The TNA's honesty and other tidbits

Wariyapola 'Slapper' now an NGO 'project'?

The (justifiably) irate woman who slapped a man who is alleged to have taunted her in a lewd manner was arrested after the taunter complained to the police.  Later this 'victim' was also arrested.  The slapping video went viral.  People took sides.  But guess who is making the most capital out of it all? Why, the NGO collective who have been issue-starved for months!  Oh well, everyone must do something to survive, right?

The ‘honest’ NPC

 Apparently the Northern Provincial Council, administered by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has failed to use at least 30% of allocations in the annual budget.  That’s Rs 3,955 million left untouched.  What this means is that although Wiggy and Co gripe about being cold shouldered by the Central Govt., in fact the NPC gets way more than it needs.  On the other hand, it can be argued that whereas other elected bodies are not just hungry for bucks, they consume whatever is put on the plate, the TNA just serves what it needs and is happy with just that.  Honest blokes.  Maybe they should be running this country.  That would put an end to wastage!

A bit late in the day Mr President, what do you say?

It is reported that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had to interrupt Mervyn Silva’s speech in Madulla when the latter, as one would expect, began showering insults at JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.  Now, perhaps the President, knowing how much he owes the JVP and the likes of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, was upset because the association with Mervyn and his insults might earn him the ingrate tag.  We don’t know.  Anyway, what’s ‘news’ is that he effectively told Mervyn to shut up.  That’s something he should have done a long, long, long time ago, the vast majority of Sri Lankans, and especially SLFP/UPFA loyalists would have no hesitation in saying.

The BIG ISSUE in Uva

Poverty? Unemployment? Illicit felling of trees? The law and order situation (or lack thereof)?  Bad governance? No.  In the run-up to the election, it seems that all these things are non-issues.  The key campaign issues are as follows: a) did Harin meet Namal? b) If they did meet, was it pre-arranged?  c) if they met, as per arrangement, did they have tea or coffee?  

Jungle law, jungle courts

The law of the jungle, they say, is about the survival of the fittest.  All things considered, jungles are more peaceful than cities, jungle creatures more benign than humans.  Now that humans have encroached on jungles to plunder whatever resources therein, it is only natural for animals to move into cities.  Maybe this is why we hear of a baby elephant 'going to court'.  What next, a wise old sitting in judgment, a jury of jackals and elephants, grasshoppers and dung beetles being represented by vipers?  

A moment of silence for Bala Tampoe, please

Veteran trade union leader Bala Tampoe passed away at the age of 93.  To the end, Bala remained a committed trade unionist.  He would of course have conversations with his political cousins, i.e. those in what was called 'The Left', but he knew that in the end it is the unions who would get something for the workers whereas political parties always saw them as a means to an end, and an end that was nothing like the Utopias promised.  He leaves a vacuum.  There's silence now that he will never speak again.  

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Uva is for vandals (and other tidbits)

Uva is for vandals?

Party offices in the Uva Province are being attacked by ‘unknown’ thugs.  The ‘know’ part of it (which the Police seems to be clueless about) can be figured out when one notes the fact that the targets are UNP and JVP.  Should we say ‘Uva is for Vandals’?  Or is vandalism a new name for election campaign?  Are the people required to vote for the most ferocious vandal of them all?

Lalkantha buckets Hirunika

In campus parlance ‘bucketing’ refers to one or more persons tossing a bucketful of water, indul wathura or even something more disgusting on someone else.    It is a mark of celebration and it can also be punishment for perceived wrongdoing.  There’s a whole sociological treatise waiting to be written on the subject.  In the past few days buckets have been associated with ice and ALS.  Let’s not get into that. Anyway, Hirunika Premachandra had issued an ice-bucket challenge to JVP’s Lalkantha.  Lalkantha apparently has tossed the bucket back.  ‘The only challenge I am interested in is overthrowing the government,’ he said.   Talk about dampening enthusiasm.  We think, however, that Lalkantha scored.  Big.

