Malwatte Chapter, the Church and Fonseka

Ven. Tibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera, chief Buddhist Monk of Malwatte has said, "... It was a grave crime to imprison a war hero who had done an immense service to eradicate terrorism...Even if such a person does something wrong he should be pardoned..."

With due respect to the Malwatte Chief Monk, we wish to ask him if he knows about what the Military Act says regarding the release of Military secrets to the enemy. Human Rights Organisations and some western countries are waiting to take Sri Lanka for war crimes before a War Tribunal. So we hope that Malwatte Chapter could separate the chaff from the wheat without aligning with the Church and supporting Fonseka, who overnight became greedy for power.

According to the Union of Catholic Asian News, Fr. M.Sathivel, and Fr. S. Iddamalgoda, Catholic Human Right Activists have said that the, "... arrest is unfair and undemocratic... the arrest is political business, not democratic action..."

The support given by the Church to Fonseka is not surprising because the Church was always for the division of the Buddhists and in the long term separation of Sri Lanka.

The Church which backed the LTTE from the inception has now made a twist and is backing Fonseka. The reason why the Church supports him is because he is sponsored by the UNP whose leader is Ranil. And Ranil has no Buddhist family lineage. His father, the late Mr. Esmond Wickremasinghe, was a practicising Christian belonging to the Church of England. It is no longer a public secret that on the day of his marriage in 1995, Ranil took his fiancee early in the morning to the residence of the Bishop of Colombo for his blessings.

Will a practicising Buddhist ever seek the blessings from a Christian Priest when he happens to be the Chief Dayakaya of the hallowed Kelaniya Rajamahaviharaya?

It is because of Ranil's linkage to the Church that the Christian Church is shedding crocodile tears for Fonseka. Perceptive observers had publicly accused the Church of being the invisible hand behind the LTTE's violent campaign to destroy the unitary state of Sri Lanka. And now they support Fonseka who aligned with the Tamil National Alliance which is a proxy of the LTTE.

- Asian Tribune -