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RANIL WICKREMESINGHE IN NEW CONTROVERSY BY TELLING HE URGED MAHANAYANAYAKA TO ORDAIN REPORTERSBy Walter JayawardhanaOpposition and United National Party (UNP) leader stirred up another
hornets nest by telling reporters of print and electronic media that
he told Malwatte Mahanayaka Thero to ordain all journalists. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe stepped out of a meeting with the Most
Venerable Mahanayaka Thero of the Malwatte chapter of the Siamese sect
at the Theros residence, Malwatte Maha Viharaya in Kandy and told
reporters anxious to obtain a statement from him that he told the Mahanayaka
to ordain them. Then he left them without adding anything more to the terse statement.The
meeting of the UNP leader with the Most Venerable Thibobotuwawe Sri
Siddhartha Sumangala Mahanayaka Thero of the Malwatte lasted about one
hour. But it was not open to the press. The video clip of the statement was broadcast by most television stations.The
prime time news of the state owned TV channel Independent Televsion
Network carried the incident in full and comments very critical of the
statement. The TV station together with the clip played back video clips
of Wickremesinghe telling one of his party meetings that journalists
are licking the boots of the government and his earlier statements attacking
the Buddhist monks, like one Buddhist monk wants to travel the Noble
Eight Fold Path with a Mercedes Benz . Venerable kamburugamuwe Vajira Thero said what that Wickremesinghe
implied was that since all media men are wrong doers they should be
ordained. He said the UNP leader was implying that the Buddhist order
of sangha was an institution of wrong doers. Dr. Pandula Endagama said that in this statement Wickremesinghe was
trying to insult the Buddhist order of the Sangha. If what he meant
was to correct somebody they should enter sangha , it was Wickremesinghe
who should enter the order since he needed the correction most. Dr. Endagama said by these statement Wickremesinghe is trying to change
journalists by humiliation who are publishing correct information so
that they could be only publishing information favorable to him. He said Sri Lanka is a country Buddhist leaders like the monks and
Buddhist monuments are respected by even foreign visitors. The continuous
ridicule of Buddhist values by Wickremesinghe would not be appreciated
by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, he said. |
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