Wannabe Kings and Lickers Galore

By Helasingha Bandara

The first wannabe king

(July 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) J.R. Jayewardene was the first wannabe king of modern Sri Lanka, the man who claimed the only thing that he could not do was to make woman a man or vice versa, lucky he was not a surgeon, he could have ended up like Dr. Shipman. Frequently he got up on the Paththirippuwa to address the nation in his somewhat strange Sinhalese. His choice of Paththirippuwa was deliberate so as to impress the nation that he was the king or at least he felt like someone close to a king, for instance the king’s dog. No history book would record him as a king but an absolute villain who introduced all forms of corruption that escalated decade after decade and are hard to counter in today’s Sri Lanka. By depriving the political opponents of their civic rights, rigging elections and using the security forces to harass opponents the wily old fox set the precedence in corruption that snowballed in later years.

As S.L Gunasekara says in his article “Mahinda as "Maharajajaneni": constant lickers and variable arses” he was surrounded by herds of lickers finally to abandon him to lick a different arse. “Lickers never change; only the arses do” ,yes, an arrogant fool like Kotalawela had managed to say something meaningful and eternally true about the Sri Lankans. Every dark cloud has a silver lining! His usual stuff otherwise was like “I would like to be born a bull here (methana keppa gonek wela ipadenda ethnam kiyala hithenawa” when he visited the live stock farm at Nikaweratiya and saw a herd of well fed young cows.

Lickers

Premadasa had the same fantasy about the Paththirippuwa. Yet there was hardly any evidence that he was a wannabe king. However, despite his good deeds for the benefit of the poor masses, insecurity within himself turned him to a murderer. Despite his brutality and the warped mind he did not lack lickers. We find lickers in every stratum of the Sri Lanka society. Even those who felt within themselves superior to Premadasa concerning his presumed caste, licked his boots for personal gains. Unfortunately it is the colonists who have to be held responsible for this menace too. By creating a new class calling “new Radalas” from the people who were prepared to lick their boots they set the precedence for a nation of undignified lickers. Gradually it became customary to lick boots or let’s say arses (literal translation of our own expression) for the people aspiring to go higher up. Very few people in Sri Lanka today may think that their dignity is much worth than money or positions. What a shame!

Rajapaksha vs. Rajasingha

Mahinda Rajapaksha so far has not shown any desire to address the nation from the Paththirippuwa. Climbing Paththirippuwa is a sure sign of a wannabe king. He has done far better than all of the past leaders of Modern Sri Lanka to rid the country of a terrorist menace. He is embarked on a mission to address the issue of lawlessness in the country. His major development projects give hope to people. The impediment for him to remain as good as he is at present is the lickers galore. Can he remain untouched by the pressures of the lickers?

We can draw parallels between Rajapaksha and Rajasingha. Unfortunately Pilimathalawe underestimated the strength and the character of young Kannasamy and made him King Sri Wikkrama to have an absolute villain on the throne of Sri Lanka. Fortunately Prabhakaran boycotted the election to make Rajapaksha the President on assumption that he was the weaker link. We only hope Rajapaksha would not be a Rajasingha, neither Rajasingha 1 nor Sri Wikkrama.

-Sri Lanka Guardian