The beautiful Indian

If there’s an Ugly American, there has to be a Beautiful American too. The same goes for ugly and beautiful Indians (and Germans, Norwegians, Uzbeks, Sri Lankans and Rwandans too).  There are no prizes for naming the current ‘Ugly Indian’ but if one were asked to name the Beautiful Indian, it has to be Avdhash Kaushal, the Indian social worker who has been appointed to the panel advising the Presidential Commission on Missing Persons and War Crimes.  Avdhash has said that India must respect Lanka’s sovereignty.  He has asked the correct question: ‘How would India feel if Sri Lanka calls on Indian separatists?’ 

Suresh a permanent leader-in-waiting?

Suresh Premachandran, the firebrand, not-so-young but still young enough TNA firebrand, has been vocal, aggressive and has tried to be more Tamil than Prabhakaran himself.  ‘Tamil Nationalist,’ that is.  And yet, for all his efforts, it looks like the old guard has closed ranks.  End result?  Well, Mavai Senathirajah is now tipped to succeed the longstanding party leader R Sampanthan as TNA leader.  But Suresh is not one to take anything lying down, a little bird tells us.  For now, though, looks like he’s been dumped.  Poor Suresh.  

Humble pie for Sajith?

The man wanted to oust Ranil Wickremesinghe.  After each electoral setback, it was the norm for Sajitha Premadasa to launch a fresh campaign to get rid of the leader.  He should get an A for Effort.  At the end of the day, however, he has failed.  A for Effort is useless in politics if one gets F at the term-end report.  He failed.  Now it seems that he has decided to drop can’t-be-done things.  He’s going for No 2.  Hold it!  He WAS the Deputy Leader not too long ago, right?  So what’s the joy in regaining the No 2 spot?  Consolation Prize?

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The 'un-retiring class' and other tidbits

'The 'un-retiring class'

Mahela Jayawardena retired from Test cricket.  He said his piece.  He talked of being privileged to play alongside great cricketers.  He showed class. And someone said 'class never retires'.  True.  There are classes and classes.  The working class may want to retire but can't. The privileged classes can retire but won't.  Men and women come and go, politicians and political parties have their days in the sun and days in the wilderness.  Through it all, class stays.  Put.  

The beauty of salons

There is a big scandal about beauty culture.  Apparently some unqualified and/or incompetent people are making big money selling 'beauty'.  They could be called 'beauty quacks' one supposes. And now the state is moving into regulating beauty-treatment facilities.  We need such facilities. Beauty is only skin deep, they say.  So if you get the skin right a lot of ugliness can be hidden. Works for people, works for cities too.  And if regulation can weed out quacks who claim they can undo ugliness, there should be regulations for people engaged in other kinds of beautification too.

What color is a refugee?

The court of appeal has put a halt to the deportation of Afghan, Pakistani and Iranian 'refugees' before their asylum claims are fully assessed.  There's a problem of definition here.  It seems that refugees are all brown people.  The truth is that refugees come in all colors.  We had lots of white refugees fleeing disease, religious and political persecution ending up in what's now called the USA.  We had 'undesirables' sent to 'colonies' -- convicts to Australia and bad eggs to South Asia and other parts of the world.  They all became quite respectable.  This has stopped.  But there are people who come to places like Sri Lanka who would never get noticed if they were back home.  Journalists, for example.  INGO personnel. UN workers.  They are all refugees, one might say.  No one is calling them that.  No one is asking them to leave.  They don't have to get stay orders from the courts.  White privilege?

What's wrong with Ranil?

The JVP has said that it will field a presidential candidate but only in the event that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe decides to contest.  Strange decision for a self-proclaimed 'Marxist' party.  What's so special about Ranil, one might ask.  Is it that the JVP dreads a scenario where Ranil is President and would do its best to bring him down (by dividing the opposition vote, for example)?  Does the JVP think that a candidate fielded by the party would get more votes than Ranil (and even more than, say, Mahinda Rajapaksa)?  Is the JVP rooting for Sajith?  Is the JVP a pawn of the UPFA, in a convoluted kind of way?  Lots of questions for Comrade Anura to answer here, that much is evident.  

