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by S. T. Hettige, University of Colombo

The untimely passing away of Ven. Gangodawila Soma Thera in December last year, led to an unprecedented upsurge of public sympathy among Sri Lankan Buddhists. Many people have been wondering why the late Thera attracted so much public sympathy.

Ven. Soma Thera’s Funeral - sympathy wave

Several commentators have already attempted to clarify reasons for his enormous popularity, both in urban as well as in rural areas. The purpose of this short article is to offer a few of my own observations. This is not to dismiss the reasons already identified by other commentators.

As is widely known, the late Soma Thera focussed attention on what was broadly referred to as the decline of social values or the widening gap between the Buddhist precepts and lay practices.

This issue was repeatedly discussed with reference to day-to-day problems of the ordinary people. Spread of alcoholism, public display of soft phornographic material, particularly on popular TV channels, gambling, deteriorating intra-family relations, youth unrest, etc. were identified as manifestations of the above gap.

While being critical of the lay people themselves, Soma Thera was also quick to point his finger at the authorities. He blamed the latter for either turning a blind eye or being largely responsible for the malaise.

He did not stop there. He also criticised the Buddhist establishment for being so insensitive to problems faced by lay people. He vowed to build a socio-political movement that could arrest the present trend.

The fact that hundreds of thousands of people of all walks of life flock to the temple, where the late thera's body was lying in state for several days indicates that the message had struck a cord with a large segment of the Buddhist population.

We do not know how the movement he founded would have fared if the Thera did not pass away. What is certain, however, is that his mission had filled a void that has existed in the country at least for two decades. What is this void?

My argument in this article is that the failure of the secular states to effectively deal with serious problems and concerns of a large majority of people created a situation where the latter have continued to feel helpless, with nobody to turn to, for redress.

They have been disillusioned that the political leaders have pursued opportunistic politics even when the need of the hour has been to build national consensus and implement sound policies in order to deal with pressing socio-economic issues. We know how corrupt, undemocratic and violent some of the politicians have been, but none has yet been convicted.

The Bribery and Corruption Commission established in 1995 has remained virtually disabled, with no recorded achievements to its credit despite enormous costs it has incurred so far at public expense. It is amusing that the politicians on both sides of the political divide continue to argue as to how it could be revamped!

This is exactly what happened a few weeks back at a popular TV talk show. A Minister of the present government (Ranil faction) and a leading politician of the PA (Chandrika faction) blamed each other for the sorry state of the Commission.

Many socio-economic problems have accumulated over the last two decades, partly due to the still unresolved national question and partly due to the lack of sound policies in such fields as the mass media, transport, health, education, employment, alcohol and drugs and social security.

People leave in hundreds of thousands, some permanently, others looking for contract employment. Hundreds of thousands of women have gone to the Middle East leaving behind their children and spouses.

Enormous social problems associated with Middle East migration such as alcoholism, marital breakdown, neglect and abuse of children and exploitation and abuse of women in the host countries are well known, but successive governments, too dependent on private remittances have done everything to promote rather than phase out unskilled labour migration.

Subject to growing economic pressure, many people do not see a viable alternative for migration.

Alcoholism has spread rapidly over the last decades due to various factors. Once again dependent on alcohol taxes, successive governments have ignored the adverse consequences of increasing alcohol consumption, such as crime, loss of productivity, ill-health, accidents and intra-family violence.

In spite of much talk, we do not still have an alcohol policy for the country. Instead, successive governments have distributed more and more liquor licences among party supporters to open liquor outlets in all parts of the country.

A comprehensive policy would have regulated the alcohol economy more effectively and addressed many of the adverse consequences. As is well known, even in the West, where alcohol is widely considered as another consumer item, comprehensive alcohol policies are in place to prevent or contain alcohol related social problems.

The lack of sound policies in critical areas has left many pressing problems unresolved, exerting enormous pressure on a large majority of the population.

On the other hand, if the political pressure does not lead to the formulation of national policies and their successful implementation, what could the people do?

As one could expect, they have been changing governments, hoping that the change of regimes would lead to some positive outcome. What have the governments elected at least since 1994 done?

The election of Chandrika Bandaranaike as the President in 1994 and the subsequent election of a PA government created a lot of hope in the minds of the vast majority of voters.

People not only hoped for a peaceful settlement of the national question, but expected the new regime to address the negative outcomes of the open economic policy. But, we now know that it failed miserably in both.

On the other hand, did the national leaders, faced with the gravest crisis in recent history of Sri Lanka, resolve to move away from opportunistic politics. The answer is no.

They continued to engage in partisan politics, each one taking its turn after the other. More and more people became sick of both the parties. The JVP in the middle attracted more and more voters.

Yet, in more recent years, political situation has become murky when the JVP has resolved to work with the PA, which shows no sign of any readiness to clean up its ranks.

If they come to power, some of the same corrupt and violent politicians are going to be accommodated, perhaps in a Cabinet much larger than the previous one.

What is needed is a strong opposition that can provide a more credible alternative to the UNF regime, not one that look for opportunities to destabilise and topple the government. In fact, nobody knows what the PA hopes to do if and when it comes to power.

As is clearly evident from what is happening today, inter-party rivalry continues to dominate national politics at a time when the country is still on a knife edge and the vast majority of people are struggling to survive due to a escalating cost of living, unemployment, widespread violence and crime and the continued deterioration of public services.

It is true that the PA government was brought down in 2001 by a palace coup, spearheaded by a few leading members of the present regime. Within less than two years, the present UNF government has been virtually incapacitated by the taking over of several key ministries by the President.

The present situation is worse because nobody knows who is in power. It could have been better to dissolve the Parliament and allow the people to elect a new regime.

Many people in this country are simply disgusted over what is happening, today. Nobody knows what is in store for them in the context of the lingering national crisis. Socio-political uncertainty has slowed down economic activities, leading to more unemployment.

Many people are trying to find their way out of the country. Is it any wonder that the people are frustrated and disillusioned and are drawn into religious movements that promise liberation from anxiety and myriad existential problems which in most countries around the world are addressed by secular states? In other words.

When the secular state fails and secular leaders let the people down, with absolutely no regard for the concern of the ordinary citizens, militant spiritual leaders take the lead.

In a society where arrogant and corrupt political leaders do not wish to be guided by public opinion and unassuming secular intellectuals and experts, they might eventually be dictated to by militant spiritual leaders, as did one Buddhist monk at the cremation of the late Soma Thera, in front of a large gathering of lay public.

Sectarian religious movements in plural societies can easily degenerate into militant ethno-nationalist movements. The leaders of such movements can press for demands that can create a threat perception in the minds of minorities.

On the other hand, many people who are attracted to religious movements that concentrate on the day-to-day problems of the ordinary people are not militant nationalists.

It is the failure of the secular state that compels them to look for non-secular solutions to their existential problems. Such solutions often take extreme forms such as prohibitions and bans.

Modern secular societies that are more tolerant have avoided extreme solutions by adopting policies that transcend deep social and cultural divisions.

The failure of secular leaders to address the problems of the people in a reasonable and just manner, paves the way for intolerance of diversity and pluralism.

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