Heritage party aims to emerge as king-maker

KELANIYA, Sri Lanka: Buddhist monks launched their formal drive for Sri Lanka’s parliament from a historic temple town yesterday with a vow to cleanse politics and restore “ultimate peace”.
The saffron-robed monks chanted prayers here before being driven to the island’s holiest Buddhist shrine, the Temple of the Tooth, in the central town of Kandy, 112 km away, to present their manifesto.
The all-clergy candidates from the National Heritage Party said they were invoking the power of the Buddha and his teachings to push their cause to establish a “righteous state” after the April 2 parliamentary election.
“If the Buddha is true and if the teachings of the Buddha are right, we shall have a righteous state in this country,” said monk Kotapola Amarakiththi to the chanting of “sadhoo, sadhoo” (saint) by thousands of followers.
Local laws prohibit the use of motorcades in vote campaigns, but monks said the hundreds of cars, vans and buses packed with the faithful were simply following them.
Police only allowed vehicles in batches of five to leave the temple car park, all of them decorated with Buddhist flags of blue, yellow, red, orange and white.
Monk Kolonnawe Sumangala said they were driven to take up politics because President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who called the snap elections by dissolving parliament four years ahead of schedule, had failed to restore decency.
“Although she has been critical of our campaign, we believe she could have stopped us from taking up politics if she had worked towards establishing a righteous state,” the monk said.
Kumaratunga has said it was “horrible” to have monks in politics and was opposed to the clergy taking such a direct role in governing the mainly Buddhist island of 18.6 million people.
The monks say they do not expect all of the 69 per cent of the population who are Buddhist to support them, but believe they will get just enough seats in the 225-member assembly to emerge as king-makers. – AFP


photo:Devotees worship as the Buddhist monk leaders led by Elawalla Medananda arrive at the Kelaniya Temple in Kelaniya, near Colombo, yesterday. – AP
Last update on: 3-3-2004