A pseudo-hanging from a fan!

Things are getting worser and worser. This feline doesn’t mean the yahapalanaya.

There are enough loud mouths to shout about that - from Mahinda Rajapaksa’s followers to the GMOA (who should be unbiased and keep the Hippocratic Oath to the letter and spirit and not threaten strikes for reasons they need not strike for such as the yet unknown ECTA with India and, for school reservations for their children).

The latter can so easily be negotiated. Their merciless half-day strike on Monday, July 5, was against the SAITM private medical college. For this, to me a baseless demand, thousands of sick, old, even dying patients had to suffer with no docs on duty.

Let me, at the outset, affirm that this cat retains faith in yahapalanaya and in the two leaders heading it.

They are definitely doing something and there are some excellent MPs and Ministers and Deputies in the general dross in Parliament.

Give them time: you cannot reverse bad government overnight, nor the economy of the country, like turning a corkscrew.

How impatient our people are! They are egged on to impatience by that group of political has-beens which calls itself the ‘Joint Opposition’.

Haven’t people heard the earnest and calm appeal by Deputy Minister Eran Wickremaratna asking for more time and Dr Harsha de Silva’s impassioned plea to give the government space and time to right terrible wrongs?

Pseudo suicide

Why my deliberately aberrational comparative of ‘worse’ used in the first line of this column? It is to convey my impression that the manner in which supposedly responsible people behave is getting ludicrously decadent.

Just imagine this headline in a daily newspaper: ‘Deputy Minister’s ostensible suicide bid fails’.

Now what has this Palitha Thewarapperuma person done to get space on page one of that daily? Naturally I say things are getting curiouser.

He is, believe it or not, Wayamba Development and Cultural Affairs Deputy Minister. And what form did his suicide attempt take? Hanging. Noosing himself. But loosely.

And from what and where did he hang his bulk? A ceiling fan in a Grade One class in a Primary School.

The principal, seeing this seemingly deadly antic, fainted and had to be rushed along with the noose-loosened Dy Minister to the Nagoda Hospital.

This feline thinks the hanging DM should have been hung in a more private place, and tighter. Think of the effect of seeing a hirsute big, male swaying around from the fan in a classroom decorated with pictures and charts and gold stars against most little ones’ names.

Fortunately, the sight would have been so startling that not knowing the gravity of swinging by a belt from a cooling fan, the kids would have laughed.

What was the dire reason for this drastic step of near-hanging himself? He was demanding admission for ten Grade One students. This is like swatting a fly with a vicious kettha.

The non-admissions could have been investigated and if wrong-doing was proven, remedial measures taken.

This feline saw on TV this same Thewarapperuma standing on the hood of his car protesting when the gates of the Matugama Zonal Educational Office were closed to him. Later he performed a satyagraha – fast to death (GRoBR as we could say as schoolgirls) - on the roof of his official limousine, again, for those children.

We had similar high jinks of the crazy kind performed by an MP from Down South and the then President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, even ordered him to have his brain examined. But he remained in favour. We do hope the same happy (for him) leniency will not be extended to Thewarapperuma.

We demand a cleaning out of the Cabinet, if not Parliament. A thought crossing this cat’s mind is how serious-minded, dedicated, intelligent and well-informed legislators manage to tolerate such members. It’s not merely foolish but . . .

Dark comedy

The outcome of the dark comedy cum stupid drama was satisfactory, but again with bizarre twists and turns.

The police arrested and took into remand eight mothers who had barged into the nursery school and Principal’s office demanding admission of their children along with the, to them Good Samaritan and to us the crazy legislator.

Melting hearts were called forth by media focusing on a child crying for his mother.

His mother got her due desserts since she must know she cannot force herself into a primary school just like that with or without a Deputy Minister.

And then, the same Good Samaritan, the one with the large charitable heart, hiding safe as he was in a private hospital, (never mind the cost, the government will pay), gives himself up to the police and tells them to release the women.

The police would have come for him soon enough, but he gave himself up for brownie points from his electorate.

We could well do without this sort of crackpot humour. What we most want is dignified MPs and more so Ministers of State who work for the country and not for votes or hush money.

Eradicate politicians such as Deputy Minister Thewarapperuma. We hope this will soon be done, total banishment of this politician.

We call for positive results unlike the ongoing eradication of another pest: the mosquito, which seem to be totally immune to the awful spraying that is being undertaken. Dengue they say is increasing which means that that particular mosquito is immune to the spray.

- Menika