Bodu Bala bogeyman bares bigotrys

evil breast again

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Phantoms raised from comatose state to dance once more

on Lankas grave
It was, probably, the shortest sathyakriya the assertion of truth
ever undertaken by any man in search of martyrdom. But when
injustice protests its innocence and demands its continuance in
the outer precincts of the Sri Dalada, its no wonder the flaky
timbre of resolve to wantonly assert the potency of truth soon
disintegrates and turns unto dust.

Last Sunday the Bodu Bala Sena tribal

chieftain jauntily strode into the Sri Dalada Maligawa to pay
worship to the sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha. Gnanasara Thera
who led his tribe was granted, after waiting an hour, a short
audience thereafter with the Chief Monk of the Malwatte Chapter
and then directed to meet the Anunayaka the Ven. Dr. Niyangoda
Vijithsiri Thera. After the audience was over he emerged from the
chamber to state that, henceforth I will not obey the laws of the
land and I will not recognise the jurisdiction of the courts.

He then proceeded to occupy a bench outside the premises of the

Sacred Dalada Maligawa and declared that he will stage a
sathyakriya against plans to arrest him. But it was apparent the
guardian monks of the Temple of the Tooth were not prepared to
let Gnanasaras sathyakriya stunt take place on the doorstep of
Lankas most hallowed temple. Two hours later the Anunayaka of
the Malwatte chapter emerged from his avasa to warn the rebel
monk the consequences that would follow if he did not give up his
sathyakriya and vacate the premises forthwith.

Not all enterprises begun with great pitch and moment succeed
when the pangs of hunger and the whip of authority stand poised
to beat down the barred doors of intransigence. And the renegade
monk who had dared to exploit and violate the sanctity of the Sri
Dalada with a supposed sathyakriya to further his own interests
and delay his day of judgment, meekly accepted the order and,
shuffling his robe in haste, made quick exit. He could not risk
being shown on national television launching a tirade of filth
towards the custodians of the nations most precious possession,
The Buddhas Tooth Relic. But when it came to letting loose his
lewd tongue on the guardians of the law, no such constraints
restrained him from giving full vent to his spleen in the choicest
words the Sinhala vocabulary possess in abundance.

Last Friday while returning to Colombo, the police tried to arrest

him at a petrol station where the Bodu Bala cortege had stopped
to refuel their vehicles. With raised fist and a filth outburst, he
defied the police to arrest him, backed as he was by his supporter
mob. Speaking in a lingo, unbecoming of a monk, he told them, I
told you I will surrender on Monday, why are you doing this cheap
thing now? Is this the example you wish to set for this country?
Rich, isnt it, coming from him, compared to the odious example
he, an ordained monk representing the Noble Order of Bhikkhus,
has set by inciting racial and religious attacks as happened three
years ago in Beruwela and spreading racial and religious hatred
elsewhere at every turn. The outnumbered police squad had to
back down and Gnanasara was free again.

And why was the police, in the course of their lawful duties, bent
on arresting the marauding monk? For an alleged hate speech
made in Kurunegala and other similar incidents, apart from
obstructing the police in the execution of their lawful duties.

But the monk never turned up at the police port of call on

Monday. Neither did he turn up at the Court of Appeal on
Wednesday where the complaint made by additional judge of the
Homagama court that the rebellious monk had scandalised his
court by behaving in the manner he did in his court room on
January 25th last year by language and gestures made before him
in open court, was scheduled for inquiry. Instead his counsel
informed Court that her client Gnanasara was unwell to attend
court that day and that she would submit the medical certificate
on the next day of call. The case was re fixed for May 31st.

In these last two months Bodu Bala Gnanasara seems to have

awoken from his hibernation and heightened his racial campaign
and become active in the east where the three communities live
more or less in equal proportion. The East is where the majority of
Muslims live. He has taken his Bodu Bala inquisition to the fringes
of Muslims Mecca; and there sought to blaspheme Islams God,
Faith and Quran in an attempt, it seems, to provoke a backlash
against Lankas majority race and condemn this country to
another terrible racial war.

Two Sundays ago, on May 14th, he threatened Muslims at

Onekama in Polonnaruwa and broke their huts and livelihood
means, in the presence of the police, on the basis they were
illegal structures. He claimed the Muslims were taking over
Sinhala lands and referred to how Veheragodaella has become
Palliayagodaella; and that the same thing had occurred to
Mannikkawaduwa.

