REBEL MONK CHARGES MANIPULATIONS OF LAY MEN OF THE SIHALA URUMAYA EXPELLED MEDHANADA AS GROUP LEADER
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
May 06, 09.00 PM: The rebel parliamentarian of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) Venerable Aparekke Pannananda Thero in a letter addressed to the hierarchy of the party lodged his vehement protest against the changing of the leadership of the parliamentary group from the scholar monk Venerable Ellawala Medhananda Thero to Athureliye Rathana Thero and accused lay leaders of the Sihala Urumaya of manipulating the monk’s party inappropriately.
In a letter sent to another leader of the JHU, Venerable Uduwe Dhammaloka of the Asapuwa of the Cinnamon Gardens in Colombo the rebel parliamentarian charged that Venerable Rathana of the Sihala Urumaya had been promoted as the leader of the bhikku’s parliamentary group after demoting Venerable Ellawala Medhananda, a more erudite monk who had been holding that position from the first day they entered the parliament according to the whims and fancies of the some lay leaders of the Sihala Urumaya.
Pointing out , that the most qualified to hold that position was Venerable Ellawala Medhananda , the rebel parliamentarian said if it was not possible, at least Venerable Uduwe Dhammaloka should have been appointed to the position
In the letter Venerable Pannananda said when he read the promoting and demoting of the two he could not first of all believe his eyes and further inquiries ascertained him that it was true.
He said during the past regime of the United National Party, they witnessed how varied foreign missionary powers were rising up in the country with the state sponsorship. That led some of the bhikkus even to get into roles not very appropriate to them like Members of Parliament. At that time, they were led to take such an action under the guidance of Venerable Ellawala Medhananda. At that time, the rebel monk said, all of them treated the Venerable Medhananda as the unofficial Sangha Raja of Sri Lanka.
The rebel monk said, at the time of the elections it was the popularity of the Venerable Uduwe Dhammaloka and the Venerable Kolonnawe Sumangala that helped the bhikkus parliamentarians to get elected. Venerable Pannananda said in his letter that if the two above mentioned did not contest, the JHU would not have attracted the number of votes it did attract at the last general elections
More than the policies of the JHU, it was the personal popularity of the above monks and other monks at the village level that helped the JHU monks to get elected, the Venerable Pannananda pointed out.
But he pointed out that ever since the elections what was happening was the manipulation of the party monks according to certain laymen of the Sihala Urumaya. The best example to that was the expulsion of Venerable Ellawala Medhananda from the leadership of the JHU parliamentary group and the appointment of Venerable Athureliye Rathana of the Sihala Urumaya to that position
He said on April 22 the group leadership was held by the Venerable Ellawala Medhananda and argued that the changing of that position by the Sihala Urumaya would have greatly hurt the feelings of the Venerable Ellawala Medhananda. He said underestimating and undermining the Venerable Ellawala Medhananda in front of the Buddhist public was a great sin.
Venerable Pannananda said in his letter that during the election campaign what they told the voters was that Sihala Urumaya was only a boat they wanted to cross the river and there was no need for them to carry that boat on their backs. But, the Venerable Pannananda said in his letter that what was exactly happening now was to carry the Sihala Urumaya boat on their backs. He charged that when there were many monks who were more senior and better in many other aspects, the appointment of Venerable Athureliye Rathana demonstrated nothing else but the carrying of the boat on their backs policy.
The Venerable Pannananda said that the Venerable Uduwe Dhammaloka should provide the leadership to emancipate the JHU from the sinful grip of laymen politicians of the Sihala Urumaya and make immediate arrangements to get Venerable Dhammaloka himself or the Venerable Ellawala Medhananda appointed to the position of the leader of the parliamentary group of the JHU. He said he would render his fullest support for such a step.
