Does Anybody Care – Anymore?
By
Faraz
Shauketaly
Jokers are very much alive in this land of Serendib. We have so much going on around us that we have become a nation of jokers. Anura Bandaranaike said he did not want to be party to a nation of clowns but he has taken the easy way out and has not had to put up with the “Sitch”. And what a “sitch” we are in. Many people indeed think that dying is the easy way out!
For starters we have a man wanted for questioning in connection with a murder, who is said to be injured himself and is said to be in hospital – well out of the reach of the Sri Lanka Police, in Singapore. Duminda Silva’s predicament has been variously described by some of as ‘divine providence’ or extremely poor luck. Clearly he is either hated or loved and there is nothing in-between.
Julampitiye Amare being taken to courts... “such was this man’s fear of Sri Lanka’s laws and its implementation – he had even visited the Tangalle Prison to visit an inmate”.
The Police have not made any move to involve the international Police network, Interpol, saying they must first have the guidance from the Attorney Generals’ Department. Utter codswallop. Why is it that the Sri Lanka Police appear to want to hold on to some unseen hand in the hope that guidance will suddenly materialize almost magically out of thin air? Is it because Duminda Silva is perceived to be a person from within the inner sanctum of the Rajapaksa Factory? Perceptions apart, Duminda Silva is not immediately within the closer circle of the President and his family although politically the President has made strategic use of Duminda Silva.
For my British friends this is akin to the Metropolitain Police waiting for Downing Street to ask them to investigate why a few hundred Sri Lankans were carrying a LTTE flag for the whole world to see on the streets of London.
We then have the very strange case of Julampitiye Amare who appears to be a professional pain in the butt of the law. To make matters worse he is reported to have over a hundred warrants for his arrest including four orders from the High Court.
He was clearly a man the Police wanted to help with their inquiries. And the Magistrate in Tangalle revealed that – such was this man’s fear of Sri Lanka’s laws and its implementation – he had even visited the Tangalle Prison to visit an inmate.
Judge Chandrasena Rajapaksa stated in Court that ‘such acts could tarnish Sri Lanka’s image internationally and may even prevent us from getting aid’. So the question that the learned judge has posed is similar to what the rest of this country’s populace may well be asking: just how did Julampitiye Amare get away with this for so long.
It is almost rather like Houdini. Some may venture to say that he is perhaps quoted with an extra thick layer of Teflon. The main focus however ought to be to monitor just how long the learned judge will remain in Tangalle.
The Opposition in Sri Lanka is fond of saying that the government is in a continuous mode of ‘doing Sri Lanka in’ – with corruption and abuse of power. So one would imagine does not one, that when the Opposition has a modicum of authority to put matters right, that they would exercise and seize that opportunity with a rare relish?
Colombo’s Mayor, A. J. M. Muzzamil virtually ‘ate Ranil’s head’ until he was nominated as the Mayoral candidate. He professed that he would ‘do his job’. Yet as reported elsewhere in this paper, Muzzamil has failed and his dereliction of duty is unforgivable. It is so partisan – his actions – that he may as well join the government. At least that way the people of this country will almost expect him to have behaved as he indeed has.
The controversy surrounding Muzzamil is the fact that the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) has not so much as bothered to charge any fees from the organizers of the ‘Carlton Sevens’ rugby tourney. Serious questions are being asked from the CMC as to why exactly they failed to collect the 10% levy on the face value of each ticket.
Further questions are being raised about the amount of tickets against which the CMC have collected for various musicals recently held. The CMC have the right to enter these venues and check if tickets carry their stamp denoting that monies have been collected.
Perhaps Muzza has not heard that “we are held responsible for what we have not done as much as for what we have done”. Evidently His Worship believes that he is doing such a wonderful job that he can even justify his ordering of a sleek new BMW as his Mayoral Limousine, at a cool cost of Rs 18 Million.
If this was the Corporate world, Muzza would have been escorted out of office by internal security. His inaction and his placing of the blame towards Commissioner Badrani Jayawardena is plainly inexcusable. Says former Deputy Mayor Azaath Salley, “it is important for His Worship the Mayor to display strength and exercise his authority. The people expect no less.”
T. H. White said “the most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else do it wrong, without comment.” Clearly Ranil Wickremesinghe is the epitome of that. As Leader of the Opposition he has been silent on many an issue grabbing a few here and a few there – all of which have great media coverage. But little else.
