Tittle tattle

So our ex-Prez has gone to Uganda to be present when a supposed to be dictator guilty of corruption is sworn in for his fourth term in office. Yoweri Kaguta Musevni, 71, has been continuously in office from 1986 for 26 years and for sure getting more and more autocratic.

His election was supposedly rigged and the Opposition, led by Kizza Besige, staged street protests. The police used tear gas liberally and even shot at the protesters killing ten people, one a child of two years who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kampala is under severe surveillance and extremely strict measures are being taken to ensure the security of Heads of State and ex-es attending the ceremony. Not many will attend.

Invitations have been sent out all around, but do you think the President of the US or China, the Prime Minister of Britain or India will attend Not on your life. Even our President and PM would have politely declined the invitations sent to them.

Invitations

Yoshitha Rajapaksa was not allowed to accompany his father. If this feline was Rajapaksa Senior, she would never have gone to Uganda for this official ceremony. Who goes to these corrupt banana republics

Now Menika should not say that since our President-that-was has gone. Also he had dictators from similar countries as friends. Don’t you remember how G. L. Peiris was sent by MR to cadge votes in favour of Sri Lanka when we were under a severe cloud with no apparent silver lining with the UNHRC on our backs African countries were sought diligently. Fortunately, the pressure has decreased since efforts are made to patch our ethnic discord et al.

In contrast, the present President has been invited by a very prestigious group of nations to visit London for a meeting to discuss ways and means of eliminating corruption in countries.

We do hope President Maithripala Sirisena and his team who travelled in an ordinary flight, Emirates, I believe, will come back determined to catch the VIP rogues who impoverished our country.

Comparison

It looks as if there are strong parallels between Uganda and us of the recent past. Uganda has ordered fighter jets for US$ 750 million while people in the country are starving.

To ensure uninterrupted electricity supply during the inaugural ceremony, water and power are denied to hospitals and other such places. The President won a rigged poll with 69% of the votes. Uganda was called the Pearl of Africa while we were and mercifully continue to be the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.

Thankfully, the contrasts are more evident. They have a dictator as the Head of State, ruthless and merciless, given to extravagance and hubris.

We had a similar situation that could have worsened, descending the country to a dictatorship if not for the January 8, 2015 election. Democracy is assured us and given us. Mugasi Mundi of the Opposition has said, “If you ask people to tighten their belts and you loosen yours it creates a problem and the government needs to read it that way.”

We Sri Lankans have had our bellyful several times over in that we had to tighten our belts and go hungry while the leaders played pandu (common parlance for having a good time). During the time of Sirima R. D. Bandaranaike as PM, we ordinary folk had to contend with so many restrictions and make do with so little, while the favoured few like her daughters were abroad.

If you managed to get a prepaid ticket to go overseas you went like a pauper with only four pounds sterling and some pennies in your pocket.

During the regime of Ranasinghe Premadasa we had to keep our mouths shut and be the proverbial monkeys.

But we saw houses being built for the destitute and garment factories opened all over earning foreign exchange and giving our rural girls jobs.

So we did not grouse at having to curb loose talk since the poor were looked after. During the rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa not only had we to keep our mouths shut but live in fear of white vans.

A dictator to beat all others

Older, wilier, craftier and more narcissistic and randy than Uganda’s Museveni, Zimbabwe’s President is another blot on the earth. He has been dictator of the country since 1987 and though 92 and rumoured to have died in January during his month-long holiday in Dubai, he continues strong, not for the country and future generations but for himself.

A Malawian prophet has prophesied “Mugabe’s biological clock will not tick beyond this year.”

He seems to pride himself in tongue-dropping gems of wisdom which are available for perusal and plagiarising on Internet. A-la Mervyn Silva, Robert Mugabe said since Barack Obama endorsed same sex marriage, he will go to Washington DC and getting down on bended knees, ask for Obama’s hand.

Menika would love to see the tall slim Prez of the USA give the man on his knees a good kick to land him straight back in Harare. I remember seeing pictures someone had sent me via email of a super luxury mansion – the home of Mugabe with ivory and gold toilet fittings.

After each room was viewed the camera took the viewer outside – to hovels where large families lived in the direst of poverty. That is what happens with dictators.

His much younger second wife, Grace, like another first lady we know, was patron of an orphanage, a primary and new secondary school, all funded by the Chinese and built with Chinese labour. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it Menika saw with great eagerness TV pictures of the Ex Prez’s visit to Kampala on Wednesday, May 11. We heard his cousin, the ex-Sri Lankan Ambassador to Ukraine, was also in Kampala.

We know and were duly shocked to see how a pilgrimage to Thailand turned out to be meeting with this wanted man. Had to be hush hush though Facebook let the cat out of the bag and this cat grabbed the gossip of a bit of extra judicial gallivanting.

And who accompanied the ex-Prez on that trip The earlier Law Prof, VC and Minister of Justice!

- Menika