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SU's plan for pious polity

Many of our readers are bound to have read with considerable amusement a proposal by the Sihala Urumaya that it would make ordination into the Buddhist priesthood compulsory for youth under eighteen years of age, if voted to power at the upcoming general election. This seems to be the Sihala Urumaya's recipe for the establishment of a "Dharmishta Samajaya" or virtuous society.

The SU's belief is that when Lankan youth are legally obligated into taking to the priesthood, society would automatically evolve into a righteous polity where peace and happiness would reign.

The Sihala Urumaya's spokesman to whom this news has been sourced, Champika Ranawake, who claims to champion the cause of the majority community was quoted saying that if the Maha Sangha's approval for the SU's proposal was not forthcoming, the necessary laws would be enacted to make it a reality.

Religiosity, as is well known, is a matter for the individual. It is not the way of democratic societies - and Sri Lanka takes immense pride in her democratic credentials - to foist their citizens this or that faith, religion or way of life, however much appealing they may be. This is mainly because in a democratic state the individual is bestowed complete freedom to chose his or her religion, or, if it suits him or her, to be without one.

To use legal compulsion in matters of religious faith or to force an individual to take to the priesthood of this or that religion is brazenly violative of democratic norms and values. It is a state of affairs which cannot be envisaged in a functional democracy such as Sri Lanka.

However, in a theocratic state, where individual freedoms are substantially curtailed, the scenarios which the SU is conjuring could be enacted. That is, persons could be ordained into priesthood through legal enactments which make this compulsory. Is the SU, then, thinking of turning Sri Lanka into a theocracy? If so, the SU is hardly the choice for Sri Lanka which has remained a democracy for 53 years.

Devout, practising Buddhists are likely to find the SU's proposal on ordinations highly disquieting on account of the Buddhist emphasis on the free, unforced acceptance of one's faith and vocation. Buddhism espouses deep reflection and discernment prior to the acceptance of beliefs and faiths by the individual and nothing could be more alien to the Buddhist ethos than this Sihala Urumaya proposal on forced ordinations.

Since virtuousness is high on the SU's agenda we are compelled to ask it how the espousal of a military solution to the ethnic conflict accords with its pious professions.

How could the SU speak in the same breath about virtue and war, which is its preferred policy instrument on the national question? Such confusion in thinking and befuddlement makes the SU a questionable proposition for the reflective person.

• Editorial of  The Observer - 5.11.2001
  War vs. the economy
  

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