Dharisha Bastians & Mujib Mashal/New York Times – How dare you call a Buddhist Thero as “Mr. Ratana” – kindly retract your story & apologize
Posted on June 4th, 2019

3rd June 2019 New York Times published article titled All 9 of Sri Lanka’s Muslim Minister’s Resign, as bombing backlash intensifies” flagrantly violates all forms of journalistic ethics, attempts to flair ethnic disharmony by intent to flame ethnic tensions and these paragons of virtue eternally accusing others of racism and ethnic discrimination has the audacity to use an international publication to call a Buddhist thero as ‘Mr. Ratana” twice while Gnanasara Thero is referred to as Mr. Gnanasara once. This demands not only a retraction of entire article but a public apology by Dharisha Bastians for overstepping her boundary. Buddhist Organizations/Associations are requested to adopt the following measures against this malicious and insensitive article.

Who is Dharisha Bastians?

She was appointed Editor of Sunday Observer by yahapalana government but resigned after Ranil Wickremasinghe was sacked as PM in October 2018 and Mahinda Rajapakse appointed as PM.

Let us first question some of the erroneous and purposely distorted versions the Sri Lankan correspondent of NYT is making

All nine Muslim ministers in Sri Lanka’s government and 2 Muslim provincial governors resigned on Monday as the fragile, Buddhist majority country grappled further with the communal backlash of the Easter Sunday bombings”

communal backlash of the Easter Sunday bombings” what are they referring to? The government organized mob attacks 3 weeks after the Easter bombings? Everyone knows that revenge attacks generally happen immediately after a sudden catastrophic incident. When attacks happen 3 weeks it smells of more than a rat. Obviously the 2 correspondents are misleading the international readers because the mobs attacked Sinhala shops as well and the Sinhalese residents were keeping Muslims in their homes. But that is never newsworthy enough to print!

So what has angered these two correspondents?

Is it that Ratana Thero commenced a hunger strike demanding 3 Muslim politicians who were linked to the suicide bombers who killed over 300 people. So it’s alright for politicians to be linked to suicide bombers that killed innocent worshippers, foreigners and people having breakfast at the 3 targeted hotels, but not alright for anyone to demand their removal and its an ‘act of solidarity’ for 8 Ministers to resign.

Whose law is this?

According to the article Rauf Hakeem the head of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress claims our people fear a blood bath” – he may feel fear but there was an actual blood bath in not just once place on 21st April 2019 but in 9 venues where Islamic terrorists struck. That bloodbath is far more gruesome than a feeling because all citizens are now feeling fear of bloodbaths with the daily updates of swords, ammunitions and other dangerous equipment found in Muslim homes, shops and even mosques. So all citizens are now living in fear for their lives after seeing how educated, rich and successful Muslims could become suicide bombers – as no one knows what a potential suicide bomber looks like!

If Muslims are facing suspicion, it is only they who can now help hand over any radicals to the authorities so that no more innocent people face untimely deaths.

What are the 2 authors trying to insinuate by saying support of Muslim voters and ethnic minority Tamils was decisive in the election victory of Mr. Sirisena in 2014” – is this to say just because minorities voted a country has to look the other way ignoring their extremisms?

It is absolutely shocking that these supposed to be ‘unbiased’ correspondents claiming to give both sides of the story are lavishly spewing venom against Sinhala Buddhists calling them all the names under the sun and accusing them of inciting violence against Muslims but never bother to mention some of the racist comments that the Muslim politicians make which is the main reason to react.  

The article ends referring to statements by 3 characters who are not representative of the people, they are clueless about their own communities, they careless about any of the communities so long as they are in some seat of power & influence.

These writers are using their pen in wicked and evil ways. They claim to be independent & unbiased but they are exactly the opposite. For too long they have got away as Sinhala Buddhist majority have chosen to ignore their slander. However, this time round these writers should be taken to task & their wicked and vile acts presented to the world.

A content analysis of these rabble rousers will prove beyond all doubt that their writings are nothing but gutter journalism.

As regards the disgraceful manner that a Buddhist thero has been called ‘MR’ – Buddhist organizations are requested to immediately take up the following course of action.

  1. File complaint with Sri Lanka’s Attorney General’s Department citing violation of penal codes and attempting to incite racial flames and ethnic disharmony

P.O.Box 502, Hulftsdorp, Colombo 12

administration@attorneygeneral.gov.lk

+94 (11) 2147888

http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.lk
  • File complaint with the Sri Lanka Police also citing violation of penal code
  • File complaint with the Buddha Sasana Ministry – demanding Minister raise complaint against the manner a Sri Lankan correspondent working for a foreign paper has used term MR” in reference to a Buddhist thero knowing fully well that no one refers to a Buddhist thero as MR”.
  • File complaint with the Press Complaint Commission

96 Kirula Rd, Colombo  

  • File complaint with Sri Lanka Press Institute against journalistic ethics adopted by the Sri Lankan correspondent
  • File complaint with the Sri Lanka Bar Association

Would the New York Times or these two correspondents call the Cardinal as MR” or a Muslim Cleric as MR” – we doubt.

