Perdition or Paradise?

By Dr. Jagath Asoka

(February 10, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) Whether you like to accept it or not, the denouement, the final outcome, of our recent presidential election was a fait accompli, an accomplished and irreversible fact. Now, we are at a crossroad. One path leads to paradise and the other to perdition. Our journey to perdition or paradise depends on how we face our challenges—the challenges that we had even before our presidential elections. Now is the time to articulate and face our challenges because without having a clear understanding of what our challenges are, we are doomed to choose the path to perdition with gusto.

What are our challenges? What can we do as individuals to stop this journey to perdition? As a writer, it is my duty to articulate our challenges. I know that most readers are neither erudite scholars nor slow-witted ignorami. A writer’s job is to describe the world around him or her, not only what can be seen but also what is hidden. Writers are different from politicians, philosophers, and theologians when it comes to dreaming, empathy, and imagination. Imagination is the ability to get into the skin of the other, or to put yourself in an unfamiliar or unknown place or a situation. By the very nature of their vocation, writers always express their thoughts and feelings. As a writer, I want express my thoughts and feelings, one at a time, about the challenges that we face as a nation.

I hope that the challenges that I am going to articulate will ignite your passion for politics and compel you to write, not as a sycophant of a particular party but as an unbiased observer and chronicler of current events. Whether we like it or not, our quality of life depends on the decisions made by our politicians. Our politicians are not interested in our freedom of speech— the fragrance of democracy that we all cherish. I know that there is an element of bias in everything that we think, say, and write about, even when we present empirical data. Being aware of the fact that we are bias will help us curb our innate desire to be faithful to a particular group. What we do as unbiased writers, especially at a time like this, is essential to keep the sanity of our collective attitude alive. Since journalists are being murdered, harassed, and intimidated, we need unbiased writers, especially now, because our politicians and clergy have failed to address, educate, understand, and mitigate the turmoil, divisions, suffering, corruption, discrimination, and burning hatred in our country. We cannot see ourselves unless we look into a mirror; we cannot atone for our sins unless we look inwards and admit our own sins.

This week, I want to talk about our first challenge. Our first challenge is to recognize that we live in a country that support and maintain a culture of impunity—to kill, torture, harass, rape, intimidate, accept bribe, live a sumptuous life by using stolen public funds, or burn a person alive without any guilt, compunction, or penitence—is the first sign that we will see on our path to perdition. Our judicial system and law enforcement officers are almost impotent. Some members of judicial system and law enforcement, who have taken an oath to protect the innocent, have become the goons who terrorize and eliminate those who oppose and dissent.

Our impious, unethical clergy is colluding with our sleazy, unctuous politicians, and avariciously accepts public funds to fatten their own bellies, while millions suffer, die, and remain uneducated due to poverty. We say that our country is the last bastion of Theravada Buddhism, that we follow the Middle Path taught by the Buddha, that we all are sentient beings, and that compassion—suffering with others—is the burning point of our lives. Well, that is what we tell ourselves and others; however, the reality is not what we say but what we do to others, especially to those who we perceive to be our antagonists, enemies, and rivals.

Our politicians have found a clever way to whitewash our culture of impunity: Our politicians display their shameless, sanctimonious piety in public. While our politicians are promoting this culture of impunity, our clergy is colluding with unctuous politicians. We cannot solve this problem unless the majority of us admit that we are living in a culture of impunity, and it is getting worse every moment. You lose your ability to see what politicians are doing to this country when you blindly follow political leaders as if they are the gods on earth.

If you have been watching our national TV, perhaps you have seen a plethora of slimy shows, politicians flaunting their piety in public; they will even proudly display their half-naked, elephantine, obese bodies and pretend to walk on fire, if such ostentatious piety helps them remain in power. This display of sanctimonious piety is a clear sign of deception. All these activities that we see on our national TV—politicians giving alms, receiving blessings from unethical clergy, observing established rituals with sanctimonious piety—has nothing to do with being a true Buddhist, Christian, or Muslim. Only the crassest ignoramus believes that seeing is believing. Our national TV channels concretize my belief: That which you see is the first thing to disbelieve. These activities are performed in order to atone for the crimes and sins that our politicians have committed.

Who is responsible for maintaining this culture of impunity? Who created this culture of impunity? Who allows this culture of impunity to flourish?

All of us are on a spiritual path. The Buddhist would say that they are following the eight-fold path described by the Buddha; if you are a Christian you would agree with Jesus when he said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.”; if you are a Muslim, your salvation comes only through Allah. Only those who obey Allah and Mohammed as prophet can enter into Heaven; if you are a Hindu, your salvation (Moksha) can be achieved by following one of the four ways described in Hinduism. I cannot find a single religion that promotes killing innocent human beings, torturing those who oppose and criticize us, or living a sumptuous life by using stolen public funds. If you do not believe me, ask yourself whether you want to live in a country where crimes are committed with impunity, and the answer would be obvious to you. The answer you get is common to all religions, because it comes from the heart of this universe, which pumps the distilled wisdom through all religions.

All of us must reject our prevailing culture of impunity, regardless of our political affiliations. If we do not take action to eradicate this prevailing culture of impunity, we will definitely end up in perdition, not in paradise.