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The Need to Rethink Jaffna Council Appointments

The constitution of the Jaffna University Council is a critical factor in rebuilding the University and its image. Retaining council members like Prof. Tharmaratnam is necessary to establish justice and fairness in the way the University of Jaffna conducts its affairs in the future.

Following open letter written to the Minister for Higher Education in Sri Lanka, Dr. Wijedasa Rajapaksa

( May 16, 2018, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) We the undersigned express our deep disappointment at the manner in which the new Council for the University of Jaffna was appointed recently. We learn that the appointments were rushed through by the UGC with almost no transparency by 20th April, and posted several days later just before you, the incoming minister were sworn in on 1st May. The UGC Chairman then went abroad and the University of Jaffna received the information by post from the UGC on 2nd May.

While several members of the outgoing Council have been retained, some others have been dropped. We are puzzled as to the basis on which the University Grants Commission decided whom to be retained and whom to be excluded. We are particularly concerned about the decision made by the University Grants Commission to not retain Professor Tharmaratnam who showed a keen interest in the affairs of the University of Jaffna in many different ways during his tenure as Council Member and before. He was for transparent and fair recruitment process; a man of integrity, he went far beyond the routine duties of council members and expended much effort in cases involving sexual harassment of women and justice for minor employees. He was a rare voice on raising these issues and pressurising the council to deal with them

Owing to serious malpractices in recruitment and lack of sensitivity towards the ethnic and religious backgrounds of the students coming to the University of Jaffna from different parts of the country, the University has been facing a crisis for the past few decades. In the post-war era, the University needs visionary leadership and guidance to re-envision its social role. Some recent events highlight the importance of secularism. Normal postwar development has resulted in large numbers of Muslim and Sinhalese students being admitted to the University. But the University, which has increasingly projected a narrowly religious and political image, fails miserably to bring the students together and forge a common university life. They too tend to live in their narrow enclaves and reactions to this narrowness could be potentially explosive as recently with the Buddhist monument crisis in the Vavuniya Campus. By contrast, in the early days of the University, when there were leaders among the staff who resisted pressures of pettiness and bigotry, there was still a common university life amidst diversity of the student population, many of whom could not function effectively in English.

The University had the benefit of enormous goodwill at the end of the war, which could have been used to bring in visiting teachers from overseas and other universities in this country, to radically improve standards and give it a more open character. This has not happened. Those who tried hard to come have been actively discouraged. Inviting visiting lecturers from other universities in the country and universities abroad who conduct their research and teaching in English would have enabled those who find their competency in the English language in need of improvement, or limiting their academic progress, to get critical support and guidance.

In early 2017, there was a strenuous effort on the part of some council members to break out of the rotting mould by supporting a well-accomplished academic, Prof. Sam Thiagalingam, of Boston University, for the position of vice chancellor that was to fall vacant. His application was obstructed by interests that were intent on preserving status quo.

At issue was the technicality of a slight postal delay in Prof. Thiagalingam’s application. Much to widespread relief, two council members, Prof. Tharmaratnam and Dr. Jeyakumar, who have been left out in the present round of appointments, though not lawyers, went to enormous trouble to confirm the Postal Rule, which says that the day an application was stamped at the sending post office is the day of delivery. The university administration denied this rule despite the considerable legal resources they had in the Council and the Law Department. More puzzlingly, the UGC too, deliberately or otherwise, was unable to clarify this well-known rule and stood by, enabling the outgoing vice chancellor to drop Prof. Thiagalingam’s name. We give two instances to illustrate the enormous damage done.

Something is very sick about a university that is cavalier about the rule of law and, with a heavy hand, denies justice to, and abuses the underdog. In July 2016, it was only Prof. Tharmaratnam, who spotted that a minor employee, Janatheepan, was quietly dismissed on the basis of a memo handed over to the Council at the commencement of the meeting, without any discussion. He pointed to the abuse of law in dismissing an employee without first interdicting him, and got him reinstated and interdicted pending inquiry. The inquiry pointed to the action against the employee having been engineered by two deans, who became powerful under the earlier vice chancellor, and were compromised in the illegal cutting and removal of trees from the Killinochchi Campus. Janatheepan had only drawn the inquirer’s attention to the theft. The Council interdicted the employee the second time, arbitrarily associating him with the theft he had brought to light. Under the new council, the whole matter stands to be swept under the carpet and the employee sacked.

In two cases of sexual harassment of female students, the council minutes show that the inquiries were pushed along because of Tharmaratnam’s initiative. It was his personal involvement that in one case ensured the inquiry was completed before the Supreme Court’s deadline.

The Dean of Management has the case of T. Ravivathani, once the leading candidate for Probationary Lecturer in Financial Management, dragging on in the Supreme Court for four years; although the selected candidate had given false information about her experience and the former vice chancellor had lied to the Court that she was present at Ravivathani’s interview. The same Dean, backed by the present Vice Chancellor, has clashed with Prof. Tharmaratnam on the selection committee for another vacancy in the same post. Tharmaratnam, along with the head of department and a third person, opposed the attempt to appoint a favourite who is about eighth on the Jaffna University merit list, over a woman first class from Sri Jayewardenapura of outstanding merit, who holds the prestigious award of Chartered Financial Analyst, USA.

Regarding the substance of the appeal, the Jaffna University was the outcome of concerted effort by a group of very distinguished academics during the 1950s. The term Tamil University Movement was perhaps unfortunate; what was then proposed was a regional university with headquarters in Trincomalee. When Jaffna University was finally established, it was headed by Prof. Kailasapathy, who was highly respected amongst academics of all political shades.

Unfortunately, largely as the result of the war, Jaffna University gradually degenerated into a parochial university. Despite having had several distinguished professors, the quality suffered and the emerging leadership increasingly succumbed to narrow Tamil nationalism. Although started about the same time, Jaffna is today widely regarded as failing to match Ruhuna University, most visibly in its physical layout, design and building, where, in Ruhuna, Geoffrey Bawa had a major hand. We can, however, improve the quality of the leadership, if we are willing to look worldwide. Jaffna University as currently constituted cannot be a source of pride, either for the people of the North or for those who initiated the Tamil University Movement.

The constitution of the Jaffna University Council is a critical factor in rebuilding the University and its image. Retaining council members like Prof. Tharmaratnam is necessary to establish justice and fairness in the way the University of Jaffna conducts its affairs in the future. We urge you to recognize the courage demonstrated by Council members like Prof. Tharmaratnam and Dr. Jeyakumar and the efforts they took in bringing about far-reaching changes at the University of Jaffna and re-appoint them to the Council. Tolerating the brazen mismanagement of one university by excluding members who are committed to progressive change would eventually discredit the entire university system.

List of Signatories

1. Devanesan Nesiah

2. Kumari Jayawardena

3. Manel Fonseka

4. Hettigamage Sriyananda

5. K. Chitravadivel

6. Sterling Perera

7. SriNadaraj Kalaraj

8. Kanishka Goonewardena

9. Rohini Hensman

10. Arjuna Parakrama

11. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu

12. R.E. Jayaceelan

13. Panini Edirisinghe

14. Selvy Thiruchandran

15. Nirmala Rajasingam

16. Suren Fernando

17. V. Nisanth

18. Indra Jayewardene

19. Marshal Fernando

20. S. Shiva Sabesan

21. Rajan Hoole

22. S. Ravishankar

23. T. Sivarupan

24. Ananda Dias Jayasinha

25. N. Sahayanathan

26. Janaka Ratnasiri

27. S. Thangarajah

28. Kanagasabai Nagulendran

29. Jehan Perera

30. R. Varathan

31. Thiruchandran Jeremeah

32. K. Visakaratnam

33. V. Thuvarahan

34. S. SreeHarikesan

35. S. Sutharsan

36. S. Aingaran

37. Camena Guneratne

me be clear the LTTE was a scourge that brought untold suffering to this island nation and all its people.

by Shamindra Ferdinando

( May 16, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government has reduced the annual Victory Day parade to a mere commemoration ceremony for fallen officers and men, at Palaly, in the Jaffna peninsula.

Jointly organized by the Northern Province Governor Reginald Cooray’s Office and Ranaviru Seva Authority, in coordination with the Security Forces Headquarters, Jaffna, the brief ceremony, held on the morning of May 4, 2018, was certainly not quite enough to celebrate Sri Lanka’s biggest post-independence achievement.

Sri Lanka inaugurated the Victory Day parade, soon after bringing the war to a successful conclusion, on the morning of May 19, 2009, on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon, on the Vanni east front.

