byFREDERICA JANSZ
PHOTO/Thusitha Kumara
Governments are not elected to dictate religious doctrine to its people. We elect our legislators to run the state. We elect legislators to make the decisions we cannot.
They are expected to make laws, play a crucial role in the country’s political and social system, helping to articulate group aims, nurture political leadership, develop and promote policy alternatives, and contribute towards efficient government.
What they are not expected to do is to propagate and literally shove down everybody’s throats, religious doctrine. The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is doing just that with an intensity which is not only overbearing but plain dogmatic and stupid.
By a very large margin, more people have been killed by fundamentalist governments than by any other. Politicians in this country, in the name of compassion and pluralism, are now shoving religion, politics and morality down the throats of Sri Lankans both here and abroad, in ways that would have shocked any of the contenders of the 18th century.
Last week, a programme was initiated to hand over Samadhi Buddha Statues to Sri Lankan foreign missions to mark the Sri Sambuddhathva Jayanthi. The Buddha statues were escorted in a vehicular procession from the ancient Matara Bodhiya to the Independence Square in Colombo amidst pirith chanting by the Maha Sangha. The programme was a joint effort by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Presidential Secretariat.
The Buddha statues are to be placed in Sri Lankan foreign missions. It is being implemented under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s guidance with Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister Dilan Perera in charge of the proceedings.
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