Dalada Maligawa too now fair game for MR

Daily News Editorial - 23/06/2015

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa now intensifying his temple rounds, what with a new political party in the making under his blessings, has not thought it inappropriate to make the Sri Dalada Maligawa , the holiest Shrine of Buddhists, too a venue to launch attacks on his political opponents. In the process Rajapaksa also appears to have lost his bearings and shot himself in the foot. Making a Lotus Offering at the Sri Dalada Maligawa to mark Piriven day - an event to do with student monks - the former President did not fail to take a dig at his bête noire Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Rajapaksa said while he always held steadfast to the SLFP, CBK and brother Anura decamped after having fallen out with their mother. By this Rajapaksa no doubt is trying to convey a not so subtle message that if there was one individual who can claim true leadership to the SLFP that was none other yours truly although there are many pretenders to the throne.

Rajapaksa may not have left the SLFP at any time during his 45 years in politics but at the same time he cannot deny that he also played a no mean role in undermining the party he claims fidelity to. A stand out instance was when he together with a powerful group within the SLFP did their utmost the pull the rug from under the feet of Hector Kobbakaduwa allowing JRJ to romp home at the 1982 Presidential election .Speculation was also in the air that he was planning to cross over to the UNP with a group of his supporters in the event he was denied the premiership after the 2004 General Election when CBK was planning to appoint Lakshman Kadirgamar. In the end the Mahanayakas prevailed and Rajapaksa became PM. There were also other instances when the former President worked towards undermining the Party as explained recently in detail by CBK.

Speaking further the former President also criticised attempts by the sections in the Government to open the road passing the Dalada Maligawa which was closed following the LTTE bomb attack in 1998. He said certain people want the road opened so that they could drive freely without caring for the safety of the sacred tooth relic. Rajapaksa also commended the late Asgiriya Mahanayaka Thera for objecting to the road opening.

The public no doubt will be at a loss to understand how the sacred tooth relic is going to be endangered by passing traffic. Prior to 1998 no such concern were raised. It was the attack, masterminded by Karuna Amman, who is a prominent presence at the Bring Back Rajapaksa rallies that forced the closure of the road. If as Rajapaksa says the sacred tooth relic is endangered it has to be from the LTTE. No passing motorist in his right mind would wish any harm on the Sacred Tooth Relic. Neither has any foreign power or enemy force to our understanding expressed an interest in any item within the Dalada Maligawa.

It has been Rajapaksa's proud boast that he annihilated terrorism (athuga demuwa) from Lankan soil and that even the people in the North were able to defeat him because of this very fact, never mind that he called them all LTTEers after the defeat. Is the former incumbent implying that the LTTE threat is still there lurking in the vicinity of the Dalada Maligawa or is it another threat that he foresees? If what the President in actual fact meant was the sanctity of the Tooth Relic then he should be the last person to complain. For, was not the sanctity of the holiest of holies of the country's Buddhists rudely shattered by the Night Races organised by the Rajapaksa progeny. The former President praised the late Asirigiya prelate for resisting the road opening opposite the Dalada Maligawa. Was not both Mahanayaka Theras' pleas for a halt to Night Races callously ignored by Rajapaksa?

Mahinda Rajapaksa would be doing a service to Buddhism by not using the temple to promote hatred and thus bringing this most venerated religion which preaches ahimsa to ridicule. Now even the Sacred Dalada Maligawa has not been spared to further the Rajapaksa political project. Regrettably some of our Bhikkhus too have become willing tools to this sacrilege of the temple. It is time the Mahanayakas or Buddha Sasana Ministry took action to prevent temples being made use of to promote political agendas of any party. It is ridiculous today see shouts of Jayawewa emanating from the sanctums of Buddhist temples that have replaced the plaintive chants of Sadhu Sadhu.