Venerable Ajahn Brahmawanso Thera, who was held at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for 12 hours, said that instead of looking into how he missed the flight, authorities should look into how Sri Lanka can be a better country with more forgiveness.
“I learnt that the President has initiated an inquiry about how I missed my flight. Someone made a little mistake. It is not a big deal. So please instead of having an inquiry about how I missed my flight, instead have an inquiry how you can have a better country with more forgiveness. Allow people to make mistakes because one thing which I’ve noticed when you allow people to make a mistake, they’re not afraid of making mistakes. They make less mistakes,” the Thera had said in a video.
The Thera stated that he had no idea Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister was in the lounge that evening.
“I am a well-known monk. So, you go in the VIP lounge. I never knew the prime minister of Sri Lanka at the lounge that evening. He was going off to some big event over in Bangkok. Everything was orderly and plenty of time to wait for the flight. When it came to the boarding time, I asked if we are boarding soon. They said don’t worry, everything is on schedule. By the time they took me to the gate, that is when I saw the boarding bridge was moving away from the aircraft. The plane took off. I missed my flight. Nothing to do with anything which I was doing. I just got taken out only seen the lounge. Supposed to be VIP is supposed to look after VIPs please never become a VIP. You tend to lose your board. If I had just walked out by myself no problem, but you can’t exist soldiers outside,” venerable thero said.
