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JHU MONK’S CONTROVERSIAL TRIP TO A TEMPLE LINKED WITH UNP AND RANIL IN JAPAN AROUSES COLOMBO’S NEWSPAPER ATTENTION
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The Rev. Banagala Upatissa visiting LTTE strategist and negotiator and his wife, Anton and Adele Balasingham at Prince Hotel in Hakone Japan in an effort to support Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last year (photo by: Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat)
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

May 10, 07.15 PM: The allegedly most politicized Sri Lankan Buddhist Temple in the world outside Sri Lanka, Lankaji Temple in Japan added more controversy to its Sri Lankan party politics by inviting the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) parliamentarian, the Rev. Uduwe Dhammaloka as the chief guest of its Vesak day celebrations.

The Rev. Banagala Upatissa, the Chief of the Japanese Temple, President of the Sri Lanka Maha Bodhi Society, close ally of UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and friend of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) strategist and negotiator Anton Balasingham, inviting his past political friend Rev. Uduwe Dhammaloka of the JHU has not gone unnoticed by Sri Lankan newspapers. The trip of Rev. Uduwe Dhammaloka to Japan became a prominent news item in the most popular Sinhalese daily, the Divaina.

Opponents of the JHU openly charge that the JHU Buddhist monks were fielded by the UNP to break the nationalist votes among Sinhalese Buddhists. If true , the UNP strategy had succeeded because President Kumaratunga was able to form only a minority government after the general elections and the Buddhist monks parliamentarians voted with the UNP in the election of a Speaker defeating the government candidate. This has also led the government seek Tamil and Muslim groups in parliament, like the Ceylon Workers Congress and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress with whose leaders President Kumaratunga has held discussions.

The newspaper also published a list of sponsors of the trip of the JHU parliamentarian, the majority of whom were identified with the United National Party.

Always acting as a propaganda agent of the UNP and its leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, The Rev. Banagala Upatissa made a historical trip to meet LTTE’s Anton and Adele Balasingham from his temple in Sawara city in Japan , about 100 miles from Tokyo to the Prince Hotel in Hakone , a mountain resort in Japan to present the Balasinghams with a gold plated Buddha statue in the year 2003. This happened during the Sri Lanka-LTTE peace talks in Japan. Sources close to the Lankaji temple said that the strongly pro-UNP monk wanted to build a good image of the Balasinghams among the Buddhist supporters of the UNP. Contrary to the monks efforts there is strong animosity still between the majority of the Buddhist monks and the LTTE including the Balasinghams following the bombing of the sacred Temple of the Tooth in Kandy and the massacre of Buddhist monks at Aranthalawa and the massacre of Buddhist pilgrims at the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura by the terrorists of the rebel group. Peace wise the presentation of the serene Buddha statue had no effect on Balasingham or the LTTE as the rebel group, immediately after the mostly ceremonial Hakone talks sank a civilian Chinese fishing trawler killing 17. Balasingham also refused to disband the Black Tigers , the world’s largest, suicide bombing squad.

The links of Rev. Banagala Upatissa with Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and his party is so strong that under his leadership, Ravi Karunanayaka, a former UNP minister and practicing church going Roman Catholic was made a close associate of the century old Sri Lanka Maha Bodhi Society after the monk chased out the descendents of the founder, the late Anagarika Dharmapala from the society following a prolonged litigation. The Rev. Thiniyawela Palitha, Vice President of the Sri Lanka Maha Bodhi Society who was visiting Los Angeles for a grand scale alms giving for one of his dead ‘dayakayas’ on May 8 2004 denied the former UNP minister was any office bearer of the Buddhist society but admitted he was closely associated with the society “only to help”.

During Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to Japan, last year the Lankaji Temple became the center of another controversy when Sri Lankan workers living in Tokyo made a peaceful demonstration against the Prime Minister and questioned him regarding the controversial ceasefire agreement he signed with Velupillai Prabhakaran. After the Prime Minister left the temple, demonstrators were severely attacked, making some injured among them admitted to a hospital. A Sri Lankan website quoting onlookers said the attackers were the Prime Minister’s bodyguards. But in a statement issued to the Sinhala service of the BBC the Rev. Banagala Upatissa absolving the bodyguards of the Prime Minister said it was the supporters of his temple who attacked the demonstrators. This however led to a further controversy of how appropriate were violent attacks launched against vociferous but peaceful demonstrators by a Buddhist temple who should practice compassion and tolerance for the politically different

( go2lanka.com)