Source: Globe and Mail, England
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, February 1, 2002: As the world watches to see how Afghanistan recovers after being ruled by a fanatical Islam regime, Paul Knox of the Globe and Mail reveals a similar situation that may have been going on in Sri Lanka since 1983. Buddhism or rather some Buddhist leaders may have been influenced by the secular Sinhalese community to ignite conflict in the country by claiming their superiority over the minority Tamil community, states this report. Stanley Tambiah, a leading Sri Lankan anthropologist from Harvard University says, “Under its banner populist leaders mobilize masses who are losing their traditional roots and their traditional Buddhist moral restraints, and whip them into a heady collective identity and a fury of displaced and misplaced anger against the alien others.” After almost 20 years of war and the loss of 60,000 lives, the Sinhalese, who were once fiery about their ethnic and religious fervor, also want peace. As a result Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s proposal to ceasefire and start peace talks with the Tamil Tigers has been received well. He has received support from leading Buddhist leaders. Proposing that Tamils be given equal rights and the autonomy to have self-government in the areas where they are a majority, Wickremesinghe’s success can be attributed, this report surmises, to the fact that political Buddhism has waned.