated local unit maps will lead to an ecologically demarcated electorate similar to the pre 1980 era. By converting land use data to data tables an atlas of spatial justice could be developed at the national level using local natural-ecological unit as the lowest spatial unit. An atlas of spatial justice will be the quarterly or annual report card of this monitoring process. It will be an ongoing system with feedback loops. In the 1940s, in the United Kingdom, the late geographer Dudley Stamp undertook a national land utilization survey with the help of public-school students. It was continued in the 1970s and 1990s.
The proposed spatial atlas of Sri Lanka will be an improvement of Dudley Stamp’s original idea interpreting the data from land use planning with issues of spatial injustice.
Since local level watersheds/basins have a hierarchical order of progressively increasing in area/size they can become a large River Basin Region at macro level. Seven such River Basin Regions could advantageously replace the present arbitrary nine provincial units: each with an ocean front and each with somewhat equal land area. If people are allowed to handle their basic affairs at GSN unit level, 70% of Sri Lanka’s present crises can be solved.
The map above first developed by the geography professor C.M. MaddumaBandara can be used as the goal of a country administered by language-blind political units. This is the only way to develop a Sri Lankan identity. The Seven River Basins are: 1. Yalpanam, 2. Rajarata, 3. Dambadeni, 4. Mahaveli, 5. Deegavaapi, 6. Kelani, 7. Ruhunu (This map was published in Chapter 4, in Fifty years of Sri Lanka’s Independence: a socio-economic review, edited by A.V. de S. Indraratna, 1998, p.83).
Readers are encouraged to contact the writer at Cwije7@google.com
17 Responses to Bodu Bala Sena and LLRC (Buddhist self-reliance)”
- Sunil Vijayapala Says:
March 31st, 2013 at 5:07 pm
bbs now should take a different turn – it should become a bit militant, not on the offensive but on the defensive. all able buddhist sinhala young men and women in bbs should take up to marshal arts purely to defend themselves from the thuggery of the present admistration (please ask jayantha liyanage if you don’t believe me). at every electorate bbs must have a branch with a group of young people taking up karate. this will be a deterence to any impending attacks by government supporters at protest rallies.
bbs as their direction is not inclined towards becoming a political party – should however definitely become a peoples movement and let the course takes it’s way – a leader will be born out of this peoples movement and the rest of the story will be written in the annuals of heladeepa.
- Lorenzo Says:
March 31st, 2013 at 11:19 pm
I agree with Sunil BUT I suggest a different approach – EXPAND RAPIDLY within the army.
Once that is done NO SANE person will ever want to mess with BBS.
BBS was there during the war. MOST people have forgotten that. BBS did a lot of work to give blood to wounded soldiers, help at the hospitals, help in rehabilitation, console loved ones of soldiers, etc. BBS is not like those Arabic tape worms that landed in SL from hell for the bad karma of SL people.
- Sunil Vijayapala Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 4:10 am
lorenzo – brilliant idea. for a peoples movement to capture power in heladeepa, we need the armed forces. i was in anu and at bodhi when the army with all its reps.(flags) in various battalions, gathered and marched around the bodhi to invoke blessings, just before they went to war with tigers.
all these corrupt politicians in unp, slfp and jvp and predominantly the provincial council uneducated bastards should be wiped out just as we wiped out the tigers and the near future the wahaabis. for that to happen the only solution is a peoples movement as democratric means cannot achieve an authentic result in an election as intimidation will be at it’s maximium force. check with sjp.
we are not racists. we are against tigers(both in sl and india), wahaabis and hegemonic anglo saxons, who are hell bent to destroy our country. with these ponna hupocritical politicians around, we will be doomed, we will have no country to call our own as saudis, malaysians, english, italians, french etc. do, called a sinhala buddhist country.
- dingiri bandara Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 8:59 am
Sinhalese Buddhists are still in the majority in Sri Lanka. We need to forget whatever differences there are and join hands with BBS. Then it will be possible non violently defeat the hidden agenda of the radical Islamists who wants to spread Sharia law, crazy Ivangalists who try to convert the poor Buddhists,NGOs and all others working against the Sinhalese Buddhists .
- Fran Diaz Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 10:51 am
Whatever action the BBs takes to safeguard the Nation, that action must be essentially based on well informed, rational thinking and always non-violent. We propose that the BBS should become, among their other actions, a vast Think Tank for Sri Lanka to ensure security and prosperity for all.
Some Questions for the BBS :
* How would BBS address the Labor needs in the plantations sector, especially the tea sector ? Is Sri Lanka going to continue to depend on Tamil Labor living in line rooms built by the British ? These Tamils are called Indian Tamils” and listen to their leaders who are totally India controlled. Isn’t it high time they became Upcountry Tamils and not known as Indian Tamils ?
Isn’t it high time they integrated properly into mainstream life in Lanka and lived outside of the plantations ? Isn’t Mechanisation & Modernisation of the plantations the new way to go ?
* How is the BBS going to address the Illegal Migrant issue ? How did the army estimate of around 100,000 in the ltte Human Shield become 300,000 ? What is to become of these ‘extra’ people ?
