Saturday, January 30, 2021

Popular practice of Buddhism in Sri Lanka should be reinvented

Buddhism is not a social doctrine such as Marxism. It is a personal doctrine aimed at in depth understanding of the entity called self. However, the social impact of following this personal doctrine would be immense – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

 

The National Council for International Affairs of All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC)  organised the International Buddhist Conference 2020 titled Buddhism’s Response to COVID-19 Pandemic over two day on 7 and 8 November from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. with the participation of eminent Buddhist scholars from Sri Lanka and abroad. 

Being the Chairman of the National Council for International Affairs of ACBC, Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, who is the Vice President of ACBC as well, spearheaded the organisation of the event. 

The conference started with the analysis of Suttas in Pali Canon such as Ratana Sutta and Girimanada Sutta but later it has devolved more time on meditation and mindfulness. It was discussed how mindfulness would remedy the mental stresses of all forms, not only that derived from COVID-19. 

Even the Buddha sought medical advice and followed the same when he was ill. As world-renowned meditation master S.N. Goenka once said, there was no point of reciting a prescription given by a doctor rather than taking that medicine.

The most welcome outcome of the conference was that ACBC President Jagath Sumathipala accepted that to acknowledge the coming Poya day, 29 November, be a day of mindfulness on the request of Most Venerable Udairiyagama Dhammajiva Thero, Chief Incumbent of Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Forest Monastery. The move of ACBC towards mindfulness is most encouraging.

Mindfulness was first discussed in detail by the Buddha. In one of the discourses, Satipattana Sutta where the Buddha dealt with mindfulness, it was declared as follows at the beginning: “This is the only way, O bhikkhus, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbana, namely, the Four Arousings of Mindfulness.”

In the West, there was extensive research done in respect of the benefits of mindfulness and the medical doctors prescribe mindfulness meditation to their patients in order to overcome tension and stress. In several countries, mindfulness is taught in the schools so that children at a very tender age are accustomed to it.

As the Buddha said in Satipattana Sutta, there are various benefits of practicing mindfulness ranging from overcoming sorrow to the attainment of Nibbana, the supreme bliss. Therefore, overcoming tension and stress can also be included in this range of benefits.

Buddhism is not a social doctrine such as Marxism. It is a personal doctrine aimed at in depth understanding of the entity called self. However, the social impact of following this personal doctrine would be immense.

Buddhism recommends everyone to do a noble investigation (ariya pariyesana) about oneself. What are we doing every day? We get various messages through our five senses and act by giving various interpretations to them. Buddhism suggests us to observe this process closely and get first-hand information about the way this machine works. 

If a simple example is given, we all know that the breath taken in should be cooler than the breath sent out. The reason is that our body temperature is more than the temperature of the atmosphere. We get this knowledge by logic. 

In case we closely observe this process and know it by feeling the coolness and hotness of respective breaths, then that knowledge would be a complete knowledge. There is no logic in it. Similarly, the observation can be expended to mental statuses such as stress. Origin of stress is a more subtle position. If a person can observe the process from that subtle position of stress to gross outcome of it, that very observation may lead to the eradication of the same.

Buddhism says that this machine works due to the relationship of causes and effects and there is no permanent entity within, and this can be understood through a close observation of one’s basic activities. 

The objective of the present day Bhikkus should be to direct the people to this close observation process rather than getting them engaged in the processes of rituals.  More importantly this observation process has no religious boundaries, and it is common to all human beings irrespective of the religions they belong. 

Therefore, it can be equally practiced by the members of all religions while keeping their religious identities intact. At the end they can align with the God if they so wish.

A person who goes along the way Buddha suggested by containing his ego would have very little chances of having ethnocentric or religion centric ideologies. Since he has to shed the five faculties which helped him at the beginning, faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom at the end, he may have to shed religious and ethnic biases at the beginning.  

The beauty in this process, when one is with oneself, the pain of the leg identified earlier as the pain of my leg, would reduce to a mere pain. Strong ethnic and religious identities would reduce to the level of mere human beings. 

Rabindranath Tagore said: “Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.”

It is perfectly in line with the way shown by the Buddha.

Therefore, mindfulness can be a remedy for one’s own sorrows and lamentation and also it would be a remedy for the basic social issues the country facing today. The country is deeply divided in lines of ethnicity and religion. Religion basically divides people. Mindfulness being dealing with one’s own body and mind with no religious rituals associated with it, is having a tremendous capacity of unifying all the human beings since human beings only without any discrimination can do it.

It is up to the Buddhists to get this double-edged benefit for the country and its citizens. The proposer of the day of mindfulness, Most Venerable Udairiyagama Dhammajiva Thero is already doing this through his meditation retreats and activities of Sati Pasala focused on ground level specially aiming at school children irrespective of ethnicity and religion.

We should congratulate ACBC and its National Council for International Affairs for organising this conference and paving the way for more important dialogue of finer aspects of Buddhism.

(The writer was the first President of the Sati Pasala Foundation.)

Published in DailyFT on November 24,2020

http://www.ft.lk/columns/Popular-practice-of-Buddhism-in-Sri-Lanka-should-be-reinvented/4-709297

Benefits Of Going To The Roots Of Buddhism

 By Harsha Gunasena –

Harsha Gunasena

Buddhism is not a social doctrine such as Marxism. It is a personal doctrine aimed at in depth understanding of the entity called self. However, the social impact of following this personal doctrine would be immense. Therefore, exploring into the Buddhist teaching is important to understand the essence in relation to popular practices of Buddhism.

The National Council for International Affairs of All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) organized the International Buddhist Conference 2020 titled Buddhism’s Response to Covid-19 Pandemic for two day on 7 and 8 November from 2pm to 6pm through zoom technology with the participation of eminent Buddhist scholars from Sri Lanka and abroad. Being the Chairman of the National Council for International Affairs of ACBC Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, who is the Vice President of ACBC as well, spearheaded the organization of the event. 


The conference started with the analysis of Suttas in Pali Canon such as Ratana Sutta and Girimanada Sutta but later it has devolved more time on meditation and mindfulness. It was discussed how mindfulness would remedy the mental stresses of all forms, not only that derived from Covid-19. 

