by Jehan Perera

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is scheduled to make his first international visit to India this week.  This is expected to be followed by a visit to China in close order.  The president, and the country itself, is walking a tightrope between these two Asian giants, one which is the world’s second largest economy and other its fifth largest.  Both of them see the island of Sri Lanka as a strategic location for their geopolitical aims.  In the case of India, the stakes are particularly high as it does not wish China to pose a military challenge to it in the south when it is a belligerent power in the north where the two countries have gone to war over territory each claims for itself.

The manner in which the government is seeking to project the two visits that the president is to make is to call them economic investment-related visits.  Indeed, both countries hold keys to Sri Lanka’s future prosperity.  If they invest in productive enterprises, they will enable Sri Lanka to provide jobs to its people and perhaps keep them at home instead of migrating in droves to foreign countries for employment.  Increased economic production as a result of foreign investment can also reduce the heavy burden of foreign loan repayments that impoverish the people.  Loans that are used in corrupt ways are no substitute for foreign investment in economic enterprises.

So far Sri Lanka has been walking the tightrope between giving preference to the countries that have sustained the economy after the economic bankruptcy.  The role that India played in giving emergency assistance during the height of the crisis in 2021 cannot be forgotten.  Thereafter Sri Lanka has accepted the IMF loans and the new government continues to abide by its terms. In the past, the JVP leadership opposed deals with the IMF or compromise with the UN on issues it saw as being in the realm of protecting the country’s sovereignty. The most positive feature of the NPP government is its rationality in doing what is necessary to protect the country’s interests even if it is not in alignment with positions taken by its own leadership in the past.  This can be seen in relation to the IMF agreement, the approach to the UN Human Rights Commission and on inter-ethnic peacebuilding.

ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE

The visit of US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu went smoothly with the president’s media division describing the outcome as being one in which the US envoy pledged “Unwavering Support for Sri Lanka’s Anti-Corruption Drive.” It also reported that the US is prepared to provide financial and technical assistance to strengthen Sri Lanka’s security and economy.  Assistant Secretary Lu had also emphasized the US government’s willingness to offer technical expertise to help recover funds that were illegally taken out of the country, as part of Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption programme.  The government’s positive understanding of the meeting was also that “The discussion highlighted the US government’s appreciation for the new administration’s prioritization of key political, economic, and social challenges.”

The driving force behind the Aragalaya people’s movement that drove the then government out of power despite its nearly two-thirds majority in parliament was the belief that corruption at the highest levels of that government was responsible for the economic debacle the country faced in 2021.  There is a consensus in the country that crosses all its main divides, ethnic, religious and class, that corruption in high places is an evil that needs to be dealt with.  The failure of previous governments to deal with this problem, notwithstanding their promises to do so, was the lack of internal political will.  The unfortunate reality was that those at the helm of government were themselves complicit in the corruption they pledged to bring to an end.

The unique feature of the NPP government is that its leading members are not known to be complicit in corruption due to their ideological convictions and modest lifestyles.  They have also not held positions of power to be tested nor do they appear to have personal relationships with those believed to be corrupt. The government’s commitment to ensuring that there will be no corruption and the general population’s alignment with that commitment provides the country with the opportunity to accept the US offer to help it tackle the problem of corruption. The modern digital economy that the government is emphasizing offers the best possibility of containing such corruption by the publication of all large calls for proposals or calls for tenders on a public website. Civil society think tank, Verite Research is currently completing a study on detecting corruption in procurement practices. The worst forms of corruption that cost, and continue to cost, the country billions have come as a result of corrupt contracts, unsolicited project proposals, where there is no competitive bidding and where there is no visibility.

CONSENSUS BUILDING

The main constraint to the government’s success at the present time is the lack of economic resources due to the profligacy and corruption of the past. It is difficult to understand the rationale why the previous government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa thought it fit to reject the USD 450 milllion grant that the US was willing to provide to improve the country’s road and transport system under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the USD 1.2 billion long term low interest loan that Japan offered to set up a light rail transport system.  At the present time these appear to be lost opportunities, though the new government needs to keep trying in the hope that fortune can smile a second time.  Sri Lanka’s location in the Indian Ocean and its importance to the sea lanes is an asset that needs to yield positive returns to the country.

