Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Sinhala Buddhist Racism and Politics and my stance

EDIT: I have matured since this post, and I do not believe in what I speak here anymore.


As much as I like Udaya Prabath Gammanpila of Sihala Urumaya (note: not Hela Urumaya) to be the president, I know he’s more to mature. Nevertheless I vote him. Is he a racist? Yes. A Sinhala Buddhist racist.

So why do I vote a racist? There are three reasons why.

Sinhala Buddhist racism does not discriminate other races or religions. Buddhist teachings are to equally honour all other religions the same as Buddhism. Had they really tried to understand what Sinhala Buddhist racism is, all other races would have welcomed it more.

I’m not voting a political party nor a person but what a person or the party represent. I believe collectively the political view of Sihala Urumaya is close to mine. If the leaders of the party is to divert from that view - that’s their option. If the party as a whole is to divert from what it represent that the option of its leaders as a whole. To whom I vote would still be a logical decision I make. If I feel the party still represent what I believe in, I shall vote. If not I would look for other’s who does. But leaders leaving the party, or few things going the wrong way wouldn’t really change any thing in what they represent.

I believe Udaya and Champika at least believe in what they say and honestly want to do it. And their arguments seem logical to me. They are willing to take constructive criticism and are willing to accept if they make mistakes. They are very less corrupted than any other politician in this country.

Finally on monks doing politics, I believe it’s not right. Monks are supposed to dedicate themselves to achieving nirvana and to guide lay men on the same path. That’s the sole reason why any one should become a Buddhist monk. To get away from the complexities and attachments of lay life and to live a more simple and purified life, meditating, advising and preaching lay people on dhamma which lord Buddha preached.

But over time the values of being monks have perished and Buddhist monks or rather people pretending to be Buddhist monks have engaged in various activities which Buddha explicitly prohibit them from. To imply how much we have come to live with the malpractices of monks, treating patients as doctors is explicitly prohibited for monks by lord Buddha. But how many monks do we know who does this? Some even engage in activities considered indecent even for lay people. So given that, politics isn’t that bad… yet that doesn’t mean its right. A monk should be a monk.

31 comments:

  1. I am not sure whether the author of this post will allow my comment on this site since he has activated comment moderation.

    This post is pure bullshit. A racist who is really not a racist come on get real. Do u really believe that people like whom u have mentioned will really stick with their ideas. It is just a matter of time before they corrupt themselves too and they may be worse than the present people in power.

    Sinhala buddhist racism is the root cause of all these problems and putting them in power will only worsen the situation.

    We do not want a Buddhist Taleban in Sri Lanka.

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  2. Hmmm...interesting perspective.

    I am a Tamil so I have lots of questions.

    So tell me how would a Sinhala Buddhist nation operate with regard to violence/or war?

    Also why can't it just be a Buddhist nation and not a "Sinhala" Buddhist nation. Isn't Buddhism a universal religion/philosophy? After all Buddha was not a Sinhalese, so the term Sinhalese almost excludes Buddha himself. Or can we all become Sinhalese in the same way anyone can become Buddhist? If one can become Sinhalese, how does one achieve this and what are the advantages of becoming Sinhalese (apart from power and politics)..in Sri Lanka and also what are the advantages if you are living outside Sri Lanka?

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  3. I moderate filth not comments.

    "A racist who is really not a racist come on get real"
    you got it wrong - it is racism.

    Racism is a believing that members of the race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race. Sinhala Buddhist racism is that they believe they have Buddhist characteristics and they wish to govern in the way the Buddha preached.

    It’s completely different from Taliban.

    Yes. I do believe in them. At least at this moment.

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  4. Ok, before we start letting this disintegrate into name calling, lets give him a chance to explain things. Mahasen, am looking forward to reading your answers to my previous questions.

    It will probably take you some time. Could you answer them in stages at least? I know it will be a bit complicated. Especially the stuff about Buddhism and war.

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  5. L: You have a totally valid point there.
    True. it would have been ideal had it been just Buddhist than Sinhala Buddhist.

