Confucius and Confusion – let us not confuse the two!

| by Manel Abeysekera

(January 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Confucius’ philosophy and its dynamic core of the Confucius world view is that society is fragile and that public commitment by all is a necessary foundation for the well-being of mankind. This enlightened approach has resulted in making the lowest in society participants in the unending struggle to keep alive and do well. Undeniably, this cooperative attitude to life and living is more robust than the static fatalism of the traditionally Buddhist and Hindu society which attributes one’s social standing to past deeds of merit or demerit in a cycle of rebirth conferring rewards and/or suffering which tends to be taken for granted as unchangeable by one’s current efforts – doing good will only help in the next birth, not in the current one.

There is also the problem, as in Sri Lanka, that the Government tends to see "exclusive" development as a success story, failing to see that it is not people centered and "inclusive" and forgetting that effort should be directed – now, not in the long term only - at raising living standards, providing support for socio–economic benefits for people to enjoy life rather than bemoan their fate.

In addition, there is a great deal of confusion created by differing statements on a particular policy/action as well as prevarication from the truth to cover up what is being done for self benefit or for those who do not need support, unlike the vast majority of the poor who are often left without any support, and wait, often in vain, for promises made but not fulfilled.

Thus, "confusion" reigns over statistics on growth rates in various areas such as GDP, trade, tourism and the like [rather than "Confucius"] which is unable to break through the web of lies with which the people have been duped and doped. So where do we go from here? Perhaps we, the people, should demand that the Confucius theory accompany Chinese aid - which is more than considerable - in order to break the confusion that tends to obfuscate and blind.