Even Buddha sought medical advice and followed the same when he was ill. As world renowned meditation master S.N. Goenka once said there was no point of reciting a prescription given by a doctor rather than taking that medicine.

The most welcome outcome of the conference was that the President of ACBC, Jagath Sumathipala accepted that to acknowledge the coming Poya day, November 29 be a day of mindfulness on the request of most venerable Udairiyagama Dhammajiva thero, Chief Incumbent of Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya forest monastery. The move of ACBC towards mindfulness is most encouraging.

Mindfulness was first discussed in detail by the Buddha. In one of the discourses, Satipattana Sutta where the Buddha dealt with mindfulness, it was declared as follows at the beginning:

“This is the only way, O bhikkhus, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbana, namely, the Four Arousings of Mindfulness.”

In the West, there was extensive research done in respect of the benefits of mindfulness and the medical doctors prescribe mindfulness meditation to their patients in order to overcome tension and stress. In several countries, mindfulness is taught in the schools so that children at a very tender age are accustomed to it.

As Buddha said in Satipattana Sutta there are various benefits of practicing mindfulness ranging from overcoming sorrow to the attainment of Nibbana, the supreme bliss. Therefore, overcoming tension and stress can also be included in this range of benefits.

Buddhism recommends everyone to do a noble investigation (ariya pariyesana) about oneself. What are we doing every day? We get various messages through our five senses and act by giving various interpretations to them. Buddhism suggests us to observe this process closely and get firsthand information about the way this machine works. If a simple example is given, we all know that the breath taken in should be cooler than the breath sent  out. The reason is that our body temperature is more than the temperature of the atmosphere. We get this knowledge by logic. 

In case we closely observe this process and know it by feeling the coolness and hotness of respective breaths, then that knowledge would be a complete knowledge. There is no logic in it. Similarly, the observation can be expended to mental statuses such as stress or anger. Origin of stress is a more subtle position. If a person can observe the process from that subtle position of stress to gross outcome of it, that very observation may lead to the eradication of the same.

Buddhism says that this machine works due to the relationship of causes and effects and there is no permanent entity within, and this can be understood through a close observation of one’s basic activities. 

The objective of the present day Bhikkus should be to direct the people to this close observation process rather than getting them engaged in the processes of rituals.  More importantly this observation process has no religious boundaries, and it is common to all human beings irrespective of the religions they belong. 

Therefore, it can be equally practiced by the members of all religions while keeping their religious identities intact. At the end they can align with the God if they so wish.

A person who goes along the way Buddha suggested by containing his ego would have very little chances of having ethnocentric or religion centric ideologies. Since he has to shed the five faculties which helped him at the beginning, faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration and  wisdom at the end, he may have to shed religious and ethnic biases at the beginning.  

The beauty in this process, when one is with oneself, the pain of the leg identified earlier as the pain of my leg, would reduce to a mere pain. Strong ethnic and religious identities would reduce to the level of mere human beings. 

Rabindranath Tagore said: “Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.”

It is perfectly in line with the way shown by the Buddha.

Therefore, mindfulness can be a remedy for one’s own sorrows and lamentation and also it would be a remedy for the basic social issues the country facing today. The country is deeply divided in lines of ethnicity and religion. Religion basically divides people. Mindfulness being dealing with one’s own body and mind with no religious rituals associated with it, is having a tremendous capacity of unifying all the human beings since human beings only without any discrimination can do it.

It is up to the Buddhists to get this double-edged benefit for the country and its citizens. The proposer of the day of mindfulness, most venerable Udairiyagama Dhammajiva thero is already doing this through his meditation retreats and activities of Sati Pasala focused on ground level specially aiming at school children irrespective of ethnicity and religion.

We should congratulate ACBC and its National Council for International Affairs for organizing this conference and paving the way for more important dialogue of finer aspects of Buddhism.

*The writer was the first President of Sati Pasala Foundation

Published in Colombo Telegraph on November 27,2020

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/benefits-of-going-to-the-roots-of-buddhism/

How sound is SriLanka’s collective consciousness?

 

The basic requirement to develop a country is to get the wholehearted support of all citizens. If a group of people think that this country can be developed by the majority community by suppressing the minorities, they are imbeciles. Let alone a country, even a factory cannot be run in this manner – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara


 

Throughout the world the political leaders, whether they are democratic or autocratic, try to influence the collective consciousness of the society in order to establish their power. The people should be vigilant whether this proposed collective consciousness would be in the best interests of the nation.



US example

President Joe Biden took his oath as 46th President of USA recently. Unlike previous Presidential Elections of US, there was a degree of uncertainty until such time he took oath. The reason was that the former President Donald Trump hatched a constitutional coup which was the first of this type in the American history. 

Trump started to express his doubts in the election process during the early stages of the campaign. Trump who had a loose tongue was bold enough to say that he would not accept the election results if he was defeated. He repeatedly created a doubt in the minds of his supporters of the counting of postal votes. Once the election was over and Biden got a clear majority, he falsely said that he won the election. His Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Trump would start his second term in January 2021. His team filed cases in the states where Biden won marginally against the election results. Those were thrown away. 

I was suspicious whether he would try to meddle with the representatives of the states at the time of the Electoral College decision. It did not happen, and Electoral College decisively confirmed the presidency of Joe Biden. Finally, at a rally he persuaded his supporters to raid Capitol Hill at the time the Congress was ratifying the decision of the Electoral College. Congress ratified the decision, but the tragedy was that there were 147 Republicans in both houses who voted to overturn the election results which was unbelievable. Ultimately Mike Pence, Vice President and the President of the Senate, became a hero for merely fulfilling his duty. 

I can understand one mad person working against the democratic norms of the greatest democracy of the world and rallying his supporters to get his mad idea fulfilled, but considering the US norms, I cannot understand that such a number of his party representatives of the Congress were mesmerised by his mad idea. Trumpism should not have been Republicanism. 

Trump mislead the collective consciousness of the Americans. His supporters were carried away and he was able to convince a considerable number of Republican Senators and House Representatives. Over a period of time, he was addressing the rural Americans and promoting American white supremacy which was against the American liberal ideals developed over centuries. Eventually he worked to divide America. 



Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, this rhetoric of misleading the collective consciousness in order to gain power was going on over decades. 

