Features
Sri Lankan on BBC HardTalk: Extravagant expenditure still on
Cassandra fortuitously switched on to BBC on Monday January 16 at around 8.30 pm. She was most pleasantly surprised and pleased to see and hear a distinguished Sri Lankan interviewed by Zeinab
Zeinab was in Colombo. She and the other anchor Stephen Sackur of the BBC’s current affairs unit are superb presenters.Well, the person interviewed was Jagath Weerasinghe, well known artist and
archaeologist. A couple more details about him are relevant here: “pivotal in the exposure of contemporary SL art… a driving force since the early 1990s. His work examines and critiques Sri Lankan anxieties, responding to collective attitudes …. nationhood, religion, identity and confrontation for commentary.” He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington DC; and is Head of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology.
The interview revealed that Weerasinghe is a liberal and just thinker and doer. He mentioned how in July 1983 he was in Dambulla and returning to Colombo, met marauding Sinhalese thugs who were on a spree of destruction and killing. This appalled him. The contrast between the peaceful serenity of Dambulla as against the violence in Colombo was severe, he said. According to his conversation with Zainab, he was and is in sympathy with the Tamils who suffered greatly during the civil war and faced discrimination. He divorced the ordinary Tamil from the LTTE and admires the former for their stoicism. He admitted to two severe life changing traumas: being a witness to the 1983 riots in Colombo and being kidnapped and tortured in 1978. He strongly believes in, and subscribes to justice and says artists have to do something to bring back true democracy to the country. He denounces religion being politicised.
Zainab highlighted his paintings and had him reveal the messages they carried. She commented on his hanging aloft artefact of white aluminum knives bound together with saffron coloured rope. Thus it was a fillip to Cass’ spirits to have a Sri Lankan featured on her much admired BBC rprogramme.
The SC judgement – loud buzz of the week
Glory be! Negligence was judged to have taken place and due punishment meted. Ex Prez Maithripala Sirisena and four others were fined hundreds of million rupees for not taking due notice of repeated warnings received so that 200 odd lives were lost in church and hotel bombings on Easter Sunday of 2019. Many more were grievously injured.
Comments Cass received over telephone wires: I am elated, simply elated! At last justice is seen to be done. Ah, they’ll get away with no paying of fines. That is the way matters happen and proceed in SL: catch wrong doers and release them.
Cass’ comment: Not this time, not this time at all. Pay up or end in prison. If Ranjan Ramanayake had to stay four years in jail for a remark he made about the judiciary, most probably not realising he was being contemptuous of Court; how long should any of these convicted by SC judges stay in jail if they do not cough up the millions fined. Another comment: Easy for the ex Prez, particularly, to pay up the 100 million. However, as reported in the editorial of The Island on Tuesday, the ex prez has said he has no money and will have to seek his friends’ help. Has he got any friends is a pertinent question. An apt bit of advice to him is: Tell that to the visiting Chinese delegation if they consent to meet you as there are no pigtailed Chinese to tell tall tales like this to. When asked by reporters whether he would help pay the fine, Brother Dudley very arrogantly said how could he? Is it how would he? M Sirisena needs no help. He gets no sympathy either. Cass does not think a single Sri Lankan feels an iota of sympathy for him. He burnt his boats over and over with his changing sides and loyalty. Two SLFPers left the party as seen on TV saying they could not belong to a party that had a leader such as him. Huge slap in the face.
Cass’ third comment and loudest. Thus has impunity that covered the country and saved big bugs, been rent asunder. If that is too extravagant a statement/hope, then let it be said that impunity will no longer hold fast; VIPs, particularly with political clout, cannot grossly misbehave to even the extent of murder. In the future there will be fear to indulge in crimes against the people and the country and no carte blanche for being cock sure no questioning nor punishment will result. The blessed judges who gave a ruling on the compensation to be paid have dome much more for the country’s benefit than deal punishment for carelessness and failing in duty. How will punishment go for economic crimes committed in the last couple of years? These crimes are sure to be surfaced calling for judgement and punishment.
Cassandra has been fed hints and whispered truths that this is not the end of the bombing matter. Who got it done has to be answered. The reason and for whom, is known.
Utter extravagance on the one hand and beggar state when a true need arises
The above sub-title spelt out is that 200 million rupees are readily and easily available to celebrate non est democracy in the 75th year of being a sovereign nation and no 10 million to spend on a vital democratic election.
One gasps at the horrendous amount to be spent on National Day. How on earth celebrate independence when 75 years of us ruling our own country has driven it to bankruptcy, utter misery to a majority of its citizens; malnourishment, starvation and death due to lack of sufficient food and medicines. One cannot comprehend or believe the full extent of the damage done to our beloved country and it is not Nature nor deities but our own people – political leaders, sycophants and top bureaucrats who mired it. And how? By robbing; through utter corruption, dire selfishness, unconcern for the general citizenry; overstaffing offices; and rank stupidity. Aren’t all these encapsulated in two occurrences that happened within the last ten to fifteen years? One: borrowing excessively to construct vanity structures and banning all chemical agricultural necessities overnight. Two brothers! Debts are colossal, especially to the Chinese who do not seem to want to write even parts of them off. Three rice harvests have already been lost.
Is it too late to get money-modest over Independence Day celebrations and eliminate tamashas and all that? It should not be. We are in an eternally urgent state so urgent change of plans can be announced. Feb 4 celebrations must be drastically toned down and the saved money used to pay salaries etc. It is such a fiasco to celebrate independence, when the country was economically so much better off when under British rule, and soon after. The worst to Cass is the parade of thousands of armed forces personnel. Who are we going to fight against? Internationally too we will be hooted at for fiddling – in this case putting on a huge show – while Siri Lanka burns. A toned down parade and the Prez’s address to the nation will be sufficient. One good feature is expected. The national anthem will be sung, we hopefully presume, in both Sinhala and Tamil, in Colombo and outstation hoisting of the Lion Flag.
Eggs more vital than medicines?
Why on earth is the government due to import eggs from India when the Directress of Animal Production and Health has outright vetoed this several times over and warned the powers that be about a sure fire import of bird flu along with the eggs? Are eggs vital to the existence of the people in this country? People can very well do without this addition to diet with no detrimental effect in the short run. Our production of eggs can and will increase. We do hope the import has not occurred already. The inevitable question arises in the corrupt ambience we live in: is a person or persons enriching themselves illegally wth this move?
Doctors of the GMOA have come out on roadside protests (not striking for their direct benefit but with rare altruism) regards the shortage of medicines in hospitals and dispensaries. Lack of medicines is absolutely frightening and tragic. SL advertises free health service to all, but even a syringe has to be brought in by a relative buying it outside for a patient in a government hospital. What did the Minister of Health, Rambukwella, do on his paid for joy trip, oops sorry, his ministerial medicine buying mission?
Is it hopeless to hope that eggs will not be imported and that the medicine scarcity will be given top priority. Many organisations, countries too, donated very necessary medicines. Were they subject to the usual villainous rackets?
Dear Lovely supposedly democratic Sri Lanka, we mourn for you on your 75th birthday. You cannot be considered proud Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. A few of your VVIP sons have degraded you to a corrupt state of bankruptcy, ranked rock bottom among nations of the world. We weep for you, Beloved Country.