Probing probable homicides

This feline’s cat-fur (hair) stood on end and her whiskers (lips actually) quivered with distrust and indignation when she read the headline: ‘Dhammaloka Thera alleges foul play in Ven. Sobhitha’s death: ready to give evidence before a special commission’ on Tuesday, March 22 followed the next day by the headline: ‘Prez, PM urged to probe Ven. Sobhitha Thera’s demise: Prelate’s successor warns govt of dire consequences unless impartial probe is held’.

Two spokespersons

Everyone knows who Ven. Dhammaloka Thera is - the fair and lovely bhikkhu excellent in preaching but having somewhat gone into (or sent to) semi-retirement and hardly seen and heard until suddenly he is bang in the limelight, this time shady, hauled by the police and courts for harbouring an unlicensed elephant. He said it had been left in his temple premises. A bhikkhu at a bana preaching which Menika listened to last Poya day, was sarcastic about this excuse. He said only dogs are left in his temple premises or at the doorstep imputing that while some have all the luck, receiving elephants no less, gratis, he doesn’t.

Unsaid but accepted that he is honest, conducts temple business according to the Vinaya rules and laws of the country. A tidbit whispered about and now broadcast by a person who wrote electronically about the venerable bhikkhu is that he, Ven. Dhammaloka Thera, orders special robes – designer stuff in common parlance.

They are imported I believe and redyed in a particular brown colour that he favours so it distinguishes him from the brown, orange and saffron of the run-of-the-mill bhikkhus.

The other who has raised this hornet’s nest, sure to rabble rouse and cause trouble to the government, is Prof Sarath Wijesooriya of the Sinhala Department of the University of Colombo, who is the new leader of the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ).

We greatly admired Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera and the movement he pioneered since he was very much instrumental in the change we had in government.Why did this feline bristle like a cat which sees a mouse or an enemy of a dog when she read the headlines quoted above? Because she felt that this was another problem forced on the Prez and PM while they are solving many and having to face more. Also to her way of thinking: counter-productive.

The bhikkhu is dead and gone; his memory is treasured; why drag his name into controversy almost a year after his demise?

What took the bhikkhu other bhikkhus who were with him when he made his announcement, so long to suspect Ven. Sobhitha did not die a natural death? There are stones best left unturned this cat makes bold to declare, and this is one such.

The country has major crises to face and overcome: the economy; the threatened drought; power cuts; farmers with their grievances; the Jt Op becoming a karachchal.

Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera, the national-minded patriot who put country before himself; who dared to speak out, even though he himself proclaimed privately that his life was in imminent danger and he could very well be summarily done away with, killed he meant, would never condone the proclamations made by the bhikkhus. That is for sure. He did not want to create trouble; he would certainly not want to overburden the already heavily burdened Prez and PM.

The new leader of the NMJS makes it clear that what he said as reported in a newspaper on Wednesday, March 23, was solely due to the fact that Ven. Dhammaloka Thera’s statement calls for the appointment of a commission. This cat was keen to know what his threat of ‘dire consequences’ entailed. He makes no elaboration. Maybe it will be a protest march, blocking a major highway and inviting being tear-gassed and water spiked heavily! Does his ‘dire consequences’ connote island-wide unrest?

Then surely he must rest his case; we just cannot have more problems on the national horizon. Our people, particularly Sinhala Buddhists, Menika makes bold to proclaim, are like sun and wind dried shrubs and trees waiting to catch fire, like in Sydney and more recently in the hills of Hatton.

People have questioned why Ven. Dhammaloka Thera who kept suspicions over Ven Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera’s death undisclosed and within himself, now proclaims for all to hear that he suspects murder most foul and is ready with evidence.

This comes only after incarceration in remand over a baby elephant that strolled into his temple premises and opted to stay put and he fed and mahouted only through Metta and Karuna. In the same breath as it were, Menika thinks of another controversial death, that of a young man in the full bloom of sporting and exuberant youth being made to apparently crash his car and set himself on fire to eradicate his presence. Evidence of any prior messing with him had to be obliterated. But it wasn’t. Hidden cameras and cell phone conversations intruded to show there was no accident but deliberate murder. Now this is a case where investigations must go full pelt as they say. A young man killed for apparently no reason but as whispered along the gossip line, only because of others’ hubris and political power.

If you place alongside the two personalities whose deaths are being talked about: one having a bhikkhu calling for a probing commission and one crying out for justice to be meted and seemingly justice being delayed, the consensual vote will surely be for the former to be allowed to be in peace and reborn in a life that would draw the person closer to Nibbana. The younger dead person calls for a full investigation and punishment to perpetrators. The former was unwell and underwent heart surgery. Maybe unfortunate decisions were taken, but he was ill and advanced in years too. Very different to the ruggerite – young, vibrant and apparently a fine young man.

We trust the Prime Minister will very succinctly say there are much more important national concerns needing his and the President’s attention. Menika sadly is not sure what the President’s reaction will be to the call for a Commission to be set up to probe Ven Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera’s death. Remember the hue and cry and accusation of murder when Ven. Soma Thera passed away after braving a trip to freezing Russia while suffering a heart complaint to receive some honour. The subsequent enquiry, instigated by Buddhist laymen, pronounced that his was a natural death.

Post script: Prof Sarath Wijesooriya and Saman Ratnayake announced in a newspaper on Thursday, March 24: ‘Ven Sobitha’s death: NMSJ says ‘conspiracy’ a canard’. So the NMSJ has done a 180 degree turn. Good!

- Menika