Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

11 November 2018

Lankan President’s Buddhism Foremost Karma?

On 12 July 2018, the Daily News reported under the heading ‘President to sign execution warrants

President Maithripala Sirisena said he will use his powers to place his signature to execute the death sentence on traffickers sentenced to death for drug offences.

This will be enforced on convicts who continue to operate the drug racket from their prison cells.

“Although there are conflicting views about the death sentence in our Buddhist society in particular, if a society which listened and preached an overdose of religious discourses is going on the wrong direction, timely decisions should be taken to bring this menace under control,” the President said.

Mr Sirisena confirms through the above that he  acted in breach of  Article 9 of the Constitution. The positive  purpose of this  Article 9 was to uphold Buddhist values above secular values in a language that majority Sri Lankans would understand. But Mr Sirisena the individual overrode Article 9 and thus set aside consciously the tenets of Buddhism.

To legitimately set aside a religious law – one needs investment in Truth in relation to that issue. Drugs distort our brain and therefore lead to disorderly arrangement of thoughts and loss of inhibitions. As former minister Vijayakala Maheswaran highlighted the LTTE also used the ‘death sentence’ to ‘show’ positive value. They did not cure. We Australians opposed the death penalty to Bali 9 drug trafficking group on humanitarian basis. Taken as a whole we cure more than we kill Human Resources. But LTTE did not value life enough for even our politicians to cure themselves of any corrupt ways – which is effectively distort the brain – just as drugs do. All infatuations lead to this common problem.

A Government leader killing his opposition is effectively for the same reason as why drug traffickers are killed. They are both to ‘show’ supremacy while benefiting from democracy. Tamil leaders who take / use the benefits derived by the LTTE would become as suicidal as they were. That is the law of truth.

Colombo Telegraph reported as follows yesterday:

 ‘Mahanayaka Thera of the Malwatte Chapter, Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera has refused to see President Maithripala Sirisena this morning when the latter sought an appointment with the prominent Buddhist monk to discuss the current political situation, Colombo Telegraph learns.

The Mahanayaka Thera had said he did not want to have any meeting with Sirisena who unabashedly violated the constitution by dissolving parliament breaching the provisions of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which he architected himself.’

As per my knowledge – if the Buddhist leadership had refused to share their status with Mr Sirisena who knowingly overrode Buddhist tenets and therefore article 9 of the Constitution – they would have prevented this extreme disrespect for the Constitution by the President himself.