Chief Prelates urge regularisation of title conferring

Asela KURULUWANSHA

The Chief Prelates of Tri Nikayas in a letter addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa have urged to take speedy action to put a stop to conferring honorary titles to people who had made no contribution for the upliftment of the country and those who have been condemned by society for blasphemy, immoral and bad conduct.

The Chief Prelates in their letter have urged the President to put the Government mechanism in place to cancel all these irregular conferring of honorary titles to people of disrepute which is fast spreading in the country like a malady to ensure dignity and decorum of the accepted institutions which were conferring honorary titles in the past adopting standards methods and those who had been honoured by those institutions.

Most Venerable Thibbotuvawe Sri Sidhdhartha Sumangala Thera, Maha Nayake of the Malwatte Chapter, Most Venerable Udugama Buddha Rakkhita Thera, Maha Nayake of the Asgiriya Chapter, Most Venerable Veveldeniye Medhalankara thera, Maha Nayake of the Ramanna Nikaya and Most Venerable Dauldena Gnanissara thera, Maha Nayake of the Amarapura Nikaya has signed this letter representing the Tri Nikayas.

The Chief prelates, in their letter to the President, point out that due to the irregular practice of conferring honorary titles by newly formed organisations and individuals to those who are not fit to be honoured by the society for economic and other gains, the institutions conferring those honorary titles from the past and those who had been honoured by those institutions getting penalised by the society.

The Maha Nayakes also recall the way knowledgeable and reputed Bhikkus were honoured after conferring them with honorary titles in the Buddhist history and the way the Kings and education institutions confer honorary titles to knowledgeable, disciplined and valued people in the society.

However, they have noted that honarary titles like Deshamanya, Deshabandhu and honorary doctorates which used to be conferred by reputed Universities are being conferred to people with no educational background and with bad reputation threatening practiced methods of conferring those honorary titles.