{"id":50510,"date":"2015-12-26T22:16:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T04:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=50510"},"modified":"2015-12-26T06:01:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-26T13:01:07","slug":"the-proposed-amendment-to-the-buddhist-temporalities-act-and-the-coming-consitutional-change-is-there-a-sinister-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/12\/26\/the-proposed-amendment-to-the-buddhist-temporalities-act-and-the-coming-consitutional-change-is-there-a-sinister-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE BUDDHIST TEMPORALITIES ACT AND THE COMING CONSITUTIONAL CHANGE:\u00a0 IS THERE A SINISTER CONNECTION?"},"content":{"rendered":"

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

A proposed Amendment to the Buddhist Temporalities Act was published in the Government Gazette on 4 December 2015.\u00a0 On 21st<\/sup> December 2015, the Government submitted a motion to Parliament outlining its plan to convert Parliament to a Constituent Assembly to oversee the enactment of a New Constitution.<\/p>\n

The said motion says that one of the reasons for the new Constitution is to provide a \u2018Constitutional resolution of the national issue.\u2019 It is reasonable to suppose that this will involve imposing some form or other of a federal system on this country.\u00a0 The same motion says, however, that the draft of the Constitution will be submitted to the people for approval at a referendum.<\/p>\n

If even a hint of federalism is in that draft, the Sinhala-Buddhists will reject it.\u00a0 So, either the Government expects the new Constitution never to be enacted into law, or it has figured out a way to win at the referendum.\u00a0 In my view, the latter is the case, and the proposed Amendment to the Buddhist Temporalities Act is the key to the plan.<\/p>\n

At the risk of sounding like a \u2018conspiracy theorist\u2019 I shall discuss the above matter briefly, because, if I\u2019m wrong in my conjecture, there\u2019s no real harm, but if I\u2019m correct, it is best for members of the public to be aware of the issue, and to start devising counter-measures, before its too late.<\/p>\n

THE ARGUMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I have indicated above, if there\u2019s even a hint of federalism in the draft Constitution, the Sinhala-Buddhists will reject it.\u00a0 Is it still possible to win at a referendum under those circumstances?<\/p>\n

To win at a referendum, one needs an absolute majority of the valid votes cast at such referendum.\u00a0 If the minorities vote in solid blocs, and the draft also gets the support of the UNP vote base (which I understand is roughly 30 percent of the national electorate) the Government can get close to the 50% mark.\u00a0 If the Government can get even a small fraction of the Sinhala-Buddhists to approve the draft, victory is guaranteed?<\/p>\n

But can the above be done, on an issue as visceral to the Sinhala-Buddhists as that of federalism?\u00a0 In my view it is, under the following scenario:\u00a0 if one splits the Sangha<\/em>, i.e. gets a powerful faction of the Sangha<\/em> to support the draft (not overtly but tacitly, enough for them not to be seen by the public as actively resisting it) I believe it would be possible to get a fraction of their respective congregations to tolerate the draft, and vote \u2018yes\u2019 on it.<\/p>\n

The next question is, What would affect a split in the Sangha<\/em> as aforesaid?\u201d\u00a0 Obviously, there would have to be a strong enough incentive, a quid pro quo<\/em> involved.\u00a0 In my view, this is where the proposed amendment to the Buddhist Temporalities Act becomes important.<\/p>\n

Section 7 of the Buddhist Temporalities Act sets out the procedure for appointing the Diyawadane Nilame<\/em> of the Dalada Maligawa<\/em>.\u00a0 As far as I understand it, at present that procedure is that when a vacancy occurs in the said office, the following parties:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Mahanayaka Theros<\/em> of the Malwatte<\/em> and Asgiriya<\/em> Viharayas<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. The Pradeshiya Lekams<\/em> of holding office within the Kandyan Provinces<\/li>\n
  3. The Basnayake Nilames<\/em> of all Devales<\/em> within the Kandyan Provinces, and<\/li>\n
  4. The Trustees of all temples within the Kandyan Provinces of which the annual income during the preceding year is over one thousand rupees<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Meet in Kandy and elect a successor.<\/p>\n

    Section 6 of the proposed Amendment makes a profound and drastic change to the above procedure, as follows.\u00a0 In the event of a vacancy in the Office of the Diyawardene Nilame<\/em>, only the following parties, to wit:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Representatives of the Malwatta Viharaya<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. Representatives of the Asgiriya Viharaya<\/em><\/li>\n
    3. The Basnayake Nilames<\/em> of only the four Devales<\/em> connected to the Maligawa<\/li>\n
    4. The District Secretary for Kandy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Will participate in electing the successor.<\/p>\n

      In short, the power of electing the Diyawardena Nilame<\/em>, the custodian of the Daladawa<\/em>, generally recognized as the most valuable religious treasure of Buddhists in this country, is effectively transferred to the Malwatta<\/em> and Asgiriya<\/em> temples, with the four Basnayaka Nilames<\/em> of the Devales immediately connected to the Maligawa<\/em> and the Kandy District Secretary thrown in.<\/p>\n

      If one looks at this in terms of the participation of representatives of the different Nikayas<\/em> in the election of the Diyawadene Nilame<\/em>, one sees that, under the present system (which I understand has persisted since the 1800\u2019s with only minor changes) there is room for representatives of the Amarapura<\/em> and Ramanya Nikayas<\/em> to participate in said election (if they happen to be trustees of the temples mentioned in the Act).<\/p>\n

      Under the Amendment, the capacity of the Amarapura<\/em> and Ramanya Nikayas<\/em> to participate in the election of the Diyawadena Nilame<\/em>, albeit to a limited extent, is entirely removed, and the power to elect the Diyawadena Nilame<\/em>, or at any rate the monopoly on such power, is handed to the Malwatte<\/em> and Asgiriya<\/em> chapters of the Siam Nikaya<\/em>, no doubt to the advantage, both spiritual as well as temporal, of the said two chapters.<\/p>\n

      I leave it to the reader to decide if the above change is a sufficient quid pro quo<\/em> to get at least a fraction of the said two chapters to give the nod to a draft Constitution that might include federal elements (but sufficiently disguised, say, as proposals for devolution of power to facilitate reconciliation, or some such thing)?<\/p>\n

      CONCLUSION<\/strong><\/p>\n

      As I indicated at the very start, I hope I\u2019m wrong in my conjectures.\u00a0 Nevertheless, in my view, it is best for members of the public to keep abreast of developments in regard to the matters discussed above, if they are not doing so already, and to devise counter-measures if any are needed.<\/p>\n

      To put it another way, if the Sinhala-Buddhists take it as a premise, or an article of faith, that a Constitution that compromises the territorial integrity of the country, or which has the potential<\/em> to compromise such territorial integrity, if it is ever put to a referendum, will invariably fail, it may be necessary to question that premise.<\/p>\n

      At any rate, given what is at stake, it may be wise to formulate some contingency plans in case such a Constitution is put to a referendum, but with a plan in place to manipulate the referendum<\/em>.\u00a0 As the saying goes, Better to be safe than sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Dharshan Weerasekera is an Attorney-at-Law.\u00a0 He is the author of two books:\u00a0 The UN\u2019s Relentless Pursuit of Sri Lanka (2013), and, The UN\u2019s Subversion of International Law:\u00a0 The Sri Lanka Story (2015)<\/em><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA A proposed Amendment to the Buddhist Temporalities Act was published in the Government Gazette on 4 December 2015.\u00a0 On 21st December 2015, the Government submitted a motion to Parliament outlining its plan to convert Parliament to a Constituent Assembly to oversee the enactment of a New Constitution. The said motion says that one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50510","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=50510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}