Evil Behind The Robe – Reliving The Role Of Sangha In The Bandaranaike Assassination

By Shyamon Jayasinghe –March 4, 2017

Shyamon Jayasinghe

“The next surprise comes split seconds after, when Somarama draws forth his right arm from be- neath the robes to disclose a revolver from which he fires, explicitly from the hip..”

It is strange that the story of the assassination of Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike has been allowed to slide into the historical dustbin. That tragic and shocking episode is so laden with potent lessons for our future generations. The narrative, related pictures and souvenirs should be displayed in the Museum for generations of Sri Lankans to observe and think about. Here is a blind spot in our social consciousness. We ignore the need for preserving lessons of history and, therefore, we are in peril for having repeats. The JVP insurrection many years after, although not of the evil genre of the political assassination, also does fall under this category of collective memories that shouldn’t be left to die. Such incidents spring from a wider social reality and an understanding that should be part of our political literacy.

Let’s focus on the assassination that rocked Sri Lanka and the wider world. We must put it back into our social consciousness. My approach is to take the cue from an account given by a former and famous Lake House journalist: ECT Candappa.

ECT Candappa or ‘Manny,’ as he was called by his friends, lives here in Melbourne in Dandenong – the same suburb I reside. I never knew that until my good friend, former Lake House feature writer, Rane Ranatunge, coming down from Sydney requested me to escort him to visit the iconic man of Lake House. Manny seemed in every way like a king of the once proud tribe of scribes. At 86, he is in a wheelchair. He beckoned us to sit along with him. “Don’t worry about my wheelchair,” he remarked.” if Roosevelt could run US from a wheelchair?” Manny exuded a most genial smile mixed with self-assurance and composure. What a marvellous memory he has, Rane observed, upon noticing how Manny related details of his life and times as a journalist.

One episode about which he unfolded his memory was that of the assassination of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, SWRD Bandaranaike. Immediately after the assassination, Manny went to the Prime Minister’s residence, to hospital, and to other relevant spots tor investigation “When I went to meet Dr PR Anthonis (the surgeon who operated on SWRD), he initially got angry about my intrusiveness.

I was quick in mind to realise the importance of Manny’s findings – which were contemporary and not secondhand – and I kept questioning him. He presented a big book he had written, entitled, ”The Palm of His Hand.” This book of 429 pages looks impressive. I brought it with me and just completed finishing it. Unfortunately, only a few pages dwelt with the assassination. However, those pages constitute a kind of authentic information on a major historical event in Sri Lanka’s modern political evolution.

Buddarakkita

The lesson from the assassination constitutes a warning of what can come from Sangha politics. It is the same pattern with regard to all religions. Religions have produced a lot of evil that has troubled the world and it continues to do so today with the emergence of fundamentalism in Islam. Christianity had its cruel days during the middle Ages. Commenting on Hindu-Muslim violence in his time, India’s first Prime minister, Jawarahalal Nehru said, “I am horrified by the spectacle of religion.” It now turns out that even Buddhism, reputed as the ‘world’s most peaceful religion,’ is also susceptible to evil use. The brutal treatment of Rohingya Muslims by Burmese Buddhists is not an isolated event. Social media often carries images of wild and hateful behaviour by monks on the rampage in Sri Lanka. Recently, a monk pounced on a Tamil Grama Sevaka in Batticaloa with threatening racist language. The Bodu Bala Senawa went on rampage against Muslims. All done in the name of religion by ordained monks. Watch the gestures of some of the so-called ‘Nalaka Hamuduruwo.’ Some prominent monks go about lying for politicians.

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