The Sinhala Buddhist extreme nationalist organisation, Patriotic National Centre (PNC) led by Buddhist Monk Venerable Dhambara Amila Thero, on Thursday December 24, announced that it has decided to support General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, contesting in the forthcoming Sri Lankan presidential elections.

Dhambara Amila Thero has been opposed to outside influence, both the Western and the Indian, since the Norwegian brokered Ceasefire Agreement in 2002 and his movement has been a key opinion maker of the Sinhala nationalism, exercising the pressure on the Sri Lankan state to nullify the Norwegian brokered P-TOMS in 2005 and to unilaterally withdrew from the Ceasefire Agreement in 2008. Ven. Dhambara Amila Thero was formerly the leader of the National Bhikku Front (NBF), an ultra Sinhala nationalist organisation of Buddhist monks.

The PNC leader Dhambara Amila Thero at a media briefing held Thursday at Colombo National Library Auditorium said that his organization supported General Sarath Fonseka who achieved the country’s 'main goal', by 'defeating terrorism.'

The extremist monk who preferred Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2005 has commented that Fonseka, whom he met recently, knew more about politics than the individuals who had succeeded in politics in recent times.

Rajapaksa's dependency on certain powers and his family-centered politics has caused certain sections of extreme Sinhala Buddhists to prefer Sarath Fonseka, said a newspaper editor in Colombo commenting that the move by the Sinhala nationalist monk also demonstrated that the Sinhala nationalists were confident in taking forward their agenda facing any eventuality at the elections.