The annual event reflected the liberation of the Eastern Province (Aug 2006-July 2007) and the Northern Province (March 2007-May 2009).

The commemoration ceremony was held opposite the War Heroes’ monument, in Palaly, with the participation of Security Forces Commander Darshana Hettiarachchi. Northern Province Governor and former Member of Parliament Reginald Cooray, and Anoma Fonseka, wife of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, now embroiled in a simmering controversy over his criticism of President and Commander-in-Chief Maithripala Sirisena, participated at the event.

Among the other invitees was Indian Consulate General in Jaffna, S. Balachandran. The decision to invite Jaffna-based Indian diplomat is debatable. Balachandran’s presence at the event was a grim reminder of the Indian covert and overt intervention in Sri Lanka, in the early ‘80s, leading to death and destruction on an unprecedented scale, before the eradication of terrorism, in the third week of May, nine years ago.

In fact, the recent Palaly commemoration ceremony can be compared with that of IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) officers and men killed at the hands of Indian-trained LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) terrorists in Oct. 1987. Senior representatives of Security Forces headquarters, Mullaitivu and Security Forces headquarters, Kilinochchi, too, participated at the Palaly commemoration.

A report, headlined Northern Province remembers fallen war heroes, posted on army.lk four days after the event reflected the current thinking of the decision makers. The print media largely ignored the event. However, Northern Governor Cooray should be commended for recalling tremendous sacrifices made by the military to restore normalcy. Having underscored that peace wouldn’t have been a reality without the armed forces efforts, Cooray also referred to their post-war commitments.

Decision makers are of the opinion that separate low key commemoration ceremonies can be held at provincial level during May. The bottom line is that the shameless government gave in to Western pressure to do away with the annual Victory Parade. Some Colombo-based diplomats worked overtime to discourage the then government to call off the event.

Lanka succumbs to Western pressure

On behalf of all those, who had been pursuing war crimes allegations since the conclusion of the war, against the Sri Lankan military, Canada in 2014 demanded the cancellation of the parade. Sri Lanka quite rightly rejected that blatant Canadian interference in purely a domestic matter. Although The Island had carried a threatening Canadian statement, issued ahead of the fifth Victory Day parade to be held in Matara, let me reproduce the same again.

In the run-up to the 2014 Victory Day parade, in Matara, Canada publicly declared that it wouldn’t be represented. It was the fifth Victory Day parade held amidst stepped up international pressure.

Canadian High Commissioner in Colombo, Shelly Whiting, in a strongly worded statement, issued exclusively to ‘The Island’, explained the Canadian decision to boycott the event. The writer front-paged Whiting’s statement, in the May 16, 2014 edition of The Island. The then Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya explained Sri Lanka’s right to continue with the Victory Day parade, on the following day.

The following is the text of Shelly’s statement, headlined ‘Canada to boycott Victory Day parade’ with strap line ‘such events won’t help post war national reconciliation’: "As in past years, heads of mission, resident in Sri Lanka, have recently received invitations to participate in this year’s Victory Parade, scheduled to be held, in Matara, on May 18. As Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, part of my role includes celebrating the successes of the country, alongside the Sri Lankan people. However, I will not be attending the Victory Day Parade on May 18. Some commentators will no doubt rush to judge and erroneously conclude that I am doing so out of some misplaced nostalgia for the LTTE. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let me be clear the LTTE was a scourge that brought untold suffering to this island nation and all its people.

Prior to arriving in Sri Lanka, my previous assignment was in Afghanistan where I saw first-hand the terrorist tactics (use of suicide bombers, IEDs) that are sadly the LTTE’s legacy to the world. The LTTE and its supporters were ruthless and single-minded, and did not faithfully represent the political aspirations of the communities they purported to represent. Canada joined the world in welcoming the defeat of the LTTE, in 2009. In fact, the LTTE has been proscribed as a terrorist entity in Canada since 2006. To help stop the flow of funding to the LTTE, Canada further proscribed the World Tamil Movement (WTM) in 2008. Both of these organizations remain banned in Canada today.

However, five years after the end of the conflict, the time has arrived for Sri Lanka to move past wartime discourse and to start working seriously towards reconciliation. It is time to mend relations between communities and to ensure that all Sri Lankans can live in dignity and free from discrimination, based on ethnic, religious or linguistic identities. Fathers and daughters, sons and mothers, all were victims, who were killed or never returned home at the end of the conflict. No community here – whether Sinhalese or Tamil, Muslim or Burgher – was spared during the conflict. In this vein, Canada has encouraged the Government of Sri Lanka to retire its annual Victory Day Parade, which perpetuates roles of victors and vanquished within the country, for a day of remembrance for all those who suffered as a result of the conflict. Indeed, Sri Lanka’s own homegrown Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission report recommends that a solemn day of remembrance for all victims of the war would be more conducive to sustaining peace here. Such a gesture would go a long way towards putting wartime posturing behind Sri Lanka.

I will not be in Matara, but I will be thinking and remembering all those who lost their loved ones over the 30-year conflict."

SLA in a dilemma

Joint Opposition (JO) never really challenged the government decision to cancel the Victory Day parade. Twice President Mahinda Rajapaksa, over the last weekend, referred to the cancellation at a function, held at a temple, though his political outfit was yet to take up the issue, forcefully.

In fact, parliament never really challenged the war crimes accusations propagated by various interested parties since the conclusion of the conflict and inquired into the circumstances leading to the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration decision to co-sponsor Geneva Resolution on Oct 1. 2015. The shameless decision to cancel the Victory Day parade should be examined against the backdrop of the unanimous adoption of the Resolution: Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has, subsequently, and repeatedly, reiterated its commitment to the 30/1. Sri Lanka never sought to challenge unsubstantiated war crimes allegations even after the revelation of war time British High Commission dispatches that contradicted the very basis for the Geneva Resolution.

Sri Lanka meekly gave up its right to celebrate its greatest achievement. By doing so even before agreeing to co-sponsor the Geneva Resolution, the current government betrayed the armed forces. The War-winning Rajapaksa government, too, should accept responsibility for the unfortunate situation. The Rajapaksa administration lacked a clear strategy to address accountability issues, thereby unintentionally facilitated high profile project meant to bring in selected armed forces officers, regiments and fighting formations to disrepute. The previous government didn’t at least bother to closely examine specific allegations directed at the military and the political leadership. The Rajapaksas’ failure certainly helped Western powers and their associates here to trap Sri Lanka. Their despicable project succeeded in January 2015. Soon after the change of government and the massive robbery at the Central Bank, the military was told of the decision to cancel the Victory Day parade. The government never explained why the Victory Day parade cannot be held.

Although President Maithripala Sirisena repeatedly claimed that he had been able to save the armed forces from UN strictures and action taken by individual countries, the Sri Lanka Army is now struggling to cope up with war crimes accusations.

President Sirisena, in the presence of Army Chief Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake and Defence Secretary Kapila Waidyaratne, last November assured the Army that tangible action would be taken to sort out problems. Presidential assurance was given in the wake of Australia denying a visa to Gajaba Regiment veteran Maj. Gen. Chagi Gallage for commanding the 59 Division on the Vanni east front. Gallage took over the Division on May 7, 2009-12 days before the conclusion of the conflict.

In response to inquiries made by Gallage, the Australian High Commission has stated that troops under his command certainly committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection has extensively cited Report of the OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) on Sri Lanka (OISL) to turn down Gallege’s visa. On the basis of the OISL report, Geneva adopted Resolution 30/1 to pave the way for foreign judges in a domestic judicial mechanism.

Australia also cited the UNSG Panel of Experts (PoE) report on accountability issues released on March 31, 2011. POE accused Sri Lanka of massacring over 40,000 civilians and depriving the Vanni population of their basic needs. The combined security forces brought the war to a successful conclusion on May 19, 2009.

The government turned a blind eye to Gallage’s predicament. Since then the situation has worsened, further with now the Army struggling to save its mission in Lebanon. Interested parties had protested against the appointment of Lt. Col. Rathnappuli Wasantha Kumara Hewage as the Commanding Officer of the 12th Force Protection Company (FPC) for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). They had found fault with Hewage for being involved in operations in the Vanni region. They had also accused Sri Lanka of not subjecting some of those personnel already dispatched to Lebanon to vetting procedures carried out by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL). In addition to those already sent to Lebanon in trouble over not being subjected to HRCSL vetting, the 101-strong contingent, assigned for Lebanon, is yet to leave on its assignment.

