Attack on monks: why are the Benz bikkhus silent?

(July 19, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) When the Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe exposed an illegal duty free vehicle sale of a JHU MP who happened to be a Buddhist monk, there was such a hue and cry by several monks including the Malwatta Mahanayake. Many politicians too condemned Ranil Wickremesinghe for his exposure over TV of a ‘highly respected monk.’

What was exposed was, to stop the illegal sale of MPs’ duty free vehicles by all MPs and public officers. There were attempts to sue the Opposition Leader on irrelevant matters, which arose from this exposure, but now everything has been swept under the carpet.

Now we are shown how the police called the Riot Squad to disperse a procession of monks who were exercising their rights to submit some demands to the President, and were marching with upheld banners to see the President.

The police riot squad used tear gas and water canons to disperse this procession, and some monks were shown scampering from the onslaught. Finally we were shown some of the monks being rounded up like common thugs and bundled into a van to be taken for grilling at the police station.

Not a single monk came out in protest to condemn this act by the police who would have carried out orders from an unmentioned source at the top. Why this double standard? Why was even the Malwatta Mahanayake silent? Or were all silenced by the same source at the top?

It appears that we are following the Chinese example where the authorities beat up the Tibetan monks recently and did not allow any negotiations. Are we endorsing the Tiananmen Square massacre of Chinese students and the repression of the Tibetan monks? Why is the JHU silent on these issues concerning bikkhus?
- Sri Lanka Guardian