The problems of the JHU have not been resolved although its leaders have succeeded in making them less public than they would have otherwise been with the Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka persuaded not to go public on these issues at least until early next month. The venerable monk, in an interview published in last Sunday’s Divaina, announced that he would remain silent until November 4 and the promised disclosure was not forthcoming last week.
Political circles are buzzing about further moves by elements within the government to remove Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara from the seat he was elected to last April in the most exciting Speaker’s election ever seen in this country. Lokubandara won after two members of JHU voted for him to neutralize the votes of two dissident monks who supported Mr. Dew Gunasekera, the PA-JVP candidate, flouting their party’s decision to abstain. He was home and dry in a second round of balloting after a deadlocked first vote which ended in a tie.
Ironically, the name of a controversial politician accused of breaking all rule of decency in the rowdy scenes enacted in the House during the Speaker’s election is being widely mentioned in political circles as a prime mover in the effort to have Lokubandara replaced as Speaker by a monk of the JHU.
Well informed circles said that this politician, recently appointed a deputy minister, has developed close links with a leading member of the JHU and had in fact accompanied the monk to a Colombo police station to get some persons held in custody released. A flamboyant minister too is believed to be in the vanguard of getting the JHU to unseat Lokubandara with the Speaker’s chair offered to a bhikku with whom talks have already been held.
Political analysts believe that the invitation to Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka to take the Speaker’s chair on September 30 by Deputy Speaker Geethanjana Gunawardena who vacated it after inviting the monk to preside over the session "was an indication of the coming colour." Some monks in the JHU are not very happy about the wheeling and dealing that appears to be going on between elements of the government and some bhikkhu MPs. "Nearly half a million people voted for us at the last election not to act in a self-serving manner,’’ they said. Consideration seems to matter more than principle, they complain.
Meanwhile Mr. Tilak Karunaratne, who was a prime mover of the Sihala Urumaya (SU) which offered its mantle to the JHU to run a slate of bhikku candidates at the last election, has re-joined the UNP he left to form the SU. Karunaratne came to the UNP from the SLFP. There are various views on his change of allegiance with former SU leader, S. L. Gunasekera, quoted in the Ravaya offering his sympathies to both Karunaratne and the UNP cracking that they both "suit each other."
"I’ve said it all with those few words," Gunasekera told a Ravaya journalist who canvassed a spectrum of opinion ranging from Vasudeva Nanayakkara who saw Karunaratne as a "natural rightist" adding that communalism and right wing politics go together, to Karu Jayasuriya who predictably warmly welcomed the new member.
Oil on troubled waters
Other issues within the bhikku party include the recent resignation from parliament of Ven. Kolonnawe Sumangala, getting former MP Champika Ranawaka out of the position of Secretary of the JHU and differences between lay and bhikku members of that party.
After the Sunday Divaina published the report that Ven. Dhammaloka would be making a statement on the crisis within the JHU, the Supreme Sangha Council decided that a group comprising Dr. Kandegoda Wimaladeva Thera, Dr. Buddhadasa Hewawitarana, Prof. Chandra Wickrema Gamage and Dr. Anula Wijesundera speak to Ven. Dhammaloka and take damage control measures. They had a discussion with the monk who said that he would not go public on the matters troubling him on condition that he was cleared of charges made against him, including one that he had obtained two vehicles from the PA through Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.
The Supreme Sangha Council in a statement said that the venerable monk had been found innocent on charges preferred. But Ven. Dhammaloka was not satisfied with this and insisted on having his own say. This resulted in a heated argument between Ven. Dhammaloka and Ven. Atureliye Ratana who said that these disputes would only result in the party breaking into factions. This was most undesirable, he urged. Finally Ven. Dhammaloka said that he will not make any statement until November 4.
New bridge over River Kwai?
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse continued building his political base by visiting parts of the country including Kitulgala where the award winning film, Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness was made about 50 years ago. The premier’s business was also related to a bridge - the feasibility of building one at Kitulgala to benefit about 800 families living in the hinterland across the river.
The SLFP Central Committee met at Temple Trees to discuss the Jana Pubuduwa and Gama Pubuduwa programs planned to be launched from the Sri Maha Bodiya at Anuradhapura last week. The program included providing self-employment to several thousand Samurdhi beneficiaries and infrastructure for 14,000 villagers. The President arrived for this meeting at its concluding stages.
Some SLFPers criticised recent statements and activities of the JVP which was hurting the blue party. The prime minister closed that discussion saying that what was necessary was for the SLFP to attend to its own shortcomings without criticising others.
UNP
The UNP’s political affairs committee met in parliament to discuss the absence of some MPs from some parliamentary votes with party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe displaying ‘The Island’ newspaper report and expressing his disapproval of some statements by Mr. Sajith Premadasa.
Prof. G. L. Peiris said that due care must be taken when making such statements. Premadasa was cautioned on this score.
The UNP has also decided that those candidates who failed to secure a certain percentage of the vote at the last elections should be replaced by new constituency organisers.
Sajith Premadasa has launched a program of sinking agricultural wells in the Hambantota district at a cost of Rs. 3 million. He has contributed his parliamentary emoluments for 2004 to the fund financing this work. The first of these wells completed at Siyambalagoda was declared open by Premadasa recently.