Why do we do this?

I just read on "The Academic" (www.theacademic.org) that the attorney general was going to take legal action against the minister of finance Mr. K.N. Choksy and the Prime Minister’s advisor Mr. R. Paskaralingam over allegations of financial fraud and irregularities in the construction of the Hilton hotel. They seem to have paid for entire floors of the hotel that were never built. I believe this has happened over 10 or 15 years ago. I don't know why we do this. We seem to elect people who are worse than their predecessors. Personally I voted for the UNP for the first time two years ago because I thought that the PA government was corrupt. I know a lot of people who did the same for the same reason. But why is this always happening to us? We voted for the PA in 1994 and they turned out to be a gang of villains. Then we voted for the UNP and they turned out to be worse. We Sri Lankans seem to be attracting criminals like flies to a pile of cow dung. What's wrong with us?

Here we go again

Yesterday, some Buddhist monks calling themselves “the Jathika Sanga Sabha” or something were holding a “Maaraanthika Upavaasa” (fast unto death) on Dharmapala Mawatha. They were condemning the Christians for converting Buddhists into Christianity. This is the same group that still claims that the late ven. Soma thero was murdered. It seems that the monks spearheading this group include ven. Ellavala Meedhanandha and ven Kolonnawe Sumangala thero. This same group flared up the funeral of the late Soma thero and almost started another black July. We all saw how some of the people at the funeral behaved. Now they are at it again.

I heard through some of ven. Sumangala thero’s devotees that Sumangala thero claims that the late Soma thero was tortured and killed, there had been a hole in ven. Soma thero’s neck, the group photograph taken after the award ceremony in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) shows that the late thero was seated on a wheel chair and the wheel chair had been covered with a robe or something, the photograph showing the late thero accepting the award shows that it is not the late thero standing on his own but the dead body of the late thero after he was killed been held up by somebody standing inside the thero’s robe. I don’t know whether Sumangala thero really said this or his followers made this up. But what kind of a sick mind would think of things like this? Is this person high on something? But when you look at the past of Sumangala thero, it is not entirely surprising if he himself came up with the above. Once ven. Sumangala thero had claimed that when he conducted “Bodhi Puujaas” (ritual worshiping the bo tree) “Budhu raes” (rays of Buddha or aura of Buddha) was emitted. The late Soma thero hearing this had commented that Budhu raes cannot be emitted by any thing or anybody other than a Buddha. (That is why it is called Budhu raes) So if any “raes” is being emitted there it has to be Sumangala’s raes. Ven. Sumangala thero had stopped mentioning about the Budhu raes after that.

We don’t know exactly what happened. What we can do is look at the evidence available and come to a conclusion. That is the Buddhist thing to do. Buddhists look at the evidence and ask questions. We don’t accept anything just because somebody says so.
So the following are the questions I ask.

Was the autopsy carried out on ven. Soma thero’s body a sham? Is prof. Niriella who carried out the autopsy a liar? Or is he incompetent to notice any hole in the neck and the evidence of torture? Are the people whom Soma thero supposed to have called from St. Petersburg lying? Is the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Russia lying?

Or

Why does a group of monks throwing away all the scientific evidence and claiming something else? Why would a monk once ridiculed by the ven. Soma thero now claim to be looking after Soma thero’s interests? If anybody wanted to kill Soma thero why would they brew up such a bizarre plot to do so? Wouldn’t it have been easier to hire an underworld gunman and put the murder into the LTTE account or something?

This group of monks are putting aside all the evidence and claiming to have monopoly on the truth and behaving like vigilantes. This is not the Buddhist way. This looks more like the way of “Thaliban”. The way these monks are behaving is a disgrace to the colour of the robe they are wearing. Hope they would not succeed in creating another black July.

The cat that pooped on a rock

Tony Blair has tried to justify his war once again saying that the coalition has found evidence of laboratories which could have been used to make weapons of mass destruction. But just after that statement, the coalition chief in Iraq has denied that claim. This reminds me of the cat that pooped on a rock and then tried to cover it. Since the poop was on a rock, no matter how hard the cat scratched the rock with his claws, he only managed to wear off his claws. So it looks like Tony Blair is like the cat without claws standing near a big stinking heap of poop.

Parliamentary privileges and corruption

I saw a news article last week stating that the chief of the bribery commission has been called before a parliamentary privileges committee or something. That is because the bribery commission was investigating allegations about Mr. Palitha Range Bandara, an MP from Chilaw or somewhere accepting some chairs from Dholukandha temple (I believe this is the temple of the famous Dholukandha gold collector monk) while he (Mr. Range Bandara) was the OIC of Wellava police station. Mr Bandara had complained that this allegation was baseless and that the investigation was violating his "Parliamentary privileges". How does anybody know whether the allegation was baseless or not without investigating? I mean you have to hold an investigation to know whether there is any base or not, don't you? If the parliament says that an investigation is violating their privileges and it should be stopped, then that is issuing a license to all parliamentarians to get away with anything. The bribery commission was investigating, not keeping Mr. Bandara as a prisoner against his will. "Meekata thamai kiyanne naduth haamudhuruvangee baduth haamudhuruvangee kiyalaa."

