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| Tuesday, 24 June 2003 |
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Death penalty out of tune with the times by Chandra Edirisuriya Latest evidence indicates that the human race is, at the least, 50,000 years old. During primeval times human beings owned no property individually. On the contrary they shared whatever was naturally available to them in the forests in which they lived. It was fruits that grew on trees and creepers that formed their diet initially. Pure water for their consumption was available in streams and ponds. Each individual partook of this natural food according to his needs and ipso facto there was no reason to quarrel. Males and females mated just as animals in their natural setting unite even today. Anthropologist Dr. Margaret Mead in her book 'Coming of Age in Samoa' describes how Samoan children when they come of age went into the bush and later lived together. Another European woman researcher who observed the mating habits of chimpanzees in Africa has stated that the males took turns to mate with the females because males far exceeded the number of females of mating age. It was with people becoming acquisitive having come to own private property that quarrels, sometimes leading to homicide, took place. So it was greed or want that at first prompted people to kill one another.
However, homicides were very rare in areas where natural food was abundant like the great river basins of the Indus and the Ganges. Crimes like homicides began to take place in areas where natural food was scarce and for that reason the people had to kill animals for their consumption. Hence Babylonian King Hammurabis dictum. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". This was the beginning of capital punishment. In time capital punishment or the Death Penalty was imposed for lesser 'offences' like 'corrupting' the minds of youth with logical ideas' as in the case of Socrates. Lord Jesus Christ paid the supreme penalty for being a social reformer who earned the displeasure of the powers that were. When Mary Magdalene was to be stoned to death the Good Lord said, "Anyone who has not sinned throw the first stone'. Today's Death Penalty 'wallahs' should follow this advice strictly. Then again, the Lord said: "If anyone slaps you on one cheek turn the other check also'. This 'golden' admonition was meant to make offenders realise their folly and to reform them. Lord Gauthama Buddha never advocated the taking of the life of anyone. He reformed even the youth Ahimsaka who was misled by his jealous friends to become a killer who came to be known as Angulimala. When he was chasing the Buddha to kill Him to collect the 1000th finger, the Buddha by His mental power distanced him, made him tired and thereafter Angulimala saw sense, entered the Buddhist order and attained Arhanthood. In a Buddhist country like Thailand today prison authorities have made arrangements for prisoners to live with their spouses for 24 hours from 12 noon to 12 noon the following day. Prisons there are called Houses of Correction. Sri Lanka being the leading Buddhist country hallowed by the Theravada doctrine should emulate Thailand. The affinity of our country with Thailand has been long standing. The recent shipload of 500 tonnes of flood relief given by Thailand in our hour of distress strengthens this bond. The implementation of the Death Penalty was suspended by Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1956 and President J. R. Jayewardene who became Buddhists by conviction. In the case of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike both parents were Christians and in the case of J. R. Jayawardene, although his father was a Christian his mother was a Buddhist. He used to say in public that he preferred to go to Vajiraramaya with his mother and that he came under the influence of Venerable Pelene Vajiragnana Nayake Thera. He used to add that out of his siblings only one went to the church with his father. If S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike could be compared to Demosthenes, J. R. Jayewardene could be compared to Pericles of Athens in ancient Greece, the cradle of democracy. Both were statesmen par excellence and orators. It was in their wisdom and farsightedness that they both saw eye to eye in this matter. In 1975, I wrote a letter to an English newspaper stating that carrying out of the Death Penalty should be suspended for reasons well known to all who have compassion for all beings. By that time a number of countries and some states of even the United States of America had done away with the Death Penalty. Norman Mailer the humanist immortalised the topic of the Death Penalty in his novel 'The Executioner's Song' on the execution, by the electric chair, of Garry Gilmore the Ghetto Negro of the type found in Harlem, New York. It is said that in America the Astors or the Vanderbelts have not been sentenced to death. This saying jibes at a system where the rich can get away with any crime. It is also a pointer to the fact that crimes like murder are committed at the lower strata society anywhere in the world. It is not only disorganised life and deprivation that lead to crime but also the attempt by the not so well off to emulate the rich. It is pecuniary emulation and conspicuous consumption that drive those sans a philosophic bent of mind to resort to criminal activities to find money for a life of ostentation. The Mafia, the Drug Barons, big time smugglers and terrorist leaders leading and used to a luxurious life, the underworld and the contract killers are the worst criminals who bring misery to millions of people. That innocent people have been convicted and put to death for murder in this country and elsewhere is a very forceful argument against the Death Penalty, although some 'pundit' had recently said that such instances are very rare. This is the value placed on human life by those who adopt a 'holier than thou' attitude. Lord Buddha in His unparalleled wisdom said: Sabbe thasanthi dandassa Sabbe bhayanthi machhuno Attanan upaman kathwa Na haneyya na ghathaye (All beings shudder at punishment All beings fear being put to death Taking this as an example Do not harm or destroy life.) |
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