#1: The 1st Unsolved Problem of Bleeding Sri Lanka

 1st unsolved problem of bleeding Sri Lanka

                “This country will never achieve success even after another century” is a statement made by one of my friends who is well-known with a reputed name, has already decided to leave this country, hoping to settle in Australia. Many people, who have been committed to the country, repeat the same idea many times. I too have felt and feel the same at many times. But still I believe that what I should do is not to escape but to stay and make the changes possible.

          Any person, who thinks of the problem of making this country a well-developed country, meets numerous problems. None of those problems is unsolvable. But the citizens suffer from the lack of the honesty, commitment, and mediation to find the solutions. The political leaders who are in power and who are struggling to come to the power do not show those qualities at all. Their behavior full of dishonesty, corruption, duplicity and no transparency leads the country to further darkness.

Spoiling and unique hackneyed concepts

           The unique concepts which are essential for a better practice in a country already have been violated and misused by the politics. The concept of Good Governance has already been raped. Peace, Reconciliation and National integration are concepts violated and hackneyed throughout the previous decades. But we are unable to find solutions to the problems of the country bypassing these unique concepts. But as soon as hearing these words, the citizens perceive it negatively. That is too, a tragic result of that tragedy.

          I have already lived more than five and half decades of my life time on this land. The longer period of my life time was spoiled by the conflicts which killed each other among the different ethnic or religious group. Except the 1971 and 1989 uprising, all the other incidents up to the Easter Sunday attack are the tragic results of that same process of conflict. Even the conflicts that happened in 1971 &1989 are another aspect of the conflict of the national disintegration. Unfair distributions of resources, discrimination of cast are represented by the deep structure of these conflicts.

          Though many critics conclude the Easter Sunday attack as the action of ISIS agenda, its biggest share is bound with the 1^st problem which I am going to reveal. As I believe if the incidents did not happened in Aluthgama, Beruwala and Digana, ISIS would not have selected Sri Lanka for their blasts. So the person or group behind those incidents should be the 1^st accused of the Easter Attack.

Bloodsheds in each seven years and  Thunbiya( three fears)

          As Rev.Galkande Dammananda Thero revealed the maximum period that we didn’t experience bloodshed in the past is within every period of seven years. (The YouTube link has been given below) if that statement is true the blood shedding is a peculiar characteristic of our culture.  The people in this country have had tremendous physical and spiritual sufferings with those blood shedding and injuries. While some countries which were very unfortunate and poor a few decades back, have passed over us and become leading countries of the world economy, we have been reaching up the list of the most least-reputed and failed countries of the world, blood shedding at least once in every period of 7 years.

The powerful majority of the society always creates an enmity with the minorities. So the citizens of the country are living with anxiety and opposition among them. The whole society is now seemed to be suffering from three form of fear (Thun Biya). The politicians have started fishing in the muddy water as it happened throughout the history.

           Some people who seek to have a comfortable life and also the people who feel that they are been ethnically discriminated, have left the country. The doors have been opened in some other countries for all of them. The majority of the middle class people who can manage English are setting their feet to leave the country if they can get an opportunity the American green card draw like. The people who have shocked with this unfortunate destiny of the country still have engaged in painful and lonely struggle to change it. The majority, though they are excited with this situation, are living without sensing the situation. The majority of the educated professionals are living fed up, with suppression and hopelessness. The people who could stand against their consciences enjoying the life engaging in bribery, robbing national assets imitating their political leaders. The rest of the society are wordless and shocked in front of the houses they build, the vehicles they purchase and the lives they maintain. Even the majority of the clergy has drowned in this muddy and it is rare to see lotus characters.

A rotting society with wounds and corruptions

          All the society is rotting with interconnected problems day by day.  Meanwhile at least once in a seven years period blood shedding occurs demolishing the achievements with many destruction. So what is the first problem at all? Still we have failed to identify our identity as a society living in this land. Though we have agreed to some positive national principles still the structural base of the society has been growing with contradictions. As I am convinced that the first problem is the failure to build a new paradigm to organize the society through recognizing the identity of the society where all people belong to this country can be included.

          Though those concepts have been hackneyed and denied, without building Peace and Reconciliation through National integration, talking the future of this society is a time waste, confusing the path or reaching to the idiotic mentality.

Who are we?

          In a short break while I was writing this letter, I could hear a Buddhist Radio channel through which a Bikku was preaching. At the end of his preaching he greeted the listeners as “all the Sinhala Buddhist people in the country and all the living beings”. I felt he intentionally neglected the non-Sinhala Buddhist through highlighting Sinhala Buddhist and the term of “all living beings” did not represent the other communities in the country. There I am convinced how the Problem No 1 has been spread and cultured in this society. He neglected one fourth of the population of Sri Lanka which is around fifty lakhs. Majority of Buddhists   believe in rebirth. As Dr E.W.Adikaram questioned if a Sinhala Buddhist born in another family in the next rebirth what his ethnicity would be and who can prove that a present Sinhala Buddhist is as the same in his or her previous birth. As he stressed the racism is a severe mental disease.

