Who promoted and encouraged Lech Walesa of Poland in his fight against the communist Polish government? The Pope himself. Did not the remedy prove worse than the disease? What the quotation really means is that whatever the Church teaches is taken by the deeply religious, the vast majority of them poor and illiterate or half-literate, as the gospel truth and when something is interpreted or mix-interpreted as a ‘mortal sin’, who, except a few enlightened souls, would take the risk of going to hell or ‘Apaya’? Image: USP election meeting, Pottuvil, 1999. Siritunga Jayasuriya (centre) listening to Abdul Jabbar (seated second from right).___________________________________
by I. P. C. Mendis
(March 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The ‘goni-billa’ is raising its spooky head again. "Religion is the opium of the masses’ - Marx said - they say. This was the lethal weapon the capitalists and their handmaids constantly used to keep socialists at bay. Socialist measures which were emasculated and ruined by politicians and some scheming conservative bureaucrats, have been confined to the dust bin of history by subtle propaganda designed to discredit them and to sustain racketeers and private capital thriving in the now fashionable era of privatization through the so-called ‘engine of growth’, which has brought with it a system of highway robbery of assets belonging to the State and pick-pocketing peoples’ money as has happened in the recent past with certain financial institutions and companies and encouraged by amnesties.
The exercise of instilling a fear psychosis through the so-called threat to religion from Marxists, was quite transparent up to the 1956 general election when as a consequence of the outrageous performance from religious platforms and fore designed to aid a rightist political party, the S. W. R. D. Bandaranaika government was compelled to bring in legislation to prohibit such canvassing at religious gatherings.
Despite a dirty campaign, and notwithstanding the threat of eternal damnation (mortal sin) for those who voted Left and those who had aligned with it, "Little Rome" (Negombo) returned a front-line LSSP candidate as its representative in Parliament in 1956 - a Roman Catholic by birth himself. Though not fully, people had begun to understand the modus operandi for the quote of Karl Marx, taken out of context to suit political ends, to keep the exploited in perpetual subjugation and to continue the sustenance of hierarchy and their elite sponsors who stood to lose, if the flock lets itself loose through rational thinking, realising the intrigue and dubious methods employed to continue their bondage.
The social teachings of Buddhism and Christianity are a far cry from what is preached and practised by some in institutionalized religion.
It would be true to say that the hierarchy of both, barring a few exceptions, saw to it then that they fully supported and nurtured the exploitation of man by man and encouraged charity rather than affording leadership for the removal of the root cause of poverty.
If not, they would not have permitted themselves to be used by corrupt or scheming politicians and exploiters who had everything to gain by the continuance of the system benefiting a coterie of mercenaries at the cost of amelioration of the conditions of the vast majority.
The Buddha and Jesus Christ steadfastly stood with the poor and the needy and both had accepted the fact that religion cannot be preached to those on an empty stomach. It is this realization that prevented the Roman Catholic Church then from permitting its flock to read the Bible.
Similarly, numerous Buddhist texts in Pali and Sanskrit were beyond the reach and understanding of the common man. Fortunately, Vatican II brought about a renaissance, progressive thinking and a new approach. The numbers of progressive Buddhist monks started increasing. With all the might of reactionary forces and despite the opiate fear psychosis used against the MEP, of which the Father of Marxism in Sri Lanka, Phillip Gunewardene, was a constituent member, the tide of public opinion against the existing capitalist regime could not be arrested. The untimely death of SWRDB through a conspiracy of the very same forces of capitalism and racketeering, inside and outside the ruling party, spearheaded by organised opposition to the Paddy Lands Act and other socialist measures, forced a no-contest pact between the SLFP and the Left, the latter offering conditional support for the former without accepting portfolios.
Still, a few years later, the pressure, was too much for Sirimavo Bandaranaike that she had to form a coalition with the Left. What happened with the introduction of the Press Bill is now well-known and had its similarities with the break-up of the PA government in the year 2000, when some with their tongue in the cheek, describe bribed cross-overs as a perfectly legitimate part of ‘democracy’!
In 1965, a hodge-podge of seven political parties of diverse programmes and views coalesced to form the ‘hash hawula’ where Phillip Gunewardene compromised himself and his party (he continued with the MEP nomenclature) through sheer frustration and personal animosities and permitted himself to be among strange bed-fellows. The ‘remote’ was in the hands of J. R. Jayewardene who called the tune but what is of significance is that it ran its full term backed by reactionary forces. Inter alia, American Oil Companies received their compensation, trolley buses were removed replacing them with private buses operated by cronies and coup suspects given a respite with rewards of top employment.
Political appointees infiltrated the administrative set-up for the first time. Came 1970 and the Coalition, and Dr. N. M. Perera as Finance Minister was targeted by these forces, inter alia, for his proposal to provide a wholesome drink of toddy to combat illicit brews, his assistance for the juggery trade as a substitute for sugar at the same time providing employment, for the declared government policy of taking over Lake House, and for introduction of the Provident Fund Scheme for new- entrants to the public service to replace the pension scheme.
How the then hierarchy at Lake House schemed and plotted to discredit NM using certain Buddhist clergy, desecrating the Sasana by getting thugs to masquerade as monks and unleashing false propaganda alluding to destruction of religious values through the liberalization of toddy tapping etc., is now history. Nary a meaningful campaign then or now by the so-called saviours of religion has been organized to beat the kassippu menace, drugs, brothels, massage clinics, corruption of society through hippie tourism and criminalization of society by politicians, which have eaten into the social fabric of this country.
