“We The People” & “They The Maha Sangha”

By Sarath De Alwis –February 1, 2016 

Sarath de Alwis

“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.” 
- Thomas Paine -The Age of Reason

Recent events demonstrate that the saffron robe has now become the instrument of choice of an emerging ochlocracy – the refined term for mobocracy. In this land like no other, the ill-natured and the capricious outnumber the good natured and the cautious in politics of the street. Politics of the street in the age of digital communication gives them a head start that others cannot match.

A militant monk who delivered a homily on ‘Theravada Jurisprudence’ as he understood it was ordered to be remanded on charges of contempt of court by the Homagama magistrate. Three days after, our President solemnly reaffirmed that the government will always be guided by the advice of the Maha Sangha.

Seriously injured in a fall, this writer was in a meditative mood recalling the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” It was in this pensive mind frame that I watched the antics of the militant monks at Homagama and then listened to the President making his pledge to the Maha Sangha at a ceremony on Jan. 29 at the Kotte Rajamaha Viharaya.

The buffoonery at Homagama was revolting. The Presidential pledge in Kotte was disturbing and to me a Buddhist by birth even frightening. Contained in it, is the possibility that the sovereignty of ‘we the people’ is subject to the decrees of ‘they the Maha Sangha’.     Read More