Tribute to Ven. Baddegama Samitha

Our good friend, one-time hero of the University students (during JR Jayewardene regime), former Member of Parliament, and former Member of the Southern Provincial Council, Venerable Baddegama Samitha passed away on Sunday (May 30). He had been preaching and delivering religious services at several Buddhist temples in Baddegama area, in the Galle district, for many years.

Ven. Samitha became a hero of the university students in the late seventies, with his leading roles as a student leader and activist against the violence unleashed by the JR Jayewardene regime on the university students. He was a student of the Kelaniya University when a United National Party (UNP) gang leader Christopher terrified the students who demanded rights of the students, such as hostel facilities. As the gang leader had protection from the government, local politicians and the police, he continued to terrify students, with pistols, along with his fellow gangsters, even inside the Kelaniya University. But when he attacked the students, inside the library and the canteen, in front of Ven. Samitha, that was the last time Christopher could attack students. His fellow students, including the girls, attacked the gangster and the thugs until they ran away. Since then, Ven. Samitha became a hero of the students, at every university, because the government thugs had been terrifying the students in all the universities. But he had to face terrible consequences with arrests, detentions and death threats.

Fearing for his life, he fled the country, giving up his university studies. After he moved to Europe, he attended many international seminars, through the New Lanka Samasamaja Party. During his stay in England, he won a scholarship to study at Lancaster University. After completion of his postgraduate studies, he was awarded a PHD. After completing his degrees, he returned to Sri Lanka in 1988, and became a member of the executive committee of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), led by Vasudeva Nanayakkara.

As a politician, Ven. Samitha had been representing the views of the poor and working-class people. In 1991, he entered mainstream politics through the Nava Sama Samaja Party. In 1997, he was elected as a member of the Southern Provincial Council and later, in 2001, he was elected to Parliament of Sri Lanka and had been an MP since 2001-2004. Samitha Thera was the first ever Buddhist monk to enter Parliament, as an MP.

Ven. Samitha had been immensely popular among the people in Sri Lanka, regardless of their ethnicities, until his death, including the local community because of his commitments and the dedication to ethnic harmony and serving the people. He helped people in the local community in numerous ways. When I came to England for the first time, I did not have friends or relatives in England so I asked him whether he could help me to find a temporary place. He arranged his friend to welcome me at London Heathrow airport and to provide temporary accommodation in his place in Kent.

Thank you for your service for the nation.

May he attain Nirvana.

Rajasinghe Bandara