Comments on: Is it time Sri Lanka sheds its religious identity?

By: Raluwe Padmasiri

Raluwe Padmasiri — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 02:39:00 +0000

Padma- The article is written by a person who believes western model is the ideal for all political changes. However, his argument is baseless in accordance with ground situation of Sri Lanka. 01. He is mislead by the debate the secularisation is the utmost step in creating a better society. My challenge is see any country where secularization is put into practice successfully both theory and practice.
02. How can you justify the claim that all unfortunate occurrences as result of Buddhism?
03. If you are suggesting to change article 09 of the present constitution, you must suggest to go back to colonisation and put Sri Lanka where it was. The all Christian schools, churches and land that be stolen by Christian with the support of colonised powers should give back. Then we can start talking equality. Christians robbed the national property with support of foreigners. They justify it. Since they have lost the power, now they want equality. Why do Buddhist accept it now since they know how they were mistreated by Christians together with foreign powers?
03. Do not misjudge result of presidential election in 2015. One of the key issues to get Sinhalese Buddhists’s vote by MS is he is considered a good buddhist. Likewise, he was supported by some of the Buddhist monks. If you can change the article on religion and hold a referendum you will see the reality.
04. Incidents cited by the writer such as Aluthgama and Beruwala are still unsettled issues. It is not yet decided who started fighting though it is clear BBS initiated the meeting.
05. The case cited from east area that is on Ven. Ampitiye Sumanaratana is not something very simple. Buddhist are forced to leave from north and east with the support of the present government. There should be some one who address the worries of the Buddhists. Buddhist never have stopped peaceful religious practice of other religions anywhere in the Island. Then they can not hold a religious ceremony in a Buddhist temple anywhere in the Island.

By: Real_Peace

Real_Peace — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 17:40:00 +0000

Thank you Groundviews/Dinouk for addressing this!

I’m a spiritual person but I sincerely believe Religious Extremism is ONE of the root causes of why all this happened in Sri Lanka!

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 16:22:00 +0000

An article by a very ignorant person about the ground situation in SL. In a country you cannot force any thinking pattern on a people. If it was to be forced there will be counter actions.

1. There is nothing wrong with the current constitution. It has given answers to most of the problems faced by different sections of the society already. Contrary to popular NGO belief this constitution is a success. The executive presidency has helped us to prevent the instability that SL faced when we had a west minister system and it has allowed us the stability and to gain the leadership for development.
2. Constitution making is a SERIOUS work. One has to take into consideration many factors like economic development, stability, capability to face challenges, ability to protect its integrity as a nation and national security. Without considering these things, making a constitution just for ‘ reconciliation’ is a dangerous step. If we need any changes to the constitution just for reconciliation we can add amendments instead of going for the radical step of creating a new constitution. That is more practical.
3. There is no country that has no place for their traditional religion when its majority practice that religion. So called democratic countries in west like US, England, Norway falls to that category. There is a special church Obama attends, US prints ‘In god we trust’ in their notes, the queen of england is crowned in a special church, until very recently one has to be a Lutheran to become PM in Norway. These were democratic countries. So every country would give a place to its traditional religion at least nominally. therefore the sentence in the constitution regarding Buddhism is simply an acknowledgement of the religious tradition of a people who built a civilisation here. Nothing else.

Again if we need to make any corrections we can simply do it using an amendment to the constitution, no one creates constitution just for the sake of so called ‘reconciliation’. Because it is a process and if one does it it will land that country in chaos for the years to come.