COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Tamil party allied with Sri Lanka’s main opposition has asked the opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, to act after Lakshman Kiriella, a senior figure in Mr. Premadasa’s party, described the government’s handling of a jailed Buddhist monk’s case as an effort to appease Tamil-speaking citizens.
Mano Ganesan, the leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance, made the request in a letter to Mr. Premadasa, whose Samagi Jana Balawegaya, or S.J.B., leads the coalition the T.P.A. belongs to. The T.P.A. contested the 2024 parliamentary election as part of that coalition, and Mr. Ganesan holds his seat in Parliament through the S.J.B.'s national list. He said he had also raised the matter with Mr. Premadasa directly.
Mr. Kiriella, a former cabinet minister, made the remarks on Monday in Kandy, when an S.J.B. delegation led by the party’s general secretary, Ranjith Madduma Bandara, called on the Mahanayake Thero of the Malwathu Chapter, one of the country's most senior Buddhist prelates. The meeting was broadcast on video afterward.
In the meeting, Mr. Kiriella said the government was using the case of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, a hardline Buddhist nationalist monk, to appease Tamil-speaking citizens and others outside the Sinhala Buddhist majority. He also used the Sinhala terms “sulu jaathi” and “maha jaathi.” The first means “small races” and is used for minority communities such as Tamils and Muslims. The second means “the great race” and refers to the Sinhalese majority. Mr. Ganesan said the terms were outdated and that Sri Lanka should stop using them.
Mr. Ganesan said the remarks risked reinforcing divisive narratives and undermining the dignity of Tamil and Muslim citizens. He said it was particularly regrettable that such language had been used in a discussion with the country’s highest Buddhist religious leadership.
The objection from inside Mr. Premadasa’s coalition comes three months after the T.P.A. joined five other Tamil- and Muslim-led parties in a new common platform for Tamil-speaking communities. At the platform’s launch in July, the T.P.A. and two other S.J.B. partners, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the All Ceylon Makkal Congress, said they would remain in the S.J.B.-led alliance.
Mr. Ganesan welcomed the delegation’s visit to Kandy and said dialogue with religious leaders was important. He said his objection to Mr. Kiriella’s remarks should be kept separate from the legal case against Gnanasara Thero and from a dispute over what the monk is required to wear in prison.
On the imprisonment, Mr. Ganesan said the rule of law should govern, and that he and others had refrained from questioning the court’s ruling for that reason. He said he would not object if the president, after due consideration and in accordance with the law, corrected the legal deficiencies identified in a previous presidential pardon and granted a new one.
On prison clothing, he said a committee appointed by the president should be allowed to finish its work. Proposals to change the laws and regulations on what prisoners wear are expected within two weeks, he said, and any resolution should respect the law, the responsibilities of the institutions involved and equality before the law.
Mr. Ganesan said he had already asked Tamil-speaking Sri Lankans not to comment publicly on the issue while that process was underway, citing his experience of sensitive disputes turning into wider communal tension.
None of those questions, he said, justified language that marginalized, stereotyped or disparaged Tamil and Muslim citizens. He objected in particular to the rights of Tamil speakers being treated as the demands of a political constituency to be appeased, rather than as the rights of citizens entitled to the same dignity as every other Sri Lankan.
He asked Mr. Premadasa to establish what was said at the meeting and to take appropriate action. As opposition leader and the head of a major party, Mr. Premadasa had a responsibility to ensure that public statements by its members reflected pluralism, mutual respect and equal citizenship, Mr. Ganesan said.
He described the letter as a constructive intervention and said he hoped Mr. Premadasa would give it serious consideration.