Kumar David's New Maths"I swear I am not a conspiracy theorist by inclination or habit, but this event to me was a probe, a first flying of the kite, an initial floating of a proposal to introduce Champika Ranawaka as presidential material. But for his chauvinist reputation – I don’t hold it against him that in 1970 or 1971 he belonged to a chauvinist student group that broke up our Vama Samasamajaya anti-JVP assembly in one of the campuses – he is more competent and credible than discredited Mahinda," says Kumar David who clearly doesn't know arithmetic (Champika would have been 5-6 in 1970/71), but then again when it comes to politics he consistently puts 2 and 2 together and ends up in the negative, even though one would expect more from an engineer and one with a doctorate!

Where were the 'boys'?

The TNA wants the UN to find out if human rights were violated by UNP and SLFP governments (or governments led by those parties) since 1974.  Now why is the TNA not asking the UN to check out the LTTE while they are at it?  Are Sampanthan, Sumanthiran and the leader-in-waiting Premachandran suffering from selective amnesia?  Is it that they are now slaves to pro-LTTE funders abroad just as they were slaves to Prabhakaran back in the day?

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Mahela's timely retirement and other tidbits

Mahela's decision

Mahela Jayawardena has announced his retirement from Test Cricket.  Good.  He's realized he has reached his peak and is on the way out anyway.  Best time to go.  Like Murali did. Like Sanath did not.  Now if only everyone knew how to pick that moment to say 'This is it, I am done, thanks for the good times, bye-bye!'  Sarath Fonseka had a good thing.  He blew it. Mahinda Rajapaksa...well, some would say he's had his ups and downs and perhaps has already had his last 'up'.  Ranil?  Did he ever peak?  Anyway, thanks Mahela for all the great moments.  

NGO Security

All Non Governmental Organizations are to come under the Ministry of Defence, we are told.  This could mean one of two things.  One, many NGOs are paying the price for the crimes of a few NGOs whose track records indicate that they were and/or are a threat to national security. There could be a difference reason for this decision.  Maybe the Government believes that NGOs NEED security.  Maybe this is because there are some NGO personalities who can't stop whining about their lives being under threat.  If this is the case, these NGOs should applaud this move.  Now, if something goes wrong, if some NGO activist is insulted, assaulted, abducted or killed, the blame will fall squarely on the defence establishment.  Maybe that's the silver lining to this move which some have described as being 'black' and 'ominous'.  Hardly discernible of course, but a line surely and silver-colored too!

Mental disorders and teaching disorders

It is reported that over 250 teachers in the Eastern Province are suffering from mental disorders and that the authorities don't know what to do with them.  The authorities can be forgiven.  After all they are not physicians and treating illnesses is not their job.  On the other hand what are the authorities doing about the thousands of teachers in and out of the Eastern Province who are suffering from 'teaching disorders', i.e. who don't do a stroke of work in class and/or are totally incompetent and therefore unable to offer proper instruction?

  

Sachithra's degrees

Sachithra Senanayake exceeds 43 degrees, the headline of a news story blared out.  Wow!  Even Mervin Silva (Dr) has just one.  But 43 degrees?  Where did he have the time to collect them?  It would be tall order to imagine Sachithra with a single 'degree cap but impossible to think of him wearing 43?!  Now we hear that he wants to bring it down to less than 15 degrees.  Good on him.  When will Mervin follow suit?

What the Govt can do, the NGOs can do better!

