One country, one rule is the biggest lie of the millennium in the Sri Lanka context. Is Sri Lanka a Buddhist country, if even the five basic precepts of Buddhism are contravened at massive scale?
by Helasingha Bandara
This question would undoubtedly draw an overwhelming ‘Yes’ in Sri Lanka, despite the country’s centuries-old multi-religious character because the majority of Sri Lankans belong to the Buddhist faith. Amongst various definitions of the term Buddhist, my attention was drawn to what Buddadasa Vithanachchi expressed in a recent YouTube interview that most Sri Lankans are birth certificate Buddhists.
Externally the country emanates Buddhist aura everywhere you go. Including the ancient Buddhist ruins, the country is adorned with small to large scale Buddha statues, stupas, temples and the like in every nook and corner. Yellow-robed monks are an enchanting sight all along the length and the breadth of the country. Adding to this, meditation and other religious centres to practice Buddhism are mushrooming. White thread, a symbol of Buddhist blessings is displayed on the wrists of many Sri Lankans, particularly politicians. The higher you climb the political or the economic ladder the larger the number of threads tied around your wrist. The intriguing question is whether you become a true Buddhist just because you are born to a Buddhist family, or living in a Buddhist country? Buddha himself has said that no one by birth becomes a Brahmin or an untouchable. “Najajja vasalo hothi……….” To a curious mind, Buddhists are only those who follow the path that the Buddha preached. The test to verify the fact is not complicated, if it can be started with the simplest but most important five precepts of Buddhism. For the purpose of sustaining a climax, I would change the order of the five precepts from what the Buddhists have memorized. Let’s start with the last.
Alcohol
Buddha preached that not only the consumption of alcohol but manufacturing, purchasing or selling alcohol are against the Buddhist way of life. His Lordship must have meant all forms of narcotics although some of the drugs that are abused today were absent 2500 years ago. Starting from D.S Senanayaka, many who took over the politics of this country from the British, belong to the families that had become wealthier through alcohol trade. Could they be expected not to promote the consumption and production of alcohol? This trend has continued unabated until today. Politicians, or the rulers of this country own the most number of alcohol manufacturing and selling facilities. Most drug barons are politicians or those who receive blessings from politicians.
Per capita alcohol consumption in Sri Lanka in 2013 was 2.56 litres (https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/52/5/550/3978084). This has to be multiplied by approximately 10 Million to get the volume of alcohol drunk by Sri Lankans during the year 2013. It is a whopping 64 Lakhs of gallons of alcohol. In other words, 1,42200 of 45-gallon barrels of alcohol had been consumed by the inhabitants who boast that they are Buddhists and they and their country have been selected to be the custodians of Buddhism.
Illicit sexual behaviour
Historically Sri Lankans, at least the Sinhalese were known to practice both polygamy and polyandry. Remnants of such traditions continued until 1940s when landowners used to believe that they had right to abuse the wives of their labourers. Indeed, being powerless, such labourers had to turn a blind eye to the unwarranted activities of the landlord.
Extra-marital relationships exploded during the war. On the one hand soldiers, to quench the thirst generated by isolation and loneliness had to seek the company of prostitutes whilst the lonely wives at home sought extra-marital sexual relationships with the men who stayed behind in the villages. With the communication revolution, the situation has deteriorated from bad to worse having the phone and the scooter taken the centre stage of the sex game in the Buddhist country. The majority of those who seek to eat forbidden fruits call themselves Buddhists, politicians and those who wield power being at the top of the spectrum.
Stealing
J. R. Jayawardana introduced thieving to the politicians and the bureaucrats, setting the precedent by exchanging a 50-acre fertile coconut land to an infertile and neglected plot of coconut in the Chilaw area. In today’s Sri Lanka, almost everyone is a thief of some sort and they steal something from someone all the time. From the office peon to the top politician bottom up or top down, thievery is the norm. Ranil Wikramasingha was seen as a party to a scandalous bond scam, Mahinda Rajapaksha was said to have stolen Tsunami money that came as aid to the poor tsunami affected, Chandrika was of the fame of Water’s Edge land dispute. Those are some of the top-level daylight robberies that can be highlighted to tarnish the false claim that Sri Lanka is full of Buddhists. Adinna Dana… is hardly observed in Sri Lanka.