He said to a crowd of Sinhala monks and villagers that

Mannikkawaduwa is Deegavapiyas ancient chaithya, but now
they call it Mayawaduwe. He then proceeded to refer to Allah and
spoke in derogatory terms that would have inflamed Muslims. He
then exhorted the monks and villagers to grab any lands they
could and say this is ours, this is ours, and occupy the lands.
When the Government sends its forces to enforce the law, he
said, if there is any problem, call us and we will come. From one
corner we will start and take batons and hammer anyone who
comes and chase them away. He was to repeat a similar
exhortation during a press conference he held two days later on
May 16, where he once again referred to Allah in derogatorily
terms.

So what makes this boisterous, bigoted, insufferable, so called

guardian of Sinhala Buddhism spew hate in his track everywhere
he goes even as the Giant African Snail or Golu Bella introduced
to Lanka a hundred years ago due to the negligence of a British
planter leaves a discharge of sevela or saliva in its trail? Was
the introduction of Gnanasara to assume the mantle of the
Sinhala saviour during the halcyon days of the Rajapaksas,
deliberate or due to negligence?

Even whilst the nation is still nursing its war wounds caused by a
30-year ethnic war, Gnanasara still remains hell bent on starting
another, this time with the Muslims, united in the one faith of
Islam which has over 1.8 billion followers worldwide, the state
religion of many of the oil rich nations in the world having the
power to control oil supplies and even place embargoes; and
which religion has, within its religious councils, the power to issue
fatwas against anyone who dares profane the name of Allah.

Already the Muslims are showing signs that this time they are not
ready to remain as sitting ducks for the Sinhala Bodu Bala to take
pot shots at. An Eastern Provincial Council member, Shibly Farooq
has already fired the first warning shot. This week he told the
monthly Eastern Provincial Council sitting that: The racial
activities taking place in the country will pave the way for another
bloodbath. The majority of the Sinhala community does not
approve racism. The proof of this mindset could be seen in the
defeat of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Tamils and
Muslims in the country are once again facing a series of
problems.
He further warned, Racism is once again unleashed in spite of
the fact that the scars of the 1983 bloodbath and the war that
followed have not healed yet. Therefore, while great trust has
been placed on this Government of Good Governance, it must flex
its muscles and restrain the racist forces from rearing their ugly
heads, and called on the Government to maintain law and order.

Gamini Viyangoda of the Purawasi Balaya Sangvidanaya also had

a message to the Government. Addressing a news conference this
week, he said: When it comes to holding a referendum, it is
important for the Government to minimise as much as possible its
unpopularity in order to win the peoples verdict. But
unfortunately today, the Governments unpopularity is on the rise.
Gnanasaras attacks against the Muslims three years ago became
a main factor to send the Rajapaksas home. Again this Gnanasara
has appeared on the stage. But up to today, no action has been
taken by the Government against this monk. This will have
adverse consequences on the referendum that is planned to get
the new constitution approved by the people. Whatever else this
Government might do, it will be of no use if this country is once
again engulfed in flames. Therefore, it is vital that monks like
Gnanasara should be tethered.

It is almost as if someone somewhere seems to have pressed the

red button to raise the ghouls from the land of the living dead and
reactivate them to dig the nations grave and dance once more
upon its barren bed. Someone, somehow seems to have managed
to retract the stake driven into their hearts these vampire bats
who once, not so long ago, stalked the land in search of Muslim
prey to feed on and revive them to life, with the prospect of
more blood to suck from minority necks and to replay the self
same scenes that haunted the land and struck terror in the hearts
of the minorities when the saffron shrouded spectres arose with
impunity and acted with immunity.
If America has a Klu Klux Klan, wreathed in black and marching
incognito to render the blacks into a quivering mass of black jelly,
meet the Bodu Bala Brigade of renegade monks who do it in the
open, without shame, without remorse, without fear: but with
pride, with impudence, with arrogance and, alas, with immunity
from legal reprisals; and, worst of all, do it in the name of
Gautama the Buddha and flagrantly violate every tenet he
preached. If the Taliban blasted the 1600 year old Bamiyan
Buddha statues, the symbolic artistic representation of an alien
idol to that fanatic Islamic outfit, the Bodu Bala seems hell bent
on reducing to naught the value of the two thousand five year old
peaceful Sinhala Buddhist heritage by the violent methods they
use to ostensibly protect it.

Their rise from the sewers of obscurity is itself shrouded in

mystery. But though their rise may have been from such depths,
their burst in to national prominence began in 2012 when they
held their first convention at the BMICH. Where did the bowl of
funds come from, for a band of unknown monks without any
known patronage, to start their campaign of hate from the steps
of the grandiose international conference hall?