Recent statement attributed to Lt. Gen. Senanayake clearly indicated SLA’s frustration as well as lack of understanding of the situation. Let me reproduce an AFP piece by Amal Jayasinghe based on Senanayake’s address to Colombo-based foreign correspondents: "The Sri Lankan army has formed a special unit to defend itself against allegations of grave human rights abuses at the end of the country’s decades-long ethnic war.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake said the group would collate local and international reports, and establish the truth to clear the military’s name.

International rights groups accuse the military of killing 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the war which ended in May 2009. The government of the time said not one civilian was killed.

"Different people have been saying different things, but our voice has not been heard."

"That is why I set up the special directorate of overseas operations to prepare our position."

Senanayake distanced the military from the previous claims that no civilians died, and acknowledged there may have been individual excesses.

"If someone says they know of specific instances (of rights violations) we are ready to investigate," Senanayake said. "I am not going to look the other way. I want to clear the name of the army." He said there were conflicting claims of casualties from the 37-year-old Tamil separatist war.

"Different units of the army involved in the final offensive maintained figures of casualties. I want to collate all that.

"I know the (then) government said no civilian was killed, but it was not our voice. We never said that. This time, we want to come back with our story."

He said the 236,000-strong army wanted to clear its name and play a bigger role in UN international peacekeeping.

The government has said it lost at least 26,000 soldiers in the war with another 37,000 wounded. About 20,000 of the injured ended up with a permanent disability.

The Tamil Tiger rebels also lost heavily and the entire guerrilla leadership was wiped out in the military onslaught.

The government under then president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who ordered the offensive, faced international censure for refusing to acknowledge what the UN called credible allegations.

The administration which came to power in January 2015 said it was willing to investigate and pay reparations to victims, but progress has been extremely slow."

Colombo page quoted Senanayake as having said in the absence of adequate support from those outside the army, the army considers it necessary to have an organization or a think tank of its own, to defend the institution in the context of the grave charges and the defense has to be carried out with facts and figures.

"That is why I set up the special directorate of overseas operations to prepare our position," Senanayake said acknowledging that there may have been individual excesses.

Herculean task

Current Army leadership should be first convinced that systematic massacre of Vanni civilians didn’t take place as alleged by the UN on the basis of unproved and uncorroborated allegations. It’ll have to convince the political leadership to take up its case as the matter should be taken up in Geneva. The Army cannot ignore the fact that its dealings with the HRCSL will be guided by current UN assessment as regards the Army on the basis of war crimes allegations.

The British High Commission wartime dispatches from Sri Lanka should be the basis for its defence though the government turned a blind eye to immensely valuable revelations, along with those foreign news agencies that routinely refer to unsubstantiated war crimes allegations and continues to remain silent on Lord Naseby’s revelations.

The Army should examine those British dispatches along with wartime US Defence attache Lt. Colonel Lawrence Smith’s statement as regards ‘white flag’ executions and alleged surrender agreement between the then government and the LTTE, made over two years after the conclusion of the war.

It would be interesting to know whether the Army would explore the possibility of obtaining a copy of UN report on the Vanni war that dealt with loss of lives from Aug 2008 to May 13, 2009, Wiki Leaks cables on Sri Lanka war as well as correspondence between the government and various diplomatic missions. Let me reproduce one such critically important letter dated Feb. 16, 2009 written by the then Norwegian Ambassador Tore Hattrem to presidential advisor Basil Rajapaksa.

The following is the text of Ambassador Hattrem’s letter, addressed to Basil Rajapaksa: "I refer to our telephone conversation today. The proposal to the LTTE on how to release the civilian population, now trapped in the LTTE controlled area, has been transmitted to the LTTE through several channels. So far, there has been, regrettably, no response from the LTTE and it doesn’t seem to be likely that the LTTE will agree with this in the near future."

[ Shamindra is the News Editor of the Island, a daily newspaper in Colombo, where this piece first appeared]

The executive presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa is far more complex than what was designed by President J.R. Jayewardene. The executive presidency introduced in 1978 was the result of a unique turn of events that occurred in 1977.

by Sarath De Alwis

( May 15, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) History repeats, because we don’t listen the first time. Those who wanted genuine change, now pin their hopes on the 20th Amendment which would abolish the Executive Presidency and restore parliamentary rule.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency in the years 2010-2015 is remarkable for its successes and excesses. If he planned to perpetuate his rule, he did so for a good reason.

Kingship is an ancient office. Mahinda’s second term was a modern ‘kingship’. That explains the vociferous opposition to the proposed abolition of the executive presidency. When the powerful Executive President ended a war and became the unifier of the land and redeemer of his tribe, he became the anointed ruler of the tribe.

The abolition of the executive presidency will not impugn the unitary form of the Republic. That is balderdash by a segment of the Opposition that is itching for a strong man to rescue the land from democratic chaos and restore the discipline of the despot.

The executive presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa is far more complex than what was designed by President J.R. Jayewardene.
The executive presidency introduced in 1978 was the result of a unique turn of events that occurred in 1977.

The UNP received more than 50 percent of the total vote in the entire island. Under the first-past-the-post electoral system that existed in 1977, this translated into the UNP getting 5/6 of seats in Parliament. The massive mandate turned the septuagenarian JRJ into a philosopher king.

With philosophic detachment he outlined his vision. He told an interviewer, “I think you must trim your sails to your own country’s needs and resources and forget about philosophies and theories”

Fortified by this unprecedented mandate, President JRJ decided that the country needed a ‘strong and stable executive not subject to the whims and fancies of an elected legislature’. He wanted an authoritative institution ‘not afraid to take ‘correct but unpopular measures'.

The Presidency of J.R. Jayewardene ended quietly in considerable confusion. His friend, classmate and political adversary, Dr. Colvin R de Silva wrote a brilliantly incisive pamphlet, ‘The UNP Government and the Crisis of the Nation ‘summing up the times of the first executive presidency.

“To drift as we are doing under this government, offering no alternative to a state at war with a section of the people, is to drift to disaster. That is not the way to prevent what has to be prevented; namely the division of this country into two separate states which cannot survive except as client states of big powers. The UNP government has put our independence in peril. And so also, and no less, have the Tigers!"

Readers should forgive me for the extensive quote. We owe history some degree of honesty. As Kafka told us in the business of writing, let us not bend. Let us not water it down. Let us not try to make the illogical logical. Let us not edit our souls. We should follow our obsessions mercilessly.

In the case of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the dice fell differently. He won the Presidency by a whisker a quarter century later in 2005. He beat the Tigers in 2009. He became the unifier of the land.

Following the military triumph, the Executive Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa quietly acquired the prototypical character of a ‘Kingship’.

Authoritarian rule is not pure coercion. It is not only state machinery. The apparatus of coercion can coopt religious leaders to manipulate the flock to desired goals and targets. Domination of minds from within was the singular achievement of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Constitutional amendments are adopted or rejected not on their relative merits. Partisan interests have guided our constitutional evolution. If some group feels that the proposed outcome is a zero-sum game, the intended outcome was of little relevance.

Traditional institutions are conditioned to resist change to existing arrangements that function to their advantage. Traditional elites make it their business to stunt the growth and the spread of democracy.

The Buddhist clergy is such a traditional institution. They constitute a traditional elite. They are profoundly hierarchical in orientation. To them, democracy is peripheral.

With the executive presidency, we created an agency that was superior to the elected Parliament. It was a manipulative authority concentrated in the hands of a single person.

Under the first executive presidency, life of Parliament was extended by a decidedly flawed referendum. It was pure and simple slaughter of democracy.

Historian Isaac Deutscher described the murders of German Socialist pioneers Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht in 1919 as the last triumph of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Hohenzollern Germany and the first triumph of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

The Referendum held under the Executive Presidency of JRJ was the last triumph of the UNP that won independence for Ceylon. It was the first triumph of the autocracy of Mahinda Rajapaksa that ended the civil war in Sri Lanka.

When you trample on freedom, you leave footprints for successors. Relative morality is the name of the game.

The parallel is cited for one reason only. The study of history compels us to confront chaos while retaining our faith in its order and meaning.

The successful conclusion of the war made Mahinda Rajapaksa something more than an Executive President. He became the unifier of the motherland, redeemer of the Dhammadveepa – the land of the righteous. The three principal sects of Sangha fraternity have bestowed on Mahinda Rajapaksa exotic titles usually associated with our ancient kings: Vishva Kirti Sri Sinhaladhisvara, Sri Vira Vikrama Lankadhisvara, Sri Lanka Rajavamsa Vibhushana Dharmadvipa Cakravarti.”

