Meanwhile in a parallel universe called Humility…

Keheliya says:

First of all, please understand that I have a tough job.  On the one hand I am a conveyor of Cabinet decisions.  When I do this I am the first ‘point man’ for tough queries on these same decisions, even though I am not necessarily an expert on each and every subject.  I also have to play a damage control role because the media is notorious for taking the slightest error or slip on the part of the Government and inflating it for their own purposes, not all of which is about informing and educating the public.  There are times when the slip-ups are real and embarrassing. At such times I have a tough brief to defend. I do my best to keep things sane and in context. 

It would be better, infinitely, if those who err were to come clean, admit fault, ask for forgiveness and try to do things differently the next time.  That doesn’t happen often.  I am torn.  On the one hand there is party loyalty and a need to defend friend and colleague. Then there is the public demand for the truth, however unpalatable it may be.  

I’ve defended the incorrigible sons of my colleagues.  I said ‘boys will be boys’.  That’s easy to say.  Boys can’t be camels or rhinos, after all.  I should have added, ‘be that as it may, it is no excuse to break the law and if caught to invoke daddy’s or mummy’s name to escape the law.  It is my son Ramith who I have to talk about today.   I didn’t say ‘boys will be boys’ when my son stepped out of line as a schoolboy, but my position clearly helped him. Any other child would have been sacked immediately.  In hindsight, I should have insisted that the school do whatever was necessary in the name of discipline to protect the dignity of the institution.

The incident itself is hardly a crime.  It made headline news because he happens to be a minister’s son.  I know that a breathalyzer test was not done by the flight crew and so it is easy for me to say ‘prove he was drunk and I will resign’.  I know that no one is buying that story. I know also that no one is purchasing the sleep-walking explanation.  He was returning from a tour where he represented the country.   When you represent the country, you have an added responsibility to ensure that nothing is done to tarnish the name of the country, on the field and outside it.  It is not illegal to take a drink, but one expects, given the situation, that limits are understood and kept to.  My son did not.  That is where the transgression took place.

I strongly urge Sri Lanka Cricket to mete out the maximum punishment to my son for whatever infringement he is guilty of, in the name of the sport, in the name of discipline and in the larger interest of the country.  Anything less gives a wrong message and only proves the general perception that politicos and their near and dear are above the law or at least are treated with soft hands whereas others get their knuckles rapped or worse.

Ramith says:

At this point I remember how as a schoolboy I was caught doing the naughty-naughty during a period when I was representing the country.  I remember that I was not admonished. I remember that I was not caned or put on detention. I was not suspended or sacked.  I believe now that the leniency shown to me emboldened me to disregard discipline and responsibility.

On that occasion my father’s name and position clearly worked in my favor.  It embarrassed him.  I was a schoolboy then and all that mattered was that my rear end was saved.  My appachchi  should have known better, I now think.

Anyway, I am no longer a schoolboy.  ‘Boys will be boys’ cannot be explanation enough, I understand this.  I was desperate, though.  I didn’t want my appachchi to be embarrassed.  I ought to have known that cover-up makes things worse, especially given my history.  The ‘somnambulism excuse’, moreover, made me look an even bigger idiot than I am. 

The thing is, whether I sleep-walk or not, I should have shown more discretion in my conduct.  Drinking is not illegal, but I was part of a team that represented the country.  Coming off with egg in the face, especially in a British Airways flight, put egg on my appachchi’s face and on the nation’s collective face as well. 

There is a time and a place.  There is a thing called ‘a sense of proportion’.  If I haven’t understood these things, I cannot expect the general public to show sympathy. 

I am sorry.  Truly.  I will accept whatever punishment that Sri Lanka Cricket metes out to me.  I will do my best to be a better citizen. I think this will help my appachchi in the long run too and compensate him for all the embarrassment I’ve caused for he won’t have to ‘cover up’ for the errant sons of his colleagues hereafter. 

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Keheliya’s Kehelmal*

Malaka Silva, son of Mervin Silva, Minister of Public Relations and Public Affairs is a thug.  He is rumored to be involved in drug trafficking but rumor is not fact.  If indeed he is, there is either a lack of information to warrant investigation or there’s pressure from above to keep things quiet or the investigation is being carried out in hush-hush ways.  It is rumored that the Army officer who was assaulted by Malaka and his thugs and who is known to be attached to the Army’s Intelligence Unit, was actually on duty investigating drug trafficking and drug traffickers. Those who will connect the dots will do so, but that’s all conjecture. 

What is fact and indeed caught on camera is that Malaka Silva and his gangsters assaulted this officer, causing grievous hurt and necessitating hospitalization.  Police Media Spokesperson, SSP Ajith Rohana has acknowledged that the assault was captured on camera and said that the culprits will be apprehended.  The Army has launched its own investigation.  Two Police teams have been deployed to hunt the man down. 

Meanwhile, even as the nation in one voice calls for the arrest of this thug and wonders about the logic of a soldier putting his life on line to free the nation from the menace of terrorism having to suffer the fate of being banged up a common thug, Malaka Silva calmly visits the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihare, as a VVIP, bypassing the long queues, to pay homage to the Sacred Kapilavastu Relics and this in a place where over 2,000 policemen were stationed to maintain law and order.  He is photographed, duly and the photographs are published.  Malaka is essentially lifting a metaphorical sarong at the country’s law, law enforcement officers, the judiciary and the general citizenry. 

That’s serious stuff.  Here’s the flip side, and the hilarity that should not provoke laughter but does, perhaps because (for good or bad) we are a nation that can see the funny side of things even in the midst of grim sobriety. 

Mervin Silva, the assailants father with a considerable scot-fee history of intimidation and assault himself, claims that his son would never hit a man in uniform.  According to him, Malaka hit someone who he believed was an ordinary person, whose crime was that although he had a cigarette he was ready to give cigarette-needing Malaka, didn’t have a lighter to go with it.  So Malaka can assault anyone he bums a cigarette from if he didn’t have a lighter as well, provided he didn’t happen to be in military uniform.  Stretch that argument and we have Malaka with a license to assault anyone other than military personnel (who too would be spared only if in uniform).  We should not take Mervin too seriously, for the man thinks the law allows anyone to tie anyone else to a tree.  We should take issue from those who do nothing about it. 

Keheliya Rambukwella now holds the dubious record for besting Mervin at this kind of humor.  At the weekly media briefing on Cabinet decisions, responding to a query, he is reported to have said that the Police didn’t arrest Malaka in Kelaniya because ‘he was on sacred ground’.  Now, had Prabhakaran been spotted worshipping at the Madhu Church and the Army had surrounded the place, would he have been accorded the same privilege?  Let’s assume so.  At some point Prabhakaran would have had to leave or starve.  Let’s assume he chose the former option.  Would not the Army have captured him there and then, or shot him dead if he attempted to fight his way out? 

Malaka Silva walked away.  He would have exited ‘sacred ground’ at some point.  The Police could not have been so blind as to leave a to-safety avenue for the thug.  He could have been apprehended at the gate. He was not.  The police are not stupid.  The people are not stupid.  Keheliya seems to believe that both are stupid. 

Malaka Silva is not an extraordinary citizen.  If I did what Malaka did, I would be behind bars now.  I would have been arrested within the hour of assaulting a senior Army officer.  Malaka is free, still.  That doesn’t say a lot about law enforcement in the country.  It says a lot about Malaka’s and Mervin’s political backers.  It leaves a question:  ‘Who is the President of this country, Mahinda Rajapaksa or Mervin Silva?’

*literally ‘plantain-flower’ but used colloquially to mean ‘balderdash’. 

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