During his visit, Assistant Secretary Lu offered a different financial assistance programme in the form of anti-corruption systems that could, potentially, bring in millions of revenue that are currently lost to the government.  Enhanced revenue flows from taxes and customs revenues that are properly collected could lead to a corresponding reduction of the tax burden placed on the masses of people through unjust taxes such as the VAT which falls especially hard on the poorest sections of society, although they are the easiest taxes to collect. There will be massive cost savings and revenue generation if contracts are awarded in term of economic merit and not done in a corrupt manner.  Anti-corruption measures that the international community can support Sri Lanka with could be quickly put in place as there will be no resistance to them from the general population, although there will surely be vested interests which will resist such anti-corruption measures.

The government will, however, be less willing to accept the offer of international assistance when it comes to issues on which the population is divided and not of one mind. The government faces challenges in navigating divisive issues like national security and ethnic conflict as seen recently on the Heroes Day celebrations. While international assistance in areas like corruption finds public backing, issues like replacing laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the Online Safety Act (OSA) which empowers it to take action in the name of national security or addressing ethnic power-sharing require careful consensus-building. Policies that risk further polarizing communities could undermine stability. This is where special emphasis needs to be placed on peacebuilding and social cohesion building which requires dialogue both within and outside the country in forums such as the UN Human Rights Council.

by Rohana R. Wasala

Reading the detailed news article under the title ‘First Sri Lankan Buddhist monk in 105 years joins Oxford for MPhil in Buddhist Studies’ (The Island/December 6, 2024) was a refreshing experience for me, as it should’ve been for others among the readers who feel concerned about the future of the young bhikkhu community of the country. No one else but the young bhikkhus themselves can play the leading role that has been historically assigned to the Maha Sanga over the millennia in safeguarding our invaluable but currently threatened Buddhist cultural heritage in these swiftly changing modern times. There is much to be reformed in the Buddhist Order to ensure its survival into the future, but the key to that long overdue, potentially convoluted process, is the proper education of young monks. It is in that context that I wholeheartedly congratulate Ven. Wadigala Samitharathana Thero on his many scholastic achievements.

However, the claim that Ven. Wadigala Samitharathana Thero has become the first Sri Lankan Buddhist monk in 105 years to study at Britain’s University of Oxford is not quite correct. The late great scholar monk Ven. Dr Labuduwe Siridhamma Thero, the then Chief Incumbent (1957-1985) of Getambe Sri Rajopawanaramaya temple near Peradeniya, had earned his PhD from Oxford University, UK. This fact I know because I used to see Dr Siridhamma’s official letterheads printed with his name followed by ‘PhD (Oxon)’. He was reputed to have been a supreme master of five languages including English. It was he who founded the Dharma Chakra Vidya Peetaya closely connected to the monastery that became an internationally known centre of higher education for young local and foreign bhikkhus. It even catered to secular intellectuals from around the world who took an interest in Buddhist philosophy and meditation.

The venerable monk as a young English tutor from the nearby Peradeniya University at his initiation, and was given the honour to briefly work with him more than fifty years ago. He was a very dedicated educator of Buddhist monks and a strict disciplinarian. This was in the late 1970s, only about two years into late president J.R. Jayewardene’s first term.  Dr Siridhamma requested me to train a class of some young monks who already had a fairly good knowledge of English (at least two of them were assistant lecturers in the Arts Faculty of the Peradeniya University, where I taught at the sub department of English) in speaking and writing English and in translating Dhamma passages into English. I fondly remember now how I arranged and moderated debates in English between teams of monks, and sometimes was required to mediate when tempers flared up during heated exchanges. As these were all in English, the occasional lapses in language usage provided some diversion and lighter moments.

That was a little digression. Let’s get back to the subject.  Ven. Siridhamma told me that he wanted these monks to be able to engage in Buddhist missionary work abroad. He himself had connections with foreign universities. I occasionally saw him conducting meditation classes and leading Dhamma discussions with some European participants. My own English classes with the young monks continued only for a short few months, however.

A few years later, while abroad, I heard that Ven. Siridhamma was facing the wrath of the then president over some severely critical remarks the monk had made against the latter concerning the way he handled the Tamil separatist problem at the time. It was suggested in the media that the president’s animosity resulted in certain impediments being placed on the fortunes of Sri Rajopawanaramaya and the functioning of the Dharma Chakra Vidya Peetaya. The venerable monk was presumably quite advanced in age, I think, though I didn’t notice it during the brief period I associated with him. Not long after the above incident, it was reported that Siridhamma Thera was taken ill suddenly and died. This was probably in 1985. I don’t know anything about the present situation of his legacy at Sri Rajopawanaramaya. Strangely, Wikipedia offers little or no information about this renowned scholar monk, though his name is mentioned in connection with a school named after him established a decade later iin his native village Labuduwa, Galle.

