Insulting people's intelligence


| by Prabhath Saha-Bnadu

( September 24, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Major Chandana Pradeep Susena's claim that he was too shocked to remember who really beat him the other day at Hilton Residence makes one feel sorry for him and the army. He is a weakling who gets easily shocked and disoriented in a scuffle with a few ruffians. If what he has told the Court is anything to go by, the army must be scraping the bottom of the barrel and it is a pity that the national military has had to depend on information provided by such personnel in making crucial decisions on matters concerning national security. There is a compelling reason to believe that the country has won a fierce war against a ruthless terrorist outfit not because of intelligence operatives like Major Susena but in spite of them. It is time the military intelligence recruited strong officers and men who could take a few blows from political goons in a car park!

If an intelligence officer assigned to keep tabs on elusive characters cannot even remember where he left his gold chain and falsely accuses others of having robbed it, he is certainly not worth his salt. He is a liability to the army! Next time he may forget where he has left his service weapon––and god knows what else! The army has done a major blunder by assigning important tasks to Major Susena.

The major was spying on two drug dealers at the time of the attack, we are told. There was absolutely no need for the military intelligence to play hide and seek with such elements. They could have been arrested promptly and interrogated thoroughly. We wonder what has become of the White Van brigade. Are we to gather that it is not called in to deal with dangerous characters like drug barons, some of whom have fled the country with the help of ministers? How Kudu Lal, the drug czar who controlled the narcotics business in Colombo, was escorted to the airport by a minister is case in point. The drug barons Major Susena claims to have followed must now be aware that the military intelligence is on their trail. So, they must be arrested forthwith before they, too, flee the country-maybe with the help of Kudu Lal's saviour. We hope they are real.

Different sauce for A'pura gander – II

The chief ministerial dispute in the North Central Province took a turn for the worse a few days ago with former Chief Minister Berty Dissanayake warning the government that unless he was reappointed, about 120 local government politicians in that province would resign en masse. But, President Mahinda Rajapaksa is reported to have brought the situation under control.

As for who will become the next NCP Chief Minister, we could not care less. Whoever gets that plum job, it will be a case of one political leech being replaced by another or the same leech being allowed to fatten at the expense of the public.

It is President Mahinda Rajapaksa who has won the PC polls, period! If he had left his coalition's campaign to the jokers who have been either returned or rejected at the recently concluded election, he would definitely have got a rude electoral shock. Therefore, he should have the freedom to appoint chief ministers in the provinces where the UPFA has secured a clear majority. (After all, he is the government and the government he.)

But, the UPFA cannot cover up its double standards by making ludicrous claims like the one that two members of the same family will not be allowed to hold ministerial posts. In keeping with that policy, Minister S. M. Chandrasena has resigned his ministerial portfolio to enable his brother S. M. Ranjith, who polled the highest number of preferential votes in the Anuradhapura District, to become Chief Minister. We have pointed out, in a previous comment, how hypocritical that policy is in that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his sibling Basil have between them several ministries.

Here is another example of the UPFA's volte-face. At the last election to the Uva Provincial Council in 2009, Sashindra Rajapaksa, who polled an impressive 137,000 preferential votes, was appointed Chief Minister over and above experienced, senior councillors who could not match his electoral performance, though his father Chamal Rajapaksa was the Minister of Ports and Aviation at that time. A precedent has thus been created and it needs to be followed, unless the government has informed candidates prior to the recently concluded PC polls of its decision not to appoint as chief ministers those whose siblings were ministers, and obtained their consent for it.

Notwithstanding the UPFA's policy U-turn, Minister S. M. Chandrasena's resignation has warmed the cockles of many a heart. Most of the current ministers should not have been appointed to the Cabinet in the first place. They are, not to put too fine a point on it, absolute misfits. The jumbo Cabinet must be downsized drastically as it is a drain on the State coffers and has made this country a big joke in the eyes of the world community.

We don't need so many ministers to ruin things for us; a ten-member Cabinet would have been equal to that job!

- The writer is the editor in chief of the " The Island", the Colombo based daily, where this piece appeared originally.