Minister Bandula Gunawardena comes of age

“But how have we Sri Lankans faced the oil problem? Just northern gingili oil and southern coconut oil won’t do. A Pettah merchant suggested castor oil the other day especially to fry bitter gourd! During the days Jaffna was cut off, that was when Junius Jayawardena had a totalitarian grip on the country, Jaffna man ran his car on his precious palmyrah toddy.”
____________________

by Catapult Thangavelu of Sleuth Street, Slave Island

(May 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) President Mahinda Rajapakse has a large coterie of ministers to assist him in the governance of the country. No other country prides such an extended family of ministers or rather social acquaintances of the Head of State who enjoy ministerial and other privileges funded by the country’s exchequer.

Not so long ago, fed up we were, we sent one of them to count crows on Crows’ Island and now we have come across another minister who has suddenly discovered that Sri Lanka is facing an economic crisis.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Trade Bandula Gunawardena has finally – thank God – come of age and there will be puberty ceremonies ritually performed in the lobby of the Parliament at Kotte Sri Jayawardenapura. It is understood this will be done in the near future. It is not always Sri Lanka has such a happy occasion when a minister of the state makes such an intelligent – come of age – observation.

One among a hundred of them, Minister Gunawardena has found out what has been virtually known a few decades ago that Sri Lanka is facing severe economic crisis. But he is yet to appreciate that we have been in this crisis already for a pretty long time.

When a nation is sinking, what does it matter if it is one foot under water or several feet? The truth of the matter is that we have been sinking and gasping for breath for quite a long time. Yet we are preoccupied with an ethnic war.

Where was Minister Gunawardena all these time?

Isn’t it faddish for politicians to talk about the oil crisis especially when they know of nothing else? Oil has been pretty oily for a long time and America’s dilemma is oil. So much so, oil has been Bushwhacked and that means the entire US foreign policy is focused on the oil wells of Arabia.

But how have we Sri Lankans faced the oil problem? Just northern gingili oil and southern coconut oil won’t do. A Pettah merchant suggested castor oil the other day especially to fry bitter gourd! During the days Jaffna was cut off, that was when Junius Jayawardena had a totalitarian grip on the country, Jaffna man ran his car on his precious palmyrah toddy.

Have we thought seriously about alternate sources of energy? How are we spending our resources and the hard earned foreign exchange especially by our young women slaving in the Middle East?

Is the Trade Minister Gunawardena aware we are killing our own people with arms purchased from our reserves and whatever is available to us when this is certainly not necessary and these funds could be spent on purposeful development in the country?

It would have been better, wiser and sounder for Minister Gunawardena to impress on President Rajapakse to forget about oil but get down to brass tacks and solve the ethnic crisis and also bring back our young women from the Middle East and find them proper employment in the country

Coming of age is one thing Mr Minister but making an intelligent assessment of the country’s problems is another and certainly such a naïve statement as saying that we are facing an economic crisis is utter rubbish and miserable nonsense to come from the lips of a minister of the state. We have not been honest about our real problems that affect every citizen in the country irrespective of race, religion, class, caste and community.
- Sri Lanka Guardian