    The reason a Sinhala Buddhist political parties came in to the political arena is that some Sinhalese felt that their rights as a race is being violated by their own leaders in the main stream political parties. Just as the Tamils and Muslims. Thus they got organized in to political parties.

    But I know for a fact that the Sihala Urumaya has Tamil and Muslim members and supporters.

    Writing down the advantages of it in a broader perspective would be quite lengthy and honestly I need to study before composing a post on it.

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  6. A question: Isn't the basic problem here, the total lack of understanding and practice of the true teachings of Buddhism as was conveyed by the Master himself?

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  7. Yes L, it's hard, especially when I'm not in active politics.

    On Buddhism and war, Buddhism is clearly against war. There's no doubt about it.

    I know your next question, but Sihala Urumaya people I mentioned are supporting war. True. But the reason is it is the responsibility of a leader to safeguard the people of his country.

    LTTE is killing innocent people of this country in acts of terrorism. That has to be stopped. There have been peace talks for years with no positive results. Main stream politicians in this country wouldn’t let this war to end and the leadership of the LTTE is not prepared to settle for an agreeable solution for all the parties involved in the conflict.

    Since I spoke about LTTE, I honestly believe Tamil people in the north and the east faced discriminations and negligence during the past 50 years or so. No question about that. But 95% of the time, it was not because they were tamils but because of the geographic location. All Sinhalese and Muslim in the north and east faced the same problem. But since the majority in those areas were Tamils the politicians who posed it as discriminations on Tamils.

    There exist a problem. No doubt there is. The responsible for it is no doubt the politicians of this country for the past 60 years. This has to be solved politically. But terrorism is not the answer.

    Tamils and other races in the north suffers much more because of the war than they were.

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  8. lanka personalities: I agree to what you say. It's difficult to interpret some thing preached 2551+ years ago in a different language in to a modern situation.
    At least they are trying... I give credit for that

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  9. I must admit this is extremely informative.

    As you can probably see I don't live in Sri Lanka, so I have only heard a bit about the Sihala Urumaya.

    This is the first time I have heard that Tamils and muslims are members and have voted for the party. Have you got any evidence?

    To be honest, I don't blame Mahasen for considering casting a vote for these people, because Sri Lanka is still a Sinhala Buddhist nation, but as he points out indirectly, probably the "Buddhist" aspect of it is only in name. A bit like the "muslim" nations, or the "Christian" nations. The corruption and social divisions in Sri Lanka is so great that people are now looking desperately for alternatives to the mainstream parties who are utterly corrupt and have failed miserably to provide the average person in this country with a future.

    You have really opened up a broad topic!!! A discussion on both religion and politics!!!!

    You realise, you also need to look at what a secular democracy is and the advantages and disadvantages of a secular democracy over a Sinhala Buddhist nation?

    Ok. Just found you gave me another answer, which is interesting. I agree with quite a bit of it, but also disagree with some of it. We actually will have to check the historical facts as well.

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  10. I am happy there are guys like you around. Soon there will be an eelam. There will also be a buddisht utopia in the South.

    Remember that Mahinda is a Malayalee who is defrauding you. His original name was mahendra. He also has a colonial chirtian name PERCY which he fails to higlight to most people. Hence let the fake buddisht come to power.

    Inflation is sky rocketing. Soon the rupee will fall to new lows.

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  11. Actually one last thought that popped up in my head, and after that I will give you some time to respond to all my questions and any other comments.

    Do these party members or leaders have the same views as you? ie Buddhist monks should not be involved in politics?

    If they do, I was told of the huge power structure the Buddhist monks are part of, not just in politics but monopolies in various Viharas. Would monks try to sabotage things? How can a Sinhala Buddhist party come into power and/or operate without the support of Buddhist monks?

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  12. L, True, I do not believe Sri Lanka is a Buddhist nation no matter who claims it. The amount of people who actually practice Buddhism here would be less than 5%. Had it been more, we wouldn’t have this much of crimes and corruption in this country.