* What is the future Language Policy for Lanka ? What do you propose we do to stop Lanka to becoming an appendage of Tamil Nadu through language and religion ?
* How does BBS propose handling the spread of Sharia Law in Lanka ? What prevails in Courts when one party is for Sharia and the other for the Law of Sri Lanka ?
* Isn’t it that when Sri Lanka is destabilised, local rule of law is disregarded and the ‘law of the jungle’ prevails ? Has BBs found out who destabilises Sri Lanka and for what reasons ?
There are many more Questions …..
- Lorenzo Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 1:02 pm
Fran,
FIRST things first. There are immediate dangers that has to be sorted out first.
BBS will certainly come to those soon.
- Lorenzo Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 1:11 pm
Sunil,
That way we can PROP UP Gota instead of Basil, Namal and MR who are all pro-Tamilian (NOT pro SL).
When Gota realizes BBS has infiltrated” the 300,000 strong MOSTLY Sinhala Buddhist troops who are now NEGLECTED, he will have to NEGOTIATE.
Army cannot have a trade union and they SILENTLY suffer problems – NO LAND despite saving millions of hectares of land, NO GOOD SCHOOLS for army kids but best free education to Tamilian kids, etc.
This kind of things happen in US, Israel, Japanese armies too.
LTTE and Al Qaeda will sh*t in their pants just to think of it.
- Fran Diaz Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Lorenzo,
BBS should do simultaneous projects. Delay is justice denied, and will result in intractable problems in the near future …
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The article below is from today’s Lanka Page. I fail to understand what is ‘Aggressive’ about an Awareness Campaign the article below refers to. Also, haven’t the Sinhala people taken enough crap from the world ? it is high time the Sinhale defended themselves without harming others. It is always mostly the Sinhale who die in other peoples wars, about 98% who die are the Sinhala people, and they die to save the Nation. High time they brought about a ‘no more war’ situation in the country. All the recent wars were to save the Nation from ltte Tamil terrorists & Tamil Caste Wars exported to Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu – other peoples wars !
Aggressive campaign by Sri Lanka’s extremist Buddhist group to create awareness on challenges to Buddhists
Mon, Apr 1, 2013, 09:40 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Apr 01, Colombo: The extremist Buddhist activist group emerging in Sri Lanka plans to carry out an aggressive awareness campaign on the challenges faced by the Buddhists in the country.
The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) organization will organize monthly conferences in districts to make Buddhists aware of the challenges face by them and to advise on how to overcome these problems.
The organization will also set up youth bodies to educate the youth in the country.
BBS programme coordinator, Dilantha Vithanage, said the organization is looking at setting up an academic institution called the Bodu Bala Sena Vidyayathanaya.
He said the institution is to incorporate Buddhist leadership and attitudes with other disciplines such as management and information technology.
According to Vithanage, it is elements with ulterior motives that are trying to misrepresent the BBS as a force against the Muslims in the country.
Bodu Bala Sena’s hardline attitude towards other religions has drawn concern from moderate Sri Lankans who fear that a Taliban like group is in the formation if the government and the society fail to take action against the group”.
- Fran Diaz Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 2:16 pm
BBS should work WITH the armed forces, quite openly. What is there to hide ?
Does BBS have a hardline attitude towards other religions ? Wasn’t the Halal certification issue was resolved without violence ?
One People, One country with Peace dividends for all.
The writer of the LankaPage article sounds as though he/she is from a foreign hostile country, inimical to the mass of people of Lanka. Are we that divided ? why do we fear each other ?
- Lorenzo Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 3:45 pm
Fran,
The word AGGRESSIVE is wrong. The correct word is ENERGETIC.
- Cerberus Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Yes, Lorenzo, I do agree with you.
- Fran Diaz Says:
April 1st, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Lorenzo,
Cerberus seems to have answered for me ! Thanks Cerberus.
The use of correct words is very important.
After WWII, all the people in every European country pulled together to get each country on its feet again, and wonderful growth happened for all in those countries. Similarly, all in Lanka must pull together for this country to shine again. Only happiness & wellbeing for all puts the cherry on the ‘cake of peace’ !
- Marco Says:
April 2nd, 2013 at 11:21 am
For the benefit of Lankaweb stated policy of the democratization of information and opinions”
I somehow doubt this would be published.
Courtesy of Mr David Blacker
Our Moment of Destiny : From The Blacklight Arrow
I think every generation faces its own particular challenges; but the greatest and most defining ones are those of morality and courage. That moment, if missed, condemns that generation — and often many that follow — to a world far more unpleasant and evil than we would wish it to be. For many in the free world of the late 1930s, that moment came with the invasion of Poland and the bombing of Pearl Harbour. It was a moment when my grandfather’s generation had to decide if they would simply stand on the sidelines or go out and fight someone else’s cause. Fortunately for them, the choice was easy; their respective governments took the right fork, and millions of young men — my grandfather included — went out into the deserts, the jungles, and across the seas to ensure that tyranny and racism would not shape our world. For 1960s America, the moment of destiny was in fact a place — Vietnam — and a moral choice. America made its decision, albeit a little late for millions of Vietnamese.
