Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

12 May  2019

How did Easter Sunday become Good Friday in Sri Lanka?

While the victims of Easter Sunday bombings are still immersed in grief and incapable of finding any logic there is news from Sri Lankan Parliament as follows:

[Government and Opposition Members of Parliament expressed their views in Parliament yesterday that Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this time.] Daily News article Govt. and Opposition members to propose Cardinal for Nobel Peace Prize

In her/his editorial of 10 May, headed ‘The holy and the unholy’, the Island editor states:

[The Nobel Peace Prize lost its value and meaning the day it was denied to Mahatma Gandhi, the epitome of nonviolence; he was nominated as many as five times. It became a joke—a very big one at that—the day it was awarded to US President Barack Obama immediately after his election, even before he had signed his first executive order.]

I identify fully with the above declarations and as a Sri Lankan, strongly oppose the proposal by Sri Lankan Parliamentarians’ proposal to nominate Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith for the global peace prize. I recall opposing a parallel proposal by a group of Tamils many years ago. To so oppose I used the declaration by a fellow member of the Lanka Newspapers forum who nominated me.  So I wrote to the Tamil group explaining as to how I was much more eligible than the member of the clergy they were proposing to  nominate.  Likewise, as a Sri Lankan, working hard to regulate the Common leadership of Sri Lanka, I strongly oppose the proposal by Sri Lankan Parliamentarians.  As the Island editor has declared about the prize going to Obama AFTER the Common American citizen balanced the books in terms of Racial Equality the prize negative value and is disrespectful of Peace – which is a sacred value.

But the proposal highlights also the lack of confidence that the Sri Lankan Parliament has to balance its own books in terms of religious equality. To my mind, it is quid pro quo for Mr Malcolm Ranjith declaring that Buddhism Foremost was more appropriate in the constitution than a Secular constitution. Mr P.K.Balachandran of New Indian Express discussed this under the heading ‘Does Vatican disapprove of Cardinal's nod to give Buddhism 'foremost place' in Sri Lanka?’ dated 08 August 2016 which included the following:.

[It did not take long for the controversy to reach the Vatican in Rome. On August 4, Vatican Radio’s website  carried a story saying that Sri Lankan Catholics and human rights activists have demanded that the Sri Lankan constitution, that is now in the process of being rewritten, should be a secular one.]

To me – as a true believer in Jesus –Easter Sunday became Good Friday due to weaknesses in the Christian community of Sri Lanka. That is the message from Christ. When good things happen on auspicious days – we tend to feel that we have been blessed by the Energy that that auspicious day represents. If the bombings had happened on Good Friday – we could conclude that like Jesus – those who died,  died so their heirs would have better life. But the killings happened on Sunday when Jesus shared with us the truth that we are Eternal Souls. One is therefore entitled to conclude that the deaths in Sri Lanka on 21 April were common deaths and not Christian even though the killers targeted churches.

 The declarations by Mr Malcolm Ranjith about Buddhism Foremost status are in breach of the principles of Democracy which include the Equal Opportunity values. In Autocracy, if Buddhism is Foremost – then all other religions in Sri Lanka become juniors. To give it democratic form – one has to by law elevate the juniors to equal status. Each religion is therefore the Equal Opposition of Buddhism – as we have in Parliament. The reason for this is that those at primary level often lack the ability to ‘see’ the other side of their actions. In autocracy – we wait for the other side of our emotions to ‘happen’. Hence ‘Time will tell’ dictum. But in democracy, we do not wait for time to tell and it is the duty of the opposition to show the other side. Hence the government and the opposition need to be each other’s mirrors and reveal what they see in the other.  Towards this the side with lesser seats is raised by law to Equal position so it has clear view of the other side.

When an issue is before the parliament – if it is non-religious  - then there is no need for the members to have preliminary divisions before the vote at the total level.  When it is religious – by cause and/or effect – then both – the government and the opposition respectively  have to go through the preliminaries – on the basis of religious beliefs – for which Buddhists make up one side  and non-Buddhists make up the other. The net result  is then put before the house of commons and the ruling would then be ‘yes’ of both produce ‘yes’  or ‘no’ if both produce ‘no’ or one produces yes and the other produces no.

Dealing with it at surface level – largely on ‘what happened’ – is the parallel of saying that the money  richest is the most eligible to rule. It does happen in families, institutions and in Parliament .  But  a true family person would know that money  divides. Karuna separated from Velupillai Prabhakaran because of money. Gandhi renounced money related benefits – and won Peace. He has the eternal Peace Price and his qualities are the norm as to who is entitled to be even nominated .

Cardinal  Malcolm Ranjith being nominated by Buddhist majority for Peace Prince is the parallel of Tamil politicians led by Karuna  hailing  Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa as their national hero. 

Dr Jayampathy concedes that majority Sri Lankans are driven by religion – ‘Abolishing Customary Laws pointless’ – Jayampathy

“There are aspects in the Kandyan Law which discriminate women. But there are some progressive elements in that Law. The same thing goes for the Muslim Law. Many Muslim women complain to us that it is unfair to them. And I should say that amending these Laws will never be achieved in this Parliament. 

We can instead include all these Laws under the Fundamental Rights Chapter of the Constitution. Then they will fall under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, which will decide on which sections of these Laws are in line with the Fundamental Rights Laws and which are not. The Parliament will have to accept the Supreme Court rulings.”

But to use these cultural laws – those of other religions including those of secular religion, need to first attribute to the respective elders of the particular religion/ indigenous culture  that produced laws that have sustained that culture over long periods. Once we become juniors – we would be blessed by them. Hence here in Australia, we pay our respects to indigenous landowners to whom that land was sacred.

The current structure in Parliament which confirms breach of democratic principles by showing the same party in government and opposition abolished the secular part of Sri Lankan leadership. In reality it is common knowledge that the SLFP Opposition is the senior of UNP as well as senior of  SLFP President who was singing for his next celebration while Sri Lanka was bleeding.