Sangha-Led Buddhist-Tamil Dialogue Takes Shape

By Kumar David –

Some readers may recall that about six months ago I reported in this column that a group of Sangha (Buddhist monks) had taken the initiative to visit Europe and the UK and meet Tamil activists of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) as well as other groups and gone on to Washington where they had held discussions with US Government officials. In their view “Enough is enough”: A stop has to be put to mad communal butchery in which thousands of lives are sacrificed every few years. They opined that the Buddhists as the senior partner who hold the whip-hand must take the initiative to end this state of affairs. Upon returning to the Island they took their case to the higher councils of the Sangha, the Mahanaykes, and received encouragement. Under the name “Sangha for a better Sri Lanka” they have now launched a “Road Map for the Development of a National Conversation”.

Their continuing efforts has become broad based and evolved into a nationwide Road Map, an action plan. Many distinguished persons in public life have undertaken various tasks under the Road Map.

The tasks envisaged in the Road Map include;

* Forming 25 coordinating committees

* Establishing interfaith coalitions

* Identifying and meeting youth groups and small groups of opinion makers

* Probing the possibility of securing multiparty political endorsement

* Establishing mechanisms for interacting with State (Government) policy makers

* Sustaining the support of foreign governments

* Engaging the support of Sarvodaya and National Peace Council for grass-roots level work

* Seeking the additional support of South Africa, India and China

* Creating a Secretariat

This is an ambitious set of tasks and Sri Lanka expects that every man and woman will to do their duty.

Dangerous Directions

However, there are also dangers. I have in mind the ever present possibility of a reactionary Buddhist extremist backlash. What concerns me is not the opposition of irresponsible reactionaries but rather the possibility of injudicious missteps by the left, that is, the JVP and the NPP. There are two sides of the matter to be concerned about. The JVP cannot be described as a movement with a powerful and credible reputation of opposition to racism as one would expect from a left party. This goes back all the way to Wijeweera, the JVP’s violent opposition to the Thirteenth Amendment and the antics of the Somawansa period. Even now the JVP prevaricates on devolution of administrative powers, the return of properties grabbed (and trashed) by the military and treatment of Muslims by Sinhala extremists in some areas. I suppose asking the JVP to make a commitment to the devolution of power at the present time is a waste of time as it seems unwilling to stand against populist nationalism.

The JVP’s flirting with the military is quite shocking considering that under the Ranasinghe Premadasa and JRJ presidencies as many as 60,000 youth, mostly JVP cadres, were massacred by the military. This lends credibility to the theory that faith and ideology have a greater hold over the human mind than logic and material self-interest. For example Israel today is on road to the destruction of the God given “Promised Land” as a Jewish state because a majority of its people cannot reconcile themselves to a contiguous Palestinian State. Israel as a Jewish outpost in defiance of a sea of Arab and Muslim lands is surely a time limited project.

Does the ingrained emotional grip of a Sinhala-Buddhist psyche inherited from birth (I am inclined to say, metaphorically and culturally from before birth) dominate the minds of some JVP leaders? Otherwise how explain the ideological hold of Sinhala-Buddhist piety over purported Marxists? Are they only playing the game of power politics, ready to dump all this mumbo-jumbo when the time comes? I am not sure. For example how many will openly declare themselves as atheists or agnostics?

This is complicated by the absence of a clear and unequivocal commitment to democracy in the NPP programme. I am referring to democracy in the conventional sense; a commitment to regular elections and an assurance of change of government by elections. Call this bourgeois democracy if you will – indeed it is – but it is also an absolute minimum that is essential in modern times. I call upon the NPP to issue such an assurance before people loose trust in it.

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