    On other races supporting Sihala Urumaya, there was an entire Tamil family known to us back in Kandy who actively supported Sihala Urumaya because they felt the need for an alternative. That’s first hand. Other than that, I have few friends active in Sihala Urumaya and they claim they have Tamils and Muslims as well.

    Very true that we have to look at the historical facts. We have bitter memories of killing each other. But if looked closely, there’s always politicians behind them expecting utter advantage from it.

    Anonymous, be it a Malayali, hindu Christian or what race or what religion, if some one is doing some thing in accordance with my perception of right, then it’s right. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. I don’t judge people, I judge their acts.
    Is Mahinda doing a good job? No. Is he trying to? May be. But he seems certainly better than the previous presidents we had after independence.
    So comparatively, he’s kind of OK for me.

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  13. L, on your last question about the members of the Sihala Urumaya having the same view as mine, well not 100%. Only to some extent. But they are the closest I guess :)

    Yes. It is true that there exist monopolies and power structures in the monk community here. It's disgusting but true. That's not Buddhism.

    Would monks try to sabotage things? I think not. If you are referring to the monks who are in the parliament right now, some of them (2~3) are there with good intentions. But others - I honestly don't know.

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  14. Mahasen,

    Unfortunately I am a bit busy, and can't follow this very closely. Will try and keep checking back if I can.

    Before I go, I thought I better precaution you and any other Tamils or Sinhalese etc. We need to learn from our history.

    You may not know this, but alot of Sinhalese and Tamils in the South got disillusioned with Mrs. Bandaranaike, and J.R, offered a kind of Free-Trade, Ethnic Utopia. Very few Tamils and Sinhalese bothered to question his past, where for instance he led a protest march against giving Indian Tamils Sri Lankan citizenship years before. This is also probably due to the lack of investigative journalism and censorship of the Sri Lankan media. Most people including the Tamils in the south believed him, and he was voted in with a huge majority in 1977. A major ethnic riot against Tamils broke out in the south just after that, and it was orchestrated by members of the government. Very few, including the Tamils living in the south knew this,and questioned it due to lack of media freedom in Sri Lanka, and I think these Tamils helped to vote him in again after that. And we all know about Black July which again was orchestrated by the UNP goverment. And only then did the southern Tamils wake up, and from these blogs, I have seen so have the Sinhalese. The saddest thing is by then it was too late.

    So all politicians, regardless of political parties should be scrutinised carefully. For this you need media freedom. You need to ask the people in opposition like Sinhaya Urumaya if they will back media freedom and if they are prepared to pressurise the current government to provide this.

    Also, there might be some independent politicians from very small parties who are not racist, or corrupt, and have been in politics for a long time, with a good track record, but simply don't have the money and power to become well known, who may be much better. So don't just vote for someone out of desperation.

    Looking forward to reading what you have to say about the other points I brought up.

    Remember, you need to look at what a secular democracy is to really address this effectively. There are very few countries in this world that are secular democracies. India is an example, based on the principles of Mahathma Gandhi to whom people attribute the phrase:
    "Unity in Diversity". Apparently, Jinnah wanted Pakistan to also be a secular democracy but failed to achieve this.

    In Australia we have a saying about our politicians:
    "Keep the Bastards honest"

    I think its a good principle to adopt in any country.

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  15. M: I dont think anyone is trying to preach and ensure the practice of true Buddhist teachings in SL.

    Everywhere you go, even in the Buddhist Temples, you see loads of rituals and myths being enacted which has no bearing to Buddhism.

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  16. Just one last thing, re: making sure that politicians or leaders are held accountable. Even if the leaders are religious, we need to remember that they are human, and all humans have weaknesses. So thats why, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, whatever, the party the person claims to be part of,they need to be held accountable at all times when in a position of power. Power is known to corrupt, regardless of the person's proclaimed religion or philosophy. Anyway, we all already know that, from the politicians in our history who have claimed to be "Sinhala Buddhists".

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  17. Mahasen

    You don't seem to understand what the word racism means. It means bigotry towards people of other races. It is not something to be proud of.
    Wiki

    I don't know much about the Sihala Urumaya, but I don't think they would be happy to call themselves racists.

