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File photograph.
Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake has insisted that the controversy over the unauthorised Buddha statue at Trincomalee is “already resolved,” even as the statue remains at the site and the government faces mounting criticism for capitulating to Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist pressure.
Addressing Parliament, Dissanayake said he had instructed the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security to submit a full report on the incident and claimed that authorities had acted to “prevent the escalation” of the situation on Sunday. He dismissed the uproar as “another round of old racist drama,” stating, “The problem is already resolved. Why are they still trying to stir things up?”
His remarks have sparked further criticism, particularly from Tamils who point out that the Buddha statue was reinstalled by police just hours after its removal, and that construction on the disputed site only paused due to a court order rather than decisive government action. Dissanayake said that “certain factions” were attempting to provoke unrest, adding that the country’s future “will not be built on ethnic division.”
However, critics argue that it was the government’s own retreat that emboldened the monks responsible for the unauthorised construction.
Minister repeats assurances as statue remains
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala also attempted to downplay the incident, warning politicians and the public to “refrain from politicizing” the situation. He insisted in Parliament that the NPP government “will never allow any citizen to face injustice” and said the area was “peaceful.”
He added that a Police B-report had been filed and that the Trincomalee Magistrate’s Court had prohibited any further development until the next hearing on 25 November.
Despite these claims, the Buddha statue remains in place, and the shrine continues to stand under police protection. The government has offered no explanation as to why the structure was allowed to remain even though the construction had no approval from the Coast Conservation Department or any other regulatory authority.
Accusations of capitulation
The NPP government initially appeared to enforce the law when police removed the statue on Sunday, following complaints from the Coast Conservation Department and local residents. But by Monday morning, the statue had been returned to the monks with the minister claiming it had been taken away only due to a “threat of vandalism.”
Tamil parliamentarians and civil society have since condemned the government’s reversal, stating that the retreat mirrors the behaviour of past administrations that enabled and protected Sinhala-Buddhist encroachment across the Tamil homeland.
The shrine sits on coastal land governed by the Coast Conservation Department, which previously filed cases against illegal constructions inside the premises. Residents say new materials were brought to the temple late at night before the recent escalation.
Trincomalee has long been one of the most heavily targeted districts for state-driven Sinhalisation, with the expansion of Buddhist shrines used as a tool to assert demographic and territorial dominance.
Against this backdrop, critics say the NPP government’s framing of the incident as “racial agitation” avoids confronting the structural imbalance of power that has enabled decades of land grabs and unchecked Buddhist nationalist activity.
Despite Dissanayake’s insistence that “the problem is already resolved,” the dispute remains very much active. The court has frozen further construction and the statue remains installed.