What makes them think that they can refer to Buddhist monks as they do? Is anyone giving away some sort of prize for such name calling?

This particular article has overstepped its limits and deserves to be condemned by all but the Buddhist organizations and Nationalist Associations are advised to take this up with the authorities for the manner the paper and the journalists have flouted decency & journalistic ethics.

Shenali D Waduge

6 Responses to “Dharisha Bastians & Mujib Mashal/New York Times – How dare you call a Buddhist Thero as “Mr. Ratana” – kindly retract your story & apologize”

  1. Susantha Wijesinghe Says:

    DHARISHA !!

    WHICH SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO ? JUST CURIOUS.

  2. Dilrook Says:

    Sadly she is not alone. One very senior Buddhist politician along with 3 others (2 from his camp) made fun of Ven Rathana Thero’s peaceful protest comparing it to a trade unionist’s protest in 1995. The video is in circulation. But both have supporters.

    How can you expect a Tamil Christian journalist to show such respect when a Sinhala Buddhist very senior politician cannot?

    (It doesn’t justify both bad behaviours. It only points out to a widespread practice.)

  3. ranjit Says:

    Shenali we are fed up of writing and hearing about these yahapalanaya western backed stooges. Only way we can get rid of these butterflies is through the ballot because yahapalanaya stay deaf and blind for every complain against their members. Day after day they are making new teledramas and confuse the people. The enemies of our country is all over therefore we need to stay our eyes wide open and alert. Unity is the need of the hour. Whether we like it or not we have to stay until the next election to get rid of this treacherous undemocratic worst government in history. Sira and Ranil will never leave until we chase them both out for good. Both have to answer in the public eye for bringing the country down to it’s knees.

  4. Sirih Says:

    This girl is from HFC, Colombo and typical clown from the colombo… We want smart SL’s to come and help Gotha’s election campaign and hope to be in SL by end of the year..

  5. Hiranthe Says:

    Please read this from lanka C news;

    එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ජාතික ලැයිස්තු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී පූජ්‍ය අතුරලියේ රතන හිමියන් විසින් මහනුවර දළදා මාලිගාවේ උඩ මළුවේ මාරාන්තික උපවාසයක් සිදුකිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මල්වතු-අස්ගිරි පාර්ශවයන්හි දැඩි විරෝධය එල්ල වී තිබේ.

    තමන් වහන්සේ උපවාසයක් කරන්නේ යැයි මල්වතු-අස්ගිරි මහනාහිමිවරුන් බැහැදැක රතන හිමියන් පවසා ඇතත් එසේ කරන්නේ කුමන ස්ථානයකදැයි පැහැදිලි නොකර දළදා මාලිගාවේ උඩ මළුවේ රතන හිමියන්ගේ උපවාසය ආරම්භ කර ඇති බව එම නිකායන් ප්‍රධාන හිමිවරුන් කියා සිටිති.

    මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අද දිනයේ රැස්වීම් විශේෂ සාකච්ඡාවක් පවත්වා ඉදිරි ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගන්නා බවද එම නායක හිමිවරුරන් කතියා සිටී.

    මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයාද යම් ප්‍රමාණයක දැනුවත් කිරීමක් දැනටමත් සිදු කර තිබේ.

    These two Mahanayakas always take the side of enemy’s of the country. If not for Honerable Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s proposal, they will not issue the statement against the foreign army landing in this land and the Yahaps secret agreement with the US.

    And the other thing is, what is the point in telling to the traitor My3?? In fact these two should warn My3 for creating a situation for a monk to go on a death fast. I am not a fan of Ven Ratana or Ven Galagoda.. But these two mahanayakas are traitors of Mother Lanka. People will worship Cardinal more and more for his patriotism.

    If they had an issue, they should have told at that time for Ven Ratana and the crowd to move to a location outside the “Uda Maluwa”, probably to the grassed area in front of the Maligawa. Now they have awaken probably after a meeting with a traitor politician.

  6. Vaisrawana Says:

    Ms Mangalaa has a mouth like an open sewer. He once called Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka ‘Mr Dhammaloka’. This woman must have been instructed by Mangala to use Mr instead of Ven. or Rev. before the names of those Buddhist monks.

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