{"id":106899,"date":"2020-09-22T15:56:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T22:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106899"},"modified":"2020-09-22T15:56:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T22:56:49","slug":"cattle-slaughter-ban-and-common-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/22\/cattle-slaughter-ban-and-common-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Cattle slaughter ban and common sense"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It was reported\nin the media (September 8, 2020) that prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s\nproposal for a ban on cattle slaughter received cabinet approval as well as the\napproval of the government parliamentary group. Some Buddhist monks and allied\ngroups who have long been agitating for such legislation to be enacted raised\neuphoric cries and invoked blessings on the prime minister and the president. I\ndon\u2019t know how the two privately reacted to the acclamation they received on\nthe basis of a controversial measure tentatively proposed, but not finally\nagreed upon: Did they accept the still unearned accolades with a feeling of\nexultant self-vindication or with a sense of gnawing doubt that the whole thing\nmight misfire? They are more likely to experience the latter state of mind,\nbecause this ban cannot be imposed without harmful repercussions, given the\nunalterable ground realities that must be recognized and accommodated before\nenacting and implementing the proposed ban. This is so particularly in relation\nto the prevailing economic and political crises in today\u2019s globalized world, of\nwhich Sri Lanka is a small member, hardly noticed except for her strategic\nlocation and her beleaguered state due to the same circumstance, trapped\nbetween three superpowers, two global and one regional. The domestic fallout\ncould be even more critical. This is the worst imaginable time for such a\nradical measure to be implemented, however popular it could be among a section\nof the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s not\nbe too alarmed. Media minister and Cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella (a\ngood choice for the latter job, in my view) managed to assuage the fears of\nsceptics like me who are not convinced about the actual benefits, but are\nreally concerned about the possible unsavoury economic, socio-cultural, and\npolitical consequences, of a ban being imposed on cattle slaughter, when\nRambukwelle told the local media that prime minister Rajapaksa \u2018hopes to ban\ncattle slaughter\u2019 and that \u2018he  would decide when to submit the proposal\nto the government\u2019. The government announced that a final decision will be\ndelayed by a month (as reported in the online Istanbul\/Turkey based TRT News\nMagazine). Rajapaksa\u2019s cautious non-commitment hints at the possibility\nof  a reassessment of the pros and cons of the move and points towards the\nlikelihood of sanity finally prevailing. But this will need a lot of reverse\nconvincing to do among the convinced (I mean, among those who are for the ban).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my point\nof view (for what it is worth), it is vitally important to be mindful of how\nthe ban would be viewed abroad as well as among domestic non-Buddhist religious\nminorities, though it might go down well with a majority of Buddhists and\nHindus. There is no question about trying to assert our rights as an\nindependent sovereign nation and to pursue political and economic policies that\nwe believe serve the best interest of our people. However, divisive party\npolitics of the recent years have landed Sri Lanka in such a vulnerable\nsituation globally that any government  that even occasionally dares to\ndefy undue superpower pressures in order to accommodate the legitimate demands\nof its own people gets labelled as undemocratic, autocratic, oppressive, and\ntherefore ripe for replacement. For a Sri Lankan government to be on its best\nbehaviour is no guarantor of its survival in a context where India, China, and\nAmerica are each looking after their own national interest in a competitive\nrelationship with one another at the expense of Sri Lanka\u2019s very survival. But\nwhat can we do about it?  I think that the present government under the\njoint leadership of the president and the prime minister is doing what it can\nin these internationally beleaguered  and internally treacherous times.\nInsisting on passing potentially divisive legislation is no way to help\nthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, with\nGotabaya Rajapaksa as President, we have the first executive head of government\nsince independence who has found a way to consult with the Maha Sangha as a\nmonolithic entity through non-political, non-sectarian interaction. He\nappointed a board of monks called the Bauddha Upadeshaka Sabhawa (the Buddhist\nAdvisory Council) to advise him and had its first meeting on April 24, 2020. It\nconsists of the Mahanayake Theras of the Three Nikayas and a group of prominent\nscholar monks, who are specialists in various fields connected with the Buddha\nSasana in which they have time-honoured claims and commitments. The monks meet\nwith the president on the third Friday of every month. In their last meeting on\nSeptember 18, they commended the president for taking steps, in accordance with\ntheir proposals, for, among other things, the protection of historical sites of\narchaeological importance, development of Pirivena education, designing of a\nnational educational policy, control of the drug menace, etc. But, as far as\nthe Derana TV news coverage was concerned, there was no mention of the cow\nslaughter ban proposal. Can\u2019t this be an indication that it is not being perceived\nas such a pressing issue? