Are political ordinations on the way?

A tree ‘ordination’ ceremony this week marked a religious move to protect an endangered tree. The Sri Lankan tree Crudia Zeylanica or ‘Pandu Karanda’ was ‘ordained’ by members of the National Bhikkhu Front, to protect it from being destroyed by an expressway construction in the Gampaha area. It was draped in a yellow robe and the necessary ritual chanting done to save it as a member of the ‘Vruksha-Latha Sangha’, the new Nikaya of the Sangha.

While such devotion and dedication to save a rare tree, threatened to destruction by those committed to roadway constructions, with little regard for nature and the environment, is certainly commendable; one hopes this religious move is extended to prevent the vast destruction of trees in forests, national parks and urban parks, too.

This must be the time to think of formulating a wider ordination drive to save our trees, by having large numbers of ‘Vruksha-Latha Samaneras’, whose presence could help curb the current destruction of the wild and nature. The presence of a Vruksha-Latha Adhikaranaya, with a religio-judicial commitment, could help to bring some control on the current Saubhagya Drive for a desert spread in Sri Lanka.

There could be such thinking that may be helpful to save the elephants that are hugely endangered with the Alimankada terrains being blocked and destroyed, by human village settlements, often non-functioning electric fences, or illegal fences made by encroachers into the elephant pathways in the forests. Will the offering of children from these affected villages to the Maha Sangha move towards a faster and better protection of nature, or could it be the emergence of ‘Hasthi Raja Samaneras’?

Amidst such religious thinking that has certainly captured our minds, there is also the news of the new Burial Strategy of the Rajavasala, declared by Mahinda Rajapaksa himself. The government parliamentary group has been told this is the thinking of both Gotabaya and Mahinda, and should be the new reality of dealing with Covid-19 deceased. It certainly took a long time for the Rajavasala to come to this burial conclusion. There must have been much consideration of the supposed danger of the Covid virus moving through the underground waterways.

What is necessary to keep in mind is that this new dedication to Covid Burials has nothing to do with the UNHRC Commissioner Michelle Bachelet or the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. Comm. Bachelet will try to have her day when the UNHRC meets soon in Geneva, and PM Imran Khan will be given the honour of addressing our Parliament. It must be sheer coincidence that the Covid Burial issue was a subject of the UNHRC report on Sri Lanka, and Imran Khan’s thought of thanking Sri Lanka for the burial move.

Our government has rejected the UNHRC report on Sri Lanka, especially on issues of responsibility, accountability and the allegations of Human Rights violations during the war with the separatist-terrorist LTTE; so accepted by the international community. What certainly bothers those in power, and their supporters, is that a two-thirds majority in our Parliament, made largely possible by Muslim crossover MPs, has no impact on the Western and backward thinking countries in the UN, who are taking Sri Lanka to task on their western judicial concepts, with no understanding of our history and the reign of Sinhala power in this Pearl of the Indian Ocean.

The problem here may also lie with our being located in the Indian Ocean. Should there be a move by our rationalist and other activists to change the name of this ocean to a ‘SiriLaka Sagaraya’ or the Sri Lankan Ocean, with our central location and the pathway of all major sea routes in this region.

India is certainly moving with the US, and its other regional allies, and has shown us how demanding it could be on the return of US$ 400 million. Surely, this is not how a land that sent us the founders of the Sinhala race, led by Vijaya, and also sent us Buddhism through Arahat Mahinda, should treat its closest neighbour across an ocean pathway.

Isn’t it time we thought of other alignments in global affairs, instead of being tied down by Indian dominance, although we also share much of the BJP and Modi thinking of the treating of minorities, and the actual goals of “Saubhagyaye Dekma” or Vision of Prosperity.

The movement for a Vision of Prosperity has some rumblings today, with the Wimal Weerawansa talk of Podujana leadership. Wimal and his Team of Ten are certainly showing a great commitment to the Gotabaya Saubhagyaya; bringing worries to those who remain tied to the Mahinda Dekma and the Hambantota Rajakama.

The Maha Sangha that is certainly divided in this new Weerawansa Task of Podujana and Pohottu leadership, may even have to do some determined religious rituals, chantings and preaching, to preserve an unshaken Rajavasala. Will we see the emergence of a new Pohottuva Nikaya, with a special role for the Political Ritualists, with no need for a Weerawansa Fast, which may not bring Mahinda’s orange juice to break a political calamity at the Rajavasala?