This should not surprise us. The clergy as it is constituted today is an institution that operates on the principle of inequality and a top down flow of power and authority.

The memory of kings has a tenacious hold on the Sinhala Buddhist Sangha fraternity. That hold is less spiritual and more political.

Political institutions cannot be fashioned independent of the customs and practices of a society.

Today, the proposed abolition of the executive presidency has provoked a high-pitched opposition from an influential section of the Maha Sangha. The pro-Rajapaksa clerical troopers are versatile practitioners of the art of intimidatory persuasion. They proceed on the theory that he who shouts loudest is heard most.

They are most comfortable with a coercive disciplinary state that guarantees their tenure as shepherds of the flock. Past glories constitute their principal platform. Confronting enemies of the nation is their primary occupation.

They are pronounced partisans of the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led opposition. It is therefore obvious that they not only wish to preserve the powerful executive presidency but would like a Mahinda Rajapaksa proxy to reoccupy it. There is logic behind the move. The military victory over the separatists has had a seismic impact on the executive presidency.

Mahinda was indeed a ‘King’ to his followers. He still is. He will remain on this perch or pedestal as long as that section of the Buddhist clergy succeeds in sustaining the Sinhala Supremacist sentiment.

Mahinda defeated separatism and unified the country. He is the modern hero king. There is indeed some popular basis to this notion. That said, it is clear that in Ven Medagoda Abayatissa thero, spearheading the opposition to the abolition of the executive presidency, he has an an image maker of great promise. He is able to present the sales pitch as scripture and doctrine.

Monarchist sentiment was never completely extinguished in Sri Lanka. The Kandyan Convention was an instrument that enabled the monastic orders of Kandy to continue state sponsored rituals. The Monastic elite accepted the British King. As an eminent social anthropologist recently pointed out, among our traditional Buddhist clergy, “embers of monarchist fantasy lie beneath, ready to be ignited at the slightest opportunity.”

Post war triumphalism anointed the Executive Presidency with a sanctity associated normally with ancient Kings in our folklore.

The Rajapaksa regime found that a restoration of a new indigenous order – part feudal, part oligarchic, replete with a religio-magical legitimization, would be politically more rewarding than reaching out to genuine reconciliation.
So, we are back in a drift, just as comrade Colvin pointed out in the eighties.

The drive to glorify a vanished past, was a thinly disguised political project that constructed a paternalistic kingship associated with the executive presidency. Parallel to the process of making a ‘ Maharajano’ was the idea that the Sinhala people are the true citizens of the land and others are guests who must not demand more than their due.

This trend had other negative consequences. The culture of impunity became firmly entrenched. Dissent was construed anti national. Ethnic supremacy of the modern kingship had a price: Our freedom.

The attack on public education is one side of the neoliberal ledger. The other side is the explosion of the punishing state with its accelerated apparatuses of incarceration and militarization.

by Henry A. Giroux

( May 15, 2018, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) Since Donald Trump’s election in November 2016, there have been few occasions to feel hopeful about politics. But now we are witnessing a proliferation of causes for hope, as brave students from Parkland, Florida, and equally courageous teachers throughout the United States lead movements of mass demonstrations, walkouts, and strikes.

The United States is in the midst of a crisis of values, ethics, and politics. It has been decades in the making, produced largely by a neoliberal system that has subordinated all aspects of social life to the dictates of the market while stripping assets from public goods and producing untenable levels of inequality. What we are now living through is the emergence of a new political formation in which neoliberalism has put on the mantle of fascism.

Amidst this cataclysm, public schools have been identified as a major threat to the conservative ruling elite because public education has long been integral to U.S. democracy’s dependence on an informed, engaged citizenry. Democracy is predicated on faith in the capacity of all humans for intelligent judgment, deliberation, and action, but this innate capacity must be nurtured. The recognition of this need explains why the United States has, since its earliest days, emphasized the value of public education at least as an ideal. An education that teaches one to think critically and mediate charged appeals to one’s emotions is key to making power accountable and embracing a mature sense of the social contract.

The assault on public education, the slow violence of teacher disenfranchisement, and the fast violence of guns can only be understood as part of a larger war on liberal democracy.

Now, as our public schools are stretched to their breaking, their students and teachers are leading the call for a moral awakening. Both argue that the crisis of public schooling and the war on youth are related, and that the assaults on public schooling can only be understood as part of a larger war on liberal democracy.

No one movement or group can defeat the powerful and connected forces of neoliberal fascism, but energized young people and teachers are helping to open a space in which change looks more possible than at any time in the recent past. The Parkland students have embraced a grassroots approach and teachers are following their lead. Both are primed for action and are ready to challenge those eager to dismantle the public education system. They recognize that education is a winning issue because most Americans still view it as a path through which their children can gain access to decent jobs and a good life. The usual neoliberal bromides advocating privatization, charter schools, vouchers, and teaching for the test have lost all legitimacy at a moment when the ruling elite act with blatant disregard for the democratizing ethos that has long been a keystone of our society.

All of the states in which teachers have engaged in wildcat strikes, demonstrations, and protests have been subject to the toxic austerity measures that have come to characterize the neoliberal economy. In these states, teachers have faced low and stagnant wages, crumbling and overfilled classrooms, lengthening work days, and slashed budgets that have left them without classroom essentials such as books and even toilet paper—necessities that, in many cases, teachers have purchased themselves with their paltry salaries. It is significant that teachers have refused to confine their protests to the immediate needs of their profession or the understandable demand for higher wages. Rather, they have couched these demands within a broader critique of the war on public goods, calling repeatedly for more funding for schools in order to provide students with decent conditions for learning.

Likewise, students protesting gun violence have contextualized their demands for gun control by addressing the roots of gun violence in state violence and political and economic disenfranchisement. Refusing to be silenced by politicians bought and sold by the NRA, these students have called for a vision of social justice rooted in the belief that they can not only challenge systemic oppression, but can change the fundamental nature of an oppressive social order. They recognize that they have not only been treated as disposable populations written out of the script of democracy, they also are capable of using the new tools of social media to surmount the deadening political horizons preached by conventional media outlets and established politicians.

What is so promising about the student-led movement is that not only is it exposing the politicians and gun lobbies that argue against gun control and reframe the gun debate while endangering the lives of young people, they have also energized millions of youth by encouraging a sense of individual and collective agency. They are asking their peers to mobilize against gun violence, vote in the midterm November elections, and be prepared for a long struggle against the underlying ideologies, structures, and institutions that promote death-dealing violence in the United States. As Charlotte Alter pointed out in TIME:

They envision a youth political movement that will address many of the other issues affecting the youngest Americans. [Parkland student leader David] Hogg says he would like to have a youth demonstration every year on March 24, harnessing the power of teenage anger to demand action on everything from campaign-finance reform to net neutrality to climate change.

This statement makes clear that these young people recognize that the threat they face goes far beyond the gun debate and that what they need to address is a wider culture of cruelty, silence, and indifference. Violence comes in many forms, some hidden, many more spectacularized, cultivated, valued, eroticized, and normalized. Some are fast, and others are slow, and thus harder to perceive. The key is to address the underlying structures and relations of power that give rise to this landscape of both spectacular gun violence and the everyday violence experienced by the poor, people of color, the undocumented, and other “disposable” people. The attack on public education and the rights and working conditions of teachers is one side of the neoliberal ledger. The other side is the explosion of the punishing state with its accelerated apparatuses of containment, militarized police, borders, walls, mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the creation of an armed society. These issues need to be connected as part of a wider refusal to equate rapacious, neoliberal capitalism with democracy.

The Parkland student movement and the teacher walkouts have already advanced the possibilities of mass resistance by connecting the dots between the crises that each group is experiencing. The “slow violence” (to borrow Rob Nixon’s term) of teacher disenfranchisement needs to be understood in relation to the fast violence that has afflicted students, both of which arise from a state that has imported the language of perpetual war into its relationship with its citizens. As Judith Levine points out, every public sphere has been transformed into a virtual war zone, “a zone of permanent vigilance, enforcement, and violence.”

