Bodu Bala bogeyman bares bigotry’s evil breast again

Phantoms raised from comatose state to dance once more on Lanka’s 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, it’s 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 Gnanasara’s sathyakriya stunt take place on the doorstep of Lanka’s 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 nation’s most precious possession, The Buddha’s 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, isn’t 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 Islam’s God, Faith and Quran in an attempt, it seems, to provoke a backlash against Lanka’s 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 Deegavapiya’s 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 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.

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 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