Is the NPP Government pro-predator? 

The President visiting Ven. Pallegama Hemaratana in December 2025 – File photo

The most recent instance of victim-blaming occurred when a former minister called the child a prostitute. According to his statement, the monks should not be arrested based solely on the word of a ‘prostitute’. This statement, too, is problematic on many different levels: not only does he label a child victim as a prostitute, but he also denies the fundamental fact that sex workers are human beings who possess rights as well

The social media was and is still ablaze because of the harrowing case of a thirteen-year-old girl in Anuradhapura who was allegedly sold by her own mother to one of the country’s most powerful religious figures, Pallegama Hemarathana. Despite the gravity of the child abuse allegation, the state mechinery delayed action, allowing the senior monk to be shielded under the guise of medical care in a luxury private hospital rather than facing immediate detention. While many are standing with the child at the moment, there were plenty who blamed the child too. 

The larger discourse 

Child abuse is a harrowing reality that is becoming a societal norm. As we now know very well owing to the Epstein files, the world is essentially controlled by a bunch of pedophiles, yet we choose to remain silent and act as though nothing has happened. We continue with our daily lives, jogging, doing yoga, sipping our tea, participating in mindfulness programmes, and exchanging pleasantries, while the innocent continue to be sacrificed. Content creators, including parents and teachers, routinely use their children and minor students as props in their videos. They broadcast these children to the world, chasing likes and views for monetary gain. In doing so, they have turned the innocence of youth into a digital commodity. When the private lives of children are bartered for engagement, child abuse and the ‘selling of children’s flesh’ become normalised. In such a society, where children are already viewed as assets for profit rather than humans deserving of protection, it is no wonder the state remains silent. 

Child-blaming 

One of the arguments circulating on social media was that ‘no one should take a child’s word against a senior monk.’ Children, particularly those who have never received body safety education, lack the tools to communicate what is happening to them. There is simply no language available to these children to articulate such abuse. Against this background, when a child finally manages to communicate what happened, these elements of society dismiss the claims by asserting that a child’s testimony is unreliable. 

Another post that was circulating, unfortunately shared by a lawyer, said, ‘To all men, before intercourse, please check the woman’s birth certificate and confirm her age.’ This is disturbing on many levels. According to the available information, the monk already knew the age of the child, yet paid her mother, using his wealth and power, to sexually exploit a minor. Besides, what kind of man would fail to recognise that she was a 13-year-old child? 

The most recent instance of victim-blaming occurred when a former minister called the child a prostitute. According to his statement, the monks should not be arrested based solely on the word of a ‘prostitute’. This statement, too, is problematic on many different levels: not only does he label a child victim as a prostitute, but he also denies the fundamental fact that sex workers are human beings who possess rights as well.

Let us be clear about what Buddhism is and not. Siding with the child abuser or the predator is fundamentally anti-Buddhist. The Dhamma is rooted in the ‘truth,’ and the protection of the innocent, rather than blindly shielding the powerful monastic 

Academic jargon 

While the State mechanism failed to take immediate action, the so-called ‘atheist, left-leaning progressives,’ including prominent women within the movement, were in an endless effort to defend the Government by hiding behind academic jargon. They began blaming the ‘officials,’ ‘police,’ separating these entities from the Government and clubbing them with the ‘State.’ This was a public display of so-called ‘progressive’ hypocrisy. They were using abstract political theory to protect the high-ranked monk, in order to remain sided with the Government. 

Silent women Parliamentarians 

You would think our female parliamentarians would stand with the child, yet they remain dead silent. This includes so-called feminists trained in gender and social sciences. Instead of taking action at home, a delegation led by the Minister of Women and Child Affairs Saroja Savithri Paulraj spent 10 to 16 May  in India. While local advocates waited for them to address pressing domestic failures, these MPs were in New Delhi discussing child safety and crime prevention with the Delhi Police Commissioner. There is profound irony in studying protection mechanisms abroad while maintaining absolute silence on the vulnerabilities of children at home. 

The NPP Government is caught in a desperate effort to secure its Sinhala-Buddhist vote bank. While its leaders preach ethnic harmony to the public, the Government’s performance and actions suggest a much darker continuity

Sinhala-Buddhist vote bank 

The NPP Government, on the other hand, is caught in a desperate effort to secure its Sinhala-Buddhist vote bank. While its leaders preach ethnic harmony to the public, the Government’s performance and actions suggest a much darker continuity. The evidence of this betrayal is everywhere, in the grand theater of relic exhibitions, and in the constant, performative meetings between Government politicians and high-ranking monks. These leaders seek ‘advice’ on purely non-religious matters, effectively keeping the clergy above the sovereignty of the state. 

We see that Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, an academic and a self-proclaimed feminist, now routinely drapes herself in traditional white sarees to grace endless temple functions, performing her Sinhala-Buddhist identity. The Government, in the meantime, has already staged expositions of the sacred Tooth Relic twice. In another enactment of this performativity recently, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake offered a sacred Bo tree sapling to the peace walk monks. 

You would think our female parliamentarians would stand with the child, yet they remain dead silent. This includes so-called feminists trained in gender and social sciences. Instead of taking action at home, a delegation led by the Minister of Women and Child Affairs Saroja Savithri Paulraj spent 10 to 16 May  in India. While local advocates waited for them to address pressing domestic failures, these MPs were in New Delhi discussing child safety and crime prevention with the Delhi Police Commissioner. There is profound irony in studying protection mechanisms abroad while maintaining absolute silence on the vulnerabilities of children at home

The cost of performative ‘Buddhistness’

While these performances may seem innocent, the cost they carry extends far beyond the theater itself. By bowing before the robe while ignoring the crime, the NPP Government continues the infamous lineage of protecting its Sinhala-Buddhist vote base. They participate in these rituals solely to signal their piety to this nationalist electorate. While politicians sip tea and exchange pleasantries in temple reception halls, a 13-year-old victim is denied justice just to preserve a political alliance.  Let us be clear about what Buddhism is and not. Siding with the child abuser or the predator is fundamentally anti-Buddhist. The Dhamma is rooted in the ‘truth,’ and the protection of the innocent, rather than blindly shielding the powerful monastic.

(The author is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.)