{"id":85281,"date":"2019-02-02T10:10:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T16:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=85281"},"modified":"2019-02-02T02:55:31","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T09:55:31","slug":"free-venerable-galagoda-aththe-gnanasara-thero-from-prison-and-ask-for-his-pardon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/02\/02\/free-venerable-galagoda-aththe-gnanasara-thero-from-prison-and-ask-for-his-pardon\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Venerable Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero from Prison\u00a0 and ask for his pardon."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charles S.Perera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Change of Regime in 2015 was for Sri Lanka\u00a0 a march backwards from progress and development in\u00a0 all aspects of life beginning from the elimination of a terrorism that lasted a thirty years of untold suffering\u00a0 a nation could have faced.\u00a0 Above all it was a backward\u00a0 march from its Sinhala Buddhist historical past, its unique identity.<\/p>\n

It was a paradox that the transition began by\u00a0 a Buddhist monk Venerable Sobhitha thero. But once the change was initiated he did not live long enough to see the negative results coming from that change. The change came with a direct attack to Buddhism and\u00a0 even today four years after the change, it is Buddhism that is still\u00a0 being directly attacked.<\/p>\n

Apart from the serious economic calamity the country faced with the government itself robbing its own Central Bank, the most negatively affected was its\u00a0 legal system which has completely lost its Sri Lankan identity. Sri Lankan identity is first and foremost in its Sinhala Buddhist Culture and any direct or indirect attack of it changes the whole of what Sri Lanka is,\u00a0 and if the people were to subscribe to that change we may as well call Sri Lanka hence forward Orumitta Nadu, and say good bye to the 2600 years of our historic past.<\/p>\n

It is time at least now that we realise\u00a0 the Independence from British colonial rule in\u00a0 February,1948, was not regaining\u00a0 our ancient values which were there before the country was colonised by\u00a0 the Portuguese, then the Dutch\u00a0 and finally the British. Though SWRD Bandaranaike was able to recover the ancient Sinhala national values, it was partial and Sri Lanka was never what it had been before the advent of the\u00a0 Colonialists.<\/p>\n

Seventy years after the end of colonialism, the administration, and the legal system did not change its colonial character. We have inherited a social class mentally imbibed with the colonial culture, which it values over and \u00a0above the\u00a0 ancient Sinhala Buddhits culture we inherited from our forefathers. We were also impeded by Communal conflicts, from bringing\u00a0 the country and the people to accept the\u00a0 ancient Buddhist Cultural values including the Sinhala language we had sacrificed when we were forced\u00a0 to accept foreign\u00a0 values that came along with different colonial administrations beginning from 1505.<\/p>\n

The result is that we are still slavishly and mentally bound to English colonial values , and that is very much seen in our\u00a0 legal system where the Judges still wear the English Wig and Cloak and the lawyers the black\u00a0 tie , coat and the black English Cloak.\u00a0 For our Universities a convocation ceremony for passing out Graduates is incomplete\u00a0 without\u00a0 the black cloak and the mortarboard. With these values that still mark the social status and academic achievements ancient Buddhist values have taken a backseat.<\/p>\n

It is in this background that we have to see the change that took place on the 19 January,2015 with Ranil Wickramasinghe swearing in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. That change pushed backwards the ancient pre-colonial values that SWRD Bandaranayake had tried to bring back, and Mahinda Rajapakse commenced to revitalise after eliminating 30 years of suffering under terrorism.<\/p>\n

But with the change of regime in January,2015, the Colonial values have come back, while\u00a0 ancient Buddhist values have been cast aboard. In 1956 SWRD initiated a change to get back the lost Sinhala Buddhist values, but he was snatched from the nation too early. Mahinda Rajapakse too helped to go a long way forward, but neither had he the time necessary\u00a0 to bring changes to the Sri Lanka Legal System.<\/p>\n

