Always see the splinter in the others’ eye and not the mote in yours!

That is almost a Sri Lankan national characteristic. So Menika, true nationalist that she is, follows that maxim and sits back happy, criticising and finding fault with others and believing she is lily white and such a goody goody.

Menika’s title is from the Bible. She tried to get the version read long ago at Scripture classes in a missionary school but it’s all new versions given in the Internet. So she hopes the mote and splinter were in the original Bible verse and are not inventions of hers. Also hopefully, the two objects are set by her in the correct eyes. What she found when she googled were these: the older - “And why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but not notice the beam in your own eye?” The newer version reads thus: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” OR “Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?”

This saying has to be pronounced as symptomatic of so many. Menika cattily criticising others is of no significance. Just listen to Wimal Weerawansa ranting, (if you can bear to), and you will find he does not notice any mote or logs in his eye or that in his Joint Opposition but plenty specks in the eye of the government, deriding with all the scorn he can muster, (and that’s a lot for sure) yahapalanaya. Little Gammanpila has been silent recently – holidaying in Australia? The big man himself, Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa, too sees so manyshortcomings in the present government absolving himself of anything but good done. He is highly critical of the foreign policy the Prez and Prime Minister have set in place after the diplomatic disasters he and his cronies created. The economy is crashing, he shouts, not acknowledging even to himself that the economic policies and utter corruption during his tenure play a major role in the mess today.

Code of Conduct

Leaving aside looking into each other’s eyes and seeing what one wants to see, let’s get on to the topic that caught Menika’s attention. She may be in a stupor of satiation after feeding on kavun and athiraha and anticipating richly cooked kiributh at 8.54 pm on Wednesday 13th, but her brain is functioning, more so the catty side of it.

A draft Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament has very recently been published, and Menika believes distributed to parliamentarians and even spoken about with the MPs. We, Sri Lankans can imagine the indignation of some: ‘coming to teach us, are they?’ and the reaction to it of the various groups and varieties of MPs. Some won’t even read it, let alone follow it. Maybe they cannot read even their national language. They are their own masters. With a couple of very bigwigs, I include two MPs from down South, one especially who once was advised by his boss to have his head examined. He switched to the yahapalana side but went to his old boss to wish him for the New Year as telecast in Tuesday’s TV night news. Will he be breaking bread, sorry eating kiributh, at Carlton House down South this evening, I wonder as I write my piece just before the Aluth Avurudda dawns. There is another chandiya from the South again, who has a sobriquet with a golden tone to it for whatever reason, though the reason is no longer whispered but pronounced loud and clear.

I wonder how the two I mentioned earlier, the twins dragging MR to the JT Opposition, accepted the Code. Spurned it? Better not since there are reprimands for bad behaviour and ignoring the Code or worse, breaking certain strictures in it. Sanctions are censure, reprimand, suspension from the House for a specific period. The first two will go over their heads like water on ducks’ backs. The last may be taken notice of as an allowance is paid for sittings attended, isn’t it?

An editor of a daily, titling his lead article –Taming the Untameable - expressed the view of many citizens of the country, that a number of parliamentarians are so karachchal they cannot be reformed and made to act and speak decently. Do you remember how they selected the should-be-sacrosanct Assembly Chamber to make it a large bedroom in protest of something or other? Like kids do when they spend a night out in a friend’s home and doss down together, these MPs lay down to sleep, some changed to sarongs and vests, and even a female MP or two with them. Gruesome! They picnicked too, some alcoholically. At sittings the words bandied about! Also the fisticuffs turning violent and injuring those attacked. A Code of Ethics should be forced down some MPs throats so they digest the rules.

Take it from Menika, however, that those who know how to conduct themselves in Parliament, those who have inbuilt decency and good manners; those who come from decent homes and have studied in decent schools will be the ones to read and note the Code of Conduct and follow injunctions meticulously, though already disciplined parliamentarians. By decent homes, Menika certainly does not mean rich homes; by decent schools she does not mean the large urban colleges. There are Sinhala or Tamil only speaking persons from underprivileged homes who attended a village school who are gentleman to the tips of their fingers.

Hence her joy that a code of ethics has been outlined for parliamentarians, distributed to the motley crowd, even lectured on. Will it be followed? Let’s wait and see.

43rd death anniversary

We older persons still mourn the death of Dudley Senanayake prematurely on the Aluth Avurudhu day in 1973. Here was a near perfect politician – just and fair minded, completely incorrupt and incorruptible, helping the peasant and the poor most of all. He believed fervently that all races in the country were first Ceylonese. He never clung to power nor overrode others. He was even better than his father D S. When he died, he hardly had any money left. A one-time near enemy who felt it unfair that Prime Minister D S is supposed to have asked Lord Soulbury, Governor General, to appoint Dudley premier at his death, spoke eloquently at his funeral which saw immense crowds. He spoke sincerely; thus the nature of those politicians. This feline who has a tender, appreciative side to her, can still hear the echo of J R Jayewardene’s sonorous voice quoting Shakespeare in Hamlet to express the nations heartfelt farewell at the end of his oration: “Goodnight, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”