But when that hour of destiny arrived thirty years ago in Sri Lanka, our parents’ generation failed us. For decades, they had watched as extremist rhetoric leveled at the Tamil community gave way to physical violence. They stood by as our constitution was changed to remove any protection the minorities had a right to under law. They were silent when the nation’s leadership was silent on the racism and hatred that was all around them. They did nothing when their elected politicians in fact helped instigate the violence that climaxed in the orgy of assault, murder, rape, and destruction now known as Black July. For thirty years we have wondered how our parents could have been so docile, so shortsighted, so wrong in their choices. We have watched our country torn apart by suicide bombers and child soldiers, by tanks and artillery. We have watched a hundred thousand die, because our parents didn’t say stop!”
Thirty years later, the clock is back at five minutes to midnight; racists are calling for violence, for this country to be only for Sinhalese Buddhists. They are calling for a tiny minority to change their lifestyles or leave; they are calling for their right to worship to be curbed. And they are threatening violence if their demands are not met. Our government is at best silent; at worst in collusion. Our police force is standing by while Muslims are attacked. There are no arrests. There is no condemnation. There is no justice.
The last time this happened, I was eleven years old; an uncomprehending child. I grew up to wonder why my father who could ride a motorcycle through a wall of fire to get me home that July, hadn’t been able to stop what was done to the Tamils and to my country. Was he scared? Didn’t he care? I ask the same questions from myself today. Why am I doing nothing as my country heads towards the flames again. I ask it of my friends — especially the Buddhists — my colleagues, my girlfriend. None of you are racists, I think. None of you believe that Muslims must be persecuted and harassed. Why are you not speaking out? Why are you not protesting? What will it take? Or is there nothing that will drive us out of our homes and on to the streets to brave the thugs and the tear gas, the water cannon and the bullets? Have we no fucking shame?
I feel ashamed right now; ashamed of my government; ashamed of my friends; ashamed of my country. More than anything, I am ashamed of myself. I have never felt this way about my country, and I never thought I would, but I feel it now. And I hate feeling this way. In the worst of the war, I told myself that it wasn’t my fault; that I hadn’t chosen this war to fight. But this is now. This is me. This is us. This is our country and our moment of destiny is here. Why are we doing nothing?
- aloy Says:
April 2nd, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Marco,
You seem to look at SL from London through a Micro’ scope. You dont get the bigger picture; it is blured. We who live here can see what is happening. Go to any supermarket in Colombo. There will be atleast five gonibillas looking at us through a slit in their dress. Isnt this an insult and an aggression on all others?. Why this change all of a sudden. This is just one aspect among many. Cheating in exams and drug trade are two others. Every body should learn to co-exist respectfully and peacefully.
- Marco Says:
April 4th, 2013 at 12:03 pm
Aloy
Thank you for your response.
Regrettably Lankaweb moderator thought fit not to publish my comment in response to yours for reasons i cannot fathom.
I spend 4-5 winter months a year in Sri Lanka overseeing my interest and over the years i have witnessed (among others) a noticeable increase in the Muslim garb in not only in supermarkets but well to do establishments.
It would be wrong to say i was intimidated by such garb and neither should you or any one else. I don’t believe its an insult or aggression unless of course you feel threaten or developed a complex of jealousy.
Its no secret the Muslim community in Sri Lanka with their business skills and acumen have closed a void and taken advantage whilst the rest have been sitting on their backsides and resting on been given on a plate.
Perhaps, you ought to explain yourself with facts on cheating in exams and drug trade.
I agree with your sentiments that all Sri Lankans should learn to co-exist respectfully and peacefully.
Ironically, i find it rather amusing that the 3 suspected Buddhist monks” resorted to the Burqa when escorted to the courts by the police.
- Lorenzo Says:
April 4th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
I feel ashamed right now; ashamed of my government; ashamed of my friends; ashamed of my country. More than anything, I am ashamed of myself.”
You should be David Blacker (a pro-LTTE spy in the army who left the army when his dealings were revealed!!).
Why he doesn’t see the REAL RACISM of TNA and SLMC is anybody’s guess!!!
David Blacker had his blog during the war that ALWAYS said this war is UNWINNABLE. He USED his 2 years in the army to discredit the army.
After leaving the army he was bought over by NGOs. Now he is doing his job.
- aloy Says:
April 4th, 2013 at 6:49 pm
Marco,
I was thinking of not commenting in this forum any more as I have started getting many unusual telephone calls and smss. Anyway I have to respond to your last comment.
I am sure Lankaweb used the correct judgement, looking at your previous comment where you got overly sentimental and even used words only roughians in UK use.
I cannot understand why you got so emotional. Even Sattelite who knew the tiger war very well as a onetime head of state told a sob story in public. She may have done that to get some advantage. Was it so in your case, too?.
As for exam cheating almost everybody in SL know minorities have been doing it for ages.
Thanks Marco.
World Bank flags need for higher social security in the island 
