Mahinda is not content!

by Helasingha Bandara

(December 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The BBC announced that Mahinda’s visit to the UK was unofficial and has been organised by the Sri Lanka High Commission in London. The UK government has finally been drawn into providing unwilling security to him in the face of ferocious objections to his visit by London’s Sri Lanka community. Little did he know that he would face mass protests and draw negative publicity to his visit to London which appears to have no purpose other than image building and setting records? One news item quoted that he is the first to address the union twice. Lalith and Kadir had been Oxford products and had been the Presidents of the Union. By merely reading a speech written by someone else Mahinda Rajapaksha cannot equate the two intellectuals. However this move of Rajapaksha to visit the UK to address the Oxford union is a clear symptom that he is not content with the glory that he and his family have been made to bask in by the local opportunists. Within the shores of almost an unknown tiny island he is the sun, the moon, the earth, the stars and the rivers. He knows that he is no sun, no moon, no starts, no earth, no rivers and nobody beyond the four walls of this little castle.

Why

To the disbelief and disappointment of many people, local and international, he has embarked upon a journey of self aggrandizement. State media and local opportunists help him to deceive the gullible local masses by whitewashing black issues and creating a crystal image. The picture beneath however, is corroding and blackening by the day. The masses do not understand the accountancy and economic jargon of wealth and prosperity. Said in the language they understand is that in today’s Sri Lanka if someone can eat bread with pol sambol he is considered well-to-do. We did not eat bread in our houses because eating bread was considered a sign of poverty in the well-to-do rural houses. Instead we were forces to eat rice and curry for all three meals. As a child I craved for a panroti.

Elephant or the man

Recent statistics show that the human deaths have been far greater than the number of elephant deaths in the elephant-man confrontation. Elephants have started invading many villages which have not been their traditional territories. For example elephants have been sighted in Matale and Anuradhapura towns. Two weeks ago an elephant killed a woman from Thimbiriyawa in the Nikaweratiya region. The government has no strategy to stop the deaths on both sides. People have no option other than to kill elephants. Imagine a three year old coconut plant of a poor villager is eaten by an elephant! The farmer has to wait for another three years to get a plant to grow to that size. These are minute examples of the damage the elephants do to the poor people of Sri Lanka who are being crushed from all sides. The government has no shame in telling lies about the prosperity it is allegedly achieving for people. The magnificent tusker caught by Galgamuwa people died when the local lorry that was used to transport it crashed under its weight. Those lorries have not been made for such purposes. Besides they are so old and rusty and in relative terms unsuitable to be used on public roads. The wild life conservation department did not have a suitable vehicle to transport the trapped elephants . If the state coffers have been emptied by the politician thieves, why not go at least with a begging bowl to South Africa and beg for support to control man-elephant confrontation of which the South Africans have best know-how and the resources. Concerning the gravity of Ali Karadara, It is imminent that a campaign to unite to kill elephants “Pela gasemu, ali maramu”, will emerge from the masses.

The wonder of Asia

Mahinda does not need to make Sri Lanka the wonder of Asia because it is already the wonder of Asia. While 300 chefs cooking kiribath to celebrate King Mahinda’s second coronation women throw their children to Kalu Ganga for being unable to feed them. While the President is paraded in a horse cart, Sri Lanka women are being tortured, raped and killed while slaving for the Arabs. While per capita income is rising to thousands of Dollars the rural Sri Lanka remains dark and not easily accessible (no electricity, no water, no roads, no sanitation and so on). While the country is just closing on the ideal of the wonder of Asia people at Pettah still urinate at the corner of the Fort railway station for being unable to find a public toilet in the vicinity. Not only the Pettah area but the whole of Colombo stinks despite the big talks of the so called Colombians. The journey toward the ‘ideal’ is very near indeed!

The right path.

Forget the ‘distance’, observe the fore-ground! There are millions of small things that can be done to improve the country, its environs and the people. Agree with all politicians and party supporters to stop stealing public money! My neighbour’s house was on sale for 36 M Rupees. The politician who came to buy it felt that it was a little too small a cost for his capacity and later bought a property worth 80M. Investigate how a parliamentarian whose salary is presumably about 40,000 Rupees per month can accumulate such wealth! He needs to be an MP for 160 years to save 80M even if he is able to save his entire salary. Stop wasting money on image building and empty extravaganzas! Develop the country and improve the quality of life of its people! You then do not need to force yourself to address the Oxford Union .All Unions would follow you instead. Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia is a glowing testimonial.