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He may not have realised it yet, perhaps it may take some time for the light to shine through his burly, black, boorish brawn, but Bodu Bala Sena Chief Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera is, no doubt, the darling of the foreign missionaries who use his mug to portray the ugly face of Buddhism.

Arrested Body Bala Chief Gnanasara Thera arrives in his Benz to face the music: Will he get his comeuppance this time around?

Neither may he have fathomed it yet, but he is also the pin up boy of the Tamil Diaspora who use his racist acts as the choreographed steps and his hate filled words as the heady music to dance their Eelam Rhapsody upon Lanka’s grave.

The more he attacked the Muslims in the name of singlehandedly protecting Buddhism in Lanka the more he became a Buddhist Ayatollah. The more he denigrated other races and other religions and threatened violence upon them, the more he turned Buddhism’s disciples to a fundamentalist Buddhist Taliban, ever ready to stain, without qualms, Buddhism’s saffron robe with blood.

The more he freighted his shabby doctrine to hot spots brimming with communal tension as he did when he went to Beruwela in June 2014; and the more he opened his sewers’ sluice gates, like he did at that same venue, and gave his pent up racist spittle and bigoted foam free flow and decreed the ‘final solution’ to the Muslims as their ordained punishment if even one Sinhalese was touched; the more he gave fodder to Eelamists the world over to nourish and sustain their utopian dream and justify to the world why it was impossible for the Tamils to live without fear in Lanka as equal citizens, with a majority race determined to exercise its racial superiority and allow no place in the sun for the minorities, be they Tamils or Muslims,

But fifteen years ago it was this same monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, now meteorically raised to the heights of national infamy, who, whilst driving a car in a drunken stupor, knocked down a man who had to be rushed to hospital with a smashed leg. He was convicted for drink and driving, in the Colombo Magistrates (Road Motor Vehicle) Court in case No 6315/2000, including the charge, amongst nine, of not reporting the accident.

For one who claims that his every act is done in the name of the Buddha Sasana and that every adverse reaction to it is levelled against the Buddha Sasana, and that if there is any matter to be settled it must be settled then and there, Gnanasara Thera is quite averse to discussing the incident and told a television interviewer two years ago that it will be a waste of time to talk about it and to skip the subject which would otherwise take twenty minutes talk time to explain.

After remaining as a blessed nonentity for the nation’s good during the turbulent war years, he graduated to the big league when peace had dawned to raise the lion’s tail of Sinhala patriotism against a new racial foe, the Muslims; and launched the Bodu Bala Sena in a lavish ceremony from the BMICH under the Rajapaksa regime’s patronage with the declared aim of subjugating the Muslim minority through waves of terror.

Ever since, he has done nothing else but peddle the racist jingo and, instead of damaging the leg of one unfortunate Sinhalese who happened to be on the road whilst Galagodaatte Gnanasara was driving a car drunk, has used a garbage truck to carry his bellicose chauvinism to bulldoze Buddhism’s pillars of ahimsa or non violence and tolerance to all and disfigure the head, limbs and torso of the collective Sinhala populace, and render them damned with the mark of racism and religious bigotry from tress to nail,.

Hell bent as he is trying his best, even unwittingly, to destroy Buddhism while claiming to safeguard it, no wonder he is heaven-sent for proselytising foreign missionaries to exploit his words and deeds and turn thousands off Buddhism’s sublime philosophy based on loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. No wonder it enables them to hold up the Buddha’s noble tenet to display tolerance to all religions and creeds as an orchestrated sham of the ages – as evidenced, as they would claim, by the glorified vile practise of one who professes to be a robed, card carrying disciple of the Buddhist order of monks, whose constant assertion that his deplorable acts have the blessings of the entire Order of Buddhist Monks is largely aired uncontradicted.

But what must alarm complacent Sinhala Buddhist is not so much the threat other religions pose to Buddhism in Lanka but the depths to which Gnanasara will stoop to disgrace the sacred saffron robe of the Buddha that he wears as his protective sheath and inviolate disguise. They must question his true motives to determine why Galagodaatte Gnanasara is fixated with his concerted campaign which brings Buddhism into disrepute, even whilst some practising psychologist, probing pathological patterns of deviant behaviour in insufferable browbeaters, should consider him as a fit subject for medical research.

For the last few years he was the sacred bull in the Lankan lea, the pampered beast of bigotry, let loose to run amok and wreak havoc by head butting Muslims when shown Islam’s green flag of the 12th century Fatimid Caliphate. But with the election of Maithripala as President, a new prescription seems to have been issued and, given the sedate period that ensued thereafter, it appeared to have worked. But probably, the recommended dosage ceased to be effective.

