Making a record in Sri Lanka's election history, the Buddhist monk Venerable Battaramulle Silaratana will run for the president in the polls scheduled to be held next January, party officials said on Saturday. He will be the country’s first Buddhist monk to contest presidency representing his own political party Janasetha Peramuna under the party symbol of tractor, officials from his party said. Contrary to the popular demand of the opposition - abolition of the executive presidency - the Buddhist monk wants the executive powers to remain with the president as he believes that the unity and stability of the country depend on executive powers of the leader. The posters of Silaratana Thera have come up on the walls around Colombo. The Buddhist monk said both the ruling alliance led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the opposition led by former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka have approached him but would only support those who agree with his policies. Among his main pledges are giving the Buddhism foremost place, guarantee the equal rights of all communities (Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and other ethnic groups), making Sinhala, Tamil and English state languages, as well as implementing an economic policy based on agriculture. Fonseka, who was silence about the monk’s entry into politics, has confirmed that he would be the opposition’s common candidate in the forthcoming presidential polls. He said he would announce his future plans at his first media conference on Sunday. The presidential candidates increased to four with the decision of the New Leftist Front leader Wickramabahu Karunaratne to run for president. The presidential election will be held on Jan. 26 next year.
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ReplyDeleteNow, I'm just a lay follower, but was I incorrectly instructed that monks do not join political parties and become politically active in the sense that they run for political office? How can a monk be an elected official and a monk following the monastic code at the same time?
ReplyDeleteI am confused.
Dear Richard,
ReplyDeleteYou were instructed in the ‘theory’ which is often one thing while the reality is something else, in Buddhism as in other religions and other areas of life, as I am sure your aware. In Sri Lanka and other Buddhist countries public opinion may well keep a monk from ignoring the rules but if it doesn’t, there is not really much anyone can do about it. A Christian pastor’s job is to look after his flock and not get involved in politics but that didn’t stop Pat Robertson running for the presidency. How can this happen? The US, like Sri Lanka, is a democracy, people can do what they like, including ignoring the letter and the spirit of their faith. And I'm sure it's as common in the US as it is in Sri Lanka, Burma, etc, where it certainly is very common.