The Government of Sri Lanka has called upon the concerned parties to exercise utmost restraint in a bid to halt the violence and ensure a climate conducive to the recommencement of negotiations for a lasting solution to the conflict in Gaza.  The Government certain took its own cool time to issue this call, but then again the Govt was also slow in calling people to 'exercise utmost restraint' when 'Alutgama' happened.  On the other hand, sections of the NGO community that's so big on reconciliation and conflict resolution, and which operates much like voice-cut advocacy artists could have been prompt in response. Didn't happen.  

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The use and abuse of NGOs

British Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire is reported to have held 'useful' discussions with representatives of several NGOs to discuss the follow-up to the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka passed in Geneva last month. We don't know if they were Sri Lankan NGOs or not. What is clear is that for the war-mongering, terrorism-supporting nation called the United Kingdom, NGOs are useful adjuncts in the business of interfering in other nations and wrecking political stability.  So what's new?  Isn't that what prominent Sri Lankan NGOs who talk accountability and transparency but are opaque and unaccountable do here in Sri Lanka?  Swire knows he can't get the support of the Sri Lankan people. So he bats with NGOs that claim they represent civil society, even though they can't get 100 people to a demonstration.  What's this, 'minoritarianism' of the worst kind?  

Masurang Katha

Just the other day, Indian customs enforcers seized 360 gm of gold from a Sri Lankan national who arrived at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in a flight from Colombo.  The man is said to have hidden the gold in his mouth! Now that gives a new twist to the term masurang katha doesn't it?

TNA's Dependency

The Northern Provincial Council has passed some resolutions. One of them calls the Government to remove the ban on 16 'Tamil' organizations located outside Sri Lanka. Why, though?  How does it impact on the TNA or the people in the Norther Province? As of now, all that is clear is that these groups were linked to the LTTE, the one outfit that showered the most misery on the people in that province over the past 30 years.  These outfits have not helped the people by way of providing even a plate of rice.  They have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that they don't want any kind of resolution.  They are in the hate-spewing business, doesn't Wigneswaran and others know?  So why are they upset?  Are we to conclude that the TNA takes orders from these groups?  Are we to conclude that the TNA gets money from them?

How about taking a leaf from the South Korean book?

South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Hong-won has announced his resignation, taking responsibility for the slow initial response to a ferry's sinking that has left nearly 200 dead with scores more still missing.

Now why can't Sri Lankan leaders, ministers included, resign over being similarly 'irresponsible'?  Perhaps its just because adherence to such a principle would leave us with a cabinet without ministers!  

And now a 'Buddha-Police'?

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken steps to set up a special police unit to move in if there's any threat to religious harmony.  But what about Buddha-tatttoos?  Is there going to be a Buddha-Tattoo Police too?  How about all those Buddha statues that some Buddhists set up on the dashboards of their cars?  Buddha images that they hang on the read-view mirror?  Buddha statues on pendants?  Where does it stop?

How about those who have crosses tattooed? 

Since Sri Lanka is said to be 'secular', there are probably things that would hurt Christians similar to the things that are supposed to upset Buddhists.  Now, what if a tourist comes to Sri Lanka with a tattoo of a cross or Christ on the Cross tattooed on arm, cheek, chest or wherever?  Would the person be turned back?  

Oh those terrorist-sounding names!

A young French woman of Yugoslavian origin has been told by Swiss Airlines officers that neither she nor her family would be put on board a flight to New York because 'her name sounded suspiciously like "Al Qaeda".'  Her names is Aida Alic and the way it's written, with the names reversed, is Alic Aida, which when said together of course sounds like Al Qaeda.  

What's this if not paranoia of the worst kind? But we can take the logic further. If anyone has a name that sounds like Bush, Blair, Cameron or Barack, they should be denied visas, airline tickets and such.  Women in various parts of Latin America who have the name 'America' would have to stay home.  Why? Because 'America' is the Western equivalent of Al Qaeda, and Bush, Obama, Blair et al are the relevant equivalents of Osama bin Laden!