Bandaranaike created a false patriotism by nationalising privately held assets and businesses. This patriotism was reduced to providing employment in these businesses to the political supporters of the successive political parties. Eventually the government budget had to finance these loss-making institutions. Still, this false patriotism is powerful enough to create a public opinion that we should continue with the State ownership of those entities. 

It is beneficial to the rulers, therefore they promote this false patriotism by misleading the collective consciousness of the people. Then the people request the continuation of the entities with state ownership although they themselves are at the receiving end of this whole game. No one is requesting the government or forcing it by demonstrations to run those institutions profitably.

Bandaranaike politicised the ethnocentrism in Sri Lanka. It was once again misleading the collective consciousness for political gains. It was true that the power which was held by the elite should be given to the ordinary people and it should be done across the island without ethnocentric biases so that when the state started communicating with the people in their language, English should have been replaced not only by Sinhala but also by Tamil as well.

These two points, false patriotism and ethnocentrism was used by the wife and the political children of Bandaranaike to come to power by misleading the collective consciousness of the people. Sirimavo Bandaranaike did it and failed miserably. Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa also did it. The irony is that they cannot sustain it when they come to power.

That is the dilemma faced by the President today.



False patriotism

In respect of false patriotism, which was spearheaded by him during his campaign, there were three main points which would work against his premise.

Firstly, he himself contributed to sell the national assets during the regime of his brother. The premises of the Shangri-La Hotel was sold to China outright. Colombo International Container Terminal was built by the Chinese and the Chinese management company owns 85%, which is an excessive percentage and only 15% was held by the Ports Authority. Ownership of the Chinese built Port City was given to China and later it was reversed to a long-term lease by the previous Government. Hambantota Port was built on a high interest loan from China and the previous Government had to give to China on a long-term lease since it could not service the loan.

Secondly, the economic situation of the country was very bad due to bad financial management of the successive governments. From day one of the independence the governments spent more than they earn except for two years where M.D.H. Jayawardana was the Finance Minister, hence the country is trapped in debt since the borrowed money did not contribute to the economic growth effectively. We have an unproductive public service and the successive governments continued to enlarge it for political gains except for two years when Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister in 2001. 

Wickremesinghe’s farsighted act was condemned by many politicians including his supporters who placed themselves ahead of the country. Our rule of law is not trusted, wage rates are not attractive, and the government policies are not consistent. Hence the foreign private investors do not come. On top of that the present Government reduced its revenue by way of massive reduction of the income taxes with the blessings of the self-centred private sector. 

Therefore, the country will have to take drastic economic reforms including privatisation of Government assets and businesses, enabling them to run more effectively and reduction of size of the unproductive and mostly arrogant public sector. Problems cannot be solved by merely printing money. The Government will have to tell the truth to the people and the people also should understand the truth ahead of the Government.

Thirdly, it is the tug of war between the US bloc and China. The Government has already antagonised the US bloc comprising US, Japan, and India. The MCC agreement was not accepted by the Government and the US ambassador claims a level playing field in Sri Lanka without favouritism to Chinese companies in Sri Lankan projects. 

This Government rejected the Light Rail Transit project funded by Japan. India was of the view that current protests against the East Container Terminal (ECT) of Colombo Port is supported by the Chinese. The previous Government had given India and Japan the right to develop ECT in order to counter the Chinese influence which was a creation of the previous Rajapaksa regime. 

People by and large do not get a benefit if the assets are kept with the Government and mismanaged. Instead, they will get a benefit only if the assets are managed profitably. Venezuela owns their oil fields which amounts to 20% of the world oil reserves and at present the country is having a hyper-inflation. 

The problem of the country is bad and corrupt governance. Only imbeciles can shout against selling national assets while keeping mum on corrupt and inefficient governance and economic management of the country and colossal losses of the public institutions which is the root cause of selling of national assets. No one can manage or influence an effect. The cause should be managed and influenced not the effect. Ethnocentric, by heart non-Buddhist, political Bhikkus are trying to manage the effect and wants to be the heroes in the collective consciousness of the masses.

It was reported that the Government decided to sell 49% of the shares of the operation company of ECT to Indian and Japanese investors while retaining the majority shares 51% of the operation company and the ownership of the asset. It should be noted that 65% of our re-exports are coming from India and it is advantageous to get them connected here. 

None of these demonstrators who are against the selling of 49% of ECT, including Bhikkus and the JVP, effective demonstrated against Chinese acquisitions of State assets which were far greater than this acquisition. This imposes the question whether all of them are Chinese puppets and the question is posed on the basis that the country should not get aligned to any superpower. 

If the Government antagonises India the country should be ready to face the political ramifications of which the country is having bitter memories in the 1980s. However, the unions of the Ports Authority are suggesting offering the Western Terminal to the Indians rather than the Eastern Terminal.



Ethnocentrism

In respect of ethnocentrism, which is the other premise of the President’s election campaign, the Government is going to get blocked soon. Submitting her report to United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), HR Commissioner Michelle Bachelet came down hard on the Government on its failure to fulfil the commitments made.  She proposed that the member states of the Human Rights Council consider invocation of universal jurisdiction, referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and sanctions against targeted individuals such as asset freezes and travel bans. These are far-reaching proposals. 

In addition to that Tamil parties along with the Tamil civil society members and the religious leaders have written to the member states of the UNHRC that the President of UNHRC should refer the matters on accountability in Sri Lanka back to the Secretary General for action which includes reference to the ICC. 

The US, which would most probably reengage with UNHRC and EU of which the major countries are in UNHRC, accounts for 25% each of the Sri Lanka exports market. Moreover, EU in 2015 re-granted GSP+ facility for our exports which promoted much needed exports to the economy. Government policy of forceful cremation of the COVID-19 affected bodies of Muslims is widely criticised in the international arena. 

There is a strong resistance from within and from outside to implement two main rhetorical pronouncements of the Government. The prevalent collective consciousness of the people of false patriotism and ethnocentrism is not sustainable. Hence this collective consciousness is stupid. It dragged the minorities also towards ethnocentrism and now all are in the same soup enjoying it like crabs in the pan.

