Precautionary methods; cooked up insults

Topic of the moment is security and its major subsection public security and the country’s security. The police admitted it had lapsed in the tightness of its security when drug kingpin Ganemulla Sanjeeva was shot point blank in the dock at the Colombo Magistrate’s Court. The police however were very speedy in the apprehension of the shooter and several accomplices. The crime was meticulously planned and carried out with a gun smuggled into the court in a hollowed-out book.

The murder of a lawbreaker as he rode his motorbike with two of his children was another episode in the recent spate of druggies battling it out among themselves and hiring gunmen to do the dirty. Sympathy is all for those two innocent kids who died in the attack.

Then Yukthiya, now competent sleuthing and hard work

Cassandra’s take on this recent heightened gang violence is that the big sharks were apprehended by the police or are about to be and so they, suspecting co-drug gangsters of ratting to law enforcement officers, engage in their killing sprees. And, here is a significant theory of hers: the police and CID are actually doing what they are supposed to do: catch wrongdoers, with no interference from politicians, the new government being such.

Remembered well is project Yukthiya, announced with fanfare by the Minister of Security in Ranil W’s SLPP government – Tiran Alles; seconded by acting IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon, that the drug menace in Sri Lanka would be wiped out. We expected at least one drug lord to be apprehended. No, the police, almost on the rampage, caught very many kuunissas and haalmessas who had a packet of drugs in the pocket, or a woman with a small parcel hidden in her roof. The thalmahas jeering loudly continued to luxuriously lord it in Dubai and other places directing sale of their drugs and murders back home. Cass was sure, in her extravagantly suspicious mind, they paid much to continue living free. Don’t ask her where this sort of kappan went – to which pocket/s.

Very different now. No fanfare, no extravagant promises, no bribe taking. Strong man at head to whom justice, fair play and each-man-does-his-duty are policies followed. More drug lords have been apprehended and extradited to SL in the past couple of months than the two years of Yukthiya. A farce.

But all sensible, concerned Sri Lankans will agree that tighter and extremely competent security must be given to the Prez, PM, Ministers and more so those connected to law, order and being spokesmen for the government; judges and VVIPs in other departments.

The President and the Prime Minister especially must curtail their appearances in public for at least a short while and walkabouts and too close contact with crowds must be taboo. Times are bad for them, not the people of the land as a whole. There definitely are persons who will not blink an eyelid in doubt or hesitation to murder a VVIP in this government and cause chaos in a land that is slowly being led to economic stability and social peace. Yes, Cassandra of today cries like her ancestor but a slightly different tune: “I do NOT want to see blood.

Too much has already been shed: thousands of Lankan youth, police officers; Richard, Lasantha, Wasim Thajudeen and many farmers made suicidal with ban of chemical fertilisers. We have gone through too many hells on earth: uprisings of 1971 and 1989; the LTTE and war; killing of those who were believed to pose competition to a strong man of two to three decades ago. We are at long last on the brink of stability and peace. Long cry but from a sincere and sensible heart, echoing very many others.

A dirty distortion

Let’s go overseas, since our collective blood pressure has risen with the first part of this Cry. Cass got a video clip on her mobile phone with the message: “Very sad to watch”. The scene is purportedly of the end of the inauguration of Trump as 47^th US President on Monday January 20, 2025. On the last step stands Trump, slightly back his wife in that sort of black bowler hat that covered her entire forehead, Biden and very close to him, his wife Jill. “He looks absolutely pathetic as age really caught up.” The video rolls on.

Biden: Er, and now what?

Jill (sharply); We get in the helicopter.

Biden: And what is a helicopter?

Trump (Strong voice): It’s a thing that goes like this. Don’t worry Joe. It will take you across the blue American sky and safely to your home.

It is too stupid and sad to report verbatim.

Biden asks where his home is. Then Trump says your wife will look after you. Biden says; Housewife, first lady of my heart. He is even made to implore: Why have I to leave?

The moment Cass heard the short conversation, she threw her phone away. Why allow such trash? Such a conversation never would have occurred since Biden had just before proclaimed some regulations and. though he made a faux pas or to in what he said and did, he definitely was not senile and childish as the video shows. Such fake videos can easily be created.

The short acts or humour our people create are so sophisticated and usually not cheap and mean. Of course, that brings to mind that a parody or statement with slightly different emphasis or connotation killed a superbly talented young man in the most gruesome manner. During R Premadasa’s presidency a complimentary placard appeared pasted all over. If Cass recollects correctly the wording went thus: Who is he? What is he doing? Richard de Zoysa borrowed it and gave it a slight twist in connotation. He was tortured, killed and dropped in the sea to disappear forever. The compassionate waves washed him ashore, at least so his mother could see her beloved son, cold, dead and gone forever, but to be buried and not merely lost at sea. Bereaved women of the land who had their men disappearing were helped by her. They banded together so their pleas rose high and were heard overseas.

May such cruel and unjust times never visit us again. Tourists of all types and writers from foreign lands praise our land for its glorious beauty and variety and us the people as friendly and now serene. Let it remain so and our land gain in stability, serenity and serendipity.