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| Sunday, 12 December 2004 |
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Kerosene fuels the antics of desperation Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake He'll never come right He'll never come right He's got kerosene oil in his brain The people of Jaffna had got it right when they called him 'Mannen nei Maheswaran", or kerosene oil Maheswaran. It may have had to do with his profitable business activities involving a scarce commodity in Jaffna at the time. But, it now appears that UNP's T. Maheswaran's interest in kerosene oil has really affected his thinking and behaviour. We have had egregious persons or political mavericks in Parliament before. But Maheswaran's performance in the past week has gone beyond that of the political maverick to one of political lunacy. Kerosene oil appears to have replaced the grey cells in his brain taking him beyond being a mere joke, to being a provocateur in Parliament. All his loud mouthed antics and missile throwing at the Deputy Speaker fits in well with the now confirmed UNP tradition of disgusting rowdyism in Parliament. The kerosene fuelled brain of Maheswaran adds to the UNP's now ingrained habits of chaos and damage in the House, under the approving eye of its leader, just as the book burning rampage of his members made him look on with glee when the President was speaking on the Draft Constitution in August 2000. There were signs last Thursday that the "cerebral kerosenitis" affecting Maheswaran has also infected the verbose professor G. L. Peiris, who was speaking with more than his usual two tongues. With all his verbal jugglery the professori usually gives the impression of trying to talk some sense. All this was absent in his desperate contention that S. B. Dissanayake had a right to be in Parliament despite being sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court. Although not raving like Maheswaran, he showed considerable signs of incoherence and mental imbalance, in a shameless verbal avalanche that had little of substance and more of the absurd in trying hard to make a case for Sakala Banda Dissanayake's right to sit in Parliament after beginning to serve his sentence. In an example of legal meandering at its worst, with abundant half truths about the Constitution, the professori was making a very poor case to hide the desperation and shame of the UNP, in what happened to its National Organising Secretary. Although there is often little cause for pleasure when anyone is sentenced to jail, there is also the satisfaction when a person gets his just desserts. In its desperation to do something about the imprisonment of its "election victory machine", the UNP hides the fact that it was they who took the initiative to have the same Sakala Banda from Hanguranketha, reported for Contempt of Court, when he was on the other side. At that time he obviously had better counsel leading to his admission of guilt and receiving a warning from the Supreme Court not to commit the same offence again. Overblown with power as a minister in the UNP government, this time he came to court and pleaded not guilty. He later claimed amnesia about the specific words he used to abuse the Court. Finally, he admitted his guilt and said his use of the offensive words was not intended to offend the courts. It is like the frequently seen sign on the rear hood of a three-wheel taxi, "Varadak vuvath, sithakin novey" (Even if I have done wrong, it was not intentional). It is such a judicial and legal farce that the UNP now says it will take before the people for their verdict on the fate of the strategist of their future victory at the polls, now forced to plot his electoral plans for the UNP from behind bars. There is no end to farce in this Sakala Banda episode. In a letter published, purported to have been sent to the Speaker from prison, he says: "I have been sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment for the offence of contempt of court in circumstances which are certain to shock the civilized world". For the past few years, especially from the time he crossed over to the UNP, he has given enough shocks to the civilized people of this country, who are also part of the civilized world. His language has been of the gutter and his humour that of the sewage pipe. He has shown a particular penchant for stripping people, particularly to see the President stripped and running naked on the streets. The Sunday before he was sentenced he gave much cause, not just for shock but for disgust among civilized people with is vulgar verbal extrusions at the UNP sessions that anointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as the UNP's candidate for the presidency. This time he even threatened to strip the JVPers and make them run naked on the streets. The TV clips of the event showed the Buddhist monks in the front rows lower their heads in what must have been shame at having to listen to such a tirade of vulgar speak. When it comes to shocking the civilized world, Sakala Banda Dissanayake, has done much more of his required quota of it. Why complain now when he posed before the cameras with such a broad smile of delight on his face, with his manacled hands raised? It appears he is suffering from an obsession to see people running naked on the streets, which cannot please the civilized world, unless it's only peopled with streakers. For those in the UNP, like the professori who claimed they would take this issue before the people, it would do well to know that whenever SB uttered his regular vulgarities about stripping people and exposing particular parts of their anatomy to the public, what they always asked in the Sinhala idiom, was how this man could say such things with his clothes on. The people had felt for long that it was he who needed stripping for the misuse of his tongue. There must be satisfaction among large sections of the civilized people in our society that although he has not been stripped of his clothes, as he would like done to others, he has now been stripped of his civic rights for nine years. It's best that the UNP chew on that before its next Kerosene Maheswaran-led commotion in the House, obviously enjoyed, if not orchestrated by a party leader who must be glad that the absence of SB from politics will ensure him the seat of Leader of the Opposition for many more years. Meanwhile, the professori can start research beginning with himself on a textbook book on the Laws of Political Deceit. |
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