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Let's give all of them toy guns and other tidbits

Let's give all of them toy guns

It is clear that Eraj Fernando, the Mayor of Hambantota, is a 'peaceful' man.  He's so peaceful that he doesn't own a gun.  He doesn't need one. He believes that a toy gun would be more than enough to protect himself.  He's teaching the political fraternity a good lesson.  The relevant authorities should now take steps to seize all real weapons from all politicians and their security personnel.  Instead they can be provided with toy guns and water pistols.  Indeed they might as well go the whole hog: seize the vehicles and replace them with toy-cars, replace police officers and other security personnel with dolls.  If it's a game, then let's have a game-culture.   

SF's reading skills

The recent attack on UNP parliamentarians in Hambantota was roundly condemned by all, except the senior party colleagues of the thug who organized and participated in the attack, who chose to maintain silence.  It was not a one-off act of thuggery.  Ruling party strongmen have time and again flexed muscles and more.  However, to say that the attack somehow justifies the UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka only demonstrates political naiveté or crass exploitation of a situation for personal benefit at the possible cost of sovereignty.  Sarath Fonseka should be pardoned for being so silly on this matter; the man, after all, is a political novice.  If he's looking to the UNP and UPFA for lessons, then he's a fast learner.  But wasn't he saying 'I am different' not too long ago?

Seizing contaminated water

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has seized some 37,000 bottles of water from a bottling plant after it was found that the water contained some chemical.  The CAA ought to have sealed the factory immediately.  Anyway, the prompt action by the CAA is to be applauded.  This raises the question, however, about other kinds of contamination.  How about chemicals and other poisons that contaminate vast swathes of agricultural land? Why are the authorities not imposing a total ban on these poisons?  Is it that some kinds of contamination are ok?  Is it because the first to be poisoned by chemicals is the poor farmers while the bottled versions hit the richer folk?

The Dengue mosquitos’ prejudice

It is reported that five schools in Hanwella have been closed due to the threat of Dengue.  It is a good move.  The premises have to be cleaned before schools can be reopened.  This raises a question, however.  Is the Dengue mosquito selective 'dirty schools' as it’s preferred 'feeding ground'?  Why has it not 'attacked' the environs of pradeshiya sabhas, provincial councils and yes, the parliament too?  Are these places 'clean'?  Well, we know that these are dirty places because those who populate these places are dirty folk. Why can't the Dengue mosquito shit its feeding ground?  Getting these dirty institutions closed for a few weeks, after all, would yield an added benefit to the community. 

Elephant Dance

Authorities at the Dehiwala Zoo have suspended the daily 'Elephant Dance' which has for years been a key attraction.  Zoo authorities claim that some of the elephants have contracted TB and this is why the decision had been taken.  Perhaps there's another reason.  Perhaps visitors are getting less and less interested in the antics of elephants in the zoo, simply because their cousins (the elephants', not the visitors') provided enough entertainment already.

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Ranil can win too and other tidbits

Ranil can win too

The Sri Lankan cricketers secured a world title after losing 4 finals (2 in the 50-over format and 2 in the T-20 version).  A string of defeats does not mean endless defeats. Victory is possible, the cricketers showed.  Ranil Wickremesinge and the UNP can take heart. Perhaps Sanath Jayasuriya should be consulted. He might give a few tips

Stop complaining about Ranil's defeats

It is customary for his detractors to chide Ranil Wickremesinghe on the number of electoral defeats that the UNP has suffered during his tenure as leader of the party.  The numbers themselves are inflated.  Each PC election is counted as one and if that logic is used then the number of electorates/districts lost at every general election and presidential election could swell the number of defeats several hundreds.  He's just lost a three general elections, two presidential elections and a few local government and provincial council elections.  But what's all that compared to the string of losses that Shyam Babu Subudhi can and does brag about?  The 78 year old Homeopathy doctor from Berhampur, Odissa has stood in every Indian parliamentary election since 1962 and lost everyone. He's not done yet. 

