Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka plans to leave politics

by Chamikara Weerasinghe

Member of Parliament and dissident member of the Jathika Hela Urumaya Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera yesterday told the Daily News he would leave politics as it was not appropriate for the community of bhikkhus but declined to comment as to when he would step down from his present MP post.

Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera had confessed that he would step down from his MP post in an earlier interview he had with the Daily News during the first quarter of this year.

Asked whether he was planning to leave politics after the forthcoming Presidential Election or before that, Ven. Dhammaloka Thera said he was in the process of choosing an appropriate Presidential candidate to offer his support at the election.

"I will be planning to leave politics after rendering my final service as a Member of Parliament by extending my support to one of the two Presidential candidates contesting this election," he said.

"I will announce the name of my favourite candidate and my position on October 27," he said. Asked if his decision should upset the members of his former political party, the JHU, Ven. Dhammaloka Thera said," sometimes medicine prescribed for wind can rouse phlegm in one's body."

"However, I do not think I would hurt the JHU with my decision," he added.

When asked the General Secretary of the JHU, Champaka Ranawaka how they saw the decision of their former member Ven. Dhammaloka Thera, he said that it was not in their interest to comment on the actions of Ven. Dhammaloka Thera. He said, "Whatever the Ven. Dhammaloka Thera does, he had to undergo the Karmical consequences."