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| Sunday, 22 August 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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A religious war via anti-conversion bill
Man has the right to believe in any religion, to practise any religion, or not. As we all know the constitution of this country itself provides for such freedom. At times one can question whether we can expect the so-called freedom when our constitution is inactive and is limited to the books. Sri Lanka is a multi-religious and multi-national country where the brethren lived in peace and harmony until July 1983. Who is held responsible for the black July massacre? The leaders and the extremists who were blind by 'patriotism'. They were not patriots but blood thirsty monsters.
There had never been a religious war in this Dharmadveepa but if the extremists make meaningless efforts to establish Dharmadveepa then this can be the gateway to another war. Undoubtedly this is a Buddhist country but it does not mean that this belongs to the Buddhists only. What will happen to other religions? Where should they live? Where do they belong to? If Sinhala Buddhists are the supreme race then what about Sinhala Catholics? Sinhala Christians? Muslims and Hindus? What is this anti-conversion bill? Who is it for? Is it anti-conversion bill or anti-Catholic bill? For us it is a doubled faced bill which indirectly attacks Catholics in the house and directly attacks through media, especially electronic media and also through protest campaigns organised by some Buddhist monks. According to the Buddhists' point of view, the poor Buddhists especially in rural areas are being converted after luring them with financial aid. If this is taking place to the extent they harp on, our arguement is this. What good do they do by endlessly preaching `bana' throughout the day? If those Buddhists are strong believers can they be misled? Is it like giving candies to the babies? We catholics make an open invitation to prove with evidence whether the Catholics or the Catholic Church have lured or baited any non-Catholic and unethically converted any one?. If the poor Buddhists are in favour of NGOs who play the role of their saviour and follow them, who is held responsible? Is it the NGOs or the deaf, dumb and blind political and religious leaders of the country? If NGOs are the major threat to Buddhism and the Buddhists, why aren't such NGOs prevented from coming to Sri Lanka? Isn't it like organising awareness programmes and protest campaigns about cigarettes without banning the Tobacco Companies in the island? What is the use of preaching `bana' when the followers are starving? Their poverty, unemployment problems and malnutrition should be met with. As long as these grave issues remain unsolved they go with the begging bowl. Is it the privilege of the Buddhist majority in Parliament to have their fill when their poor voters especially in rural areas are crying for their daily bread? Why don't they pass a bill on that? Converting someone by force is humorous. It's like forcing someone to vote for somebody. The voter can be threatened or forced even by showing bombs and voter may say yes, yet what guarantee could anyone give that the voter cast his vote for whom. It is only known by the voter himself. He may have been influenced or bribed but he can vote for anyone whom he prefers. According to this new crazy bill culture one day another set of politicians will make an attempt to pass a bill on that as well. Most of the so-called fundamentalists are ex-catholics and they have been a great threat to Christianity and especially to the Catholic church. The Catholic church would have supported the bill if it is to stop such opportunists but this biased bill is not for such a worthy cause but to condemn and criticise Catholics. If this bill is passed and implemented in the country there will definitely be a religious war. There will be one religion but a separated country. It may be the dream of the religious and political leaders who are behind this absurd bill. Many of them day dream hoping to convert Dharmadveepa to Dharmarajya which will be under tyrant extremists. As those blood thirsty patriots paved the way for ethnic conflict in 1983, the present patriots with an inferiority complex urge for a religious war. Let's stop this joke. Let's be far sighted. Instead of fighting for supremacy of religions, we all should fight against poverty, hunger, terrorism, youth unrest etc. If these demands are met then only can we enjoy the bliss of Dharmarajya. Ajith Perera |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Religion is a belief which is conceived in the conscience or in the
soul of man. No one can bring pressure on the freedom of belief or
thought. It is wrong and unethical to interfere in another's affairs and
belief. It is a violation of human rights.
What did the Sinhala only bill do in 1956? What did the introduction of
Sinhala medium do? We still pay for their sins. We have enough experiences
yet we as a foolish nation never learn from the past experiences.