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The proof that Mahinda wants

Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya has vowed that the victory of any elected candidate would be overturned if he or she is proven to have violated election laws.  Was Deshapriya holed up in his office from the day the PCs were dissolved until the results were released? Did he not have access to the media?  Did he not check news on the internet?  'The Nation', for example, carried 'proof beyond a shadow of doubt' that laws had indeed been violated.  Will he or won't he act?  

That Leadership Council and this Leadership Council

Sri Lanka won the T-20 World Cup.  The official captain, Dinesh Chandimal was dropped.  The stand-in captain, Lasith Malinga, strode to the middle for the toss, but thereafter it was not he but a leadership council of sorts that handled the campaign.  There was Mahela, Kumar, Dilshan, Matthews and Malinga himself. Together they scripted a win against the team favoured to go home with the silverware, India.  So why can't the UNP do the same?  Well, there was one ingredient that favoured the cricketers: team-spirit.  Does the UNP know anything about the term 'team'? 

Tilvin's confession 

Tilvin Silva, General of the JVP, made a public statement. He said that this time the JVP has come forward with the blessings of the people.  Implied here is that all this time the JVP didn't have the blessings of the people.  Yes, the JVP has come a long way from pretending that it was representing the people to representing the people.  

The Sri Lankan vote on the Geneva vote

The loudest cheer-leader of the US-led Resolution on Sri Lanka in the UNHRC was Comrade Wickramabahu Karunaratne.  His party contested. Less than 0.05% in each province.  That should indicate the clout that self-appointed 'civil society' gurus have in this country, Navi Pillay are you listening?

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Mathematically challenged priests and other tidbits

That empty glass

When a glass that can contain 50 ml of water contains 25 ml, you can say it's half full or half empty.  That's the difference between negative and positive.  But what if there's say 60 ml or even more and someone says 'it's empty'?  Sri Lanka is not a glass that's empty.  Heck, a few years ago some might have claimed that there was no glass to fill in the first place.  But we do have a glass and it's filling up.  With water, not blood.  That should mean something.  But no, the 'nay-sayers' deny any water.  Is it because water is transparent and glass is colorless?  Or is it something to do with eyes that cannot see or rather will not see?  

Jehan Perera's monologs

Jehan Perera didn't like the LLRC.  One could say he was terrified of the LLRC.  He didn't have the guts that the ordinary Tamil living in former conflict zones had. He didn't make representations, perhaps because he was scared about questions that might have been put to him. Anyway, now he wants the LLRC recommendations implemented.  He wants, as the Commissioners recommended, 'dialog'.  Dialog between parties.  When is Jehan going to tell his friends in the TNA that dialog cannot happen if they don't want to talk?  Or is it that the TNA is like Jehan; terrified of any kind of conversation because they might be asked to substantiate their claims?  It's known after all that Tamil nationalists were high on claim but pretty thin on fact.

Mathematically challenged priests

Priests know about doctrine.  Doctrine related to the particular faith. Ask them what the fundamental tenets of the faith are and they will respond with an answer that will get a perfect score.  Ask them about other things and they might be off the mark. Sometimes they are way off the mark. Like Fr. Rayappu Joseph.  The good father says that 145,000 civilians were killed in the last days of the war.  He based this figure on the 1981 Census.  That's rich!  It's as though nothing happened between 1981 and 2009.  No one died, no one was born, no one was killed and no one fled the area.  

An open invitation to submit information regarding disappeared persons has yielded a few thousand submissions.  Some are known to have been LTTE cadres.  Some are known to have fled.  What happened to the 'tens of thousands'?  If the security forces got rid of over 100,000 bodies without anyone seeing or taking pictures of mass burials or cremation in this age of mobile phone cameras and satellites, then something must be wrong.  Yes, a simple explanation:  pothakarukku kanakku varaathu [the good father is poor at arithmetic!].

