Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero (1942-2015):

The Monk Who Ended Sri Lankas

Decade of Darkness

Image courtesy Omlanka

by Nalaka Gunawardene on 11/08/2015

For someone who never belonged to any political party in Sri

Lanka,Maduluwawe Sobitha thero (1942 2015) led an extraordinarily
political life.
The fearless and politically engaged Buddhist monk stood up to every
Lankan head of state beginning with President J R Jayewardene (in office:
1977-1988). He never hesitated or minced his words when he sensed that
elected leaders were overstepping their mandate
For over four decades, Sobitha used his powerful oratorical and
organisational skills to mobilise people into peaceful political resistance. He

won some battles and lost others, but never stopped fighting for peoples
rights. With every struggle, he became more resolute and resourceful.
At certain times, this monk was more formidable and also more feared by
rulers than the divided and endlessly bickering opposition political parties
of Sri Lanka.
That certainly was the case in 2014, when he mounted a daring challenge
to the increasingly despotic and nepotistic regime of President Mahinda
Rajapaksa. It was Sobithas recently-formed National Movement for a Just
Society (NMJS) that slowly but surely succeeded in unifying the divided
opposition and other dispirited groups like trade unionists, artistes and
professionals to call for a regime change.
This time last year, that prospect still looked far-fetched. We had no idea
that Sri Lankas Decade of Darkness (that began in 2005) was nearing its
end
It was the apolitical Sobitha who acted as Sri Lankas de facto Opposition
Leader to pull us back from that brink. And it was an unorthodox Sobitha
mere head of a suburban temple who stood taller and larger than any of
the Maha Nayakas (chief prelates) in defending democracy and freedoms.
Buddhist ayatollah?
In fact, there was wide speculation for much of 2014 that Sobitha himself
might run for the presidency against the incumbent. Some even worried
whether that could create a Buddhist ayatollah.
In hindsight, all that was very likely a red herring created by Sobitha
himself, as he worked hard behind the scenes in search of a candidate and

a credible alliance that could challenge Rajapaksa.

For months, Sobithas temple the Naga Vihara in Pita Kotte in my larger
neighbourhood was under constant surveillance by state intelligence
anxious to keep track of its many and varied visitors. (It wasnt the temples
first such experience either: a quarter century earlier, an equally
insecurePresident Premadasa also had the place surrounded by police and
intelligence officers to figure out what a political storm this saffron-robed
trouble-maker was cooking up.)
In the event, all the kings spies were brilliantly distracted by Sobitha: the
unlikely Maithripala Sirisena was declared the Common Opposition
Candidate on 21 November 2014.
The rest, as we know, is history.
The resolute yet peaceful regime change on January 8 wouldnt have
happened without Sobithas tenacity and sagacity. By this time, he had
evolved beyond his own ethnic and religious identities to pan-Lankan social
leader.
True, former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and groups
like Jatika Hela Urumaya (JHU) shared the burden and risks (as detailed in
Asoka Abeygunawardanas interesting albeit biased history of the
campaign,Revolution of the Era, March 2015). But Maduluwawe Sobitha was
the principal alliance builder and strategist, and importantly, the one with
theleast degree of personal political ambition that characterized most
others in that uncommon alliance.
For that very reason, it was much easier for Sobitha to distance himself
from the Maithri government at the first sign of it straying off the yaha-

palana(good governance) path. He didnt exactly break rank, but started

expressing concerns as early as March.
Precisely because he did not personally accept any public office or benefit
in any other way, Sobitha remained credible while many of his yahapalanafellow travelers became hopelessly compromised.
He has now departed just when the newly elected Lankan government has
encountered the worst turbulence to date as it navigates through
treacherous seas of corruption and conflict of interest. How we wish Sobitha
was around, to tell the latest custodians of our state in forceful terms not
to play games with the peoples mandate
Saffron Defiance
Sobitha was not always right, and some of his early political campaigns now
seem a bit nave and misplaced. For example, with many other Buddhist
monks he opposed the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987 that led to the 13th
Constitutional Amendment for greater devolution of power.
My friend and senior journalist Dharman Wickremaratne, a long-time
associate of the monk, recalls how Sobitha had led a massive protest
against the Accord and was arrested on 1 August 1987. When a police
superintendent and constables came to the Kotte Naga Vihara to take
Sobitha into custody, nearly a thousand people converged to block it.
But Sobitha gave himself in, saying he was prepared to meet any
challenge for the sake of the peoples struggle. He spent nearly a month in
police custody. That was not the last time he defied authority.

It was an image of Sobitha of that era that famously adorned the cover of
the Harvard social anthropologist Stanley J Tambiahs book Buddhism
Betrayed? Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka (Chicago University
Press, 1992). It stirred much controversy in the media and in Parliament for
months eventually leading to the books banning in Sri Lanka and Tambiah
being demonized as a Christian Tamil.

If a younger Sobitha epitomized the early days of militant Buddhism, he

soon moved to a much more moderate ground. His strength during the last
two decades was rooted, in fact, in his ability to forge political alliances
across ethnic and religious groups who call Sri Lanka their home. In other

words, he started with saffron and ended with a rainbow. (I wonder what he
thought of extremist groups like Bodu Bala Sena, BBS, who simply used the
saffron ticket to divisive politics.)
I am not sure of Sobitha publishing his memoirs perhaps it exists in many
pieces of scribbling generated during an exceedingly busy public life. Taking
stock of the life and times of Maduluwawe Sobitha could help us understand
the challenges of mobilizing our society for political rights and freedoms.
Science writer Nalaka Gunawardene is an occasional chronicler of Sri
Lankas topsy-turvy times. He writes a weekly column in Ravaya newspaper
surveys the interface of science, society and media.
Posted by Thavam