Ven. Medagoda Abayathissa Thero today urged the Most Venerable Mahanayake Thero of the Malwathu Chapter not to take decisions regarding the future of the country based on his personal opinion. 

He was speaking during a press beefing held in Colombo by the “Eliya Foundation,” with regard to the Interim Report of the Constitutional Assembly’s steering committee regarding a new constitution. 

The Thero said that he too is a Buddhist monk of the Malwathu Chapter and requested the Venerable Mahanayake Thero to properly study the interim report and obtain a correct understanding about it. 

He stated that in the past certain Buddhist monks have come to be disliked by the people and that this matter has to be looked into and proceeded with before such an unfortunate situation befalls the Malwathu Mahanayake Thero.

Ven. Abayathissa Thero charged that the government is attempting to use the word “unitary” to create a federal government in Sri Lanka through the new Constitution. 

Former Head of the Civil Defence Force (CDF) Rear Admiral (rtrd) SarathWeerasekara, who also addressed the event, stated that attempts were made to implicate the army during the highly-publicized trial over the rape and murder of teenage schoolgirl Vidya in Jaffna.

However, this was thwarted due to the brilliance of the country’s intelligence units, he said. 

He also claimed that State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran had intervened to get the main suspect in the case released and that no action has been taken against her so far. 

He urged the President to immediately direct his attention to this matter.