In the face of this, the need is for disruptive social movements that call for nothing less than the restructuring of U.S. society. In the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr., this means a revolution in values, a shift in public consciousness, and a change in power relations and public policies. The Parkland students and the teachers protesting across the nation are not only challenging the current attacks on public education, they also share an effort in constructing a new narrative about the United States—one that reengages the public’s ethical imagination toward developing an equitable, just, and inclusive democracy. Their protests point to the possibility of a new public imagination that moves beyond the narrow realm of specific interest to a more comprehensive understanding of politics that is rooted in a practice of open defiance to corporate tyranny. This is a politics that refuses “leftist” centrism, the extremism of the right, and a deeply unequal society modeled on the iniquitous precarity and toxic structures of savage capitalism. This new political horizon foreshadows the need to organize new political formations, massive social movements, and a third political party that can make itself present in a variety of institutional, educational, social, and cultural spheres.

What the teacher and student protests have made clear is that change and coalition-building are possible, and that real change can be made through mass collective movements inspired by hope in the service of a radical democracy. This is a movement that must make education central to its politics and be willing to develop educational spheres which listen to and speak to the concrete problems that educators, students, minorities of color and class, and others face in a world moving into the abyss of tyranny.

The long-term success of the movements begun by the teachers and students will likely hinge on whether they connect with wider struggles for minority rights, economic justice, and social equality. If they open to a vision of shared struggle, they may find their way to a radical democratic recuperation that benefits all people whose needs are being sacrificed on the altar of neoliberal fascism. What we have learned from the student and teacher demonstrations is that politics depends “on the possibility of making the public exist in the first place” and that what we share in common is more important than what separates us. At a time when tyranny is on the rise and the world seems deprived of radical imagination, such courageous acts of mass resistance are a welcome relief and hopeful indicator of an energetic struggle to secure a democratic future.

Russia has spent several years helping the Syrian Army clear Syria of the terrorists that Washington sent to overthrow the Syrian government.

by Paul Craig Roberts

( May 15, 2018, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) I have explained Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Christian practice of turning the other cheek to Western provocations as a strategy to convey to Europe that Russia is reasonable but Washington is not and that Russia is not a threat to European interests and sovereignty but Washington is. By accommodating Israel and withdrawing from the multi-nation Iran nuclear-nonproliferation agreement, US President Donald Trump might have brought success to Putin’s strategy.

Washington’s three main European vassal states, Britain, France, and Germany have objected to Trump’s unilateral action. Trump is of the opinion that the multi-nation agreement depends only on Washington. If Washington renounces the agreement, that is the end of the agreement. It doesn’t matter what the other parties to the agreement want. Consequently, Trump intends to reimpose the previous sanctions against doing business with Iran and to impose additional new sanctions. If Britain, France, and Germany continue with the business contracts that have been made with Iran, Washington will sanction its vassal states as well and prohibit activities of British, French, and German countries in the US. Clearly, Washington thinks that Europe’s profits in the US exceed what can be made in Iran and will fall in line with Washington’s decision, as the vassal states have done in the past.

And they might. But this time there is a backlash. Whether it will go beyond strong words to a break with Washington remains to be seen. Trump’s neoconservative pro-Israel National Security Advisor John Bolton has ordered European companies to cancel their business deals in Iran. Trump’s ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has ordered German companies to immediately wind down their business operations in Iran. The bullying of Europe and blatant US disregard of European interests and sovereignty has made Europe’s long vassalage suddenly all too apparent and uncomfortable.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, previously a loyal Washington puppet, said that Europe can no longer trust Washington and must “take its destiny into its own hands.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Washington’s leadership had failed and it was time for the EU to take over the leadership role and to “replace the United States.” Various French, German, and British government ministers have echoed these sentiments.

The cover story of the German news magazine Der Spiegel, “Goodbye Europe,” has Trump giving Europe the middle finger. The magazine declares that it is “Time for Europe to Join the Resistance.”

Although European politicians have been well paid for their vassalage, they might now be finding it an unworthy and uncomfortable burden.

Whereas I respect the virtue of Putin’s refusal to reply to provocation with provocation, I have expressed concern that Putin’s easy acceptance of provocations will encourage more provocations that will increase in intensity until war or Russian surrender become the only options, whereas if the Russian government took a more aggressive position against the provocations, it would bring the danger and cost of the provocations home to the Europeans whose compliance with Washington enables the provocations. Now it seems that perhaps Trump himself has taught that lesson to the Europeans.

Russia has spent several years helping the Syrian Army clear Syria of the terrorists that Washington sent to overthrow the Syrian government. However, despite the Russian/Syrian alliance, Israel continues illegal military attacks on Syria. These attacks could be stopped if Russia would provide Syria with the S-300 air defense system.

Israel and the US do not want Russia to sell the S-300 air defense system to Syria, because Israel wants to continue to attack Syria and the US wants Syria to continue to be attacked. Otherwise, Washington would call Israel off.

Several years ago before Washington sent its Islamist proxy troops to attack Syria, Russia agreed to sell Syria an advanced air defense system, but gave in to Washington and Israel and did not deliver the system. Now again in the wake of Netanyahu’s visit to Russia we hear from Putin’s aide Vladimir Kozhim that Russia is continuing to withhold modern air defenses from Syria.

Perhaps Putin believes he has to do this in order not to give Washington an issue that could be used to pull Europe back in line with Washington’s policy of aggression. Nevertheless, for those who do not see it this way, it makes Russia again look weak and unwilling to defend an ally.

If Putin believes that he will have any influence on Netanyahu in terms of selling peace agreements with Syria and Iran, the Russian government has no understanding of Israel’s intent or Washington’s 17 years of war in the Middle East.

I hope Putin’s strategy works. If it doesn’t, he will have to change his stance toward provocations or they will lead to war.

Saudi, UAE and Bahrain line up behind Israel

Brutalized by tyrants helpless and voiceless Muslims worldwide seethe with anger

by Latheef Farook

( May 15, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The evangelical Christian Zionist bigot turned United States President Donald Trump opened US Embassy in Jerusalem, in line with his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Monday 14 May 2018.

He continued the US tradition of rewarding Zionist Jewish aggressors began seventy years ago by late US President Harry Truman who blackmailed developing countries to vote for a United Nations resolution to partition Palestine and create the State of Israel in Palestinian lands.

During the partition in 1948 Zionists grabbed much of West Jerusalem backed by its US-European supporters. East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in its June 1967 war of aggression against Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Seventy years later today Trump announced his decision to move the US embassy last December and formally recognized the city as the capital of Jerusalem. It marked the fulfillment of a campaign promise he made to the pro-Israel group American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

This was done on the day before the Palestinians observed the Day of Catastrophe- Nabka, marking the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and lands by Zionist Jews. In doing so Trump dismissed the sentiments of the entire Muslim world including the Saudi tyrants who collaborate with US and Israel in their conspiracies against Islam and Muslims.

This marks one of the most shameful days in the more than 14 century history of Islam and Muslims. This also demonstrates the pathetic bankruptcy of the Middle East in particular where ruling tyrants refuse to allow people to express their anger.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, senior White House advisers and best friends of Saudi Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, arrived in Israel a day ahead on Sunday morning, as part of a delegation to participate in the U.S. Embassy’s move to Jerusalem.

Critics say the decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital could make a region already struggling with four ongoing conflicts all the more combustible. And they argue it marks the end of the US role as an "honest broker" in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who now directs the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, said that with tensions between Iran and Israel escalating in Syria, President Donald Trump is now "only a few days away from throwing another can of gasoline on the fire by moving the embassy to Jerusalem. It's very dangerous."

The Embassy move, is contentious for Palestinians, who hope to claim part of the city as their future capital, and for many in the Muslim world, as it is home to some of the holiest sites in Islam. The issue has been so thorny that international negotiators had left the question of Jerusalem to the final stages of any peace deal.

In 1995, Congress passed a law requiring America to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but every president since then has declined to make the move, citing national security interests.

The State Department noted that the opening will take place on the 70th anniversary of American recognition of the State of Israel, the day of its founding and a day that Palestinians refer to as "the Catastrophe," as hundreds of thousands fled their homes.

While the entire Muslim world felt helpless and humiliated and Palestinians were subjected to Israeli barbarity, Abu Dhabi and Manama started moving ahead with normalization with Israel, just as Riyadh did before them.

Father Manuel Musallam, member of the Christian-Islamic Committee in Support of Jerusalem and the Holy Places, said in video footage released this weekend that only a new Saladin will liberate Palestine from the occupation,

He explained that the road to liberate Jerusalem will start in Gaza and a new Saladin would need to be born to free the country from the occupation, in reference to the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin, whose forces captured or killed the vast majority of the Crusader forces and freed Palestine from them in 1187.

