{"id":89143,"date":"2019-05-20T15:09:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T22:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=89143"},"modified":"2019-05-20T15:09:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T22:09:29","slug":"even-the-presidents-wesak-pardon-list-of-762-prisoners-did-not-include-galabodaatte-gnaanasara-thero-who-is-also-certainly-qualified-to-be-released-under-the-list-of-crimes-excluded-in-the-g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/20\/even-the-presidents-wesak-pardon-list-of-762-prisoners-did-not-include-galabodaatte-gnaanasara-thero-who-is-also-certainly-qualified-to-be-released-under-the-list-of-crimes-excluded-in-the-g\/","title":{"rendered":"Even the President\u2019s Wesak pardon list of 762 prisoners did not include Galabodaatte Gnaanasara Thero who is also certainly qualified to be released under the list of Crimes excluded in the gazette notice."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>Sudath Gunasekara <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Even the President\u2019s Wesak pardon list of 762\nprisoners did not include Galabodaatte Gnaanasara Thero who is also certainly\nqualified under the list of Crimes excluded in the gazette notice. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ven Galabodaatte\nGnanasara Thero was jailed for the following reasons on August 9th<\/sup>\n2018 for 19 years later committed to 6 years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/strong>For shouting at the\npresiding judge and lawyers as the accused military men were refused bail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 <\/strong>For threatening the wife\nof the missing journalist Sandhya Eknaligoda (who was allegedly reported in the\npress living with another Arabian woman in an Arab country)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3<\/strong> Asking for a\nSinhala-Buddhist rule in this country <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 For demanding the release of an Accused Intelligence\nOfficer who had been remanded before.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court sentenced him to four years Rigorous\nImprisonment each for the first two counts, and six years and five years\nrespectively for the other two Counts, totaling 19 years Rigorous Imprisonment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These soldiers\nhave only carried out their duty by the State to save their Motherland, being\nthe first duty of any soldier. Thereby they successfully saved the Motherland from\nthe LTTE terrorists who carried out a brutal and savage war for 30 years for a separate\nState called EELAM. Today we all owe our lives and the protection of the\ncountry to them. Gnanasara Thera in my opinion has only aired out his pain on\nbehalf of the whole nation and had done his duty as a true Buddhaputra in\naccordance with the hallowed tradition of a Monk in this country. Had the court\nlooked at this incident from that angle I am sure the court decision would have\nbeen much milder. Could such a noble action and just shouting at a woman whose\nhusband has betrayed the nation be so serious to convict even a layman for 1\nyear RI is a moot question that needs to be seriously looked in to at least now\nby the Law enforcing authorities. I have no doubt that all those parties who\nwere a party to this unfortunate situation will repent their whole life for\ntheir decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other\nhand it is high time that in all cases other than criminal, the fraternity of\nSangha must be vested with the power to hear and decide without dragging them\nin robes to open court houses and thereby humiliating the Sangha<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Isn\u2019t it a disgrace and a shame too that the fraternity\nof monks of this country has not taken up this issue strongly with the\nPresident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it the fear\nfor losing the Muslim votes or International pressure or both that prevented\nthe President declaring clemency on this patriotic Buddhist monk? Or should he\nobtain permission from Assad Sali and Hisbulla, his trusted Governors to grant\npardon to this Thera even on the Wesak Full moon day, under the prevailing\npolitical culture in this country<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice to be\njustice must not only be done but it must also appear to be justice done in the\npublic eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court issued\norders to the Superintendent of the Prison of Welikada, to take charge of the\nAccused Respondent forthwith, and after his recovery, proceed to the\nimplementation of the sentence imposed on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now leaving\naside the court order as a judicial decision on which we are not expected to\ncomment, the whole nation ask the question from the President as to why he couldn\u2019t\ngive this monk a special pardon or at least include his name in this unusually\nlong list of 762 who may have been jailed for good reasons. Certainly people of\nthis country would never have found fault with him as that would never have\nbeen  so bad in the public eye  as the appointment of Hisbulla and Asad Sali\nas Governors and keeping them in  their\npositions against wide public objections on account of  their well- known treacherous activities against\nthe State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First I wonder whether\nthis country has already ceased to be a Sinhala Buddhist country, as Mangala\ndeclared the other day. Is it being ruled by a Sinhala Buddhist President and a\nSinhala Buddhist Prime Minister, as it had been done for millennia since 307\nBC, I have my serious doubts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, whether\nit is ruled according to the wishes and aspirations of the Sinhala Buddhists\nwho form 75 % of the total population in spite of nearly 500 years of Western\ncolonial depredations and destructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, whether\nit is run by a set of puppet rulers manipulated by extremist minority Tamils\nand Muslims at home and the ex-colonial powers in the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth whether\nit is ruled by a set of Thuppias who are agents of the Western colonial\ninvaders who ruined this country from 1505 to 1948 and still ruling this country\nindirectly through the henchmen they have left behind when the y left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifth, whether we\ncould be called an Independent sovereign State at all as it is still run by\nwestern oriented politicians who dispense justice under the vestiges of Roman\nDutch Law and English Laws which is completely alien to us and our indigenous\nlegal system and culture while at the same time ironically minority Tamils and\nMuslims are given special privileges under Thesavalamei and Muslim Law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixth whether\nthe Government is only a big joke manned by a stupid set of puppet rulers\nrepresenting the old colonial masters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for me Rev\nGalaboda atte Gnanasara falls in to the category of great  monks Theraputthabhaya, Wariyapola Sumangala,\nKadahapola, Mohotiwatte Gunananda and Soma Thera, who had died for the Motherland\nand Sasana  and who decorates the annals\nof history in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to this blunder I may also highlight here some of the irreligious actions this Government has taken in recent times Imprisoning more than 65 Buddhist monks on flimsy issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charging Buddhist monks even for keeping an elephant calf in the Temple Disregarding the advice given by the Mahanayaka Theras of the Three Nikayas and other religious dignitaries like His eminence Malcolm Ranjith Fernando Publicly and openly declaring that this is not a Sinhala Buddhist country as said by its Finance Minister and not refuting it even\u00a0 by the President or the Prime Minister. Minister of Justice openly criticizing the Monks at the Ranaviru Commemorating day clearly demonstrate this anti-Buddhist attitude of the Present Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this is the way how the present government has given the foremost place to Buddhism as enshrined in the Constitution, then I don\u2019t have any faith or trust in this government at all to protect the Buddha Sasana any more I believe the whole nation will agree with me on this issue and teach all these politicians a good lesson at the next general\u00a0\u00a0election by dumping them in to the dustbin of history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Sudath Gunasekara Even the President\u2019s Wesak pardon list of 762 prisoners did not include Galabodaatte Gnaanasara Thero who is also certainly qualified under the list of Crimes excluded in the gazette notice. Ven Galabodaatte Gnanasara Thero was jailed for the following reasons on August 9th 2018 for 19 years later committed to 6 years 1For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sudath-gunasekara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}