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  18. Except for one negative comment, I am happy to see a very healthy discussion. If our politicians can have the same approach into this whole thing, we have a chance of solving the probelm easily. I see Mahasens and also JHU/JVP point about having to finish LTTE and then discuss the Tamil problem. LTTE is definitly terrorists, dont represent tamils. So, theorotically, this approach is right.

    However, practically, is it working? we have done the war for 25 years now, have we succeded? One might say, no one did the war properly, now MR might be trying, but is it succesful? U might defeat whole camps, but what abt gurilla bombs, disgraceful hide and blast, run and blast acts? innocent civilan killlings?

    So, theory and practicality has a big gap. MR/JVP/JHU needs to understand this. LTTE needs to be brought into the peacetable. Yes, we know that they are terrorists, we know that they dont represnt tamils. But a diplomatic solution is required and LTTE needs to be invloved, LTTE need to be pushed towards that, they need to be made accountable to Tamils, then they might work in a more responsible manner.

    I like MR as a person and fully support him, but to be honest RW played this diplomatic role cunningly, LTTE understood they were pushed towards peace, they were made reps of tamils. But LTTE wants war as they are terrorists, thats why they backed MR. RW doesnt suit to build the identity our country, he doesnt understand our culture. But when it comes to LTTE probelm, his approach was proper. MR needs copy that part only from RW to solve LTTE issue but keep on applying his nationalistic policies for which he needs to use JHU guidance.

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  19. Wow. nice to see some intelligent talk, without any accusations, mud slinging and hatred.
    I wish our politicians could discuss matters like this.

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  20. I disabled comment moderation to allow proper flow of the discussion. Hope every one would be responsible and would refrain from posting filth.

    On the question on the meaning of racism, I believe most here understood and accepted what I meant in the word. I wouldn't let this discussion to be distracted chasing dictionaries.

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  21. On finishing LTTE, I do not believe that each and every pro LTTE person should be eliminated. It's only the top few leaders like Prabha, Thamil Selvan and alike.
    And apart from that, a political solution should be sought simultaneously. Perhaps a more empowered provincial council system would work.
    But all in all, it's not the division of power that really matters in my view. It's the division of resources. Jaffna had the best library in the country. And Jaffna university was also renowned. But the economy was more constrained towards the western province. Perhaps because of the lack of proper infrastructure.
    It was not only north and the east that faced this discrimination. But politicians saw some thing attractive for them in north and east. Majority was Tamil in those two provinces. So they stipulated the situation to what it is now today in mere intention of getting political advantages.
    The result is those two provinces were left out even when the other provinces had the opportunity to acquire infrastructure development and economical attractions.

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  22. I think Udaya is awesome. This man got the highest marks ever for an A-level commerce student in Sri Lanka. He was was the top of his batch at Monash University as well.

    Udaya Prabath Gammanpila for president. Hell yeah.

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  23. Mahasen: About eliminating Prabhaharan. I don't think you have to worry about that. My family and I were looking at the latest pictures of him with the Tiger Air force and everyone was commenting on how the guy is growing sideways. If he doesn't watch out, he is heading for an early death due to heart disease and/or diabetes. Think Thamil Selvan also looks like he is heading the same direction. I remember scanning through a book by Adele Balasingham and somewhere she wrote that Prabaharan likes to cook. They say you should never trust a thin cook...I think Prabaharan must be a very good cook.

    Sorry I do digress.

    Just popped in to read any new comments.

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  24. J.M. Bardo:

    Remember SWRD was a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University. What did he do to the country?

    We need to concentrate on their policies, as well as their reputation in relation to bribery and corruption as well as any possible conflicts of interest.

    I am particularly interested in knowing where these people stand with respect to media freedom and human rights and equity issues in the country.