Calling for mandatory conscription by all political Palestinian factions, Musallam said he supports fighters who use tunnels to enter Israeli army barracks undetected to capture soldiers and hold them as prisoners of war.

Jerusalem is a city sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and each religion has sites of great significance there. Jerusalem has been fought over for millennia by its inhabitants, and by regional powers and invaders including the Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, early Muslim rulers, Crusaders, Ottomans, the British Empire and by the modern states of Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Columnist Dr Mohammed Saleh Al-Misfer said Mohammed Bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, had said that the Palestinian issue is no longer Saudi Arabia’ priority. This is disgusting for Arabs and Muslims. He recognized Israel’s right to establish their and said that there are common interests between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, he stated that the Palestinians should either accept what is being offered to them (the deal of the century) or “shut up”.

Saudi Arabia is reportedly pressing the Israeli stooge, Mahmoud Abbas, to accept a peace plan that would involve Palestinian control of disconnected enclaves in the West Bank – dotted with illegal Israeli settlements – and make do with the East Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis, beyond the separation barrier, as a capital. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is said to have worked this out with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

The question is whether the Saudi monarchy needs to court and move towards Israel. Referring to Israel, the founder of the third Saudi state, the late King Abdul-Aziz said: “The danger of Zionism in Palestine is not a threat to Palestine alone, but a danger that threatens all of the Arab states.” The truth is that this danger is still alive and its first victim will by the Saudi state. The truth of the matter is that the Saudi state does not need to please any other force in the world other than the Saudi people.

The most shameful state of affairs is that US treats Muslims as dirt and the Saudi regime, the so called custodian of two holy mosques in Makkah and Madina, depends on this very Islam’s enemy Number One for its survival.

"Jerusalem is a red line for Muslims," said Turkish President Erdogan. "We implore the US once again: You cannot take this step."

Since the announcement there has been tension, with Palestinian protests in Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. More than 40 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops in Gaza during a six-week border protest. On 14 May 2018 alone 52 Palestinians were killed and more than 2000 injured some of them seriously.

This is war crime by all means and Israeli stooge Mahmud Abbas has refused to take Israel to war crimes tribunal.

That protest culminates on May 15, a day Palestinians traditionally lament homes and land lost as Israel was created in 1948, given extra significance this year because it falls on the day after the U.S. Embassy move.

According to the Times of Israel, quisling Mahmud Abbas stated that following a “peace settlement” with Israel, “East Jerusalem will be ours and West Jerusalem theirs.” Anadolu Agency also reported Abbas as saying, “The administration of Palestine will not allow US President Donald Trump or anyone else to call Jerusalem Israel’s capital.”

Abbas, though, is in no position to dictate what Trump calls Jerusalem, not only because of the power imbalance, but also as a result of the PA’s pandering to Israeli, US and international demands.

In line with the two-state compromise, Abbas is promoting the fragmentation of Jerusalem, which runs contrary to the overall Palestinian anti-colonial struggle. The PA’s failure to define Jerusalem from a Palestinian perspective makes Abbas’s rhetoric deeply flawed. Fragmenting Jerusalem into East and West, within a colonial and military occupation framework, only benefits Israel, which has appropriated Palestinian territory in the same manner. For Abbas to utilize an internationally-accepted imposition which gives Israel guarantees for further appropriation does not constitute a fight against Trump and the other countries which are expected to follow suit with embassy moves.

The PA’s approach is one that will only elicit warnings against violations of Palestinian rights. It is an outdated strategy from which only Israel stands to gain. Palestinians are not only fighting Trump’s decision; they are also fighting the colonial process. For Abbas, however, selecting Jerusalem as a priority has nothing to do with Palestinian rights. It is merely a means of clinging to a visible violation within safe parameters, with the obvious outcome of having the international community dictate proceedings through its silence.

Based on these landmark developments and in recognition of a number of other cogent reasons, Buddhists from all over the world have good cause to be proud of the high esteem the Supreme Self-enlightened Buddha, and also, of the reverence the Sublime Dhamma He unravelled and taught for the benefit of all humankind, enjoys throughout the world.

by Ambassador Dato’ Dr Ananda Kumaraseri

( May 7, 2018, Kuala Lumpur, Sri Lanka Guardian) Vesak is today observed, all around the world, as one of the most auspicious days in the year. The Full Moon Day of Vesak embraces the commemoration of the trice-sacred day of the birth of the Buddha in the Royal Gardens in Lumbini, His Supreme Self-enlightenment in Buddha Gaya, and the Maha Parinibbna or the Passing Away of the Buddha into Nibbana in Kusinara. The term Vesak is derived from the Pali word, “Vesakha” or its Sanskrit reference, “Vaishakha” for the month of Mayin the Gregorian calendar. Vesak thus usually falls during the period April to May each year.

As a result of the initiative of the Sri Lanka Government, more specifically the diplomatic acumen and strive of the island republic’s Foreign Minister, the late Mr, Kadiragama, the celebration of Vesak rightly assumed an international dimension and profile in contemporary times. To recapitulate briefly the astute diplomacy that finally brought this landmark achievement; on 13^th of December 1979, the General Assembly of the United Nations recognised the fact that the Buddha Dhamma is one of the world’s oldest religions. The august Assembly also noted that for over 2550 years, the religion has made, and continues to make, significant contributions towards the welfare and wellbeing of humankind in numerous fields of endeavour. It envisaged that the Buddha Dhamma without question would play a pivotal role in humankind’s future success, wellbeing, happiness, harmony and peace, than ever before in the history of humankind. In pursuance of the lofty goal to further promote the profound contributions of the Buddha Dhamma in the world, the United Nations resolved that from the year 2000 onwards, Vesak would be internationally observed and appropriately celebrated globally. Since then Vesak has been celebrated across the world in keeping with the lofty ennobling age-old spiritual tradition, culture and rich history and civilisation of the Buddha Dhamma.

Based on these landmark developments and in recognition of a number of other cogent reasons, Buddhists from all over the world have good cause to be proud of the high esteem the Supreme Self-enlightened Buddha, and also, of the reverence the Sublime Dhamma He unravelled and taught for the benefit of all humankind, enjoys throughout the world. For indeed, the Buddha who, among His many inspiring epithets, is unreservedly honoured universally as the, “Flower of Humankind” and the, “Teacher of gods and Men”, is without question, the greatest human being ever known in the history of humankind. Equally significant is the fact that some of the most renowned personages throughout history are devout disciples or followers of the Buddha Dhamma. They include Arahant Nagarjuna the Patriarch of Mahayana Buddhism, Venerable Kumarajiva who spread the Buddha Dhamma in ancient China, Emperor Dhammasoka who is recognised as the greatest king of not only India, but of the world, the illustrious Emperor Kanishka of the Kushan Dynasty, the great compassionate and benevolent Buddhist emperors of China, and Buddhist kings of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia. In the modern era we have illustrious Buddhist leaders such as Anagarika Dharamapala, the unparalleled reformist leader of the masses of downtrodden Indians, Babasheib Dr Ambedkar, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama to name a few towering personages.

Bodhisatva Prince Siddhartha was groomed and trained from a young age in Arthasastra and warrior skills to fulfil the prophesied destiny of Him becoming a Chakravathi Raja or a King of Kings. He was persistently taught to pursue the entrenched political ethos of Digvijaya, of territorial conquest and the subjugation and exploitation of conquered peoples based on this overriding political ethos of ruling vast territories by ruthless bloody military conquest. But He chose instead to be a Chakravathi Dhamma by attaining Bodhi or Supreme Self-enlightenment and thereby created an even larger and lasting Kingdom of Righteousness. His Universal Kingdom of Righteousness exists to this day and remains as vibrant as ever with the ever increasing understanding, and devout embrace and practice of the Buddha Dhamma, in all regions of the world today.

The Buddha spent 45 long-years criss-crossing Northeastern India, from village to village, town to town, city to city and kingdom to kingdom to teach the Sublime Dhamma to all strata of society. They included many Brahmana high priests and other religious leaders and their followers. In fact many of His Arahant Disciples were hitherto Brahmin priests. In addition, kings, queens, princes, princesses, aristocrats, noblemen, merchants traders, artisans, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers were taught by the Supreme Self-enlightened Buddha on how to live a meaningful, noble, successful, healthy, harmonious and peaceful life.

