Using the clergy as cover won’t fool people

Recent events show that the much-promised “system change” has yet to take root. Attempts by sections of the clergy to publicly defend the government — arguing that there was no prior warning of an impending storm — ring hollow, when even a child could sense the change in weather through the chill, thunder, wind, and rain. Such defences only revive a familiar pattern where authority seeks moral cover by drawing the clergy into political justification, a tactic that has repeatedly failed to deceive the public. As the Kalama Sutta reminds us, the Buddha urged people not to accept claims merely because they come from authority, tradition, or the learned, but to examine, analyse, and judge by outcomes and what leads to the common good. Encouragingly, the electorate’s repeated readiness to change governments suggests that this spirit of independent inquiry is alive — perhaps better understood in practice by the people than by those who invoke authority to excuse failure.

Upali Weerasinghe