Sunday, Apr 11, 2004
The bikhu effect
The Buddhist clergy feels it must rise to the rescue of the country whenever the rulers fail in their duty of 'defending' the faith, says Nirupama Subramanian.
Buddhist monks have always had a say in Sri Lanka's politics. OF ALL the stories in the Mahavamsa, a sixth century chronicle about Sri Lanka, the most beloved of Sinhala-Buddhists is that of King Duttugemunu who slew a rival monarch in the island's north after a bloody campaign and established his writ over a united Lanka. His aim was to "bring glory to the (Buddhist) doctrine."
This legend and the belief, also arising from the Mahavamsa, that Sri Lanka was Buddha's chosen land, "the place where his doctrine should shine," are at the heart of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. It fuses faith with country, demanding of present-day rulers a Duttugemunu-like commitment to protect one for the other.
When the rulers - "defenders of the faith" - are seen as failing in this duty, the Buddhist clergy must rise to the rescue. So say the monks who contested the recent parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, winning nine seats in the new Parliament as members of the Jathika Hela Urumaya, or Sinhala Heritage.
"How can I sit and meditate when my house is on fire," Omalpe Sobitha, a senior monk and member of the JHU, asked while speaking to The Hindu a few days before the election.
The JHU came together in the weeks just prior to the election. The driving force behind it was the perception that the United National Front Government of Ranil Wickremesinghe had endangered the territorial integrity of the country - and therefore the future of Buddhism itself - by granting too many concessions to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the peace process.
This is not the first time that monks are playing a role in Sri Lanka's politics. Since a contingent of bikhus (Buddhist monks) marched with Duttugemunu's army at his request to provide "blessing and protection", and later consoled him as he wept at the bloodshed, telling him he had to do it for Buddhism, the clergy has always seen itself as providing guidance to the country's rulers. The monks view this role not as contradictory, but entirely in keeping with their status as custodians of the faith.
But this is the first time bikhus have sought to influence the affairs of the country in such a direct manner. Thilak Karunaratne, the founder of the party who is not a monk himself and until three years ago was a member of the Wickremesinghe-led United National Party (UNP), said the bikhus believed entering Parliament was now the only way to influence a government that had stopped listening to them.
"The rulers consult them but just to satisfy them and keep them happy, not for anything constructive. There is no point in giving advice that is not heeded. So the clergy thought it is time to grab the bull by the horns," Mr. Karunaratne told The Hindu before the elections.
But even a less conciliatory approach to the LTTE - such as the one the new Freedom Alliance (F.A.) Government might be expected to adopt - that would nevertheless plan for federalism and substantial devolution to the North-East Tamils as part of an eventual political settlement would be unacceptable to the JHU. It militates against the Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist logic of faith and country as co-terminus.
Monks led the street protests against a draft new Constitution with devolution proposals that President Chandrika Kumaratunga presented in Parliament in 2000, one of the reasons the document had to be pulled. They even opposed the limited devolution the Sri Lankan Government implemented in 1987 after the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
While the peace process with the LTTE is an immediate reason, the JHU's impressive performance speaks of a much deeper crisis of confidence within the Sinhala-Buddhist community. This is the crisis that gave rise to innumerable conspiracy theories about the sudden death from a heart attack of a popular Sri Lankan monk while on a tour abroad last year, and led to a rash of attacks on churches in the country.
And it is directly linked to the growing participation and importance of the two main minorities in Sri Lanka - Tamil and Muslim - in mainstream democratic politics.
Tamil and Muslim parties have consistently played a role in government formation after Sri Lanka adopted the proportional representation system of elections through a new Constitution in 1978.
It has created the impression that the Sinhalese do not form governments any more and that traditional parties - the UNP and also Ms. Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party - can no longer represent the best interests of the Sinhala-Buddhists. This is why the F.A. could not farm a larger share of the protest vote against the UNP, losing it to the JHU. By joining hands with the SLFP in the F.A. coalition, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which in earlier elections benefited from the hardline Sinhala-Buddhist vote, also stood disqualified from such support this time.
The JHU's declared agenda is to "cleanse" Parliament and establish a dharmarajya, or a state based on the teachings of Buddha, in which minority parties of Tamils and Muslims will not dictate terms to the government.
The nine monks in Parliament have said they will provide conditional support to the next government. Their influence will be determined on how much the new government, without a majority of its own, has to depend upon them for support.
It will also be determined by the extent of support for the JHU from the rest of the 35,000-strong clergy. Sri Lanka's monks are politically divided along party lines. Many important priests did not support the decision of the JHU monks to contest the elections.
But without doubt, the impact of the JHU is bound to be felt in the long term, particularly when the main parties - the UNP, SLFP and JVP - begin the task of regaining lost ground among the Sinhala-Buddhists.
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.