The river burst its banks this Monday and flooded the Homagama Magistrate’s Court with a barrage of abuse. The Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake had just finished remanding the six army intelligence officers arrested in connection with the disappearance of the journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda for a further period, when from the spectators seats rose Gnanasara bellowing “Government officials are remanding war heroes who saved the country by crushing the Tigers.” He also turned his wrath on the grieving wife of the missing Ekneligoda, who is feared dead after having being abducted and taken in a white van over five years ago, and accused her of being a pawn of the West.

The Magistrate who would have been startled by this sudden court outburst especially coming from a man dressed in robes, instead of ordering the immediate arrest of the offender who had dared to scandalise the court and was obviously in contempt, took the unprecedented step of trying to explain, perhaps in deference to the robe, the duty cast upon him by the law of the land. But to no avail. To Gnanasara Thera this was an invitation to launch his full frontal assault on the judiciary and reportedly retorted “This is white man’s law. Give me any punishment. I’m ready to accept it. We can’t tolerate this practice and that’s why we are here today”. And stormed out of court.

No one can say he didn’t ask for it. The magistrate issued a warrant for his immediate arrest. After leaving his two storey white house, his hallowed temple in Rajagiriya, accompanied by a few policemen in his black Benz, he arrived at the court premises to be accorded a hero’s welcome by his rabid supporters who hailed him as a martyr about to receive his martyrdom at the burning stake.

Gathered around the premises were the monks belonging to the Mahinda Sect of Lanka’s Buddhism. Present were the Chief incumbent of Abhayaramaya in Narahenpita Ven. Muruththettuwe Ananda Thera, Chief incumbent of Sri Sambodhi Viharaya, at Gregory’s Road Daranagama Kusaladamma Thera and Uduwe Dhammaloka, accompanied by the chief acolyte Udaya Gammanpila, clad in his usual ‘sil samadan’ white.

What followed the arrival were the disturbing scene of monks to whom the Sinhalese bow in reverence and offer their alms to gain merit to bestow upon their departed loved ones, shouting abuse at the police, snatching their caps away. Jeering, taunting, abusing the police and even threatening assault, climbing over the court wall with their robes drawn up to their knees, they revolted the Vinaya Rules of Conduct as laid down by the Buddha 2500 years ago. Their behaviour only served to endow shame upon themselves and the noble order to which they belong.

The maxim ‘honour those worthy of honour, worship those worthy of worship’ fled to brutish beast as monks grovelled under vehicles and lay prostrate with their necks kept close to the tyres. One monk even attempted self immolation in the manner Tibet monks have done to protest the Chinese occupation of their country and the oppression of Buddhism. Or perhaps he was trying to imitate Lankan Buddhist monk Ven Bowatte Indrarathana who committed self immolation in May 2013 in front of the Sri Dalada Maligawa protesting over the slaughter of bulls in Lanka.

And what cause of Buddhism was served, safeguarded or promoted when the monk disrupted court proceedings in a case which had nothing to do with him or with religion – any religion – but merely dwelt on a procedural matter concerning a bail application where six army intelligence men had been remanded over the disappearance of a journalist? What locus standi did it offer Gnanasara Thera to intervene?

Or for that matter what cause of the Sinhalese was served, safeguarded or advanced for the racist monk to intervene and condemn the court for trying six men who had served in the army? Or is Gnanasara declaring, as he seems to be, that the laws of the land must fall silent and any act, including the murder of a civilian, must be excused and culpability dispensed with if the arrested man happens to be a ‘war hero’ who crushed the Tigers?

If so, and if Gnanasara Thera is advocating the extraordinary proposition that the nation’s gratitude must confer immunity to army men and pardon all criminal acts done by them not only during the war years but even in peace time, can you remember him coming to the forefront and ever stating this boldly when Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, the Army General under whose command the soldiers crushed the Tigers and earned the nation’s gratitude, was dragged out of his office onto the pavement like a dog, bundled into a vehicle like a sack of potatoes; and then, after a brief court martial hearing, was convicted and jailed like a common criminal shortly after Mahinda Rajapaksa won the presidential election in 2010 after defeating the same Fonseka who had dared to contest him?

If any Tom, Dick or Harry, be he wearing a Buddhist robe, a Christian cassock, a Brahmin thread or a Moulavi thobe, can rise in open court and harangue the judge and attack his decision with impunity and escape without punishment, then it will be the end of law and order and anarchy will triumph. Perhaps that will be the day when Gnanasara Thera can get rid of the white man’s laws and reintroduce the old indigenous laws of the land he yearns for where, in the good old days of Sinhala kings, the punishment commonly doled out to troublesome monks was to put them to death in cauldrons of burning oil.

