Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera:

He had the courage to stand against injustice

We are saddened by the demise of the Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, the Chief Incumbent of the Kotte Naga Maha Vihara. He contributed immensely as the Convenor and Chairperson of the National Movement for a Just Society in Sri Lanka. As far as I know, the Venerable Thera was one of those rare bhikkhus in Sri Lanka’s post-independence history, who had the courage to stand up against the injustice of the powerful.

At the end of the 1970s, when I was a member of the JVP, I had the opportunity to meet the Venerable Thera to discuss the prevailing situation in the country. He was clearly above party politics, but willing to work to achieve fair and just solutions to the problems of the people. While in exile, I visited Sri Lanka in early 2000, and met him again at the Kotte Naga Viharaya. One of the important points of our discussion was regarding the necessity to develop a political solution to the national question in Sri Lanka, which would be acceptable to all stakeholders involved.

Even at the height of the armed conflict, while he was supporting the war of the state against the LTTE, he was not against working out a fair and just solution to the problems and grievances of the Tamil people.

In discussing the issue, the thera expressed the view that political parties in Sri Lanka work mostly for narrow gains and their own selfish interests, rather than for the needs of the country and its people as a whole.

His view was to set up a council of the country’s intelligentsia which reflect the diversity that exists in the island, to study all aspects of the national question and develop and recommend a political solution appropriate to the country and its people. Later the recommendations can be subjected to discussion at the political and executive level to gain wide support. He emphasised the need for a clean policy based politics, rather than working on an opportunistic political agenda.

He played a leadership role in the movement to defeat the corrupt and criminal political culture that prevailed by electing a new president in January 2015, and a new government in August 2015. He emphasised the need to fulfil the pledges that were made to the people during the two elections. He said if these commitments were not fulfilled, it will be disastrous.

He requested civil society to be active and take steps to ensure an end to the Executive Presidency; to change the electoral system, to investigate allegations of bribery or corruption and to punish the perpetrators.

He did not want corrupt individuals or candidates incapable of serving the people to be elected to Parliament. He appealed to all political parties to nominate only suitable candidates and requested the people to vote only for suitable candidates.

The greatest honour we can bestow on Ven Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera is to fulfil what he envisaged for good governance in Sri Lanka and address the problems of the people.

He was a boundless inspiration to all those in the forefront in the struggle to defeat autocracy, family bandyism, nepotism, bribery and corruption.

The active role he played courageously and fearlessly to restore human rights and freedom of the people of Sri Lanka needs to be carried out into the future.

Lionel Bopage,
Melbourne, Australia

He was a noble prelate

It is with profound sorrow that we learnt about the demise of Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera. Chief Incumbent of the Naga Viharaya, Pita Kotte and the Chairperson of the National Movement for a Just Society. We join the Sri Lankan nation in mourning the loss of this great prelate, who had warm relations with my country. From 1980 to 1990 Ven. Sobitha Thera was the President of the Kotte branch of the Sri Lanka-Soviet Friendship League and from 1983 to 1990 he also was President of the Sri Lanka Buddhist Priest Association for Peace & Friendship among nations (commonly known as the Buddhist Priest Association of Sri Lanka-Soviet Friendship).

Ven.Sobitha Thera visited Russia on several occasions for this purpose. In 1983, he was a head of delegation visiting Moscow. Tashkent, Samarkand and Buryath. In 1987, he participated in the 30th anniversary celebration of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and Russia. Being a multi-cultural and multi-religious country, Russia is home to numerous Buddhist communities widespread in the Republic of Kalmykia, Republic of Buryatia and the Republic of Tyva.

Our Defence Minister S. Shoigu comes from Tyva and belongs to this community. There is a great appreciation and respect for Buddhism and for Bhikkhus in Russia, so the demise of a bhikkhu active in promoting ties between the Buddhist communities of our two countries is a deep loss indeed.

Venerable Sobitha Thera was a noble prelate fighting for higher causes of welfare, ethics, good and happiness of all men and women.

Let us pay the highest tribute to him by ensuring his struggle for honesty, transparency and justice continues. May he obtain the eternal bliss of Nirvana.

My heartfelt condolences go to the family and friends of the Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera.

Alexander Karchava
Russian Ambassador in Sri Lanka

He has been a blessing to the country

It is with great sorrow that we learnt of the passing away of the Most Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera. It was a great privilege to have known the Ven. Thera and to work with him on common issues of national interest.