This has been the least effective opposition this country has had in all its 63 years of independence. Can you remember the last time that Sajith Premadasa took a serious stand on a national issue?
The murder of a British tourist in the Presidential hometown of Tangalle sent international shockwaves. It was like a tsunami for our fledgling tourism industry. The culprits are behind bars for the moment.
The chief suspect is the Chairman of a local council and continues to have his mobile telephone from where he conducts his business. On one known occasion he was allowed to attend a council meeting.
“There are serious doubts as to whether this case will actually come to a natural finish. After a while the people will be quietly let out on some pretext or other” – words from a lawyer in Tangalle who insisted that there was ‘no way’ he agrees to being named in the article.
The crème de la crème of all of this is this final tale I must share with you. In Embilipitiya Pradeshiya Saba, the leader of the UPFA was a Monk.
Fellow members asked the party Secretary Maithripala Sirisena to appoint someone else as none of them liked the Monk. “We can only go by democracy and will choose the leader according to the preferential votes, not by what his peers say”. Utterly democratic one would imagine.
But in Serendib – this land of the fairytale democracy, there are twists in the tale. In Colombo, the same principle applied soon after the results saw Milinda Moragoda given the non-existant post of ‘Opposition Leader’ in the CMC. He was even given an office albeit after forcibly occupying one himself before Muzammil acceded to a request and made it official. Now that Moragoda has stepped down the same non-existant position (there is no official role of ‘Leader of the Opposition at the CMC) would go to the person with the next lot of preferential votes. That is what happens in a real democracy.
Instead we in Colombo have been told – by Maithripala Sirisena – that a turncoat in the form of Mohammed Mahroof will be given that post.
Mahroof in fact now occupies that ill-fated office allocated to Moragoda. Predictably another turncoat Azaath Salley is crying foul – as he was the one who came second to Milinda Moragoda. Clearly this form of selective democracy is good enough only in a dream. By that same token, it is entirely possible that a large number of Members of Parliament from the UPFA may well write to their leader – President Rajapaksa – and ask that due to the Prime Minister’s ill-health and age, they would wish to see D. M. Jayaratna replaced with Basil Rajapaksa. What we wonder would that scenario entail? Or they may write and ask that Sarath Fonseka be permitted to re-enter parliament – convicted felon and all that notwithstanding. It is entirely plausible that due to these very partial, insidious and incoherent applications of democracy the people of Sri Lanka simply do not care anymore.
Instead politics has become a joke, politicians have become the ‘bite’ in any drinking session and Anura Bandaranaike must be dancing in his grave as he gleefully casts his gaze over a nation of clowns. Indeed death does seem the easiest way out.
muzza is corrupt to the core
he is the head of one of the most corrupt public institutions in sri-lanka
the CMC
this serpent would steal from a beggar
to have the good life
he must have got the 18 million to buy the BMW
from all the kickbacks and bribes that he collected this past year in office
through his henchmen in the CMC
he is a spineless reptile
who will lick the soles of his masters
for the 30 peices of silver thrown to him
he has abused and betrayed the confidence and trust of thousands of citizens
who put him in office
may the souls of all those little children who died of dengue haunt you and your family forever
The main reason for people not caring is that they do not have anyone in the opposition to give them a vibrant leadership. Ponil’s leadership is as good as what he defecate in the toilet. Crooked Satakaya is taking full advantage of this. Let those who voted for this crook and those who did not vote suffer till the the day of “eruption” dawns. When will that be is the question?
It appears that SL is ruled by a bunch of mindless moronic thugs who can’t see further than the end of the nose. Rather than working for the downtrodden and destitute millions, the rulers are begging from other countries and stealing from the beggar’s bowl to feather their own nests and those of their kith and kin, making it not only a third world country, but a third rate one. These politicians should be stripped of their their ill-gotten riches and flogged in public. If the bunch of jokers that inhabit that country as the author puts it, cant do it, death is no escape, cos their own beliefs would tell them that there is a special hell waiting for them. The wonderful masses of a great country that keep a smile on the faces despite being cursed with morally bankrupt leaders deserve so much more, and perhaps for them, death is an escape to a better world.
A thought provoking and powerful article for which the author should be commended.
Too late, after the brutal genocide of innocent Tamils, Sri Lanka’s reputation is tarnished anyway. No one wants to visit this third world country with so much murder, corruption and poverty. Very soon SL will lose all its aid and the people will starve.
