LOKUBANDARA SEEKS JHU HELP TO BECOME SPEAKER; RELEASE OF THILANGA SUMATHIPALA FIGUERS PROMINENTLY IN THE TALKS BY THE JHU OVER THE SAME ISSUE WITH THE GOVERNMENT
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
April 19, 12.30 PM:The United National Party has sought the assistance of the Jathika Hela Urumaya to get its candidate and former Buddhasasana Minister W.J.M. Lokubandara get elected to the prestigious position of Speaker
The United National Party is believed to be putting its fullest effort to get Lokubandara elected as the Speaker of the House of Representative with the help of the Buddhist monk Members of Parliament as a first step towards their end of forming a government with the LTTE backed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) under the strict directions of former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Political sources in Colombo said Lokubandara has already discussed the matter of obtaining their help with two Buddhist Monks lenient to the United National Party in the JHU. Some indicated the two Budddhist Monk MP’s as Venerable Uduwe Dhammaloka and Venerable Kolonnawe Sumangala. Anyhow, they are expected to be opposed by some other Buddhist monk members who are of the opinion that Lokubandara deceived the Buddhist monks on behalf of Ranil Wickremesinghe over the LTTE issue during the last government and before.
Lokubandara is having extremely strong relations with some JHU monks since he once allocated as the Buddha Sasana Minister, 2. 4 million Rupees to a “Pinkama” organized by some influential Buddhist monks who have now become strong pillars of the JHU.
Mr. Thilak Karunarathana, the leader of the JHU has also had discussions with the hierarchy of the government about the election of Speaker, political sources in Colombo said.
The JHU is believed to have requested the government also to release Mr. Thilanga Sumathipala, a leading bookie owner from jail, arguing that Sumathipala is in prison due to an anti-Buddhist conspiracy. While the demand is yet to be won, the government, who are in dire need of a majority had already taken a preliminary step of stopping the promised portfolio of Sports to Arjuna Ranatunga, an arch rival of Thilanga Sumathipala, on the request of the JHU. Refusing the Deputy Minister’s post to him Ranatunga decided to become a backbencher as a protest.
Sources close to the government said that the release of Thilanga Sumathipala has once again come up prominently in the latest discussions about the election of a Speaker.A leading monk who did not want to be quoted said in Los Angeles that according to Dasa Raja Dharma preached by Buddhism for rulers they should ,
“ have honesty and integrity and the ruler must be free from fear or favor and should have the quality of not deceiving the public. It is expressed by the term ajjava” He said that was exactly what some monks who went to Parliament and some lay leaders of the JHU were breaking by demanding an extremely dishonest person to be released from jail. Ultimately these very people would destroy the very foundations of Buddhism, he charged
Already, Venerable Uduwe Dhammaloka Thero has issued a statement that his party would decide before April 21, 2004 whether they would support W.J.M.Lokubandara or not . Parliament would meet on April 22 after the April General Elections.
W.J.M.Lokubandara, was the main political strategist who was used by the United National Party to keep the Buddhist Monks in control when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe entered into a secret agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. First , using his good relations with them he made assurances to the Buddhist monks that there was no secret agreement before the elections with the LTTE. He made this statement several times on election platforms. The LTTE later admitted that there was a pact. And after that , when the issue of de-proscribing the LTTE came up he used the Buddhasasana Ministry organized meetings with Buddhist monks at provincial level to give assurances to them that the proscription of the LTTE would never be lifted by his leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe. After the Buddhist monks were calmed down, Ranil Wickremesinghe lifted the ban of the LTTE, paving the way for the other countries , like Canada , to do so.
The Venerable Panditha Deranagama Kusala Dhamma Thero, the Head of Colombo’s Sambodhi Viharaya said the United National Front government headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe first of all managed to come to power because it denied a pre-election pact with the LTTE and prior to this the UNP was repeatedly getting defeated at elections.
