Sri Lanka Is Disappearing From World Fellowship of Buddhists’ Memory

By Dr Kalinga Seneviratne

The World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB), which was founded by Dr G.P Malalasekare and was originally headquartered in Colombo, celebrated its 75^th anniversary with a general conference in Bangkok earlier this month, attended by about 500 Buddhists from across Asia and some from the West. But, disturbingly, the memory of Dr Malalasekare and even that of Sri Lanka, is being systematically wiped out, projecting the WFB as a Thai organization led by Thais.

This has happened because of inactivity by Sri Lankans within the WFB for over a decade, and also a desire by the Thais to project the organization as a Thai-led global Buddhist fellowship project. At the opening session of the conference an AI-generated glossy video presented the history of the WFB that only had a passing reference to Sri Lanka as where it originated, but no mention of its founder Dr Malalasekare. The video gave focus to the adoption of the 6-colour Buddhist flag as a global icon of Buddhism. It would have been a decent thing to do to pay some homage to Dr Malalasekare for his untiring efforts to make it so.

At a formal session of the general conference, when the Vice Presidents of WFB were given the floor to speak, Japanese, Korean and Chinese spoke, but Sri Lanka was missing. This reflects a monumental failure of Sri Lanka, in the past decade, to give itself a voice within WFB, and assertively resist attempts to marginalize its role within the organization. Just getting your name into a standing committee and taking a “trophy” picture with the president at the end of the conference is not the way to go.

An article transmitted by the Malaysia-based Buddhist Channel, a few days before the WFB conference, gave a scathing account of the rot that has set in at the WFB. “A shadow has fallen over our shared ‘World Buddhist’ spiritual home,” the article noted. “For some time now, whispers and then shouts have echoed through our global community, pointing to a deep-seated malaise within the very organization entrusted with nurturing the Buddha’s teachings.”

“Allegations of corruption, financial opacity, favouritism, and a profound inactivity in the face of our mission are no longer deniable,” the article went on to explain the malaise, pointing out that the organization is now shunned by both the Thai Royalty and the Government. They asked: “How do we, as followers of the Buddha, address such profound failure?”

After failing to secure the presence of a member of the Royal family to grace the opening of the 75^th anniversary conference, an official of the cultural ministry delivered a short message from the Palace. This year, there was no message from the President of Sri Lanka, as traditionally done to acknowledge WFB’s origins.

Dissatisfied with the organization and its lack of transparency, many long-time members of the WFB did not turn up at the anniversary meeting. But, many others within the organization, who are concerned, including some members of the executive committee, have formed a “transformational committee” led by a Nepali, Mr Padma Jyoti in March. He presented to the conference a “strategic framework for transforming WFB”.

The framework advocates engaging the existing members more actively and attracting young members to WFB by leveraging digital platforms for content generation, outreach, and building a closely-knit fellowship. It has also called for a more professional secretariat, and setting up information dissemination networks among members via the secretariat. These are some of the main recommendations among many that addressed the lack of transparency, financial accountability, and space for members to discuss issues.

 “As pressures grow across South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist communities face increasingly political challenges, while climate change is becoming an existential threat, especially for largely agrarian populations now exposed to deeper poverty, predatory micro-credit, and aid-driven evangelical conversion. In its current state, the WFB is not equipped to respond,” argues Mr Thusitha Perera, ACBC (All Ceylon Buddhist Congress) representative to the WFB conference.

The World Buddhist University (WBU) is the affiliate body of the WFB that should tackle these issues as a Buddhist think tank. But, it is defunct at the moment, since the departure of its rector about a year ago over a dispute with the president about financial accountability issues.

I was involved with its former director of research Dr Tavivat Puntarigvivat in 2018 where I researched the issue (Mr Perera pinpointed) in Sri Lanka and published a book title “The Scourge of Poverty and Proselytism”. We had planned to do follow up reports on Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. But, after Dr Tavivat left WBU over a dispute with the President, the research unit collapsed and no funds were available for such research.

The WFB secretariat, located in a prime real estate in the center of the city in Bangkok, is a White Elephant. It has two good auditoriums, a meeting room, a museum and a library, all gathering dust. They hardly organize activities there. The WFB constitution doesn’t have proper guidelines on how to manage and protect this asset.

At the general conferences, members hardly get an opportunity to speak and air their views. But, this time, space was given, but at the very last session of the conference. That was after both the Malalasekare Foundation (MF) and ACBC wrote to the secretary general before the conference, and pointing out a constitutional clause, we demanded the five-minute speaking slots allocated there as a right and not a privilege. I spoke on behalf of MF and Dr Palitha Kohona spoke from ACBC. Such voices of Sri Lankans from the podium were lacking in previous WFB meetings.

In my presentation, I emphasized that the WFB is an international NGO and does not belong to any one country, and that the President and the Secretary General need not be Thai. I also pointed out, that there is no need for a physical headquarters building these days for an international body like this in the Cyberspace age, where meetings could be conducted via platforms like Zoom. But, periodical physical conferences like this are important for fellowship.

ACBC nominated Dr Khona to a Vice President post to liaise with the UN system, and MF supported the nomination. The secretary general informed us before the conference that 6 vice presidents’ posts will be up for election, but at the conference they said the current VP’s term will end only at the next general conference in 2 years. Instead, elections were held for 8 positions for the executive council, but it lacked transparency, and no independent scrutineers were present at the counting. Thus, no Sri Lankan was able to get elected. It is doubtful if all the Sri Lankan delegates voted for their own.

There are a number of Standing Committees (SC) at WFB where there are some Sri Lankan representations. But, these SCs are a joke. They appear and disappear between general conferences after the photo opportunities are over. Hardly anything worthwhile is done in between. The transformational committee has recommended a streamlined system to bring them into the mainstream of WFB work.

There are serious issues regarding transparency, with the WFB being run like someone’s private company. “The budget presented was not available for detailed discussion. It needs to be circulated in advance, so that it can be carefully studied by members,” notes Dr Kohona.

The budget was presented as a slide projected to the screen during a plenary session, and it was for 2022-2023. The ACBC questioned an allocation of 1 million baht for Sri Lanka in the budget, and no clear explanation was given.

“Management needs to be more transparent,” argues Dr Kohona. “Too many things are decided and done privately without the involvement of the members”.

This is exactly the concern of many dissatisfied members, and  even a number of office bearers of WFB, I privately spoke to. But, many feel that it is not Buddhist to confront. However, the Buddha has encouraged questioning, if you are not sure, as he prescribed in the Kalama Sutra. So, when transparency issues are there, should Buddhists be quiet?

 *  Dr Kalinga Seneviratne is the international affairs consultant to the Malalasekare Foundation and a Research Fellow at Shinawatra University in Bangkok.