The basic requirement to develop a country is to get the wholehearted support of all citizens. If a group of people think that this country can be developed by the majority community by suppressing the minorities, they are imbeciles. Let alone a country, even a factory cannot be run in this manner.



Trump’s precedence

We have noted the actions of Donald Trump. Being an undeveloped democracy with weak institutions, we should be proud that we did not have such an anti-democratic person as our Head of State. USA could afford it with its strong traditions and institutions who are not afraid to challenge anybody within the framework of the law. 

Sri Lanka is not like that especially after the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. We can observe the changed behaviour of the judicial system. We should not forget the scenario on the night of 8 January 2015. According to newspaper reports there was a plan to grab power forcibly. After the resistance of the senior Government officials, the then President, who was a seasoned politician, decided to relinquish power. It is imperative that we all manage our collective consciousness against such acts.

Published in DailyFT on January 30,2021

http://www.ft.lk/columns/How-sound-is-SriLanka-s-collective-consciousness/4-712310


Collective Consciousness Of Sri Lankans – Is It Constructive Or Destructive

 By Harsha Gunasena –

Harsha Gunasena

Collective consciousness is a fundamental sociological concept which refers to a set of shared ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge which are common to a social group or society. The political leaders, whether they are democratic or autocratic, try to influence the collective consciousness of the society, some in order to uplift the society in a constructive way such as Nelson Mandela and some in destructive way such as Hitler. The people should be vigilant whether these influences on collective consciousness would be in the best interests of the nation.

US example


President Joe Biden took his oath as 46th President of USA recently. Unlike previous Presidential Elections of US, there was a degree of uncertainty until such time he took oath.  The reason was that the former President Donald Trump hatched a constitutional coup which was the first of this type in the American history. Trump started to express his doubts in the election process during the early stages of the campaign. Trump who had a loose tongue was bold enough to say that he would not accept the election results if he was defeated.  He repeatedly created a doubt in the minds of his supporters of the counting of postal votes. Once the election was over and Biden got a clear majority, he falsely said that he won the election. His Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Trump would start his second term in January 2021. His team filed cases in the states where Biden won marginally against the election results. Those were thrown away. 

I was suspicious whether he would try to meddle with the representatives of the states at the time of the Electoral College decision. It did not happen, and Electoral College decisively confirmed the presidency of Joe Biden. Finally, at a rally he persuaded his supporters to raid Capitol Hill at the time the Congress was ratifying the decision of the Electoral College. Congress ratified the decision, but the tragedy was that there were 147 Republicans in both houses who voted to overturn the election results which was unbelievable. Ultimately Mike Pence, Vice President and the President of the Senate, became a hero for merely fulfilling his duty. I can understand that one mad person working against the democratic norms of the greatest democracy of the world and rallying his supporters to get his mad idea fulfilled, but considering the US norms, I cannot understand that such a number of his party representatives of the Congress were mesmerized by his mad idea. Trumpism should not have been Republicanism. 

Trump mislead the collective consciousness of the Americans to a level that it was destructive. His supporters were carried away and he was able to convince a considerable number of Republican Senators and House Representatives. Over a period of time, he was addressing the rural Americans and promoting American white supremacy which was against the American liberal ideals developed over centuries. Eventually he worked to divide America. 


Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, the promotion of destructive collective consciousness in order to gain power by the politicians was going on over decades. Prime Minister Bandaranaike created a false patriotism by nationalizing privately held assets and businesses. This patriotism was reduced to providing employment in these businesses to the political supporters of the successive political parties. Eventually the government budget had to finance these loss-making institutions. Still, this false patriotism is powerful enough to create a public opinion that we should continue with the state ownership of those entities. It is beneficial to the rulers, therefore they promote this false patriotism by promoting destructive  collective consciousness of the people. Then the people request the continuation of the entities with state ownership although they themselves are at the receiving end of this whole game. No one is requesting the government or forcing it by demonstrations to run those institutions profitably.

Prime Minister Bandaranaike politicized the ethnocentrism in Sri Lanka. It was once again promoting destructive collective consciousness for political gains. It was true that the power which was held by the elite should be given to the ordinary people and it should be done across the island without ethnocentric biases so that when the state started communicating with the people in their language, English should have been replaced not only by Sinhala but also by Tamil as well.


These two points, false patriotism and ethnocentrism was used by the wife and the political children of Bandaranaike to come to power by promoting destructive collective consciousness of the people. Mrs. Bandaranaike did it and failed miserably. Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa also did it. The irony is that they cannot sustain it when they come to power.

That is the dilemma faced by the President today.

False Patriotism

In respect of false patriotism, which was spearheaded by him during his campaign, there were three main points which would work against his premise.

Firstly, he himself contributed to sell the national assets during the regime of his brother. The premises of the Shangri-la hotel was sold to China outright. Colombo International Container Terminal was built by the Chinese and the Chinese management company owns 85%, which is an excessive percentage and only 15% was held by the Port Authority. Ownership of the Chinese built Port City was given to China and later it was reversed to a long-term lease by the previous government. Hambantota port was built on a high interest loan from China and the previous government had to give to China on a long-term lease since it could not service the loan.

Secondly, the economic situation of the country was very bad due to bad financial management of the successive governments. From day one of the independence the governments spent more than they earn except for two years where M.D.H Jayawardana was the Finance Minister, hence the country is trapped in debt since the borrowed money did not contribute to the economic growth effectively. We have an unproductive public service and the successive governments continued to enlarge it for political gains except for two years when Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister in 2001.  

Wickremesinghe’s farsighted act was condemned by many politicians including his supporters who placed themselves ahead of the country. Our rule of law is not trusted, wage rates are not attractive, and the government policies are not consistent. Hence the foreign private investors do not come. On top of that the present government reduced its revenue by way of massive reduction of the income taxes with the blessings of the self-centered Private Sector. Therefore, the country will have to take drastic economic reforms including privatization of government assets and businesses, enabling them to run more effectively and reduction of size of the unproductive and mostly arrogant public sector. Problems cannot be solved by merely printing money. The Government will have to tell the truth to the people and the people also should understand the truth ahead of the government.

