Sun 07 July 2019:
KANDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s most powerful Buddhist nationalist group rallied its hardline base on Sunday, saying they must aim to take democratic control of parliament to protect the community, amid heightened sectarian strains after the Easter attacks by Islamist bombers. The influential chief of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, addressing hundreds of monks and followers in Kandy, called on Sri Lanka’s 10,000 Buddhist temples to help win votes for candidates from the Sinhala Buddhist majority. “We the clergies should aim to create a Sinhala government. We will create a parliament that will be accountable for the country, a parliament that will protect Sinhalese,” said Gnanasara.
He also said the politicians should leave the fight against Islamist extremism to the monks. “We can talk to them face to face in villages and create the Muslim culture as we want without going for extremism. It’s our responsibility because this is a Sinhalese country. We are the historical owners of this country,” he said. Sri Lanka has had a history of ethnic and religious violence and was torn for decades by a civil war between separatists from the mostly Hindu Tamil minority and the Sinhala Buddhist-dominated government. The war ended in 2009.
Kandy was rocked by violence last year when mobs vandalized a mosque, homes and businesses. “The government is not doing enough for our security and safety,” said 42-year-old Mohammed Rilwa, a Muslim businessman in Kandy late on Saturday. He owns the Fancy Point general store that remained closed on Sunday. “They see all of us the same way … just because we are Muslims and we have Muslim names,” he said, adding that he has lost 75 percent of his business since the attacks and worries for the safety of his wife and three children.
WIN WITH ROBES
A traditional Sri Lankan music band welcomed the senior monks including Gnanasara earlier on Sunday, and they were flanked by people taking photos and videos as they walked from the entrance to the center of the stadium. Hundreds of monks, mostly dressed in robes in shades of orange, brown and maroon, sat in covered tents set up across a large stage while devotees took the stadium seats. The gathering comes ahead of presidential polls set for either November or December in which President Maithripala Sirisena, former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe could be possible candidates.
Gnanasara had called for as many as 10,000 clergymen from across the country to attend the meeting, but only about 1,000 monks were seen at the rally where supporters, mostly dressed in white, turned out in much larger numbers. Apparently undaunted, he delivered a speech that lasted more than 90 minutes, drawing applause each time he talked about putting the Sinhalese back in control. He said that if the monks could get the support of even 7,000 temples in Sri Lanka for one political front during the elections, and each temple can garner 10,000 votes for that front, there could be a Sinhala government.
