Sirisena shocks expat Sri Lankans in Japan with extremist monk in Tokyo
- Post 14 March 2018
- By Athula Vithanage
Expatriate Sri Lankans in Japan were in a shock to see President Maithripala Sirisena in the company of an extremist Buddhist monk who leads an outfit implicated in recent anti-Muslim riots.
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ddhist Brigade (Bodu Bala Sena - BBS) chief Galagodaaththe Gnanasara was among several other Buddhist monks who had been invited to a series of meetings with the visiting Sri Lanka president.
“All of us of the business community were shocked to see the president and the racist monk together,” said a Sri Lankan exporter in Japan.
“The whole of the Sri Lankan business community deplores what happened in the hill country. We told that in a joint letter handed over to the president.”
'Spineless president'
The invitations to the Tokyo Imperial had been sent out by the Sri Lanka embassy in Tokyo for a “Community Gathering With the President”.
“There is no way that the embassy wasn’t aware of Gnanasara coming,” said a business leader who also attended the meeting at the invitation of the Sri Lanka mission.
“Gnanasara slams our president as spineless. How on earth can he be invited on the same stage to receive blessings? This is totally a political scam.”
“I had to pray so that I could control myself,” said another invitee.
President Sirisena and several key ministers in a five day visit to Japan expect to woo investors to Sri Lanka.
“A Yen Loan Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is to be signed during the visit for implementing the Health and Medical Service Improvement Project,” said a statement from Sri Lanka’s ministry of foreign affairs
A spokesman for the Buddhist Brigade said that their leader G. Gnanasara is expected in the island by the 19th.
© JDS