This is Siridhamma Vidyalaya/Siridhamma College at Labuduwa in the Akmeemana electorate, ceremonially opened by the then Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike at the invitation of the then minister of education Richard Pathirana on February 6, 1995. The information I gleaned from Wikipedia about this school mentions Ven. Dr Siridhamma as the first Buddhist monk to graduate from Oxford University. This seems to overlook the fact that Ven. Suriyagoda Sumangala got admission to Oxford University in 1919 and thus became the first Lankan Buddhist monk to do so. This is according to the December 6th article to which I am responding here. So, it is clear that the distinction of being the first Buddhist monk to study at Oxford goes to Suriyagoda Sumangala Thera, and not to Labuduwe Siridhamma Thera, who undoubtedly followed him many years later. In other words, Ven. Labuduwe Siridhamma Thera was the first Buddhist monk to enter Oxford University, and Ven. Wadigala Samitharathana Thera only the second to do so, in 105 years.

Isn’t the mysterious consignment of Dr Siridhamma Thera, a renowned national figure, to near oblivion food for thought for those young and old Sri Lankans concerned with the future of their country? Danno danithi (it is no secret to the informed).

Sally Hulugalle was a vibrant presence, and I am only sorry that I got to know her only over the last fifteen years or so. This was because her husband, Arjuna Hulugalle, who was distantly connected to my family through a Kurunegala link, got in touch with me in the aftermath of the war, for he was involved in various projects to help the people of the north.

I was able to get for his very worthy initiatives a lot of support, all on a small scale, from the Japanese government, through their hyper-active Deputy Ambassador, Mr Ishizuka, with whom I had bonded well from the time I took over the Peace Secretariat.

I would visit Arjuna at his house, and there I met his wife Sally, the daughter of a Civil Servant whose distinguished children included Barbara Sansoni. Sally was dedicated to social service, and was deeply concerned about the plight of women and children who suffered from neglect.

Having seen the appalling conditions at Mulleriyawa, where many women were incarcerated arbitrarily, given abuse of the Vagrants’ Ordinance, she set up NEST along with my old friend Kamini de Soysa. It worked at what is called the half way house for women meant to be released, but who rarely were, because they had nothing to go to. NEST gave them occupational therapy which provided a purpose in lives that were otherwise empty.

NEST also set up centres round the country which provided support to women and children in need. There were four of these when I first found out about them, though the one in Galle had to close. The other three, in Hendala and Dumbara and Kahatagasdigiliya, continue to provide yeoman service, the first two in houses belonging to NEST, the one in Dumbara having been set up after Sally received a cash prize from Norway for her work. Using what was given to her personally for those less fortunate was second nature to her.

Sally understood, in a way many of those in government responsible for those who fall through the net do not, the need for counseling, for listening to people in need, and for providing often very little things that made a substantial difference to their lives. She participated readily in the committees I set up when I was Adviser on Reconciliation to look into the plight of women and children, our recommendations extending to the rest of the country too, for I realized that government had not tried to coordinate the work of social service officials at divisional levels, and a few simple guidelines would have worked wonders.

But Mahinda Rajapaksa was not really interested in my advice and, though we had a thoughtful Ministry Secretary, Eric Illapayarachchi, he had to work with a neanderthal Minister who could not care less for the deprived. I could only think it sheer wickedness, that those in authority would not work swiftly to get rid of the Vagrants Ordinance, an archaic British law, which I was told was the only way prostitution could be stopped. That other women were swept into the net, and the way to stop prostitution was to make it illegal, not take in anyone on suspicion, were concepts beyond them.

I had another chance to make a difference when, as Chairman of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, I set up a Health Sector Council. That did good work, under Dr Narme Wickremesinghe, but when I was sacked it, though it did much for nursing and pharmacology, lost interest in the counseling component of its brief, and Sally and her great friend Kusala Wettasinghe ceased to go to meetings. And since I lost my position on the National Education Commission, the efforts I had been making through the Sub-Committee on General Education to develop counseling in schools also came to naught.

But when I reflect on the failure of these efforts, I think too of the great work done by private initiatives, and how the intensity of Sally’s commitment has made such a difference to so many. This year, seeing the work of the centres at Hendala and at Kahatagasdigiliya, and the devotion of the staff to her memory, I was struck again by the way she transformed her passion for social welfare into practical support for so many. She will be greatly missed by hundreds outside the charmed circle in which she was born.

Rajiva Wijesinha