cat'S eye

A new Government and all that

Fourth September morning. The Cabinet of eighty and counting is still a secret. We will know after the swearing in today. It is oversized, OKayed in Parliament notwithstanding empty vessels making a big noise. It won't be as large as the one hundred and odd (apt word in this context) portfolio holders and assistants in the previous regime but much more than originally envisaged when 19 A was drafted. It will be an elephantine shot through with blue. Menika of course, judging by the calibre of UNPers who won votes, hopes the greens will vastly outnumber the blues of the likes of As Bee.

This feline continues to purr. You should have heard her as she watched the ceremonial opening of Parliament and the arrival of President Maithripala Sirisena in the afternoon and his presenting his government's policy statement to members of the legislature and to all of us. Menika loves pomp, pageantry and ceremony and being an Anglophile is very comfortable with seeing plumed helmets, horse rider escorts and the 21 gun salute - all these and more accompanying the September 1ceremony at the House by the Diyavanne.

It was a serious business outlining the new government's TORs as it were, and the President categorically saying with sincerity and as a promise to the nation that he takes full responsibility for the nation's security. The reading of the statement was excellent, the timbre of the President's voice adding to the gravity of what he said. Tears come easy to this cat'S eyes, so she was literally wiping her eyes and even suppressing a sniff of nose and a lump in her throat. All because of beauty and the significance of the occasion. She cried when she saw those lovely girls in their Kandyan half saris with the blouses having the traditional manthé of net with a shocking pink border to match their saris.

Welfare

There stood President Sirisena, a landowning farmer's son from Polonnaruwa, retaining his simplicity and sincerity, yet standing tall with dignity, being blessed by the bevy of girls. Their chanted stanza of acknowledgement to the Gods who send rains at the correct time and ensure good harvests when benevolent rulers see to the welfare of the people, was very propitious and echoed by us. This is obvious. President Sirisena, aided by his UNP Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, promised a better deal to the peasants of the country and improvement to all its people. He took definite steps to reduce cigarette smoking and drug abuse; he has banned asbestos roof sheeting starting from a couple of years hence and promises pure drinking water to eradicate the kidney disease that decimates people in the NCP. This definitely is not lip service like others spouted before him. He has got changes wrought and will continue to do so, ably assisted by his Prime Minister.

The President stated emphatically that corruption in public life (in private it goes without saying) will be stemmed and those guilty of draining away the resources of the country will be duly investigated and punished.We presume corruption includes murder and caused disappearances. That's when this cat's purr turned to a growl. We have heard this promise from many mouths and on many platforms, even Mahinda Rajapaksa said it. We believe in the word given by the President. So we wonder what causes all the delays and why huge acts of corruption and even murder seem to go unpunished when certain very high ups and their family members and even loyal minions are the ones at whom fingers are pointed.

To take one comparatively innocuous 'crime'. The ex-President and his family members ran up a huge debt bill to SriLankan Airways headed then by the First Lady's brother - Saliya Wickremasinghe. Why are the abusers of privileges not asked to pay for their joy rides to other countries and helicopter lifts and drops within this country? Ditto with the CTB - buses were used in droves to cart cheering crowds to blue political meetings and the bill unpaid. Seeing those odd bods waving hands and caps and flags and rousingly shouting hosannas as the ex-President spoke reminded this cat of the Negombo professional mourners who were available to out-mourn the nearest and dearest of the dear departed - at a price of course. Thankfully, we ordinary naïve citizens were assured by those who know that crowds at meetings do not equate to votes. This truth was proven in the two elections held this year.

Minor misdemeanours

Menika wants to quote from the 'Talk of the Town ' column in The New Yorker of August 31 to show how comparatively unharmful actions by political figures in the US of America are treated very seriously, while in Sri Lanka, the powerful get away with blue murder and red corruption. The column in the weekly journal is about one of the Democratic Party's candidates for the forthcoming Presidential election. "Now the Clintons again confront a scrum of Republican congressmen and conservative activists who are clearly out to get them." Their 'crimes'? "...between 2009 and 2013, with Hillary guiding American foreign policy, the Clinton Foundation accepted large donations from foreign governments, including several that abuse human rights". Bad, very bad. But the money did not go into Clinton's pockets nor get stashed away in foreign banks but was directed to a Foundation that does good while promoting its namesakes.

The second case is that between 2008 and 2009, the Secretary of State (Hillary C) installed a private server at her New York home - "She wanted to avoid carrying multiple email devices, something that using the State Department system might have required." Hillary Clinton remarked recently: "What was supposed to be convenient has turned out to be anything but convenient!" Late last year she turned over to the State Department thirty thousand emails from her home system. But she had, with her lawyers, deleted more than thirty thousand other emails which they deemed to be private like yoga exercise routines, plans for family vacations et al. Hillary C may even have to give a place to Joe Biden who is staking his claim to be the next Prez.

Consider this 'sin' in the light of the crime of a young ruggerite being tortured, killed and set up in a faked motor accident; to the disappearance of a respected journalist who now is revealed to have been abducted and killed. And the murderers get off, apparently and so far, Scott free. Not done, not tolerable. We voted for eradication of corruption plus due punishment for the perpetrators of horrible malpractices during the last decade. Over to you Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, Minister of Justice, the Attorney General, the IGP and all others who have as their duty the cleaning out of the skeleton laden cupboards of the previous regime! When this is done this cat will purr so much she may even breathe her last.

But mercy! Cats have nine lives!

Menika