Further, the Dhamma the Buddha taught brought forth a bust of freedom and a most powerful liberation of the creative spirit in the Indian psyche. This free spirit of inquiry and creativity likewise were ignited in the countries the religion spread and took root. This explains the uniqueness of the Buddha Dhamma of possessing well springs of creative excellence in all art forms, creativity, learning, scholarship etc. The cradles of civilization such as Ghandara and Taxasila, the fabulous Ajantha and Ellora Caves, the many historical Buddhist sites all across the Indian sub-continent, in China, Mongolia, the Korean Peninsula, Japan and Southeast Asia, is an unsurpassed enriching history and civilisation of Buddha Dhamma. This awe inspiring culturally steeped Buddhist heritage spawned a spiritually inspired flowering of and holistic education and creativity evident in the wellsprings of and artistic expression in various modes in the great Buddhist civilizations that blossomed across Asia.

India is without question a glorious Buddhabumi -- a heritage which every Indian should be proud of and be inspired to imbue the Sublime teachings of the Buddha. As such, great substance and meaning have to be given by the Government and people of India to live up to their noble nomenclature of India as Buddhabumi. We are to recall with gratification, Prime Minister Nerandra Modi’s initiative and the efforts of past prime ministers to perpetuate the special status and role of India as Buddhabumi by spreading the Buddha Dhamma, and, the religion’s rich cultural and civilisational heritage to the masses in India and to the world, as an integral of national policy. The many projects and programs in promoting the ethos of the Buddha Dhamma in India are worthy of appreciative applause. It is equally noteworthy that Prime Minister Nerander Modi has also made it a point to project his empathy and deep shraddha or confidence in the greatness and wholesomeness of the Buddha Dhamma in his numerous –personal participation and patronage of Buddhist events and programs in India. Significantly, he has likewise demonstrated his empathy towards the Buddha Dhamma in his overseas sojourns, especially on his Official Visits to traditional Buddhist countries such as to Japan and Sri Lanka.

India is without question a glorious Buddhabumi -- a heritage which every Indian should be proud of and be inspired to imbue the Sublime teachings of the Buddha.

On this auspicious Vesak Full Moon, I wish to invoke the fervent prayer among the world Buddhist fraternity that the sacred places of the Buddha Dhamma in India be managed by Buddhist. It is to be recalled at this juncture that it was as the result of the courageous untiring efforts of Anagarika Dharmapala of Sri Lanka who risked his life to secure the administration of Maha Bodhi Vihara which is the most sacred place of Buddhists, instead of unjustly by the Hindu Mahantha, the Maha Bodhi Act of 1949 was legislated. The Act was aimed at placating, the growing disenchantment expressed by the Buddhist around the world at that time over the pathetic state of the Sri Maha Bodhi Vihara and other ancient Buddhist sacred shrines and sites in India. It provided for an eight-member Management Committee comprising four Hindus, including the Mahantha, four followers of the Buddha Dhamma and the District Magistrate of Gaya as Ex-Officio Chairman, who mandatorily has to be a Hindu.

The sad and painful fact is that, in reality, the Sri Maha Bodhi Vihara continues to be managed by Hindus, whilst the sanctity of the sacred shrine continues to suffer improper management. This paradoxical situation goes against the very ethos of justice, multiculturalism and inter-religious understanding and harmony which India avows to uphold.

This paradox of the most sacred place of a religion being managed by people of another religious persuasion is unprecedented in the world. It will be hugely constructive, if Prime Minister Nerendra Modi were to legislate that religious and lay leaders of the Buddha Dhamma are henceforth responsible for the management of the Sri Maha Bodhi Vihara and other sacred Buddhist sites in India. In the all-embracing compassion the Buddha personified and taught, we pray that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will forthwith rectify this injustice the world Buddhist fraternity had had to bear for far too long. While on this point, I wish to also appeal to the compassion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of the fervent prayer of the world Buddhist fraternity for the name of spiritually steeped town, where the Buddha attained Supreme Self-enlightenment, be reverted to its correct historical and spiritual name, “Buddha Gaya” in place of Bodhgaya. This is all the more so imperative since it is commonly contended that Bodhgaya connotes that a person’s mental faculty has left her or him. The time is long overdue for this corrupted nuance of the most sacred place of the world’s Buddhist fraternity to be rectified so as to correctly project and promote Indian’s glorious Buddhist ethos. In the same spirit, the State of Bihar should rightly be renamed Vihara Bumi – the Land of Viharas which has characterises the State since the time of the Supremely Self-enlightened Buddha. I must say that the world Buddhist fraternity feels confident that under the leadership of Prime Minister Neranda Modi, or for that matter, of any Prime Minister, India can, and indeed must, play a leadership role in sharing the Supremely Self-enlightened Buddha’s Teaching and the cultural and civilisational heritage the religion has bequeathed for the benefit of all humankind.

Viewed from a global perspective the Dhamma that the Buddha taught is more relevant today than ever before in human history. The Buddha Dhamma provides an effective and practical way to address the ever-escalating global problems and challenges such of environmental degradation, climate change, peace building, embracing diversity and multiculturalism, prevention of drug abuse and a host of other social ills and crimes. The Buddha Dhamma provides a realistic and effective framework for humankind to live a noble and contended life and enjoy real lasting happiness and inner peace here and now in this very life regardless of one’s clime. The Supremely Self-enlightened Buddha realised that ignorance of the realities of life and of Nature is the Root Cause of human suffering and misery. Upon attaining Buddhahood or Supreme Self-enlightenment, the Buddha taught that the way to address the Root Cause is to cultivate the mind which is the forerunner of all of our thoughts, speech and actions. Based on Right Understanding of the realities of life and Nature, the Buddha unravelled and taught the Noble Eightfold Path for us to live successful, healthy, happy, peaceful, meaningful lives. Briefly, the Eightfold Path to live a wholesome and purposeful life comprises: Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration which can be followed by anyone irrespective of her or his religious persuasion, culture, ethnicity, gender, social status or station in life.

Viewed from a global perspective the Dhamma that the Buddha taught is more relevant today than ever before in human history.

The Buddha’s sole motive and motivation was to overcome the universal reality of dukkha or unsatisfactoriness and aversions of humanity by showing the path of attaining sukha or real lasting happiness. He expounded a wholesome way of thinking and living that is eminently applicable to all human beings. His Teaching is especially meaningful to our contemporary high-pressured world where people live hurried lives and are uncertain of how to cope with the ever-mounting demands and stresses we encounter daily. By the pedagogy of His own life-example, the Buddha taught us to develop our spirituality realistically and effectively by cultivating our mind and eradicating it of defilements. If we were to remove the religious labels Buddhism and Buddhist, and objectively and dispassionately examine the Buddha’s Teaching; we will find a comprehensive and effective framework for humankind to achieve contentment and lasting happiness or sukha.

In addition, apart from the profound spiritual revelations and Universal Truths the Buddha Dhamma embodies, one can find in the Buddha’s Teaching, a complete system of education and a training program for personal self-development, and the way to actualise excellence of one’s innate skills and talents. For, in a sentence, the Buddha Dhamma is a comprehensive education and a training programme for actualizing success, wellbeing, happiness and inner peace here and now in this very life. Furthermore, the Buddhist way of life is based on a sound moral and ethical code which ensures the holistic development and progress of the individual, the family and the larger society. Thus, on a broader social dimension or matrix, the Buddha Dhamma provides a realistic framework for realising universally sought objectives such as mutual understanding, tolerance, patience, goodwill, harmony and peace. These are essential for fostering wholesome, socially structured stable societies which world leaders should take heed.

The Dhamma the Buddha unravelled and taught is based on the cumulative experiences of humankind. In this sense, the Buddha Dhamma is regarded as the common heritage of humankind. The Buddha disclaimed any outright monopoly over the Sublime Dhamma. The forty-five years the Buddha spent in dispensing the Dhamma was undertaken purely out of His Maha Karuna (All-encompassing Compassion) for disillusioned, suffering humanity. The Buddha repeatedly declared that anyone, including those belonging to other religions, can practise the Dhamma and benefit greatly from the Teaching here and now in this very life. This is because in essence, Buddhism calls on us, “To avoid evil thoughts and actions; to do what is wholesome and to purify the mind”. The thrust in the Buddha Dhamma is the cultivation of a wholesome mental self-culture that is so essential for o0ne’s personal self-development, success, wellbeing, happiness and inner peace.

The Dhamma the Buddha unravelled and taught is based on the cumulative experiences of humankind. In this sense, the Buddha Dhamma is regarded as the common heritage of humankind.

