Sri Lanka’s political monks rage against reduced clout

In November, Ranil Wickremesinghe went where no Sri Lankan leader has gone since the tectonic shift in the country's politics in 1956, when Sinhala nationalism had its coming-out party. Wickremesinghe asked monks to stick to their job – instead, it was implied, of dabbling in politics. He also referred to some demonstrating monks as robe-wearing kids. "It is not possible to gain special protection by merely wearing robes and acting against the Dhamma," he chided. 

The fact that Wickremesinghe could get away with such a statement is a mark of the times. Sri Lanka's monks, for decades deeply enmeshed in its politics, reached the apotheosis of their influence in the 2019 and 2020 elections, when the Buddhist clergy was the most visible, vocal and committed component of the Rajapaksa support base. Monks worked tirelessly for the victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the 2019 presidential election, and of Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in the 2020 parliamentary election. Buddhist temples across the land were transformed into de facto propaganda offices. Voting for the Rajapaksas was depicted as not just a patriotic but also a religious duty.