Thirdly, it is the tug of war between the US block and China. The Government has already antagonized the US block comprising of US, Japan, and India. The MCC agreement was not accepted by the Government and the US ambassador claims a level playing field in Sri Lanka without favoritism to Chinese companies in Sri Lankan projects. This government rejected the Light Rail Transit project funded by Japan. India was of the view that current protests against the East Container Terminal (ECT) of Colombo Port is supported by the Chinese. The previous government had given India and Japan the right to develop ECT in order to counter the Chinese influence which was a creation of the previous Rajapaksa regime.  

People by and large do not get a benefit if the assets are kept with the government and mismanaged. Instead, they will get a benefit only if the assets are managed profitably. Venezuela owns their oil fields which amounts to  20% of the world oil reserves and at present the country is having a hyper-inflation. The problem of the country is bad and corrupt governance. Only imbeciles can shout against selling national assets while keeping mum on corrupt and inefficient governance and economic management of the country and colossal losses of the public institutions which is the root cause of selling of national assets. No one can manage or influence an effect. The cause should be managed and influenced not the effect. Ethnocentric, by heart non- Buddhist, political Bhikkus are trying to manage the effect and wants to be the heroes in the collective consciousness of the masses.

It was reported that the Government decided to sell 49% of the shares of the operation company of ECT to Indian and Japanese investors while retaining the majority shares 51% of the operation company and the ownership of the asset. It should be noted that 65% of our reexports are coming from India and it is advantageous to get them connected here. None of these demonstrators who are against the selling of 49% of ECT, including Bhikkus and the JVP, did effective demonstrate such as the current one against Chinese acquisitions of state assets which were far greater than this acquisition. This imposes the question whether all of them are Chinese puppets and the question is posed on the basis that the country should not get aligned to any super-power. If the Government antagonizes India the country should be ready to face the political ramifications of which the country is having bitter memories in the 1980s. However, the unions of the Port Authority are suggesting offering Western Terminal to the Indians rather than the Eastern Terminal.

Ethnocentrism

In respect of ethnocentrism which is the other premise of the President’s election campaign, the government is going to get blocked soon. Submitting her report to United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the HR Commissioner Michelle Bachelet came down hard on the Government of its failure to fulfil the commitments made. She proposed that the member states of the Human Rights Council to consider invocation of universal jurisdiction, referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and sanctions against targeted individuals such as asset freezes and travel bans. These are far reaching proposals. 

In addition to that Tamil parties along with the Tamil civil society members and the religious leaders have written to the member states of the UNHRC that the President of UNHRC should refer the matters on accountability in Sri Lanka back to the Secretary General for action which includes reference to the ICC. US which would most probably reengage with UNHRC and EU of which the major countries are in UNHRC, accounts for 25% each of the Sri Lanka exports market. Moreover, EU in 2015 re-granted GSP+ facility for our exports which promoted much needed exports to the economy. Government policy of forceful cremation of the Covid-19 affected bodies of the Muslims is widely criticized in the international arena. 

There is a strong resistance from within and from outside to implement two main rhetorical pronouncements of the government. The prevalent collective consciousness of the people of false patriotism and ethnocentrism is not sustainable and destructive. It dragged the minorities also towards ethnocentrism and now all are in the same soup enjoying it like crabs in the pan.

The basic requirement to develop a country is to get the wholehearted support of all the citizens. If a group of people think that this country can be developed by the majority community by suppressing the minorities, they are imbeciles. Let alone a country, even a factory cannot be run in this manner.

Trump’s precedence

We have noted the actions of Donald Trump. Being an undeveloped democracy with weak institutions, we should be proud that we did not have such an anti-democratic person as our Head of State. USA could afford it with its strong traditions and institutions who are not afraid to challenge anybody within the framework of the law. Sri Lanka is not like that especially after the 20th amendment to the constitution. We can observe the changed behavior of the judicial system. We should not forget the scenario in the night of the January 8, 2015. According to the newspaper reports there was a plan to grab the power forcibly. After the resistance of the senior government officials then President, who was a seasoned politician, decided to relinquish the power. It is imperative that we all manage our collective consciousness against such acts.

Published in Colombo Telegraph on January 30, 2021

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/collective-consciousness-of-sri-lankans-is-it-constructive-or-destructive/

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිවාදයේ උභතෝකෝටිකය

 හර්ෂ ගුණසේන –

හර්ෂ ගුණසේන

බුදු සමයෙන් හික්මවනු ලැබූ මෙරට සිංහල බෞද්ධයෝ වාර්ගික සම්බන්ධතා විෂයෙහි ලා සියවස් ගණනාවක් මුළුල්ලේ විවෘත ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් අනුගමනය කළහ. මෙකල ජාතික නායකත්වය සඳහා ජන වර්ගය, ආගම සහ කුලයද සාධක ලෙස සැලකෙන නමුත් ඉතිහාසයේ ජනතා අනුමැතිය සහිතව රාජ්‍යය කළ  විවිධ ජනවර්ගයන්ට අයත් නරපතියෝ සිටියහ. බලයෙන් රාජ්‍යය අත්පත් කරගත් ආක්‍රමණිකයන් ද මෙරට රජ කල නමුත් ඔවුහු ආක්‍රමණිකයෝ නොවූහ. පොළොන්නරු යුගයේ වර්ෂ 1187 සිට 1196  දක්වා නව වසරක් රාජ්‍යය විචාල නිශ්ශංක මල්ල එවැන්නෙකි. හෙතෙම  සිංහලයකු නොවේ, මෙරට වැසියකු ද  නොවේ. සියවස් ගණනාවක් මුළුල්ලේ පැවති මෙම ඉවසිලි සහගත ආකල්පය වඩාත් ලංවන්නේ වර්තමාන දියුණු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ආකල්ප වලටයි. ඉන්දියානු රාජ්‍ය නායකයෝ විවිධ ජනවර්ග වලටද ආගම් වලටද කුල වලටද අයත් වෙති. පොළොන්නරු යුගයේ සහ ඉන් පසුව ව්‍යවහාර බුදු දහම හින්දු ආගම සමග මිශ්‍ර විය. අද තත්ත්වයද එසේමයි. සියවස් දහයක පමණ කාලයක් මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව මෙරට වැසියන් සහ රජවරුන් සමග සහයෝගයෙන් කටයුතු කළහ. පන්සල් බිම් වල මුස්ලිම් පල්ලි ඉදි කෙරුන අවස්ථා තිබුණ අතර දළදා මාලිගාව ඇතුළු විවිධ පන්සල් වල ඔවුහු රාජකාරිය කළහ. ඕලන්ද පාලන සමයේ රෝමානු කතෝලිකයන්ට  ආරක්ෂාව සපයන ලද්දේ මෙරට රජවරු සහ සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් විසිනි.

ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපති තුමා අධ්‍යාපනය ලද කොළඹ ආනන්ද මහා විද්‍යාලය ආරම්භ වූයේ ජන වර්ගයට නොව ආගමට මුල් තැන දෙන බෞද්ධ ඉංග්‍රීසි පාඨශාලාවක් වශයෙනි. එය ආරම්භ වූයේ  රාජ්‍යය විසින් බුද්ධාගමට එරෙහිව කරන ලද මර්දනයට විරුද්ධවයි. එකල ආනන්දයේ බොහෝ දෙමළ මෙන්ම මුස්ලිම් ගුරුවරු සිටියහ. ආනන්දයේ ආරම්භකයන් ගේ මෙන්ම එහි ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ විදුහල්පතිවරයකු වූ පී ද එස් කුලරත්න ගේද දැක්ම වෙනත් ආගම් වලට විරුද්ධ වූවක් නොව රාජ්‍යය විසින් බුදු දහමට එල්ල කළ පීඩනයට එරෙහි වූවකි. එවකට ආනන්දයේ ගුරුවරයකු වූ ටී. බී. ජයා ට සහිරා විදුහලේ විදුහල්පති කම භාරගැනීමට අනුබල දුන් කුලරත්න ආනන්දයේ ගුරුවරුන්  පිරිසක්ද සහිරා විදුහලට යැවීය. මෙය කුලරත්නගේද ආනන්දයේද දැක්මට සපුරා අනුගත වෙයි. වාර්ගිකත්වය ආනන්දයට පැමිණියේ එල් එච් මෙත්තානන්ද ගේ යුගයේදීය. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ එහි අධ්‍යාපනය ලබන යුගය වන විට ආනන්දය හුදු සිංහල බෞද්ධ පාසලක් බවට පත්වී තිබුණි. එම පරිවර්තනය රාජ්‍යය විසින් බුදු දහම මර්දනයට එරෙහිව ආනන්දය විසින් සිදු කළ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ වූද පුරෝගාමී වූද මෙහෙවර අනුව යාමක් නොවේ. 

මෙම ජාතිවාදී රැල්ල හෙවත් නව මානසික තත්ත්වගතකරණය ආරම්භ වූයේ දහනව වැනි සියවසේ අගභාගයේ ආරම්භ කරන ලද බෞද්ධ පුනර්ජීවන ව්‍යාපාරයත් සමගයි. බෞද්ධ පුනර්ජීවන ව්‍යාපාරය ආරම්භ වූයේ බුද්ධාගම ට විරුද්ධ වූ රාජ්‍ය වැඩපිළිවෙලට එරෙහිවයි. එනමුත් මෙය මහජනයා අතරට ගෙන යාමේදී සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් අතර වෙනත් ජාතීන්ටද ආගමිකයන්ටද එරෙහි හැඟීමක් ඇතිවිය. කුලරත්න වැනි ඉදිරි දැක්මක් ඇති විදුහල්පතිවරු ආනන්දය තුළ මෙම තත්ත්වය කළමනාකරණය කරගත්තත් අපේ ජාතික නායකයන්ට එසේ කිරීමට නොහැකි විය.පසුව පැමිණි දේශපාලන නායකයන් විසින් මෙම මානසික තත්ත්වගතකරණය සිය බලය ස්ථාපිත කිරීම සඳහා පාවිච්චි කරන ලදී. මේ තත්ත්වයට ප්‍රතික්‍රියා දෙමළ සහ මුස්ලිම් ජනයා ද සිංහලයන් ට එරෙහිව මානසික තත්ත්වගතකරණයකට භාජනයවී සිටිති.

ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ගේ ජනාධිපතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරය සංවිධානය කරන ලද්දේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ ඡන්ද ඉලක්ක කර ගෙනය. එය ඔවුන් පරාජය වූ 2015 ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පිලේද ඉලක්කය විය. මෙම අවස්ථාවේදී ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ඉලක්කය ජය ගත් අතර ජනාධිපති ලෙස කරන ලද සිය ප්‍රථම කථාවේදී ඔහු එය අවධාරණය කළේය. ඔහුගේ පූර්වගාමීන් මෙන් නොව ඔහු සුළු ජාතික අයිතිවාසිකම් සම්පුර්ණයෙන්ම නොතකා හරියි. ජාතිය සහ ආගම දේශපාලන වේදිකාවට රැගෙන ආවේ එස්. ඩබ්. ආර්. ඩි. බණ්ඩාරනායක විසිනි. යුක්තිය සහ සාධාරණත්වය කුමක්දැයි දැන සිටි ඔහු, බණ්ඩාරනායක-චෙල්වනායගම් ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් කළේය. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටීමට පිට කොන්දක් ඔහුට නොතිබිණි. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට ඔහු ගේ ජනාධිපතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරය හුදු අලංකාරෝක්තියක් නොවේ. මේ අනුව ඔහු සිය සොහොයුරා ද ඇතුළු පූර්වගාමීන් මෙන් නොව අවංක පුද්ගලයෙකි. වඩාත් විය හැකි හේතුව වන්නේ   දිනෙන් දින පහල යන ජනප්‍රියත්වය හමුවේ දිනන සූත්‍රය දිගටම අල්ලා ගෙන සිටීමයි. එනමුත් එය පරදින සූත්‍රයක් බවට හැරෙමින් තිබේ.

ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ගේ ජනාධිපතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාරයේ ප්‍රධාන කරුණක් වූ ජාතිවාදය විනාශකාරී ලෙස හැසිරෙමින් තිබේ. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස කොවිඩ්-19 න් ආසාදිත වූ මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයන්ගේ මල සිරුරු ආදාහනය දැක්විය හැක. විදේශ අමාත්‍යංශය හෝ කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය හෝ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව විසින් මෙම මල සිරුරු මාලදිවයිනේ භූමදානය කිරීමට අවසර ඉල්ලීම පිළිබඳව දැන සිටියේ නැත. එබැවින් එය ජනාධිපති තුමාගේ ක්‍රියාවකි. මේ පිළිබඳව දැන ගත් විට මම ලජ්ජාවට පත් වුනෙමි. මක්නිසාද යත් ඔහු අපේ රටේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා නිසාය. එවැනි ඉල්ලීමක් කිරීමට කුමන මානසික තත්ත්වයක් තිබිය යුතුද? අපේ ජනාධිපති තුමාගේ සහ නවසීලන්ත අගමැති තුමිය ගේ ක්‍රියාකලාපයන් සැසඳීමෙන් මානුෂික ගුණාංග සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔවුන් අතර ඇති පරතරය අවබෝධ වේ.

මෙම මල සිරුරු භූමදානය කල හැකි බවට අදාල විෂය ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ බොහෝ වෛද්‍ය විශේෂඥයන් අදහස් දක්වා තිබේ. ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය භූමදානය අනුමත කරමින් නිර්නායක නිකුත් කර ඇත. මානව හිමිකම් නිර්නායක  භූමදානය ට සහයෝගය දක්වයි. මා මල පසු මගේ සිරුර ආදාහනය නොකර භූමදානය කල යුතු යයි මම නොසිතමි. එනමුත් යමකු ඔහුගේ හෝ ඇයගේ හෝ සිරුර භූමදානය කල යුතු යයි සිතන්නේ නම් මම මුළු හදවතින් ම එයට සහයෝගය දෙමි. ජාතිවාදී මතවාදය තුල අනෙකා ගේ අදහස් වලට සහ එම අදහස් දැරීමට අනෙකා ට ඇති අයිතිය පිළිගන්නා සරල ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයට ඉඩක් නැත. ජාතිවාදී මතවාදය හමුදා මතවාදය සමග බද්ධ වූ විට තත්ත්වය තවත් භයංකර වේ. ඔවුන් සියළු දෙනාම වෛරසය මල සිරුරු මගින් පැතිරීමේ අවදානම ගැන සංවේදී වන අතර ජිවත්වන සිරුරු මගින් වෛරසය පැතිරීම පාලනයේ තිබෙන බරපතල දුර්වලතා නොදකිති. එබැවින් ඔවුන්  සංවේදී වන්නේ සත්‍ය වශයෙන්ම වෛරසය පැතිරීම පිළිබඳව නොවේ. ඔවුන්ට අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ මල සිරුරු ආදාහනය නොකර භූමදානය කල යුතුයයි වන විශ්වාසයට අභියෝග කිරීමයි. එනමුත් යම් හෙයකින් විද්‍යාව මෙම අසාදිත මල සිරුරු භූමදානය නොකර ආදාහනය කල යුතු යයි කියන්නේ නම් ආගමික විශ්වාස පසෙක තබා අප සියළු දෙනාම එයට එකඟ විය යුතුය.

දේශවාත්සල්‍යය හෝ ජාතිකවාදය හෝ යනු ජාතිවාදය නොවන බව මෙරට වැසියන් වටහා ගත යුතුය. මිනිසුන්ට ඔවුන්ගේ වාර්ගික අනන්‍යතා තිබේ. ඒවා මකා දැමිය නොහැක. නමුත් ජාතිකත්වය එයට වඩා පළල්ය. මානුෂිකත්වය ඒ සියල්ලටම වඩා පළල්ය. අද ලෝකයේ සමහර නායකයෝ ජාතිකත්වයද අතික්‍රමණය කරන දෘෂ්ටියක් සහිත වෙති. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ සහ ඔහුගේ ඉන්දීය සගයා පටු ජාතිවාදීහු වෙති.

මහත්මා ගාන්ධි විසින් බොහෝ මහන්සියෙන් නිර්මාණය කරන ලද අනාගමික රාජ්‍යය නරේන්ද්‍ර මෝඩි විසින් කඩා බිඳ දමමින් තිබේ. ඔහුගේ උත්සාහය හින්දුත්ව ව්‍යාපාරයේ ආදී කර්තෘ විනයාක් සවර්කාර් ගත් මග යාමටයි. ජින්නා ගේ පාකිස්ථානය පසුව මිලිටරි නායකයන් විසින් ආගමීකරණය කිරීමේ ප්‍රතිඵල අද පාකිස්ථානය භුක්ති විඳියි. එමෙන්ම නරේන්ද්‍ර මෝඩි ගේ කෙටි කාලීන දේශපාලන ව්‍යාපාරයේ ප්‍රතිඵල ඊළඟ පරම්පරාව විසින් භුක්ති විඳිනු ඇත. ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් ද ශත වර්ෂ ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ පරිණාමය වූ ඇමෙරිකානු ලිබරල් මුලධර්ම වලට එරෙහිව මෙවැනි ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයක් ගත් නමුත් ඔහුගේ කාලය ජනතාව විසින් සිමා කරන ලදී. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව දුර්වල තත්ත්වයක සිටින බැවින් මෙවැනි මාර්ගයක යා නොහැක.

ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකය තිබෙන්නේ ඉතා දුර්වල තත්ත්වයකය. එයට හේතුව දීර්ඝ කාලයක් තිස්සේ පැවති ආණ්ඩු වල නරක මුල්‍ය කළමණාකරණය සහ දුෂණයයි. වසංගතය මෙයට උත්තේජනයක් වී තිබේ. ලංකාව වැනි රටකට අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වන්නේ රාජ්‍ය මූල්‍ය ස්ථාවරත්වයයි. පසුගිය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ රජය විසින් තමන්ගේ සාක්කු ගැන පමණක් කල්පනා කරන පුද්ගලික අංශයේ විරෝධය මැද මෙයට මුල පුරන ලදී. මෙම ආණ්ඩුව විසින් එය ආපසු හරවන ලද අතර ඔවුන්ගේ හදිසිය කෙතෙක් ද යත් බද්දක් නොවන, බද්දක  පුර්ව ගෙවීමක් වන සේවකයන්ගේ උපයන විට ගෙවීමද නතර කරන ලදී. පුද්ගලික අංශය මේ ගැන වචනයක් කථා නොකළේය. රාජ්‍ය විදේශ ණය වල පොලී  අනුපාතය ඉහල නංවන සේ සිදුකරන ලද ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීමේ ආයතන මගින් මෙරට ශ්‍රේණිය පහත දැමීමේ ක්‍රියාව අඩපණ කිරීමේ හැකියාවක් රාජ්‍ය මුල්‍ය ස්ථාවරත්වය මගින් සිදු කළ හැකිව තිබුණි.