Doosras at Sajith, Thalatha

It is reported that the Leadership Council of the UNP has appointed a 12-member nomination board to select candidates for the upcoming provincial council elections.  Among the persons appointed are Sajith Premadasa and Thalatha Athukorala.  Here's the rub.  Now they can accept the posts or reject them. If they reject then those loyal to them seeking nomination will get sidelined.  If they accept, they will also be acknowledging the legitimacy of the Leadership Council.  If the Buddha, while traveling with his agraupasthayaka the Most Venerable Ananda Thero saw this move, the Enlightened One might very well have said Ananda, dutuveda sarpaya [Did you notice the snake, Ananda]?

THAT investigation and THIS investigation

British PM David Cameron has ordered an investigation into an MP's claim that the Thatcher government "colluded" with India on the deadly raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984.  Ok folks, implied in this is that Cameron is convinced that a 'deadly raid on the Golden Temple' was carried out by the Congress Party Government of that time.  If not, why even go into the question of whether or not Thatcher's government 'colluded' with India?  So then, David, are you going to get together with your master across the Atlantic to bring a resolution of censure against India?  Isn't that important for 'reconciliation' between Hindus and Sikhs?  Isn't that a prerequisite for 'closure'?  

We can't wait David.  Come on, don't be chicken now.  Go ahead, call up Manmohan Singh and say 'Hey Man, we are gonna rip you apart in Geneva!' 

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Robust Ranil and other tidbits

Ranil the Robust

The Chairman of the Damana Pradeshiya is reported to have fainted when the annual budget was defeated.  Now if defeat of a mere budget and that of a mere local government authority warrants fainting, what kind of collapse must we expect from the Grandmaster of Defeat, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe?  The man has not flinched.  Respect!

Ranjan the Fearless

Perhaps defeat after defeat after defeat can nurture defeatism, but lack of self-confidence?  We had Ravi Karunanayake saying he would resign his parliamentary seat and contest the Western Provincial Council if Sajith Premadasa did likewise to contest the Southern.  That if-then clause didn't fool anyone.  Harsha De Silva seems to have got cold feet.  But Ranjan the Tough-in-Film has decided to enter the fray.  All power to him.  He, at least, has the guts!

Chandrika the Fall Gal

'Looking for Someone Else' seems to be the line of the UNP when it comes to big elections as well.  Someone Else who will be defeated, Someone Else who will take the flak.  That's an insurance plan of a defeatist party.  The last time it was Sarath Fonseka. He was naive enough.  He was safe enough. His defeat was guaranteed. At the end of the day, Ranil Wickremesinghe remained at the helm of the party.  This time it is Chandrika Kumaratunga.  She's not naive but that could be 'compensated for' by a bit or arrogance.  The only difference between Fonseka and Kumaratunga is this:  Fonseka is a guy, Chandrika is a gal.

Minister of All Ministries

Whenever there's a mess in the education system, be it Z-scores of union action, things finally get sorted by one individual.  The President.  It's the same with almost everything.    Just the other day he had to intervene to sort out the MILCO workers' strike.  He is one day Minister of Education and the next the Minister of Labor.  Perhaps it is due to the incompetence and timidity of his ministers. Perhaps it's because they lack the power.  Whatever the reason is, the President has to step in at every turn.  Wouldn't it be best for him to dismiss all his ministers and have a one-person cabinet instead? 

The Cruelty of Impotency

An Indian woman has petitioned a court to rule that impotency on the part of her husband amounts to cruelty.  This is new.  If the court rules in favor it might prompt her counterparts in Sri Lanka to follow suit. If a Sri Lankan court decides that impotency is indeed cruel, then we could very well see a host of other petitions.  We have, after all, lots and lots of can't-do-ministers, can't-do-officials, can't-do-opposition-politicians and can't-do-professionals.  We are all victims of their impotency and therefore victims of cruelty.    But then again, are we a can't-do-people?  Are we cruel to ourselves?  A masochistic nation, then?   

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