Then the world was their oyster, and legal immunity from arrest
for what they were about to embark upon, their pearl. The saffron
robe their armour, Sinhala chauvinism their lance and an
unarmed defenseless community their prey. And attacking them
and striking fear into their hearts, their pride and glory. All done in
the name of protecting Buddhism, the nations religion, which
despite five hundred years of foreign domination, has still
remained Buddhist to the core.

Bodu Bala past atrocities need no retelling, for their reputations

for bigotry and an inclination to arouse racial and religious hatred
amongst the communities has long preceded their latest
unwanted arrival on the national stage.
But this time Galagodaaththe Gnanasara seems to have lost his
marbles, gone over the top, gone berserk. Perhaps it is to plunge
the nation into chaos with Sinhala Muslim clashes which would
earn for Lanka the worlds opprobrium and bring her down to her
knees which would ideally suit his puppeteers waiting for
anarchy to break to escape from their own shadows of corruption
sins and defer his day of judgment where he faces the distinct
possibility of a long-term in prison if convicted of contempt of
court, stripped as he is now of his saffron immunity which the
Rajapaksa regime caparisoned him with.

But why is it that this Government having condemned the

Rajapaksa legal system of selective justice and harped time and
time again that everyone is equal before the law and the
Government is committed to upholding the rights of all citizens
and that it is dedicated to creating an environment where all
citizens of all communities can live together as one in peace and
harmony, still shirk to throw the book at all those depraved racists
elements, be they Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims who are intent on
exploiting race and religion to advance their own political
agendas?

Does the Maithripala Government believe that Galagodaaththe

Gnanasara is untouchable? A sacred bull that must be left
undisturbed in its rampage? Merely because he wears the sacred
robe of the Buddha? If so they are wrong. Galagodaaththe
Gnanasara has shown by his actions that he is not fit to don it.
Does the Maithripala Government believe that if they act against
him, that there will be a mass Sinhala uprising against the
Government which would cause them to lose the elections next
time around or even precipitate the Governments downfall before
2020? If so, wrong again.
The Government has only to look at the 2015 general election
results where the Bodu Bala Sena contested under the name of
the Buddhist Peoples Front. They only received 20,377 votes or
just 0.18 percent of the total votes cast. So what is the
Government waiting for?

Defilement of the sacred Buddhist Flag

This was the scene on Tuesday in the heart of Fort where a group
of Bodu Bala monks and a few lay supporters staged a protest
march against the imminent arrest of their tribal chieftain
Galagodaaththe Gnanasara on a charge of delivering hate
speeches against the Muslims.

THE ULTIMATE INSULT: Bodu Bala monks and their lay supporters
staged a march on Tuesday in Colombo against the imminent
arrest of their chieftain Gnanasara with his picture adorning the
five colour universally accepted flag of Buddhism where not even
the Buddha has been depicted before
Whether the rebel bigoted monk of hate is guilty of the charges to
be laid against him is a matter for the courts to decide. But his
supporters, Buddhist monks of his organisation Bodu Bala Sena, is
clearly guilty of defiling the universally accepted Buddhist flag,
sacred to millions of Sinhala Buddhist in the land.
Whilst proudly giving flutter to the Sinhala lion flag, itself an
offence to fly being a distortion of the Sri Lankan national
standard, this band of wayward monks and the misguided lay,
perhaps in their ignorance, had thought it fit to deface the
Buddhist flag by transposing upon its five colour, the photograph
of their leader striking, with his raised and pointing forefinger, the
Mudra of Hate.

Never in the history of its 132-year existence has the standard

symbolising Buddhism, ever been subjected to such desecration
and distortion. Only the Buddha has a right to be placed on it but
even the Buddha image has never adorned it. The five-colour flag
was designed by a distinguished committee in 1885 comprising
Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera the chairman, Ven.
Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera, Don Carolis Hewavitharana, the
father of Anagarika Dharmapala, Andiris Perera
Dharmagunawardhana, the maternal grandfather of Anagarika
Dharmapala, Charles A. de Silva, Peter De Abrew, William De
Abrew (father of Peter), H. William Fernando, N. S. Fernando and
Carolis Pujitha Gunawardena and was first raised and publicly
displayed on Vesak day 1885 at Dipaduttamarama, Kotahena, by
Ven. Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera which was the first time the
Vesak Full Moon Poya Day was declared a public holiday in Ceylon
by the British.
It was introduced to Japan by Anagarika Dharmapala and Olcott
who presented it to Emperor Meiji and subsequently to Burma.
And in 1952 at the World Buddhist Fellowship convention the five-
colour flag was adopted as the International Buddhist Flag and
universally recognised as such.

And then this Tuesday morn, these Bodu Bala Sena monks went
and flung dung on it.
Posted by Thavam