Murder
In a recent YouTube interview a former military police photographer revealed that Rohana Wijeweera was murdered following President Premadasa’s orders. It was common knowledge that Premadasa ordered his killer squads to murder more than 60 000 youth, most of whom paid the supreme price for just being political opponents. In comparison a small minority of die-hard JVPers were killed. The beastly and gruesome manner in which many thousands were killed, burnt alive by the roadside, beheaded and body parts displayed in public places could not be the acts of the followers of the Buddha. The cruelty that the armed forces, the police, and the civil defence personnel (gam batto/goni billo) has shown was nothing short of the crimes that Hitler committed against humanity. Premawathie Manamperi’s senseless and shameful murder is just one of thousands of such crimes committed by the so-called Buddhists. Those murders were carried out by heartless beasts on the orders of one famous Buddhist politician whose son never parts with the malwattiya now. Another was the ugly-faced and bad-teethed Rohana Wijeweera who gave orders to kill many innocent people. Among them the most striking was the order to destroy Vijaya Kumaranathunga’s beautiful face, an order that could only be given by a psychopathic and murderously jealous ugly man who was burning in his own insecurity. The next was the killing of the most versatile lyricist of the modern Sri Lanka, Premakeerthi de Alwis of “Maa ekkala amnapawa wee dabara…” fame. Murder and mayhem should not be in our blood if we are a nation fashioned by the Buddha’s teaching.
Lying
I kept this precept to the last on purpose. Robert Knox wrote, “I have not known anyone cleverer than the Sinhalese for lying and setting traps”, such was our legacy. Lying is symptomatic of degenerated Sri Lanka society. From the labourer to the politician, all believe that they can lie their way through. The best examples can be found from the political field. Every party at the election time concoct an amazing dish of lies to win the election. From day one of their rule, they simply ignore the lies that they dished out to people. Those who lied and grabbed power before, then start pointing the finger at the current set, simply overlooking that they did the same thing when they held power. It is important to view in brief the manner of lying of the current regime before the conclusion of this article. The regime is accused of lying in most areas of rule. One example is the sale of the east Jetty of the Colombo harbour. Instead of explaining the process and the reasons for the prospective sale, the relevant Minister goes on joking that the deal still involves the ownership of 51% for us not knowing that even those who are educated to 8th grade would know the difference of the ownership between us and India is just 2%. His Math may be poor but others’ isn’t. In the parliament, most ruling party members, instead of developing arguments backed by factual information, shout out lies.
By now most people have begun to doubt the light in which Gotabaya was portrayed as a disciplined leader and a clever strategist who would cleanse the country of corruption and other malpractices. There was fear amongst people of a possible militarisation with an ultimate goal of a military coup. Instead of dispelling such fears, the regime continues with unabated militarisation of the civil administration.
Let us highlight the ‘one country, one rule’ theory of Gotabaya. The ‘one law’ should mean equal treatment of all ethnic groups, all religions, all languages, the poor and the rich. It is amusing that both the Rajapakshas, and Premadasa embark on pilgrimages around the temples in Sri Lanka, not necessarily influenced by devotion but by the hunger for power. No doubt that the Buddhist temple is subjected to a different set of rules from the Christian church or the Muslim mosque. The Sinhalese enjoy a different set of rules to that of other ethnicities. Most importantly the poor of all ethnic groups live in a different plane of this country to where those few privileged people dwell. With any public service provision or any distribution of wealth or opportunity, there goes two sets of rules, one for the powerless and another for the powerful. One country, one rule is the biggest lie of the millennium in the Sri Lanka context. Is Sri Lanka a Buddhist country, if even the five basic precepts of Buddhism are contravened at massive scale?
Post a Comment