          In a past few days back Minister Mangala Samaraweera made a statement that Sri Lanka is not a Sinhala Buddhist country and it is a state of all Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and other citizens of Sri Lanka. The starving politicians in southern Sri Lanka used that statement to attack him enraging and confusing the all society. When I reacted sportively to the clarification of that statement published by someone on FB, another one had reacted to me asking in obscene language whether I had homo sex with Minister Mangala. From all these ideological conflicts arise a dilemma which all the citizens should clarify.

          This country has no future or better development without having sustainable peace, reconciliation and national integration. One fourth of the population is represented by the non-Sinhala ethnic groups which are around fifty lakhs. According to the religious percentage 30 % of the population is represented by Non Buddhists. All these have a few centuries ahead history. So through highlighting the ideologies which neglect such an amount of population or degrade them as second class citizens, can we build and maintain sustainable peace and reconciliation on this land?

          All reputed national political parties have accepted Sri Lanka as a multi ethnic and multi religious state and have written it in their constitutions. We have already passed more than two decades accepting building Sri Lankan nation as the first goal of school education. But when Minister Mangala made his statement revealing that Sri Lanka is the state of the all the citizens of the country, all the politicians’ mouths were blocked with “PITTU”. Thus Building Sri Lankan Nation has become nonsensical. To make it a reality there should be ideological and also structural transformations. But we are still late for that. We all are living in this society, hearting to other ethnic and religious groups and having bloodshed at least once in seven years.

Black July, Black June and Black April

           Highlighting the teaching of Lord Buddha” Vengeance will not be pacified by vengeance“, A Sri Lankan politician; J.R.Jayawardana could fire off the flames of war in Japan. When he came to power in this country as the president, he let the prejudice to create Black July and thirty years unending war. After that long period of war having long lasting wound scars we have created Black June attacking the Muslims in Aluthgama and Beruwala.  Black June attack created the atmosphere to ISIS to select Sri Lanka as the most suitable place to blast their anti-Christian attack which resulted the Black April too in this country. 

By now Sri Lankan Society is threatened with a new form of “Thun Biya “ . That is terrorism emerging through Sinhala Buddhist extremism, Tamil Elam extremism and Muslim Wahhabism. Finally the afflicted people themselves have become the oppressors. By now all the citizens are bound with fear from each other.  So is it wrong that some sensitive people feel and conclude that this country will never achieve success even after another century has passed?

Caste discrimination motivates extremism

          The ideologist who stressed that this is a Sinhala Buddhist State, say that there is no any obstacle for other groups to live here agreeing to their ideology. What they hope and do not express openly, is that non Sinhala Buddhists should be second class citizens under the control of Sinhala Buddhists. Though they say so, still they have failed to treat all the castes equally. The high caste Sinhala Buddhists are not ready still to treat law caste Sinhala Buddhist equally. That situation is still more critical among the Buddhist clergy. 

Two incidents have confirmed that caste discrimination among the clergy. One is the national function organized to nominate and include 10 names into the national list of heroes. Second incident is the national function organized to declare the “Thripitaka” a world heritage. The two “Nikayas” who represent the low caste were not offered equal seats with the higher caste Nikayas.  Thus how can they certified that the other ethnic and religious  groups are treated equally? This incident cannot be neglected simply, as the caste discrimination has become a deep structural reason for the ethnic conflict in our country. It is common both in Tamil and Sinhalese society. Some low caste Sinhala Buddhist who are discriminated, engage in extremist raciest movements to gain their lost reputation. This idea is proved by the FB letter posted by Nandana Weerarathna. This idea has been remarked by Victor Ivan through his statement” Raciest bullets have been filled by casteism gunpowder.

What is our identity?; the unsolved 1^st problem

          I revealed above all information and reviews to explain and justify the seriousness of the spread of the problem. Now again we should ask the problem from ourselves. Who are we? We mean all the citizens living in this country. As a country and as a society living on this land, what is our identity?

Can we find a future of a state where one fourth citizens or about fifty lakh people are excluded? Is it going to be built through drowning fifty lakh people in the sea or massacring or condemning them as second class citizens, or otherwise through materializing an ideology to include all the citizens equally in this country into one nation as Sri Lankan?

One nation goal can be a reality only through a dual process. That is, Be ready for inclusion and Get ready for entrance, to integrate as one nation. What happen through nominating this country as Sinhala Buddhist state, is exclusion the Non-Sinhala Buddhists from the circle. The all citizens have suffered more than enough for that ideology.

In the same time as the result of denying of all non-Buddhists, they; Tamils and Muslims have closed with the homogeneous in other countries. That has given very bad results which are un-bearable to this country. But to be a one nation even Tamils and Muslims too have to get ready for needed flexible adjustments. Tamil’s being closed to South India and Muslims being captured by Arabic culture will make so much destruction for all the citizens of the country.

 Finally one question remains in front of me. That is how we can build a Sri Lankan nation in a Sinhala Buddhist State. I have no any methodology heard to answer that question.  It is a jargon to me. The citizens of Sri Lanka first should be honest to find a sustainable solution to this question “Who are we?” or “who are the owners of this state; Sinhala Buddhists or all Sri Lankans?”  That is the first and basic problem of Sri Lanka which is still unsolved. A hint for example solution        ( This article is avilable in Sinhalese too)

For Referrences
Rev Galkande Dammananda Thero
Nandana's FB post