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From a speech delivered by Ven. Banagala Upatissa Nayaka Thera, President of the Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka at the opening session at the international conference on the theme "Justice and World Peace" organised by the World Muslim Congress held on 18th December, 2002.

I am no jurist. I can only make a meaningful contribution on the Buddhist perception of justice.

At the very inception I should add that if there is universal justice world peace need not be a concern, unless that universal justice is breached.

What is justice? Justice is to eliminate what is unjust. I must stress that I am dealing with the subject in an empirical sense. To my mind justice is that I do not treat my fellow beings unjustly. In the Sigalovada Sutta the Buddha set down a code of conduct for laymen.

The Blessed One said:

Led by desire to injustice does one commit evil.

Led by anger to injustice does one commit evil.

Led by ignorance to injustice does one commit evil.

Led by fear to injustice does one commit evil.

The true follower of the Noble Path is not led by desire, anger, ignorance or fear and hence he commits no evil.

I seek your indulgence to ponder over this very simple dictate of the Buddha.

Can it not be equally valid for communities and nation states in their bilateral and multi-lateral relations?

It is desire that prompted the eighteenth and nineteenth century Europeans to plunder our countries.

It is anger and desire that led to all wars throughout the ages.

It is ignorance and fear that led our own nation and country to virtual ruin. Justice in society or in the community of nations has other implications having subjected two thirds of our planet to colonial exploitation the developed nations today seek to redress the injustice by offering us to jump start our economies and our development efforts are measured in terms of improving the total quality of life.

These efforts have succeeded in improving the quality of life of a small percentage of our population leaving more than fifty percent of our people below the poverty line.

Does that represent justice?

I am no economist. But something I do not understand when a developed country takes an economic downturn such countries are told to increase public expenditure, reduce interest rates to create new jobs and regain the momentum of economic growth.

When a poor country is faced with the identical problem the prescription is different.

Limit public expenditure, raise interest rates to limit consumption they say, but in effect it drives the few capable of generating employment also to the wall.

Is that justice?

If the family living a few yards away from your home has to contend with one meal a day while you have the good fortune to enjoy three meals a day does it represent social justice?

To this we offer a solution. We offer the Samurdhi or such programs of poverty alleviation. That is totally unproductive say the headmen of the global village. But do they stop at that point. In the form of subsidies to their already affluent farmers they offer US dollars seven per head of cattle.

To us they say Rs. 200 per family is unproductive. Bovine well-being as against human misery! Even if they are ultimately led to slaughter the cattle in those countries enjoy a quality of life that is denied to the people of the Third World whose lifespan may be marginally higher.

Is that justice?

Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank comments "what are developing countries to make of the rhetoric in favour of capital liberalisation when rich countries with full employment and strong safety nets - argue that they need to impose protective measures to help those of their own citizens adversely affected by globalisation?" Is this justice? or rather is it justice denied.

Henry Kissinger provides a candid answer "The very process that has produced greater wealth in more parts of the world may also provide the mechanism for spreading an economic and social crisis around the world".

In the Kalama Sutta the Buddha preached

"Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing: nor upon tradition:

Nor upon rumour,

Nor upon what is in a scripture;

Nor upon surmise;

Nor upon an axiom;

Nor upon specious reasoning;

Nor upon a bias that has been pondered over;

Nor upon another's seeming ability;

Nor upon the consideration that the monk is our teacher.

When you yourselves know these things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise, undertaken and observed, these things led to benefit and happiness, enter on and abide them". This was the Buddha's charter for free and unfettered inquiry.

Should we adopt such inquiry we may avoid the many pitfalls that we often fail to avoid. Having made these observations as a bhikkhu I feel that I should also address some issues that concern the Islamic community in a universal sense.

I wish to refer to some misconceptions in the minds of the non-Islamic people that is of contemporary relevance not only to the theme of this conference but in the context the world finds itself today.

It is common belief amongst non-Moslems that the Moslems regard non-Moslems as a breed apart and are reticent to subscribe to the doctrine of universal brotherhood of mankind in strictly orthodox Moslem countries migrant workers cannot practice their religious except in extreme privacy.

But yet the message of the unity of mankind is given in clear terms. In Surah Al Hujurat verse 13:

"People are created in pairs,

As males and females,

And from their union,

Are formed nations and tribes;

So that they may know one another properly,

However, in the sight of god,

The most honourable of them,

Are those who are righteous,

God is, indeed all knowing and fully informed".

Again in Surah Al Maidah verse 48:

"To each people we have prescribed,

A law and a way,

Which is open and free,

If god has so willed,

He would have made all a single people,

But he desired to test each one,

In what he has given to them,

So strive hard and compete,

In righteousness and good deeds,

For the destination of all,

Is to reach god,

He alone will show where each one differed".

I have quoted these passages from a recent book by Dr. Rafiq Zakaria who has made an extremely incisive analysis of Islamic teachings in the context of present day realities.

It is your responsibility first to educate those who cling to orthodoxy so that in the global village you receive what is rightly yours and silence the critics whose misapprehensions are due to ignorance.

I am a Buddhist bhikkhu and hence my religious convictions are different. But I am happy that according to the Prophet the opportunity of my meeting god is equal to that of anyone else in this distinguished gathering including M. H. Mohamed who so graciously requested my presence here today. 

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