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  25. I recall a conversation on the television where Udaya stated his perception on human rights violation.
    He accepted the fact that there are human rights violations happening in Sri Lanka to a certain extent. In a period of war, human right violations are inevitable, but could only be controlled. The most supreme right is right to live. In order to protect the right of the people to live, certain other rights might be violated if it is a must.
    One example he pointed out is detaining some one in custody without proper evidence, thus violating that person’s rights to be free.
    If a person suspected to be a terrorist spy who is spying on a target was caught and the anti terrorist unit does not have evidence to prove it, that person could still be held in custody with authority from the national security secretariat. If that person is innocent, it is a serious violation of his rights. But if he was freed without being detained and he flees back to vanni and executes the attack, the act of releasing him with premature investigations has violated the right to live of hundreds of people. Which is worse? Violating the freedom of one person or violating the right to live of one or more?
    Media freedom also could be violated to protect such superior rights of the general public.
    There are human right violations in Sri Lanka, but not to the extent of media speculations by pro LTTE media. Certainly not to the extent of human right violations by USA in Iraq or the UK.

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  26. For a country to be part of a global community, it needs to follow certain international laws. The Universal declaration of human rights are one set of laws. The prevention of terrorism violates these laws.

    Is Udaya advocating isolation of Sri Lanka from the International community and advocating the breaking of such laws?

    Even the Americans are bound by these laws and have been criticised by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations. When the American journalist Seamour Hearsh exposed the Abu Ghraib situation to the American public, an investigation had to be carried out and the soldiers were prosecuted and put into prison. There are still more investigations being carried out. If a journalist in sri Lanka did what Seamour Hearsh did, he could be put into prison or lose his life. Journalists in America were allowed to go to the war front and interview soldiers during the vietnam war and even in the Iraq war they are alllowed to interview soldiers. Yet journalists in Sri Lanka are not being allowed to do this. People in the North and the East are not even allowed to receive newspapers according to a "prevention of terrorism" rule.

    There are countries that have gone against International laws and followed an isolationist nationalistic policy:
    Eg. Cambodia under Pol pot
    Germany under Hitler
    North Korea

    Even the LTTE realises the importance of international opinion to move towards some sort of civilised existence.

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  27. correction:

    I said
    "The prevention of terrorism violates these laws"

    I meant
    "the prevention of terrorism act in this country violate these laws"

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  28. Apart the from the legal aspects of the prevention of terrorism act, there is no evidence that it has helps to reduce terrorism.

    Sri Lanka has imposed this act from the 1970s, and yet violence has increased.

    America and the many other countries have imposed prevention of terrorism acts on their citizens since September 11...and since then the global threat of terrorism has increased.

    So in fact these leaders have jeopardising the lives of the citizens they are supposed to safeguard from these threats.

    The prevention of terrorism act and is simply a band aid measure used by leaders with a short term view.

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  29. Mahasen,

    I just looked up this party online and found this party has some racist policies. You are playing with fire.

    When we see pictures or movies of Hitler, because we don't understand German and we don't know the precedence to his rise, we think it is a funny mad man....with all these funny mad people raising their hands up and talking weird.

    Well...he wasn't a mad man. He was elected into power by desperate germans when the country was at it's lowest point. He offered them jobs and security when germany was going through a terrible depression and had just been humiliated by the French and British after losing world war I.

    http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/begins.htm

    http://www.johndclare.net/Weimar7.htm

    And, he pulled them out of it. People had jobs and they felt great about themselves, and the germans thought they were a great race.

    But, they began violating rights of people who questioned them or they felt were in the way of their plan for a german aryan utopia.

    The rest is history. If you speak to germans today, they are so ashamed of this past. People associate this moment of history with the germans more than any other contributions germans have made to science and the arts in Europe. I have friends from germany who went to school here and suffered racist taunts and were called Nazis even though they had nothing to do with that part of history.

    I think what is happening in Sri Lanka is very sad.

    You have a right to choose who you vote for. I hope you make the right choice.

    Best wishes

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  30. The right of franchise for every single adult citizen is not necessarily the right way of democracy for developing nations where the level of education and understanding of politics is at a very low.

    We may have to amend our style of democracy to fit our needs and available resources.

    There is nothing to say that American & European democracy is the best for us.

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  31. Update: I have matured since this post, and I do not believe in what I speak here anymore.
    Since people end up in this post from google searches, thought of clarifying that.

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