The Ven prelate has rendered a great service to the nation by his fearless leadership and the views he expressed, basing them on the teachings of Buddhism. Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha has indeed been a blessing to our country.

We also deeply appreciate the contribution the Ven. Thera made towards fostering inter-religious harmony in the country.

We offer our condolences to the Maha Sangha as well as to all the Buddhist brethren in our country on this sad occasion.

His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith

President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Sri Lanka.

Rt.Rev.Dr. D. Valence Mendis

Secretary General,
Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Sri Lanka

The light and flame has gone

Popularly called Sobitha Thera, Ven Maduluwawe, is one person whom I always respected for his brave and historic role in bringing about a political change in the country, though the mood within months today is one of dissolution among the people.

One cannot say he died a contented person. Instead he may have been deeply disappointed as the performance of those whom he fought to bring to power to clean up the political system and administration are themselves being accused of inaction and protecting those accused of crime, corruption and plundering the nation’s wealth.

In the not so distant past, under former President Mahinda there was an atmosphere of fear in the country.

People were afraid to speak out due to the fear of being kidnapped, tortured and killed and what not.

It was under such a frightening atmosphere that Ven Sobitha Thera came out and spoke against crime, corruption and injustice of the ruthless government despite threats to his life.

In fact at the early stage his was the sole struggle against injustice, crime, corruption and mismanagement of the country.

His leadership was given a much-needed shot in the arm when President Maithripala Sirisena crossed over from the government and began his campaign for good governance which is in turmoil today.

The numerous controversies in the government, which Ven Sobitha helped to bring to power, certainly would have disappointed him as he had indicated through many of his statements and his silence during the past few months.

In him I found great human qualities to emulate.

In this corrupt, criminalized and communalized political and social environment, Ven Sobitha has been a ray of hope and a rare source of inspiration, irrespective of race and religion, to all those who cherish family, religious and cultural values and firmly believe and dream of a decent government, corruption free administration and a peaceful country where all could live in harmony. He left the scene and orphaned the country at a time when there is the need for not one but for hundreds of Ven Sobithas to uplift the country from the morass into which the two main political parties-UNP and the SLFP- brought with their short-sighted racist politics.

He was respected by the island’s Muslim community in view of his liberal policies genuinely representing the true teachings of the Buddha.

If history is written in its proper perspective, he will remain a legend in the hearts and minds of all those who long for a decent country where civilization could flourish. This is the reason I always compare Ven Sobitha to the role played by Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

Ayatollah guided the people to remove the American-Israeli backed oppressive Pahlavi Monarchy in Iran while here in Sri Lanka, Ven Sobitha Thero played the lead role to defeat the corrupt, autocratic Rajapaksa family regime.

With his death the light and flame have gone and the country is engulfed in darkness.

- Latheef Farook

Posthumous Citizens Peace Prize Award to Ven Maduluwawe Sobitha

The passing away of Ven Maduluwave Sobitha is a great loss to Sri Lanka. At a time when the space for political dissent had shrunk and the government increasingly authoritarian, ethno-nationalist and corrupt, Ven Sobitha took the challenge to speak out, stand up and give leadership to the population. He transcended the love of his community to embrace all ethnic and religious communities with the universal spirit of Buddhist religious teachings. He provided leadership to civil society in its quest for good governance and ethnic harmony.

Expressions of sorrow by members of all ethnic and religious communities and appreciation for what he did can be seen in all social media. His loss was felt even by prisoners taken in under the Prevention of Terrorism Act who sent a condolence message. This shows the remarkable work done by him for their release. The government which combines the two main political parties which have hitherto been rivals, is due in no small measure to his moral leadership. The National Peace Council (NPC)mourns his loss.

Prior to his untimely demise, the NPC decided to award the Citizens Peace Prize to Ven Sobitha.

This prize is awarded to Sri Lankans who demonstrate public commitment and have taken risks to uphold human rights, good governance and ethnic and religious harmony.

When representatives of the NPC met him to convey this decision, his initial response was that there were more deserving candidates. However, with some persuasion he agreed to accept it.

We agreed that on November 5, 2015 the award would be given. But this was postponed due to Ven Sobitha’s illness. We now intend to present this award posthumously to Ven Sobitha in the name of the civil movement for good governance which he led.

The most fitting tribute to him is to stand for the values he espoused and ensure that they are realized.