18/02/2004 12:49 - (SA)

Colombo - Buddhist monks contesting elections as Sri Lanka's first all-clergy party said on Wednesday they were hopeful of emerging as a decisive political force to turn the island into a "righteous state".

The monks will be pitted against minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindus and also want to hold the balance of power after the April 2 election called by President Chandrika Kumaratunga nearly four years ahead of schedule.

The majority Sinhalese community, which is mainly Buddhist, is divided down the middle between two coalition parties run by Kumaratunga and her nemesis, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Buddhists account for 69% of the country's 18.6 million population, while Hindus are the biggest religious minority with 15.5%. Muslims and Christians form about 7.5% each.

"With the kind of numbers of Buddhists in the country, we should at least in theory have the possibility of becoming the main decisive power," monk Athuraliya Rathana said.

"But we don't think we will be able to awaken all the Buddhists to support our cause during a short campaign. However, we should have sufficient power to influence the formation of a future government."

Monk Uduwe Dhammaloka, the secretary of the campaign, said the clergymen were forced to enter politics because they felt no politician was looking after Buddhist interests.

He said the monks hoped to create a "Dharma Rajya", or a righteous state.

'We detest politics

"We detest politics, but we took this decisive step to protect our country," Dhammaloka said. "If we don't have a country, we will not be able to propagate Buddhism."

He accused unnamed non-government agencies of offering inducements to convert Buddhists to other religions and accused successive governments of not taking action to prevent "unethical conversions".

The monks said that since they announced their candidature for all the 225 parliamentary seats on Tuesday, they had received huge support from the faithful, while there had been pressure from mainstream parties to stand down.

"There are some who believe that by our contesting they will lose some of their votes," Dhammaloka said. "We are not interested in all that. We want to protect Buddhism that is now under siege in this country."

Buddha is the first force

Asked whether they hoped to be a third force in the country where the Sinhalese community is split between two parties, Dhammaloka said: "We are going to be the first force... Buddha is the first force. Buddha is our leader and teacher and Dhamma (teachings of the Buddha) is our manifesto."

Sri Lankan Hindus consider Buddha to be one of their gods, while almost all Buddhist temples in the country also have a shrine to Hindu gods.

The monks were invited to run by the National Heritage Party, which said the clergy would add a new culture to the usually violent election campaigns in Sri Lanka.

Edited by Tricia Shannon