The white wigged black cloaked Speaker of the Parliament and the Judges sitting in\u00a0 judgment with laws still fit for Colonial times , pay scant respect to ancient Buddhist Values\u00a0 of Sri Lanka with which it was nurtured\u00a0 for thousands of years,<\/p>\n

The concept of every one is equal\u00a0 before the law\u00a0 now included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is followed to the letter by the very British white wigged judges in our \u00a0law courts. But in Sri Lanka a country marked by its\u00a0 Sinhala Buddhist beginning there should have been a change in the rule of law at least with\u00a0 regard to the offence of contempt of Court.<\/p>\n

In the application of the law in Sri Lanka an exception should have been made to the Buddhist Clergy in view of the Constitutional protections \u00a0given to \u00a0Buddhism \u00a0which \u00a0is the religion which \u00a0was there before the advent of the believers of Hinduism , Christianism and Islamism.<\/p>\n

For the Sinhala Buddhist who venerates the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, the Buddhist Monks are the third Jewel\u00a0 after the Buddha and Dhamma. There is none equal to them. Therefore to hold them as criminals for a contempt of Court is an insult to the Buddha , Dhamma and Sangha the three jewels the Sinhala Buddhist majority hold sacred.<\/p>\n

No layman has the right to accuse a Buddhist Monk for a Common Law Crime. If a Monk Commits a murder, he should first be reported to the Maha Sangha and disrobed by them before taken into Custody.\u00a0\u00a0 If a monk scolds\u201d or\u00a0 shouts\u201d at some one in the precincts of a court, he has only spoken harsh words and it cannot be termed a crime and a Buddhist Monk should not be\u00a0 remanded or imprisoned forcing him to disrobe, on that account as he cannot put in the position of a layman. A Buddhist Monk has all the right speak in defence of his country.<\/p>\n

The Law should stand out side and allow the Maha Sangha to deal with an offence committed by a Buddhist monk. A Buddhist Monk in Sri Lanka should never be taken to custody by the police, and any accusation should be made before the representative of the Maha Sangha.<\/p>\n

The persons present in a Court got up when the Bailiff called out them to do so historically because the Judge carried the Bible when entering the Court, – and he was the representative of the King or Queen.\u00a0 It was also to respect the Court house where the judge holds out the law.\u00a0\u00a0 In Sri Lanka a Buddhist Monk is above any lay person, and if he does not stand up when a judge walks in\u00a0 he is not being disrespectful.<\/p>\n

Before the change of Regime in January,2015, there was at least one occasion when a Buddhist Monk Present in Court was held for contempt of Court for not having stood up when the Judge came into the Court. These are matters that should have been settled when Sri Lanka became independent and had to organise customs and ceremonies coming down from colonial days\u00a0 to suit Sri Lanka\u2019s own cultural background.<\/p>\n

There is no necessity for a new Constitution to Sri Lanka now. We can continue with the\u00a0 1978 Constitution, \u00a0but an amendment\u00a0 should be prepare to ascertain the protection for the Buddha Dhamma Sangha to provide them immunity from Law, and making it a Criminal Charge to do any act that would be an insult to Buddha, such as \u00a0defacing or damaging Buddha Statues and harm the person of a Buddhist Monk by way of insults or assaults.<\/p>\n

In the meantime Venerable Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Maha Thero should be released from imprisonment and\u00a0 an apology should be tendered \u00a0\u00a0to him on behalf of the Sinhala Buddhists for all the inconveniences caused \u00a0to him and for\u00a0 desecrating the Buddha Dhamma and Sangha\u00a0 through his imprisonment and forcing him to disrobe during the period of his imprisonment.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charles S.Perera Change of Regime in 2015 was for Sri Lanka\u00a0 a march backwards from progress and development in\u00a0 all aspects of life beginning from the elimination of a terrorism that lasted a thirty years of untold suffering\u00a0 a nation could have faced.\u00a0 Above all it was a backward\u00a0 march from its Sinhala Buddhist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85281","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=85281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}