End of year 2003 happened to be a mourning year-end to Sri Lankan Buddhists. They mourned the passing away of Soma Thero for two weeks and even after that. The Christmas and the New Year had to be celebrated with yellow flags. Rising of Sinhala Buddhists happened such a way, which has rarely happened in history. In my lifetime it was for the first time. Anti-Soma Thero gangs had to shut their mouths and tight their hands to each other.

When I say Anti-Soma Thero, it doesn’t mean only non-Buddhists. There had been lots of labeled Buddhists people who hated Soma Thero. There had been lots of people who criticized the sermons of Soma Thero. But all of them had to keep quiet, and more over most of them were highly involved with these decorations.

The funniest thing I saw during those days was one of the leading TV Stations was involved in a big project of washing up their old sin. They were trying hard to get the credit by making others to say “this TV Station is doing a great job at this moment”. All of them have forgotten what they did to Soma Thero when he talked about the incidents at Ampara. They had forgotten Soma Thero till Thero passed away and after the death they started talking again, like they were awaken from a deep sleep. However it is the culture of media in this country.

Now it has passed enough time for a typical Sinhala person to forget all those things. But surprisingly the warmth is still there. It is again for the first time in my lifetime, I am seeing people remembering this kind of thing for sometime.

Some people did not care much about Soma Thero when he was alive. They tend to criticize him. But after Thero passed away most of them understood the value of Soma Thero. They saw that a hole is created, which can hardly be closed. However nothing has revealed so far. So no one can be directly accused. But our instincts say that Thero has been murdered, as a result of a master plan. What really happened is yet to be revealed. The day truth is getting revealed, may be a day which is not written in future.

There is something we have to realize from this tragedy. Our country is in great danger. If Soma Thero has been murdered, it is not only a blast to the Buddhist people in Sri Lanka. It means that there are powerful foreign organizations above us and watching at us. It means that we are not free to promote our things to the world. It means that the leading monks in this country are in danger. This is not just a death of a monk. It is an indication of the power, which these suspected organizations have.

What people in this country needs is the unity. Unity will provide the strength to face these forces. By the silence of these fundamentalist sects during and after the passing away of Thero, it is proven that they are discouraged by sudden strength of people. It was proven that this unity exists somewhere in the bodies of Sinhala Buddhist people. It was proven that the power of unity is enough to face these forces. All what we need is to keep it. Keep it up till we die.

Sha