The wrath of Cyclone Nargis had brought tremendous pain, sufferings and lost to the people of Myanmar. While over here in our country, the Buddhist community are busy preparing to celebrate the Triple Sacred Day of Wesak on May 19, 2008.
During Wesak, many devotees will be visiting Buddhist temples and Dharma centres to join in the congregation for the most important occasion in the Buddhist calendar to have prayers, meditation and merit-making.
While doing all these good deeds, do remember those brothers and sisters whom had lost everything if not all due to the natural disaster that strikes Myanmar few days ago. If we still remembers the tsunami disaster in 2004, the recovery process for the victims will take a long time; economically, physically and pyschologically. Hence, the initiative to help the cyclone victims must be a long term plan.
It is usual for many aids agencies swamping in to help the victims as an immediate response after the disaster but when all the media hype and publicity drained out, these aid agencies will pull out leaving the victims to fend for themselves, without any post disaster recovery program to help them to claim back their normal life.
It is my fervent hope that some of the Buddhist centres in Malaysia will adopt certain temples or villages affected by the cyclone for at least 3 - 5 years to enable the villages/temples in Myanmar to stand on their own in the post disaster period.
In the spirit of Wesak, I like to proposed that Buddhist centres allocates certain percentage of their Wesak collection for the next three years to help these villages or temples in Myanmar.
Buddhist brethrens need to care for and support each other especially in times of need and challenges. If the Buddhists do not reach out, are we leaving it to others to reach out to the suffering victims?
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