Objective analysis and dispassionate judgement are fundamental to Buddhism. The Buddha was absolutely rational in His thinking and approach to addressing spiritual as well as temporal matters. He maintained that a person should accept a doctrine or belief only after proper and thorough investigation. This means that the Dhamma must first be preceded by Right Understanding. Further, the Buddha Dhamma has to be practised and experienced in daily life, for it offers a practical and effective guide to managing one’s life successfully and meaningfully. Apart from these cogent benefits to be derived by practising the Buddha Dhamma, it is to be appreciated that the Sublime Teachings of the Buddha provides great therapeutic benefits that would enhance one’s well-being, happiness and inner peace by reinforcing and enhancing the symbiotic relationship between one’s mind and the body.

The Buddha’s Teaching transcends religious and other barriers that have been devised by narrow, religious leaders who proclaim their religion as being superior. To further their ulterior selfish interests, they have deliberately misguided people into doing their sinister bigoted biddings and jeopardised harmony and social stability. This is truly unfortunate since the goal of all religious teachings is moral uplift. The Buddha endeavoured to change our way of thinking through his Maha Karuna and not by injecting unwholesome and negative techniques such as through fear psychosis of harsh retributions by an Omnipotent Being, or by coercion of any other sort. His call to promote a correct and meaningful approach to one’s inward development through self-investigation, self-reliance and self-practise of the Dhamma would most certainly ensure healthy and stable societies irrespective of the clime. The Buddha Dhamma thus provides a realistic framework to forge wholesome, vibrant societies that would effectively prevent social, political, economic ills and other unprecedented challenges presently characterising the so-called modern world.

In respect to the celebration of Wesak, in countries where the Buddha Dhamma has been traditionally practised, the auspicious spiritual festival is celebrated by numerous meaningful religious undertakings, cultural traditions, spiritual togetherness and wholesome rejoicing among devotees from all strata of society who gather at viharas from dawn. In sharp contrast to most religious festivals of other faiths, Wesak is celebrated in a most unique manner. The religious festival is completely devoid of merry-making, feasting and sensual indulgences. The religious celebration begins with the hoisting of the Buddhist Flag and the recitation of geethas or Buddhist devotional hymns, followed with the observance of religious ceremonies such as puja offerings as expression of veneration to the Noble triple Gem (namely the Buddha , Dhamma and the Maha Sangha), and recitation of sutras or religious verses. The display of a colourful festival of lights, the construction of towering illustrative pandals(murals depicting the life of the Buddha and Jataka Katas or moral folk stories), and display of large decorative lanterns of various designs and sizes abound the viharas and in public parks and grounds.

The religious festivals and festivities bring forth spiritual exertion among devotees. Their various noble acts of metta (unconditional friendliness or boundless goodwill) and karuna (indiscriminate compassion to all living beings and Nature), spring forth unreservedly from their compassionate hearts. This manifests in various charitable deeds of giving to the needy and caring for all living beings and Nature. In viharas where the community customarily congregates, one would find streams of devotees making their way, right from the early hours of the morning until late into the night to partake in the religious celebrations. They express by various symbolic and tangible deeds, their shraddha in the Buddha Dhamma. Acts of veneration are performed by offering flowers, burning incenses and lighting oil lamps and candles in honour of the World Renowned One, the Buddha. Pirith (recitation of protective sutras)is chanted. Pujas are observed invoking the aspiration for unconditional benevolence, goodwill, friendliness, wellbeing, happiness and peace, in the all-embracing compassionate spirit of the Buddha Dhamma.

On this auspicious thrice-sacred day, significantly, fulfilment of dana is preferred by devotees as a more meaningful way to celebrate than to wine and dine and engage in sensual self-indulgences.

The various religious observances and time spent in reflective prayers also render the celebration of Wesak a special effort on the part of devotees to bring happiness to the unfortunate, the aged, the disadvantaged and the sick. Such sentiments of compassion are carried out in the spirit of the Buddha’s maxim that, “The One who serves the sick serves me”. Thus, apart from observing religious ceremonies, devotees participate in numerous compassionate and charitable activities. They offer dana(charitable acts and offering of alms), such as food, clothing, educational materials and other items to impoverished individuals and destitute families. Some devotees make it a point to liberate birds caged in captivity, or save cattle and other livestock from being slaughtered and sold for their meat in the market place. The motive of devotees is to do wholesome deeds out of unconditional compassion, love, kindness, goodwill and generosity, in the letter and spirit of the Sublime Teaching of their Exalted Teacher, the Buddha.

On this auspicious thrice-sacred day, significantly, fulfilment of dana is preferred by devotees as a more meaningful way to celebrate than to wine and dine and engage in sensual self-indulgences. Thus all around the world numerous virtuous deeds are accomplished by devotees in accordance with the Buddha’s Teaching of Brahama Vihāra, that is, the Four Sublime Mental States of mettā, karuna, muditha (sympathetic or altruistic joy) and upekkhā (equanimity), on Vesak Full Moon Day. In many countries where the Buddha Dhamma is traditionally practised, acts of friendliness, compassion, goodwill, kindness and unconditional benevolence abound in commemorating the humanistic spirit of the Sublime Dhamma. In traditional Buddhist countries such as Sri Lanka, dansals comprising temporary canopies, make-shift shelters and stalls are erected by local community-based organisations and generous business establishments and devout individuals. These dansals offer drinks and food to passers-by and revellers who throng the cities and towns to witness and/or to take part in the Wesak festivities. The acts of unconditional goodwill and generosity carried out in conjunction with Vesak, regardless of one’s ethnicity, culture and religious persuasion, merit adulation and imbuing, as they resonate hugely with promoting multiculturalism and fostering of social cohesion among divers social groups in the country.

Statement made by Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Finance and Media of Sri Lanka at the Plenary Session of the Asian Development Bank’s 51st Annual Meeting in Manila on 5th May 2018

by Mangala Samaraweera

( May 7, 2018, Manila, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka has been working hand in hand with the ADB for over half a century that I can describe as a robust partnership in empowering our people to achieve sustainable development.

This year’s meeting theme “Linking People and Economies for Inclusive Development” resolves to strengthen the ADB’s founding vision to create a poverty free Asia and the Pacific. In fact, Mr. Chairman, my own government has been unequivocally promoting an inclusive growth trajectory for Sri Lanka in a knowledge based, highly competitive social market economy with a vision to become a rich country by 2025.

We are living at a time that you can call unparalleled to any age in human history, because of the rapid technological advances that enable innovative solutions for many development challenges. Asia’s moment of economic growth, buttressed by fast improving health and educational opportunities allow the millennium generation to connect to each other by overcoming cultural, language and other feigned barriers which regressed our progress for centuries. This unique opportunity should be seized with much optimism for a new era of prosperity in the 21 Century.

Our concerted efforts at this regional forum would no doubt bring about changes to the millions of lives at a rapid phase. My government’s National Budget proposed this year offered a package of concessional credit schemes empowering young entrepreneurs, women, and the differently abled in the country within the theme of “Enterprise Sri Lanka”. We wish to reawaken our nation’s entrepreneurial spirit and to regain its rightful place as a vibrant trading hub in the Indian Ocean. Your theme here at the ADB today stands a matching tribute to those domestic policies embedded in our core values ranging from inclusive growth, good governance, and empowering the private sector as the engine of growth.

Despite the brunt of extreme weather conditions and other adverse external factors, Sri Lanka’s economy demonstrated time tested resilience in 2017. We recorded our highest ever FDI inflows and our highest ever export performance. These led to meaningful job creation as the unemployment rate also declined to 4.2%. We expect the economy to accelerate growth driven by private enterprise and exports. We have introduced some key reforms including the new Inland Revenue Act, which came to force last month that could be called the most progressive tax reform in Sri Lanka in several decades. This is part of a broader agenda of introducing transparent rules based legislative and governance frameworks. Our Active Liability Management Act was made effective with a view to improve domestic and foreign debt management. The rules based and transparent auction mechanism for government securities was introduced in the same vein. We are at the doorstep of becoming an upper-middle income country and your continued support to accommodate the desired transition without any hindrance to our national development agenda would be immensely appreciated.

With an ever active ADB resident mission established in 1997, over US $ 8.5 billion project and policy based active loans, grants and technical assistance since 1968, reaching over 500 projects, Sri Lanka’s ADB portfolio remains robust and active. Our interactions span mainly from the Transport Sector, Energy to Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development. I fervently hope that our national priorities and expectations have an attentive hearing in this august assembly that evolves for greater mutual benefit.

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