Are y0u suggesting that eiher the Leader of the Opposition or a leader of
the Regime be gunned down – death seems the easiest way out – and
join Anura, so that Bhuddhitsic Peace prevails on this Island?
The question is what right the govt. to control law and order in the country???? Why should any criminal /law breakers punished when the biggest ever murderers protected, encouraged, promoted, sleep with the politiciens !!!! Every high profile murder and crimes have been directly linked to the highest in the govt. – Tangalle, Baratha, Katuwane, white van crimes. This murderer from Katuwane has been openly flouting arrests due to the associations with the powerful. These are the ones who are promoted by them to get in to local councils and then the government later. What hope the country has?????
Clowns, Murderers, Rapists, Arsonists, Thieves, Blackmailers, Peeping toms, Commis Kakkas, Serial liars, Sanctimonious humbugs, Cheats, Drug dealers, human traffickers, forgers, election riggers, treasure hunters, without exception one can categorize 100% of those in the parliament of Sri Lanka into one or many of the above slots whilst a few of the “BIG” shots will fall into ALL of the above categories. And I mean EVERY single person who is a member of parliament. After all we ARE a banana republic personified.
@ Ian D.S,
THANK YOU SIR for the breakdown of criminal categories. I think your list will go on and on if one needs to add to the list. But you are correct indeed that all these criminals are representing us in parliament. Anyone who fits one of the categories by taking the immoral low road has then met the requirement and has become an endorsement to parliament then onto the executive branch or legislature. CONGRATULATIONS for all these criminals for plummeting Sri Lanka to irrevocable lows and into a sewage pit.
“Banana Republic” is not only “personified” but is reality and a living model of a failed state.
Well done Mr. ian D.S for your brave and words of wisdom.
Lest it should not be forgotten, that the new EXECUTIVE PRESIDENCY ushered in by the then president Mr.J.R.Jayawardene, on the new revised constitution. That
apart from making a man into a woman and a woman into a man, that this
executive presidency is empowered ,to (deliver/ dictate/fake/and plunder all what
belongs to the the srilankans, by the current FAMILY REGIME OF POLITICAL ASPIRANTS. Thus, converting all of the country assets into a DYNASTY OF CONVENIENCE. May,be, that (PEKING) has already, descended on its expanded ZONE OF FUTURISTIC AMBITIONS,( AS PROPHECYED MYSTICALY many moons back) ~~~~/_
Thanks, Gods will, I believe in……
Interesting read, though these are know facts the article puts it in perspective. We seems to be internally falling from one mess to another. Hope of peace and prosperity after the war has vanished, though there is a degree of peace the true meaning of the peace & prosperity is not trickled down to the masses as we have to endure sky rocketing COL and religious intolerance to name a few. How long this period will last is any ones guess !
“For my British friends this is akin to the Metropolitain Police waiting for Downing Street to ask them to investigate why a few hundred Sri Lankans were carrying a LTTE flag for the whole world to see on the streets of London.”
This is the problem right here. The (Sinhalese) mentality that gets upset over people (Tamils) carrying a harmless flag. Most of the Sinhalese agree that Tamils in SL should have no right to protest, because all such protests, for better or worse, are perceived to support secession. But then, another group of Sinhalese believes that only a small fraction of the Sinhalese should have the right to protest. It’s a classic case of Martin Niemoller’s “Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The late Anura B himself was a clown; you were all mesmerized by his command of Oxonian English but he himself by behavior inside and outside of Parliament was a clown. First check how he first became a “brave lion” and walked out with Mangala S and Sripathi; Only when his privileges, his FREE Acland House perks, his cars, his luxuries at STATE TAX PAYER EXPENSE were threatened with withdrawal did he cry like an immature baby and run back to the President. You should have used better examples. AB was a do-nothing; know-nothing who got where he got not with hardwork but by virtue of birth. If you want to use a more dignified and principled example use Mrs. B.. You are pathetic in your servility. Anura should be asked how he was made Speaker; though he did well in that position he is the one who went ahead with the massive mansion. Your paper exposed that as to how he helped himself to government largesse. When he walked out thinking many will follow him because he swallowed Mangala S’s “dead ropes” “Dirachchi lanu” he was marooned and went back on all 4 to BEG for his privileges. He was a decent man and probably would not condone violence and rape etc but please do not use him as an example because he was a clown bless his soul.