A new-look Govt and a fresh lease of life

This cat is purring fit to burst. She got the cream, or rather the country she so loves got the cream: the crème-de-la-crème of a political solution. Solution to what? Ten years of the rule of the jungle where might was right and never mind human rights and all that.

What has been won? Freedom from cronyism and family rule; freedom from corruption and the powerful skimming off the cream by one extended family and sycophants, leaving thin whey to others.

If you do not agree with this feline, just project your mind to remand jail. There is kept a man who holidayed in the Waldorf Astoria munching the best, probably imbibing the most expensive too, and watching exorbitantly priced pornography videos, all paid for from our tax monies, all at our expense.

That sort of decadent behaviour is only one degree less evil and unacceptable than bloody murder - which too seems to have been committed 'officially' in the ten years gone by. We hope justice will be meted out to all sinners.

Night's vigil

To start from the beginning, Menika was determined to watch every step of the election from her comfortable couch. She went early to vote. Duty done, she relaxed and slept, ready for the night's vigil. She meant to sleep till midnight, for it was announced that results would start trickling in around midnight.

But she did not sleep, rather did she watch the fare dished out by the stations she usually watches: MTV News First and Sirasa from Stein Studio, Maharagama. To her surprise the first election result was announced around 11.20 pm. It was a postal vote and it went to the UPFA. She recalled how during Mahinda Rajapaksa's rule, results of elections were withheld until a blue victory could be announced first of all. No such nonsense this time.

It was interesting to see the previous results marked on a sheet against the current results and also represented in a model placed on the ground. Markedly noticeable with glee was that the large blue blocks were eaten into by green. One sorrow was that the red of the JVP did not increase.

Menika dozed off and on but woke up each time a result was announced. Her hopes which were always high, dipped as blue came in stronger and stronger. But she kept telling herself: "Wait for Colombo, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya results. Greens will come in. Also the blue will disappear when the North and East announce their results."

First pangs

Telephone conversations interrupted as friends rang to comment. When the blues had won a couple of districts and Kumari was feeling the first pangs of disappointment and fear, a nephew phones to say the UNF for GG had won majority seats.

Menika's tart comment: "How do you know?" was met with a detailed announcement that results reached party leaders direct from the counting centres while the TV stations got the results quite some time later, going through the Elections Commissioner et al.

Menika was by now tired of snatches of Super Star 3 competitors singing their guts out and an elegantly dressed young woman testing mattresses and a man and a woman falling down into Damro sofas, separately albeit. But then results started coming in thick and fast. And her hopes rose consequently.

You may question Kumari's keenness about knowing the outcome of the August 2015 general elections. A relative or relatives contesting? No! Friends contesting? No! Some crime of Menika's to hide and she hoping the politician who could help her in the hiding, won his seat? No!

Menika was sick and tired, jaded and dejected by all the malpractices reported within the last ten years. Rapists went Scott free; murderers were pardoned by presidential decree; gold of the Tamils seized by the LTTE was supposedly given to a VVIP and then it disappeared again. Murders were camouflaged as accidents and murder was brutalized more by inserting a sharp instrument through the ear of one victim and into the neck of another.

Rampant crime

Without overt censorship, and assurances given that democracy and the right to speak prevailed, white vans roamed around for prey and death squads stealthily pursued those who spoke or wrote freely. Thus the decimation of those who crossed the path of the powerful; clamping down on the freedom of speech and the right to information.

Murders will occur as long as murderous people exist. They will in the future too, due to human nature being what it is - hugely varied. But never was there such rampant crime as during the last ten years of Rajapaksa rule. There came a drastic reduction of crime and murders after January 9, though death due to accidents increased.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, now elected for 60 months and not a mere 100 days extended to 200, has already called for amity among winners and losers and going forward immediately to correcting wrongs and doing right by the country.

This feline, while applauding him for his magnanimity, hopes it does not extend to forgiving and making us forget. Those who committed crimes must be brought to justice.

So this cat will continue purring happily since yahapalana will continue under a benign President Maithripala Sirisena who, however, showed he was a strong, clever tactician. His second in command is a worker, not given to vengeance and revenge. He gets things done and to help him, the people have voted in some good MPs with brains, good breeding and dedication to the country.

The best is that the public can criticize and maybe the criticism, if justified, taken notice of. The people were king for one day and they did a good job.

Menika