Once the Sanga Sabhawa makes a decision to expel a monk that cannot be challenged in courts. There was a recent judgment delivered by Justice Ranaraja upholding the authority of the Sangha Sabhawa in Kehelwathugoda Chandanada Thera vs Sirimalwatte Ananda Thera. UNP parliamentarian Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe is a lawyer with extensive experience in temple litigation. He has authored a book on the subject and participated in drafting a new Buddhist temporalities law under the direction of the Ven. Mahanayakes of the three Nikayas. A few years ago, he made headlines by introducing a private member’s Bill in Parliament to ban bhikkus from contesting elections. In this interview with C. A. Chandraprema, Rajapakshe discusses the manner in which the behaviour of certain bhikkus is bringing disrepute upon the entire Buddhist dispensation and explains that the widely-held view that the Mahanayake Theras do not have the legal authority to control the monks under them is only a misconception. Q. Given the situation that has arisen today, one might say that you were almost prescient in bringing forward a private member’s Bill in Parliament to ban Bhikkus from holding elected office. When you first presented this Bill to the public, many may have agreed with it on principle, but it was not then regarded a matter of any urgency. Given the unbelievable events of the past two years, however, your Bill is more relevant today than it was at that time. What motivated you to call for a ban on bhikkus entering politics at that stage? A. Politicians should be able to foresee events. The Buddha has clearly prohibited monks from getting involved in politics and the advice given was that they should not have a close association with kings and princes. Monks, however, were allowed to give advice to kings at the request of the latter. In the 1940s the Vidyalankara Pirivena bhikkus wanted to get into politics but that was in a different situation when the country was still a colony. That was not due to a desire to wield political power but to win freedom from the colonial rule. You can’t compare what is happening today with the 1940s. In any case, that trend which began in the 1940s culminated in monks getting involved in power politics after Independence and monks like Mapitigama Buddharakkitha became very powerful. The 1956 election came up at an unexpected moment and the Opposition was not prepared. Buddharakkitha helped S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike financially. The end result of that involvement was that Bandaranaike paid for it with his life and the whole country ended up in political turmoil. For about 10-15 years all the monks in the country suffered due to the public reaction. Monks in the Vidyalankara Pirivena had to walk up to Negombo to obtain alms (pindapatha). Q. One may argue that in terms of the fundamental rights enshrined in our Constitution, a bhikku should also be entitled to contest elections, engage in politics and be an attorney-at-Law or get a driving licence. A. If you look at this from the point of view of Western jurisprudence, one can argue that everyone must have the equal right to contest elections and so on. But, our monks are not governed by Western jurisprudence. We have our own Buddhist jurisprudence. There are 227 disciplinary rules for monks. When a person is ordained as a monk, he has to request a senior monk to admit him into the Sasana and he gives up all rights and privileges available to laymen and pledges that he will concentrate only on one objective which is to attain Nibbana. If someone argues that he has to be judged by the norms of Western jurisprudence, then he can’t be a bhikku because the supreme law of the bhikku is the 227 disciplinary rules formulated by the Buddha. The very purpose of these rules was to take the bhikku out of the mundane world of the layman. We hear the argument in some quarters that bhikkus have to wield influence since this is a Sinhala Buddhist country. If monks are to be influential, there has to be unity. But when monks engage in politics, divisions are created and bhikku organisations become like rival trade unions. But if the community of monks stands together, they will become very powerful like in Thailand where monks are not involved in politics and they are not entitled even to vote because by casting a vote they become partial to one party or the other. Q. One of the reasons for the present state of affairs is that nobody seems to have authority over the monks. Senior monks lament that the Mahanaykes and the Sangha Sabhawas do not have the power to expel an errant bhikku from the Sasana. There was legislation drafted to confer power on the Mahanaykes to take disciplinary action against monks but this has not been passed in parliament as yet. A. That is really a misconception. This draft legislation they are referring to is the Kathikawath Panatha which was meant to give legislative recognition to the Kathikawathas (rules governing monks) of all the Nikayas. Some monks are of the view that the provisions in the Kathikawathas have to be given legislative sanction. But, in actual fact, the Kathikawathas are already lawful. A monk is first and foremost under the supervision of his tutor who has a right to remove a pupil from the Sasana. If the tutor is no longer among the living, that power is vested in the Sangha Sabhawa of the Nikaya. Once the Sanga Sabhawa makes a decision to expel a monk that cannot be challenged in courts. There is a recent judgment by Justice Ranaraja upholding the authority of the Sangha Sabhawa in Kehelwathugoda Chandanada Thera vs Sirimalwatte Ananda Thera. I, too, have appeared in many such cases. Recently one monk filed a case against the Asgiriya Chapter for expelling him, but we got the case dismissed. The power of the Sangha Sabhawa is supreme and no court can interfere. So, the impression that monks cannot be controlled is wrong. If the Mahanayake of the Nikaya expels a monk and informs the Buddhist Affairs Commissioner, the latter has to delete the name of that monk from the register and cancel his identity card. Q. Then why is it that even the Mahanayke Theras are under the impression that they need this Kathikawatha Act in order to be vested with the legal power to take action against errant monks? A. They have definitely been misled. To make something lawful, there need not be legislation in every instance. If the courts have interpreted things in a particular way, that is also the law. The judgments given in this regard are crystal clear. Any monk can be expelled! Q. What is your personal opinion of bhikku organisations like the Bodu Bala Sena, Ravana Balakaya and Sinhala Ravaya? A. The government and the Bodu Bala Sena are one and the same. I am a Member of Parliament and former minister of this government but can I do what they do? Can I barge into some meeting in the presence of the police and disrupt it without being arrested? Can even a government minister do that kind of thing? The damage they have done to Buddhism is immeasurable. It will take a couple of decades for us to restore things. Q. Two years ago, this government was unassailable. But, today, after a series of incidents precipitated by monks culminating in Aluthgama, the government is now shaky. The UNP is upbeat. These monks who spread ethnic discord have conveyed the impression of a government that has lost control of things. They may be a disgrace to Buddhism but they are the UNP’s ticket to power. Any comment? A. It is wrong to take political advantage of the situation. The UNP and I myself as an individual would like to have some decency in politics and therefore we don’t want any advantage out of it. Today, you see government ministers complaining about these monks to the Mahanaykes. When I brought that private members Bill to ban monks from contesting elections, all the Mahanayakes said that it was a good move. The Asgirya Mahanayake Thera at a large gathering in the presence of the President himself specifically said that bhikkus should be banned from engaging in politics. But when I introduced my Bill in parliament, President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the instigation of some monks summoned a UPFA group meeting and told them to vote against my Bill if it came up. All the UPFA parliamentarians agreed—including those who are now complaining to the Mahanayke Theras—about the conduct of certain monks!
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 04:40:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015