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no\ngainsaying the fact that Buddhist monks worked tirelessly for the victory of\nthe nationalist camp, and they did not do so for any personal benefit. There\nare a number of activist monk groups each articulating different issues of\nbroad national interest such as environment protection in addition to the\ncentral issue of the threat to the Buddha Sasana, the predominantly Buddhist\nnation (the people) and the unitary state that comes from the handful of\nforeign sponsored separatist racists and religious extremists among the\npeaceful mainstream Tamil and Muslim minorities respectively. These traitorous\nelements dominated the previous regime. The president appointed the Buddhist\nAdvisory Council partly in recognition of the service they did in helping to\nsave the country from misgovernance, but primarily in fulfilment of the\nconstitutional requirement of giving foremost place to Buddhism. We can expect\nnothing but good from this interaction between the prominent Nayake and\nscholarly monks and the president. Is it likely that they will  fail to\nunderstand the problematic nature of the proposed ban on cattle\nslaughter?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be that as it\nmay, we can\u2019t overlook the fact that some well known leading activists, heads\nof some animal rights and public health maintenance related organizations,\nwelcomed the proposal with great enthusiasm, despite the principal proponent\u2019s\nnon-committal stance. These included such prominent personalities as the\nJustice for Animals and Nature Organization chairman  Ven. Dr Omalpe\nSobhita Thera, founder of Sarvodaya Dr A.T. Ariyaratne, and GMOA head, medical\nspecialist Dr Anuruddha Padeniya. They  published a public announcement\ncum invitation to \u2018all professional and civil organizations\u2019 asking them to attend\na meeting  at the \u2018Sangha Headquarters\u2019 on Alvitigala Mawatha on September\n20. They are urging the enforcement of the ban proposal. An announcement cum\ninvitation was issued on September 17, the day that marked the 156th birth\nanniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala who had pioneered the agitation for putting\nan end to cattle slaughter. In his time, probably, it was more meaningful and\nless controversial to do so than today. This announcement appeared in the\nonline Lankaweb Forum page the same day, where I read it. It must have been\npublished elsewhere, too. The author and principal signatory to the document,\nVen. Sobhita, wrote (in translation): \u2018It need hardly be stressed that the\nprincipled, determined and fearless enactment of the praiseworthy decision taken\nby the government MPs headed by the prime minister requires the approval and\nsupport of the general public. We believe that we are going to get your fullest\ncooperation in this regard. We intend to call a meeting of delegates from such\norganizations and take decisions in connection with organizing the relevant\nfuture activities to achieve this aim.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I\nhave the highest respect for these three eminent persons (who have already done\nmuch commendable service to Mother Lanka in their different capacities) and the\nothers mentioned in the document and also empathize fully with their commitment\nto the cause they believe in,  but I do not share their conviction about\nthe feasibility, the functionality or the actual benefits of the proposition\nthat they are wholeheartedly supporting. I would support a movement with the\nsame devotion to stop animal slaughter in general, not just cattle slaughter,\nif there was such a movement, but I know that it is an unlikely initiative, an\nimpossibility even. I don\u2019t see any rationality in such a project. The kind of\nfree rational thinking that the Buddha advised the young Kalamas to adopt\nwithout blindly following him – the way to Enlightenment, budh,rational\nintelligence, that Narendra Modi, invoking the common intellectual heritage of\nIndia which we too share through Buddhism, meant in the quote at the top, as\nopposed to yudh, war\/conflict, as the best way to resolve problems – seems to\nbe at a premium – there is paradoxically little available of it – in the sacred\nTreasury of Theravada Buddhism that Sri Lanka is often claimed to be.\nOccasional submergence of practical rational thinking as in this case – our\nrational faculty sometimes becomes manifest in its humblest form of common\nsense – could prove costly in more than one sense for the whole country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rational minds\ncan conceive of alternative ways of dealing with a problem, when sometimes the\nmost direct solution is likely to create worse problems than the original\nproblem itself like the cattle slaughter ban, if implemented, will certainly\ndo. It is not likely to contribute towards enhancing intercommunal goodwill as\nalready implied above. Many Muslims are employed in the meat industry, and\nthere are secondary industries like tanning (making leather out of animal\nhides), shoe making, and the manufacture of leather products such handbags,\nwaist belts, saddles, some percussion instruments, etc. Import of beef from\nabroad will lead to increase in prices, in addition to the loss of jobs, and\nthe drain on scarce foreign exchange that it will entail. We may easily imagine\nthe problematic implications for the important dairy milk industry, the\ndevelopment of which is essential for stopping the import of toxic milk powder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desperate times\ncall for desperate measures. For all communities in general who make Sri Lanka\ntheir home, and for the majority community in particular, these are desperate\ntimes indeed. However, cattle slaughter is not one of the burning problems that\nmake the