This time Galagodaatte Gnanasara, who was remanded on Tuesday till 9th February, has passed beyond the stakes of the law and there is no Rajapaksa to grant him redemption. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered a complete investigation of the Homagama incident and the unbecoming riotous behaviour of the protesting monks which necessitated the STF riot squad to contain the situation. It may be a forerunner of things to come. Perhaps it is in anticipation of such scenes the government is anxious to bring in the Bhikku Kathikawath Bill. It may also force the government to not only talk about whether foreign judges will participate or not in the planned war trials but also consider where the trials itself will be held – whether it will be on Lankan ground or on foreign soil?

Why Wimal needn’t fear Brits plan to turn innocence to guilt What wagon loads of western conspiracy theories must run in the train of Wimal Weerawansa’s cosmetic thoughts as he gets his nails manicured and his toes pedicured and his goatee stylised and his hair trimmed and gel swamped at his favourite beauty parlour in a five star hotel in Colombo?Pathologically driven to seeing an American hamburger or a British Cornish pasty or an Indian Tandoori hidden in every crusty pie on Lanka’s table that doesn’t rouse his half-baked ambitious appetites — except, of course, a Chinese sweet and sour which will do nicely for him — Wimal’s latest flatcar on track to join his tooting train comes loaded with a new British invention that enables the British High Commissioner in Lanka to devilishly turn the innocent to the guilty.Waking from his daytime slumber spent in the arms of Morpheus, he reveals to the nation the stuff of his twisted dreams. Unlike the benevolent Rajapaksa Laundromat which turned murderers, rapists and thieves into paragons of innocence, apparently the British had produced and perfected a contraption of sorts which reversed the process; and instead would turn Lanka’s innocent politicians still drooling with mother’s milk into evil monsters of dastardly crime done during the previous regime.”The British High Commission is tutoring officers to create a thief out of an honest man,” he thundered last Tuesday at Apey Gama delivering his speech on “The end of the motherland’s journey’. “They are facilitating and conducting lectures to the FCID officials in groups on how to make an innocent man guilty.”According to the former JVP toastmaster Weerawansa, the British High Commission was training the Financial Crimes Investigation Division’s (FCID) officials to hunt down the politicians who were against the British agenda. And what’s that? Apparently the mole he has in Britain’s Whitehall has also revealed it via pigeon mail. ‘Its power devolution and separatism,’ he said.In order to satisfy the demands of Britain, America, Norway and India who had claimed credit for ‘regime change’ in Lanka, “the latest and vicious tactic of the Government was to create conflicts among the Sinhalese and the Muslims. With the attention diverted on these issues, the government can introduce Tamil Eelam and separatism through the back door,” he declared. His monologue, however, did not spell out why a Sinhala dominated national government representing almost the entire Sinhala population, would wish to establish a Tamil Eelam. But he doesn’t have to burn the midnight oil fretting over the dismemberment of Mother Lanka. Neither has he to sound the alarm that Britain’s insidious plan will be the end of the road for the Motherland. No need to jump the gun and cry wolf when it is crystal clear to the public that the British High Commission’s sinister special op training FCID detectives in the black art of turning Lanka’s unimpeachable, honest to God MPs and Ministers of the Rajapaksa era whose failure to make the mandatory assets declaration is only because they have none to declare, into mega rogues who had plundered the nation’s coffers to the hilt had evidently come a cropper, with abject failure unmistakeably stamped on each file in bold. Despite the fact that for nearly an year, cartloads of Rajapaksa loyalists had been summoned by the FCID to the BMICH to make statements on many serious allegations of corruption; despite the fact some of them have been repeatedly summoned for further auditions and still continue to appear for continuous re-takes that they must now surely qualify for a season pass, not a single one has been indicted yet and brought to justice. This fact alone stands as conclusive evidence that gives the lie to the claim that Britain is training Lanka’s Inspector Clouseaus of the Financial Crime Investigation Division on how not to be clueless but how best to conduct investigations that will produce results and reveal to all the nation’s Megacorrupt. So much toil, so much sweat, but no fruit. Perhaps that’s why Wimal’s hero and saviour former president Mahinda Rajapaksa – who has made comeback after comeback not to power but to the BMICH office of the FCID – shifted the FCID role to the Fourth Estate. ‘It will take two containers to bring my 18 billion dollars back to Lanka, he said with a chuckle last week and, blaming it all on the media declared, “it is the media that make the guilty innocent and the innocent guilty.”