Violence at Independence Square

I didn't know that there had been violence at the independence square after the funeral of Soma thero when I wrote the blog yesterday. I only saw that on TV last evening. What would you expect after speeches like that? Good thing that it did not get out of control. Does anybody know what the entire thing was about? If you know, just send me an email.

Is this what we need right now?

Before yesterday I had great respect for Ellavala Meedhanandha thero. He was called “Puraavidhyaa Chakravarthi” (Archialogical Expert) and I thought he was a scholar with a balanced mind. But what a fool I’ve been. Ellavala Meedhanandha thero and Rahula thero almost did it yesterday at Soma thero’s funeral. Those two almost turned the huge mass of mourners into an angry mob and set them loose on the Christians. Medhanandha thero said that Soma thero was murdered by the Christian fundamentalists. “Soma thero apavath vunaa nevei apavath karaa.” OK I understand that there is some suspicion over the death, but where is the proof? If one person from that funeral procession threw a stone at a church on his way home, what would have happened? There would have been another black July. I can see the headlines on CNN. “Angry Sinhala Buddhist mobs go on rampage in Colombo murdering Christians on Christmas eve. World leaders condemn the barbaric acts being committed in Colombo.” Then I can see the statement that will be issued by the LTTE. “The Sinhala Buddhist majority murdered us in 1983. When we stood up to them, the world branded us terrorists. Now the world can see the true picture of the Buddhist Sinhalese.” If something like that happened, it would have washed all the blood on the LTTE hands in a couple of days. The world would see LTTE as liberation fighters. The Sinhala Buddhist community of this country would have been branded as a barbaric bunch. Don’t we have enough problems already? Do we really need the Christians as our enemies? The Sinhala Buddhists alienated the 5 million Tamils of the world in 1983. (Thanks to J.R. and his thugs, LTTE which did not have the support of the common Tamil man gained immense popularity after the incidents involving the burning of the Jaffna library and the incidents in July 1983). Now we are trying to alienate the more than 1 billion Christians. What’s next? The Muslims? If you two succeeded, that would have earned you PhDs from “Elam State University” for “Services rendered to the creation of the Elam Nation by dividing the rest of Sri Lanka.” Once you alienate all the nationalities where would you go? Would you turn on the “non govigama casts”?

I know the work done by some Christian organizations is bad. But why do people convert? They distribute rice and other dry rations to people who come to church. They give land to cultivate to the people who convert. Like Meedhanandha thero suggested, can we bring an act in parliament stopping anybody from distributing food? Can we stop anybody from distributing land to the poor? Even if we did, what would it make us look like? Thaliban?

One poya (full moon) day I went to Subdhraarama temple near Nugegoda. I was there for half an hour and through out that time the naayaka thero was addressing the people who had come to the temple using a loudspeaker. 90% of his speech consisted of asking money for various project in the temple. They had nothing to do with elevating the standards of living of the people but building the temple. This same priest has leased a land given to the temple by a late “dhaayaka” to an International School for 99 years. Where did that money go? How can we stop conversions when all the Buddhist monks are interested in is building the temples or collecting money. This was exactly what Soma thero was against. That is why he organized various groups to promote the interaction of monks and people to make the peoples lives better.

The word Buddha means “the wise one”. So Buddhist should mean person with wisdom. I did not see any wisdom in most of the speeches yesterday at Soma thero’s funeral except in the speech by ven. Rathanapaala thero. He has to be praised for his wise words trying to calm down the Buddhist community. He said that bikshus and politicians should remember their position. We saw how a group of Buddhist monks started saying that Soma thero was murdered and Medhanandha thero was next on the list of the Christians. We can all see where this is going. Medhanandha thero wants to get the same status as Soma thero. But wake up. You will never get there because you simply don’t have the stuff to become Gangodavila Soma. But you will get more titles trying to get there. Titles like “Baila Chakravarthi”.

Conspiracy?

At this moment Gandodawila Soma thero is taking his final journey. His funeral will be held in a couple of hours at the Independence square with state honors. While all this is happening, some posters have come up in Colombo accusing certain religious organizations of killing the thero. There is some tension in Colombo.

Couple of days ago, some Buddhist monks have openly accused Christian organizations of conspiring. They have questioned the people involved with the business of awarding the PhD to Soma thero. They have shown some pictures of the award ceremony held in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) and said that some of the photos have been manipulated. I did not see all this on TV but thought to do my own research. So I had a look at the University which is said to have awarded the Phd. It is called INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FUNDAMENTAL STUDIES. The web site is http://www.iufs.edu.

