A week of wild asses

One cannot believe that all the upheavals that are taking place and the protests and rioting are spontaneous. To this cat, they are most definitely master-minded, encouraged, provoked, staged and stoked.

They are not natural conflagrations. This is the ‘freedom of the wild asses’.

Some of the incidents last week seem to be a deliberate bringing together of combustible elements and setting them on fire – these elements being human beings with nothing to do and willing to oblige to create mayhem.

Not so much party loyalty, though, since that honourable human trait is dimmed. Rather the agitation is dictated by filthy lucre and benefit for oneself; or, to save one’s skin from prosecution for corruption and other depredations.

Dambulla riot

Take the incident of the rioting people in Dambulla, attempting to gate crash the Ran Giri Dambulu cricket stadium on Wednesday, August 31 when the one-day match was to begin between Australia and Sri Lanka.

Not even in Colombo - where the proportion of cricket fans is highest - have we had crowds trying en masse to gate crash even during the most touted of one-day matches.

Who are these hoi polloi who are so willing to cause a riot simply because they wish to force their way into an international cricket match without paying their way? According to the media, they claimed to be poor and that they had a right to watch the match even if they could not afford the high ticket prices.

They also complained that most of the tickets had been sold to foreigners depriving them of places in the stands. Some such rot was shouted.

As said before, they could not all be from Dambulla and Kurunegala. So then, they would have had to travel from Colombo or the South or Kandy.

The likes of the people we saw on TV attempting to break barriers and enter the cricket field shouting away in front of the TV cameras could not be genuine cricket fans wanting to enjoy a game of cricket played by world class practitioners of the game along with other cricket enthusiasts.

So the questions that floated in front of Menika’s very troubled eyes were: was there anyone who was pulling the puppet strings on these rowdies? Who was paying them to cause mayhem since surely the rioters staged the implausible protest to earn some money, is this feline’s belief.

The nth protest

Menika has lost count of the protests staged by students of different universities to holler against the private medical college. On Wednesday, August 31 they marched from Sri Jayavardhanapura University along the Nugegoda Road and approached Galle Road at Kollupitiya hoping to proceed to Temple Trees. They had to be stopped, so the police used water cannon and tear gas.

Menika watched the TV news carefully. For how long more will these young agitators persist with their wild agitation? Don’t they tire of the endless miles they must walk in the blazing sun amid traffic and the choking vehicle fumes? Surely the protesters must realize by now that the private medical college will continue.

There was recently published in a newspaper, an article explaining the justification for having a private university such as SAITM. The arguments were cogent and the reasons for setting up a privately run university with a medical college justified. When will our higher education students ever learn?

Sub-headline:- War memorial

Any excuse seems to be enough of a reason to protest and blame the government. The so-called Joint Opposition flogged the VAT tax business to exhaustion; shouted against a delay (necessary) to hold provincial council elections; shed croc tears over the poor finding it hard to meet the C-O-L. Now a new tool to their misguided and, yes, dangerous, cry of letting down the soldiers who sacrificed life and limb to save the country during the three-decade civil war. This cat will quote a news item on page 1 of a daily of Thursday, September 1:

“Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today hit out at the government saying that the demolishing of the war heroes memorial in Kurunegala indicated that this government was bent on blotting out the war in Sri Lanka and that war heroes ever existed.

“He said from the information he had received, this demolishing of the war memorial had been done to satisfy the TNA representatives who were expected to attend the 65th convention of the SLFP to be held in Kurunegala. Rajapaksa said this after participating in a protest campaign held near the Maligapitiya Sports Grounds in Kurunegala organized by the family members of war heroes.

“The protesters including disabled soldiers, family members of war heroes and supporters of the joint opposition assembled in large numbers at the place where the site of the demolished memorial, carrying placards and hoardings. Mr. Rajapaksa said he vehemently opposed this move and described it as a grave injustice done to war heroes.

“There appears to be double standards in treating the LTTE and the war heroes, who protected our country from the terrorists at the risk of their own lives.

The widening of the road could have being done without harming the memorial. If they do not reconstruct it I will take action to prosecute them,” Mr. Rajapaksa said. “It is clear now that this is a move to satisfy the wishes of TNA MP Shashikala.”

This cat bristled with stark surprise at the assumption, the presumption and, the entire twist given to the action to remove a war memorial while the road was being developed. Surely anyone and everyone, except the previous President and his coterie, would know that the memorial would be rebuilt. If not, that would be the time to shout out accusations.

There is an aim, by certain forces, in all this: to dislodge this government and have all sins of corruption hidden again.

- Menika