SLFP leader and former President Maithripala Sirisena told Parliament yesterday that any attempt to solve ethnic issues in an ad hoc manner will alienate the Sinhala Buddhist majority as the members of Maha Sangha were opposed to the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Participating in the debate on Wednesday’s policy statement by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Polonnaruwa District MP Sirisena said that the best option before Sri Lanka was to form an all-party government to solve its multiple crises.

Sirisena said that the Maha Sangha staged a protest near the parliament complex on Wednesday against the full implementation of the 13th amendment to the Constitution. “The majority in this country are Sinhalese Buddhists. It’s not right to do something like this by antagonising the majority. It can never be done. Nothing that the Buddhist monks are opposed to should be attempted,” Sirisena said, adding that it was incomprehensible why incumbent President Wickremesinghe had taken up the issue of the 13th Amendment at that juncture.

“I have no idea why Ranil Wickremesinghe has done so when there are so many problems in the country,” said Sirisena, calling upon everyone to unite and help find solutions to the country’s many problems.