{"id":90154,"date":"2019-06-10T16:28:41","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T23:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90154"},"modified":"2019-06-10T16:28:41","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T23:28:41","slug":"sri-lanka-to-be-or-not-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/10\/sri-lanka-to-be-or-not-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka: to be or not to be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mario Perera Kadawata<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Never\nin this country\u2019s history has a government sunk to such a level of degradation\nas this MS-RW government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venerable\nRathana\u2019s history making walk to Mavil Aru, the roadway that all feared to\ntread was the act that led the way for the government forces to unleash their\nmight against the LTTE. He was the trail blazer. By deciding on his fast unto\ndeath, he has focused the eyes of the Sinhala majority on another trail to be\nexploited for this country to be freed from the chains with which it is\nenmeshed. That trail is well expressed by the word REVOLUTION. That fast unto\ndeath shook the entire Sinhala majority from its accustomed complacency. The\nspirit of revolt was spreading fast by the majority community siding with the\nVenerable Thero. The government engaging in its customary procrastination\ntactics was shaken to the core. And suddenly things happened. The demanded\nresignations took place in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nmy mind what that fast unto death brought about was something similar to what\nhappened by the Marxist revolution of 1953 that sent Dudley and his cabinet\nrunning helter skelter into hiding in a British war ship. Had the expected\nresignations not taken place, then the lot of the Sirisena-RW government could\nwell have been the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\nmajor revolutions in this country, mainly against foreign rule, were led by the\nSangha. Just think of the Panadura debate, and the Kelaniya Declaration. The\nmonks have always been the custodians of the aspirations of the\nSinhala-Buddhist nation. It was this role the Venerable Rathana successfully\ntook on himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His\neminence the Cardinal was accused by various quarters of inciting religious and\ncommunal hatred by his visit to the venerable thero. His visit to the monks was\na sign of compassion and solidarity. He did not use the occasion to cast\naspersions on the Muslims but on the government. He had in fact protected them\nat the risk of his own life at a time when a tsunami of righteous rage\nthreatened their lives. The thrust of his message was that the government held\noffice on TRUST for the nation.  His\nwords resonated what Mahinda Thero told Devanam Piyatissa. You are only a\nTrustee. You hold office for five or six years said the Cardinal. The country\ndoes not belong to you but to the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nnation is chained to Western values, among which is a system of democracy that\nis totally inappropriate and unsuited to our condition as a multi-lingual,\nmulti-religions, and a multi-ethnic country. And then there is the sword of\n\u2018human rights\u2019 that the West holds over the country\u2019s head. The Cardinal had on\nprevious occasions decried the notion of human rights as the lens through which\nwe were looked at by the west. The Cardinal pointed out that our religions were\nsufficient path indicators to the nation and that they were in practice long\nbefore the West discovered the idea of human rights. The Cardinal has\nrepeatedly warned, even as late as this very evening, that our system and\npractices of governance has brought our country to the brink of\nself-annihilation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nvenerable thero had by his act opened the gates to a popular revolution. It\nwould be a revolution that ushered a new system of governance. This country is\none with a Sinhala majority, be they Buddhist or Christian. But since\nindependence it is the minority communities branding themselves with ethnic,\nreligious and linguistic branded names that hold the majority to ransom. This\nsystem of parliamentary democracy is meant to divide and destroy the majority\ncommunity. It is a system that gives absolute leverage for the minorities over\nthe Sinhala nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nsystem cannot be changed by the very system that has enchained it. Only a\nrevolution can do to. That revolution will not be a military one as the\nmilitary itself functions within the same subjugating system. That change can\nonly come through a revolution. That revolution can only be a RELIGIOUS\nrevolution. Such a religious revolution can only be set in motion by religious\nleaders This was the crux of Rathana Thero\u2019s unto death fast. By his presence\nat his bed side, the Cardinal was assuring the monk of his support. We will\nwalk towards such a goal side by side, holding each other\u2019s hands as we are now\ndoing, was what he said through his actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ratana\nThero\u2019s fast unto death and the Cardinal\u2019s pledge of solidarity and support\nMUST open a new era in the Sinhala nations thinking. This government must go.\nThis parliamentary system must go. Its institutions must go. In short the\nBritish inspired constitution must go. What we need most of all is SECURITY,\nnot the democracy model that caters to minority ambitions and power stakes, and\nto western aspirations and power politics as frequently warned by the Cardinal.\nThe Sinhala majority is a helpless community caught by the tail that is its\ngovernment, and wagged at the will of minorities (openly flouting their\nreligious, linguistic and racial identities), for their purposes and benefits. What\nthe Sinhala nation wants is a Revolution which will be a Revolt in the Temple\nwith which the country\u2019s far sighted Cardinal has joined hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mario\nPerera<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Mario Perera Kadawata Never in this country\u2019s history has a government sunk to such a level of degradation as this MS-RW government. Venerable Rathana\u2019s history making walk to Mavil Aru, the roadway that all feared to tread was the act that led the way for the government forces to unleash their might against the LTTE. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mario-perera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90154","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=90154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}