The very same forces, fully backed by international agencies, saw the downfall of the Coalition. It is ironical, however, that the UNF government itself years later, had in the 2003 budget liberalized tapping of kitul trees and introduced the Provident Fund Scheme for public servants from 2004. Vociferous voices were strangely silent and so were some erstwhile trade unions who at that time thought even future recruitment to be their legitimate business.
In 1956, NM became "NM Pillai" for advocating parity of status for Sinhala and Tamil and in 1970s was referred to as Perera (pun on ‘ra’- sinhala for toddy)! The very same persons who opposed the LSSP, now quote Colvin (two languages one nation, one language, two nations).
They, by their short-sighted political manoeuvres - Walk to Kandy led by JRJ, tearing up of the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact instigated by some Buddhist monks, organized carnage sponsored by the UNP in 1983, et al - have been responsible for the virtual division of the country at the point of the gun, where parity would have resolved the issue years ago.
Of such vacillating and unprincipled stuff some of our leaders both political and religious are made of. It is certainly up to the people to recognize the Trojan Horse which is sought to be led into the political arena again now by the very same reactionary forces both local and foreign, by the re-incarnation of the Marxist bogey and fear psychosis targeting the alliance with the JVP. The irony of it is that there seems to be nothing wrong with an alliance with the TNA which holds a proxy from the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world - the LTTE - still silencing through the barrel of the gun, anybody who is a threat to its fascist regime and led by someone who is under sentence by India as well as Sri Lanka. Can anyone in his proper senses hope for this outfit to conduct itself democratically through their proxy holders or otherwise?
Marxism and Secularism
A Marxist or a student of Marxism need not be ashamed of Karl Marx’s analysis that ‘religion is the opium of the masses’ or that ‘the church is the hand-maid of the capitalist class’.
It was proved beyond doubt then as it has proved years later in Poland and in Sri Lanka. The Church had been in the forefront in places like Russia and other communist countries in the fight against Marxism precisely because it served as a bulwark against reform in the name of religion and mix- interpreting the social aspects of religion on behalf of the privileged. One could have seen this in the matter of the schools take-over. There was no Buddhism in those countries and Marx’s reference was directed singularly against the Church, particularly Roman Catholic.
Who promoted and encouraged Lech Walesa of Poland in his fight against the communist Polish government? The Pope himself. Did not the remedy prove worse than the disease? What the quotation really means is that whatever the Church teaches is taken by the deeply religious, the vast majority of them poor and illiterate or half-literate, as the gospel truth and when something is interpreted or mix-interpreted as a ‘mortal sin’, who, except a few enlightened souls, would take the risk of going to hell or ‘Apaya’? Dogmas remain unalterable - the Pope is infallible.
It is only after Vatican II, that some freedom of thought and action exists. Persecution, if there was, was a consequence of the direct confrontation by the Church with the State, ignoring the famous exhortation by Christ himself - "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s". In Sri Lanka, some of the Buddhist hierarchy has been similarly influenced by political parties and vested interests. Fortunately, enlightened thinking in both religions, have found priests in their numbers now on the side of the masses thereby weakening to a great extent the strength of those who spread the fear psychosis and seek to protect privilege.
India, a secular State with a thousand million people, is not anti-religious nor does it become one with the destruction of Ayodha by the Hindus. Nor is China, Cuba or any other country which has declared itself secular. It was not the Marxists who destroyed Ayodha. It was not the Marxists who have destroyed churches in Sri Lanka or stoned and persecuted or agitate for curbing of individual religious freedom using proselytisation as a weapon. Established churches never resort to such methods nor such conversions are sustained for long on funds.
Conviction is the key for sustenance. E. W. Perera was a Christian nationalist who risked his life and future hiding a petition in his shoe and sailing for three weeks to present a petition to Whitehall. Such a man was defeated by J. R. Jayewardene contesting the Kelaniya seat raising the religious cry.
It is not strange that the "Sinhalaiyini nagitiyaw, maraw, maraw" exhortation came in the official organ of the UNP (about which Dudley Senanayake expressed shame and disgust) during the racial riots in SWRDB’s regime, followed years later by the organised carnage of July 1983 during JRJ’s tenure which gave birth to the LTTE.
C. H. de Soysa was a devout Christian and an unparalleled philanthropist who used his enormous wealth for the benefit of the nation, not for a moment discriminating against any race, caste or religious sect. It is useless hark back to Portuguese or even British times to justify one’s actions today. It would also not help in reminiscing of the Sinhala/Muslim riots of 1915 or the sordid slaughter of innocent Tamils in 1983 and the human rights record of the last three decades. All this did happen, whether we like it or not, in a country which prides itself on 2500 years of civilization and the philosophy of Lord Buddha.
It was alleged that the Venerable Soma’s death was sought to be made a platform for creating religious strife by interested parties. Incitement there definitely was, overtly and covertly and through orations as well by those who should know better. Despite post mortems and all meaningful action to clear doubts, suspicions are kept alive by referring to Soma’s death as "mysterious". The timely warning given by the President who by that time had taken over the Defence and Interior Ministries, would have thwarted certain plans of designing people.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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