පළාත් සභා අකර්මන්‍ය කරන ලද නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් අපට නුදුරේදී දැක ගත හැකි වනු ඇත. මෙය සුළු ජන කොටස් මෙන්ම ඇමරිකාව සමග ස්ථිර ලෙස සම්බන්ධවී ඇති ඉන්දියාවද කුපිත කරවනු ඇත. ඇමෙරිකාවේ බයිඩන් පරිපාලනය යුරෝපා සංගමය සහ බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය ඇතුළු සිය මිතුරන් සමග ඉතා කිට්ටුවෙන් වැඩ කරනු ඇත. අපේ අපනයන වෙළෙඳපොළ ඇත්තේ එහිය. ජනාධිපති උපදේශකයන් විසින් ලංකාව ඔවුන් වඩාත් කැමැතිවන අධිකාරී වාදී සහ ජනතාවට වග නොකියන ආණ්ඩු ක්‍රමයක් සහිත චීනය දෙසට තල්ලු කරනු ඇත.

අභ්‍යන්තර සහ බාහිර සාධක එකට බැඳී පවතී. පෙනෙන අන්දමට රාජ්‍ය ප්‍රතිපත්ති මගින් රට දඟරයේ පහලට ඇදගෙන යයි. ආණ්ඩුවේ ද ජනාධිපති වරයා ගේ ද හැසිරීම විනාශකාරීය. ලංකාවේ රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් භික්ෂූන් ගෙන් යැපුණු නායකයන් දෙදෙනකු සිටි බවත් ඔවුන් දෙදෙනාට ම සිය ජිවිත අහිමි වූ බවත් කුමාරතුංගයන්ගේ හෙළ හවුලේ නායකයකු වූ රැයිපියෙල් තෙන්නකෝන් වරෙක කියා ඇත. ඒ දෙදෙනා නම් සිරිසඟබෝ සහ බණ්ඩාරනායක ය. වර්තමානයේ ඝෝෂාකාරී හිස් දේශපාලන භික්ෂූන් (මොඝ පුරිසා) දේශපාලනයද ධර්මයද නොදනිති. හිටපු ජනාධිපති ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධන හෙද සංගමයේ සභාපතිවූ මෙයින් එක් භික්ෂුවක් සමග සාකච්ඡාව සම්පුර්ණයෙන් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළේය.

වර්ෂ 2005 ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ පැරද වූයේ වැඩි ඡන්ද 180,000 ක සුළු ප්‍රමාණයකිනි. වික්‍රමසිංහට දෙමළ ඡන්ද වල වාසිය තිබුණ අතර ප්‍රභාකරන් විසින් ඔවුන්ට ඡන්දය දැමීම තහනම් කරන ලදී. එයින් රාජපක්ෂ ගේ ජය තහවුරු විය. ඔහුට යුද්ධය මගින් අර්බුදය අවසන් කිරීමේ සැලැස්මක් නොතිබුනි. මාවිල් ආරු සොරොව්ව වසා යුද්ධය ආරම්භ කරන ලද්දේ ප්‍රභාකරන් විසිනි. ඒ නයින් ප්‍රභාකරන් සිය අවසානය තෝරාගත්තේය.

සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිවාදය ජනවාර්ගික අර්බුදයේ මූලයයි. ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය ලංකාව ජාතිවාදයේ උපරිමයට රැගෙන විත් තිබේ. ආණ්ඩුවේ සිටින ජාතිවාදී කොටස් සිය මතවාදය මගින් සාධාරණව සිතන මෙරට ජනතාවද විදේශ රාජ්‍යයන්ද විරුද්ධ කර ගනිමින් සිටිති. මෙයට පෙර පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 2/3 ක බලයක්  තිබූ සියලුම පක්ෂ  සිතුවාක් මෙන් තමන්ට අවශ්‍ය දෙයක් කළ හැකි යයි ඔවුහු සිතති. එබැවින් සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිවාදය ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභයට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 2/3 ක බලයක්  දීම මගින් සිය අවසානය තෝරාගෙන ඇත්දැයි ඉදිරියේදී දැකගත හැකි වනු ඇත.

සිය ඉදිරි මග වෙනස් කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවයක් රටට තිබේ. රට බොහෝ කාලයක් පාලනය කර ඇත්තේ අවංක නොවන පාලකයන් විසිනි. ඔවුන්ට එරෙහිව රටේ කැරලි ඇතිවුන අතර ඔවුන්ද ජනතාවද ඒවායින් පාඩම් ඉගෙන ගෙන නැත. රට යන්නේ එම මගෙහිමය. නිදහසෙන් වසර 72 කට පසුවද සියල්ලන්ටම එකඟ විය හැකි ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් අපට නැත. සිය බලය පහල සිට ඉහළට ඒකරාශී කරගෙන ඇති ජනාධිපතිවරයා නව ව්‍යවස්ථාව මගින් සිය බලය පර්යන්තයේ සිට මධ්‍යයට ඒකරාශී කරගනු ඇත. රටේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රමයේද අධිකරණයේද රාජ්‍ය සේවයේද ඉක්මන් වෙනසක් අවශ්‍ය වී තිබේ. එබැවින් අප විසින් නව  ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සාදා ගැනීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය පටන් ගෙන එය රට යන දිසාව වෙනස් කරන ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරයක් බවට පත් කළ යුතුය. මෙය දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ ලබන වාරයේ බලය ලබාගැනීමේ කෙටි කාලීන අරමුණට විකල්පයකි

Published on 7th january 2021 in Colombo Telegraph

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/harsha-gunasena-7-january-2021/