I am not a fan of conspiracy theories. But when you look at the web site of this so called university things begin to look a little suspicious. First of all the entire website looks like the home page of the rector of the university. Most of the pages contain the picture of the rector. This guy is a Sri Lankan. He is introduced to us on the web site as Founder of the International University of Fundamental Studies and Rector - Chancellor of IUFS, Chairman to the Committee of Foreign Relationa - State Duma Sport Council - National Security Council , Vice President of the International Academy of Information, Communication, Control in Engineering, Nature and Society (Russia), Vice President of the Program of "Preservation of Mankind's Genefound", Vice Chairman of the World Scientific Association - Rev. Prof. Shanti P. Jayasekara, D.D, Ph.D., Ed.D., J. D., D.Sc., - Theologian (USA) - Professor in Satellite Television Systems - Academician (Russia) - Astronaut - Cosmonautics Federation of Russia. Well, with all this information, I would say he is either somebody like Galileo or a big fraud. He is supposed to be the founder of this university which offers all sorts of courses including Medicine, Aeronautics, etc. If there were any Galileo in Sri Lanka we would have heard about him. So do I think this guy killed the thero due to religious reasons? No I don't think so. First, the photo which was on this web site, which is said to have been manipulated is simple to explain. There are two women standing in that picture and some body had said that one woman seems to have three legs. Actually I can clearly see that this particular leg belongs to the the woman standing next to her. So we can see how easy it is to misunderstand and not see things clearly when you are suspicious. As Buddhists, the monks should have interpreted the photo better. I am sorry to say that it is utter stupid to state that this picture is fake based on the position of the legs of the woman.

So would I say that Soma thero was not murdered and there is nothing to suspect about all this? Well, I would say that I cannot see any evidence to suggest that he was murdered for religious reasons but I wonder what Soma thero was doing there in the first place? Why would this university award a PhD to a Buddhist monk based on a book he had written and according to some monks here, which was not even had been translated to English? How come a Sri Lankan we have never herd of be the rector of a major University? My suspicions are whether this Prof. Jayasekera is genuine and whether this entire university is genuine or whether its just another facade for organized crime. If there were any money involved, I would suspect foul play.

There are some religious organizations involved with unethical business in Sri Lanka but accusing them of killing Soma thero is utter stupidity. This makes the entire Buddhist community look stupid and juvenile. So lets look at the evidence in a scientific manner, in a Buddhist manner. Let's not look dumb in the face of international community.

ven. Soma

We all know that ven. Gangodawilla Soma is no more. Even though I don't agree with ven. Soma on all issues, I really admired him for his attempt to eradicate "Avidhyaa" (ignorance or anti-science to be more precise.). In an age where the majority of Buddhist monks in this country are sowing the seeds of Avidhyaa through the meaningless rituals ven. Soma made quite a difference. But no matter what he said or did when he was alive his death seems to have created quite a commotion in the Buddhist community. There are various posters and banners suggesting conspiracy even after the postmortem had already cleared any doubts. We can see various characters including monks and members of political parties, who make their living by selling fear, mistrust, hatred, ignorance and anti-science gathering around ven. Soma's body and trying to make any gain they could. These people represent everything ven. Soma rejected. So the Buddhist community has to be very careful not to fall for these tricks. After all the highest honor we could do is to reject Avidhyaa.

Most wanted deck of cards

Last week we all saw what has happened to Sadham Husein. All I have to say about this man is that if he had put aside his militery mania a little bit, he would still be the leader of one of the most prosperous countries in the world and not a prisoner behaving like a monkey. There's a Sinhala saying that "you should not fall into the same pit during day time which you have previously fallen into during the night". Well, Sadham fell into the same pit in 2003 which he fell into in 1991.

Anyway, the most clever, the most creative and the most mature thing the allies ever did after they decided to invade, I mean liberate Iraq was distributing the deck of playing cards with the pictures of the most wanted Iraqis. This really shows the maturity of the US government. I saw some of those card decks on auction at ebay. One thing I noticed was that there were at least two cards without any picture. They were the two Jokers. It's a waste to have two cards without any picture. So I suggest, as a tribute to the two architects of this great war, George W. Bush and Tony Blair, any future print of that deck of cards include the pictures of Bush and Blair on the two blank cards. Actually it would be a great idea to have the pictures of those two jokers on the two leading cards,.. er I mean the pictures of those two leaders on the two Joker cards, on all the decks of playing cards as a standard.

Child Soldiers

A regional leader of LTTE had issued a statement to ITN saying that the LTTE has stopped recruiting child soldiers with immediate effect after a high ranking leader (meaning Prabakaran) had ordered to do so. Doesn't this mean that they have been recruiting children upto date? But didn't LTTE promised a UN official (Otunu or somebody) to stop recruiting child soldiers years ago? So does this mean that it takes years for the LTTE promises to materialize?