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| Sunday, 17 March 2002 |
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Karu Jayasuriya - first minister ever to say mea culpa Goodness knows they have much to apologise for but in all my born days I never expected the day would come when one of them (leave alone two) would ever say mea culpa. But they have done it. Or one has for two of them. Mr. Karu Jauyasuriya, Deputy Leader of the UNP and Minister for Power and Mr. Ravi Karunanayake, Consumer Affairs Minister. Actually I could not find in the text that Mr. Karunanayake had apologised. Apparently the newspaper had assumed that both had offered apologies when Mr. Jayasuriya said (I quote from the news report): "We are sorry from the bottom of our hearts that the public has to face these difficulties." No apology could be more handsome and Mr. Jayasuriya has made history. A Japanese prime minister has apologised and I believe a couple of similar dignitaries have done likewise but this is the first time ever it has happened in our own country. Ministers hitherto have behaved as if they could do no wrong and therefore had nothing to apologise for. But not so Mr. Jayasuriya who had the humility to apologise on his own behalf and that of his colleague who seems to have been satisfied to let Mr. Jayasuriya to speak for him. It didn't seem, actually, that Mr. Jayasuriya was really anxious to take all the blame for himself he was seen, the report said, to have pushed the microphone in the direction of Mr. who, however, had pushed it away each time. The flak by the journalists had apparently been directed at both, at Mr. Jayasuriya over the power crisis and Mr. Karunanayake over the cost of living, both very sore subjects with the people. But apologies, as far as they go, are all right and the journalists who hounded the ministers to apologise may have been satisfied. But journalists are not the people, they may on occasion speak for the people, represent them like politicians do. I am not sure that the people will be satisfied with the apology reaction of the ministers. They will not be satisfied with mere words, they will want action. They will want tangible results from the 2,100 hours the ministers have been at work, burning the candle at both ends. But there are many more hours to go before D Day (somebody please calculate the hours, my arithmetic was never any good). The people will, willy nilly wait more or less patiently to see what the remaining hours will bring them (the hours past have produced less than their expectations). And yet, if the ministers fail to deliver the goods, there is precious little the people can do about it except to turn them out at the next elections but they are many years away. Unless, of course, the President steps in on behalf of the people and hold new elections in a year. Yet what is the guarantee that the new crop of ministers will do better. The people have burnt their fingers too often in the past to be optimistic about the future. - Gamarala |
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