Comments on: Why not Tamil Buddhists, Mr. Minister?

By: raju

raju — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 21:13:00 +0000

Dear friends as a Tamil hindu, and when I read and read of past history and about the Buddhist all around the world and was in South India. I feel very often that my second religion should be Buddhism. However, in the past 50 years of political history no tamil will admit to being a budhist in srilanka so as Mr Mano Ganeshan’s slip of tounge.
Let us not blame each other and respect each other and have some solutions so we could have a great SRILANKA. It is esy to blame all of racist. Even if we have become same religion we are not going to abandon our Singala or tamil language are we? The past political circumstances may have made the minister make some assumptions that is likely not true. So, let us not jump to wrong conclusions. Free speech is always helpful to resolve problems even if the views are aginst our thinking .

By: puniselva

puniselva — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 03:26:00 +0000

Sharmini
Excellent – you always hit the nail on its head.
We need a lot more of this if we’ve to prod/push each of the 90 Ministers towards GoodGovernance.
Very worrying situation at all horizontal and vertical levels of the cabinet.

By: Raja Mahendran

Raja Mahendran — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 10:28:00 +0000

Sharmini Serasinghe has brilliantly exposed the myth that only Sinhalese can be Buddhists. Some people sincerely believe Sinhalese and Buddhists are synonymous on this island.

Sharmini has beautifully exposed the racist mind of Minister Mano Ganesan who obviously is fearing his tribe diminishing by becoming Buddhists. While it is clear Mano Gajesan is terrified that there could be as many as twenty thousand or more Tamil Buddhists, it is also interesting to note the deafeningsilence of the champions of Sinhala Buddhism on these numbers. Because to these chauvinists it is not good news as they want people to continue to believe in the myth only Sinhalese are Buddhists!

Tamil racism and Sinhala racism are strange bedfellows. Both do not want people to be reminded that the early Buddhists in Sri Lanka were Tamils. And Buddhism flourished among Tamils. Buddhism did not die out among the Tamils but Tamil Buddhists got identified as Sinhalese in thousands if not in millions over years of the island’s three thousand year history.