Daily News Editorial

Premier’s recipe for protecting Buddhism

19 September 2016

JO firebrand Wimal Weerawansa's visit to the Malwatte prelate to apprise the latter of the imminent danger to Buddhism, among other things, if the new constitution is introduced has drawn a response from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Premier speaking at an event in Jaffna over the weekend, while reiterating that the preeminent place accorded to Buddhism will be in tact in the proposed new constitution, went on to state that it was now the government's turn to take special measures to protect Buddhism.

Tongue in cheek, or not, implied in the Premier's remark was the damage that is being caused to Buddhism at present by those in the forefront of the campaign to protect Buddhism. No, the Premier was not thinking about conversion of Buddhists by fundamentalist Christian sects. What he meant was the damage being caused to the religion by the unbecoming conduct of certain members of the Sangha and their political backers.

The Prime Minister went onto recall how former President Mahinda Rajapaksa threatened to cause a schism in the Malwatte chapter if the prelate went ahead with a religious event to invoke blessings on the former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka who was being incarcerated. This, by the very elements who are seen almost on a daily basis visiting temples with the inevitably malwattiya and pontificating to the people on the need to protect Buddhism from alien forces and on the shabby treatment meted out to the members of the Sangha who are thrown behind bars.

Premier Wickremesinghe had very good reason for having said what he did. Today, sadly, those whose prime responsibility it is to steer the faithful on the correct path, banishing from their minds, thoughts of hatred, greed and revenge are the very ones who stand accused for bringing disrepute and casting a slur on this noble and great religion by their unbecoming conduct that is an insult to the saffron robe. The street demonstrations, shindigs inside court houses, the intemperate language used by some members of the Sangha to harangue the government, Bhikkhus involved in treasure hunting are but examples of the damage that is being caused to Buddhism in the eyes of members of other faiths. Is it any wonder, the Premier, whose family's links to the historic Kelaniya Rajamaha Viharaya is only too well known responded the way he did?

One recalls a member of the Sangha, known for his hard line nationalism and visceral hatred towards the present government addressing hardcore criminals and rapists that are languishing behind bars as pathalaye pinwattu (the blessed of the underworld). There was also the infamous episode of a Bhikkhu who led the mob during the Black July riots to set fire to Tamil homes and establishments being made Chairman of the National Police Commission by the Rajapaksa regime. Not only that. Our Sangha was also made to suffer indignities, of all places, in the August Assembly of Parliament, when a notorious politician caused a JHU MP to be hospitalized as a result of a physical attack to a sensitive area in the monk’s anatomy.

All these incidents have no doubt caused consternation among genuine followers of Buddhism in this country. The regard and respect that our Sangha were held in the past is certainly is on the wane with the bad examples on public display.

No doubt politics has taken its toll even on the Buddhist clergy. True, members of the Sangha have been active politically from the distant past and it is the Sangha who were in the vanguard to usher in the 1956 social revolution in this country. The first blot on the Sangha in post independence Sri Lanka was when a member of the Buddhist clergy was convicted and paid the supreme price for the assassination of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then, with Bhikkhus now in the thick of politics and leading pan nationalist movements. In the process they have done much harm to the Buddhist religion by their conduct and utterances which does not accord with the core teachings of Buddhism which is ahimsa, mettha, karuna and the pursuance of the middle path. The extremism practiced by some members of the Sangha could also influence similar mindsets among the populace especially the youth. The attack on several places of Christian worship in the recent past, led by members of the Buddhist clergy, could have been similarly influenced.

Sri Lanka is perhaps the only democratic country where clergy of the majority religion take such an active part in the cesspit of politics and with such gusto at that. While one might have expected this to be a salutary development, in that it would promote moderation in local politics, the opposite is true in Sri Lanka. Here, monks instead of conducting themselves exemplarily are increasingly showing militant tendencies. Hence, it would not be a bad idea, if as the Premier said, for the government to take some initiative to protect Buddhism in this country from coming into further harm by the acts of certain political Bhikkhus.