Sinhala journalist denounces
State-patronized Buddhism
“Politically decided State patronage always accelerates the decline
and degeneration of Buddhism, or any religion for that matter,” writes
Sinhala journalist Kusal Perera in his blogspot on Saturday. He was
commenting on the current deliberations in Colombo for providing
‘constitutional’ pre-eminence to Buddhism in the whole of the island. He
was particularly responding to Sinhala Catholic Archbishop in Colombo,
Malcolm Ranjith, supporting preferential status to Buddhism in the
‘constitution’ and to Colombo regime’s Prime Minister, Ranil
Wikramasinghe, going to the extent of suggesting ‘constitutional’
prohibition of dissension in Buddhist Sangha in the island.
“We have gone through a protracted war and paid with blood and life for
refusing to accept equal status for all. We have denied a secular State
and have created a society that refuse to accept equality of status for
religions that has led to violent clashes against religious minorities.
It is this Sinhala Buddhist supremacy that both Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith
and PM Wickramsinghe is pandering to, disregarding equality in a multi
religious, multi cultural country,” Kusal Perera said.
Kusal Perera
"Marxists" in coalition with the
SLFP government of Madam Bandaranayake, sealed the fate of a secular
society 44 years ago, when Dr. Colvin R de Silva as Minister of
Constitutional Affairs helped create the first Republican Constitution.
Buddhism was then written into it as a privileged religion. For 44 years
the State has been gradually fashioned into a Buddhist State leaving
other religious leaders outside the discussion on how Buddhism should be
treated in the formulation of a new Constitution, Kusal Perera was
hinting at the intervention of the Archbishop.
“The issue of
religion and Buddhism in the Constitution often seem to gather undue
importance with unwanted comments from privileged personalities who seem
to lack common sense,” Kusal Perera responded to Malcolm Ranjith saying
that, “Buddhism being a philosophy historically linked to Sri Lanka
there is no necessity in changing the preferential status given to
Buddhism in the Constitution.”
The
thrust of Kusal Perera’s feature was upholding secularism of State and
was aiming at Sinhala-Buddhists reforming Buddhism in the island.
But the realities acutely felt by the nation of Eezham Tamils could be different.
It
is not merely the agent genocidal State in Colombo that is ditching
secularism. There is a larger international imperialist paradigm that is
riding on religions for its pursuits. In the island the paradigm has
chosen to ride on ‘Sinhala military and Buddhism.’ Kusal Perera’s “multi
religious, multi-cultural country” is not in the actual agenda.
All
shades of Eezham Tamil militancy had built a secular model of polity
for three decades. That was crushed in genocidal ways. Elements that
crushed it know very well what alternative solutions should be made. But
they don’t deliver them. Rather they choose to confirm the genocidal
ride. The ‘constitution’ deception is a small part of the larger
picture.
Kusal Perera worrying about reformation of Buddhism in
the South may not have realised the luring opportunities given to an
ugly face of Buddhism in the country of Eezham Tamils and the resulting
reactions.
First a genocidal Buddha is allowed to mushroom in
every part of the country of Eezham Tamils. Then the monkey god is
brought in to counter that. Rather than recognising nations in the
island and their peaceful coexistence, when confrontation is
deliberately cultivated, there could only be action and reaction, and
not ‘reformation’.
Vivekananda and Anagarika Dharmapala going to ‘Chicago’ is not the role model for reformation in the island today.
Whether Rajapaksa or Sirisena-Wikramasinghe, Malcolm Ranjith’s stand on saving the agent Sinhala State is well known.
On
yet another side, there are people (not Kusal Perera) who shed tears
for secularism, while hiding behind certain Churches linked to
imperialist agenda. They worry about devil-chasing rituals. Those devils
are non-existent. But there are the real ones that have engineered the
genocide of a nation. Who is going to talk about exorcising them?
Certainly it can’t be the people who received ‘award’ for their services
that failed to identify the ultimate elements at work.
Kusal
Perera has made a salient point to reiterate: “Politically decided State
patronage always accelerates the decline and degeneration of Buddhism,
or any religion for that matter.” If there is any doubt, the hundreds of
Dutch churches that were left abandoned in the island at the end of the
Dutch rule are good examples.
“Politically decided State
patronage” to any religion for that matter is not simply a local
phenomenon today. While people have to be locally awakened to larger
forces at work, peoples universally rising against all such religions is
the real reformation.
Related Articles:
External Links:
| Kusal Perera's Blogspot: | Danger in competing to be "Good Sinhala Buddhists" |
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