times desperate for them. There are much more serious problems they\nare faced with such as the menacing, so-called MMC Compact, the deleterious Yahapalana\nconstitutional legacy – 19A – that prevents the executive and the legislature\nfrom readily restoring the democracy,the independence of the judiciary, and the\nrule of law and  the communal harmony that it effectively destroyed, the\ninevitable Covid-19 related economic consequences in the form of devastating\nblows on large income generating sources such as the tourism based hospitality\nindustry and skilled and unskilled foreign employment, disruption of domestic\nindustries due to mandatory lockdowns, social distancing, and other health\nrestrictions imposed on physical movements in order to meet the pandemic\nemergency, all leading to the new administration\u2019s devoted attempts to\neliminate the drug menace and other forms of crime and corruption even more challenging\nand even more difficult than they are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t the Ven.\nMahanayake monks  and leading lay Buddhists have to devote their attention\nto barefaced threats to the Buddha Sasana both within it and outside of it,\nsuch as bogus Arhants explaining the Dhamma in idiosyncratic ways that confuse\nthe average Buddhists with little education in the philosophy of Buddhism (the\nmajority) for whom it is a religion like any other, and even egg them towards\nlooking more promising faiths; disguised non-Buddhist men and women in yellow\nrobes  spreading superstitious beliefs and practices under the label of\nBuddhism; proselytising preachers and faith healers misappropriating Buddhist\nsymbol to enmesh credulous innocent Buddhists in their superstitions; some\ntruly ignorant or sincerely ill-meaning You Tubers circulating the patent myth\nthat Gautama Buddha was born, attained Enlightenment, and preached the Dhamma\nin Sri Lanka, ignoring the abundance of established historical evidence that\nproves that he was indeed from the subcontinent, and making money by turning\nout videos that feature illiterate \u2018scholars\u2019 who save their skin by hiding\nbehind the hypocritical slogan \u2018Here is the evidence. Believe it or leave it\u2019,\nbut there is only fake evidence. The Buddhist leaders must put their own house\nin order before driving our beleaguered nation into further crisis by trying to\nreform the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not that\nthe monks and lay Buddhists who are agitating for a ban on cattle slaughter\nhave forgotten what they can learn in this regard from the Buddha Gautama\u2019s own\npolicy of not forcing morality on people, but of helping them adopt moral\nbehaviour by understanding evil as evil and good as good through self\nrealization as illustrated in  the story about Chunda Sukara\/Sukarika\n(Chunda the pig killer\/keeper\/professional pork seller). This pig keeper\nslaughtered his pigs after torturing them in unimaginably cruel ways. And he\nwas a neighbour of the great sage. But he never responded to his teaching of\navihimsa and eventually died a wretched death, unreformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we can\nlearn something from India in this regard. According to the Wikipedia,\nIndia  (pop.1.3 billion) is nearly 80% Hindu (with 14% Muslim, and 6%\nothers). Beef eating is generally taboo for Hindus. It\u2019s been estimated that\nthe number of vegetarians in India equals the number of vegetarians in the rest\nof the world put together. But it seems to adopt a relaxed attitude towards\ncattle slaughter. The law governing cattle slaughter varies from state to\nstate, and is flexible in some states. On 26 May 2017, the Ministry of Environment\nof the Government of India led by Bharatiya Janata Party imposed a ban on the\nsale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets across India, under\nPrevention of Cruelty to Animals statutes, although Supreme Court of India\nsuspended the ban on sale of cattle in its judgement in July 2017, giving\nrelief to beef and leather industries\u201d. So, the cattle slaughter ban in India\nwas made ineffective even before it was hardly implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No doubt, this\nwas a disappointment to prime minister Modi, his BJP, and others who supported\nthe ban. It is no less so, it is interesting to learn, to most Muslims of India\nas well. Researchers Naghmar Sahar and Rashid Kidwai of the Observer Research\nFoundation of India say: The majority of Muslim leadership in India has, all\nalong, been always in favour of a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, but somehow\nsuccessive regimes have refrained from banning it\u201d (India Matters\/Aug. 12,\n2019\/ \u2018A century of giving up beef: Muslims demand nationwide ban on cow\nslaughter\u2019). Muslims have been making this demand in deference to Hindu\nsentiment, in the interest of peaceful coexistence with Hindus. The useful\nlesson in common sense we can learn from India\u2019s experience with cattle\nslaughter banning is too obvious to need explaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\u2019t the\nBuddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians who disapprove of cattle slaughter\nthink of a more efficient and easier way to minimise it (as eliminating is\nimpossible) than trying to impose unenforceable legislation to ban it\naltogether? Just stop eating beef!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala It was reported in the media (September 8, 2020) that prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s proposal for a ban on cattle slaughter received cabinet approval as well as the approval of the government parliamentary group. Some Buddhist monks and allied groups who have long been agitating for such legislation to be enacted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}