|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 18 January 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Sausages and the scoundrel scions of ministers Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake 'When youths go out these things happen, but whenever ministers' sons get involved, it becomes a big issue" Minister Mahinda Wijesekera quoted in "The Sunday Times" commenting on the violent incident in which his son and the sons of Minister S. B. Dissanayake were involved at the Cascade night club of the Colombo Plaza Hotel on the night of Friday, January 9, 2004. It's a statement with a touch of the familiar. This is not the first time Mr. Mahinda Wijesekera said this about the behaviour of his son in public, and he is not the only one to have made such a statement. There were similar sentiments expressed by Mr. Jayalath Jayewardana, when his son was involved in an assault on a police constable some months ago. I'm surprised at the silence of Mr. S. B. Dissanayake. In fact Mr. Wijesekera has hit the nail on the head, as it were. It is because they are the sons of ministers that it becomes such a big story. "Big people, no make small stories and sons of big people also make only big sonna-boy stories", as an old fashioned Chinese wag would have it. In a week when daring killings by the underworld grabbed the headlines in crime reporting, the violence caused by the sons of two ministers made strong bid for similar positioning in news reporting. Why? Because they were not indulging in youthful or student pranks, but because they carried out violent acts in a public place, injured others, and damaged government property. The story was even bigger because the victims, one of whom lost some teeth, were kinsmen of a minister in the same government, although of non-Cabinet rank. There were also government-paid security guards present on the occasion. True enough this is not the first time that ministers' sons have been involved in violent incidents that received much public exposure. The PA government too had more than its share of such incidents that earned it considerable public opprobrium, too. But that is no excuse for the current trend of events. Each man to his ebony black thoughts as any Kaluvara Mahinda would have it. A father, albeit a Cabinet Minister to boot, who has to be produced in Court over the alleged assault on unarmed, peaceful unemployed graduate protesters at Matara, will find it difficult to find anything wrong in his son being involved in bashing up the kith and kin of a non-cabinet minister, damaging an official vehicle and other bloody violations of the law at a five-star night club in Colombo. As for Mr. S. B. Dissanayake, his current silence must be due to his regrets at getting his sons down here from down under, where they were supposed to be studying, on student visas, having sent them out of the country on following a reprimand by the Prime Minister himself. That too was consequent to an earlier public brawl bringing danger to onlookers and bystanders, and disgrace to the government. One is compelled to wonder where the police file relating to the assault of a reserve police constable of the Cinnamon Gardens Police Station by the son of Minister Jayalath Jayewardana, is resting at present. Is it in some pigeon-hole from where it will ultimately vanish, with the accused ministerial scion going scot-free? And what of that son-in-law of Minister H. G. P Nelson, who was also involved in assaulting a police constable, also of the Cinnamon Gardens Police? What is the progress on that? The new IGP says he is determined to wipe out crime. No one can blame him for his good intentions. But good intentions alone do not make a good IGP. With all his determination to wipe out crime, why is it that his subordinates have to report that three sons of the two ministers involved in the Colombo Plaza incident are evading arrest? It's all well and good to have the passports of the suspects impounded after the event. But why were the suspects not arrested the same night of the incident. Why is it necessary for CID teams to be on the prowl and obtain guarantees from the mothers of the vagrant sons to have them produced in Court? Methinks some action should be taken against the police officers who handled the inquiry at the initial stage, and made it possible for these scoundrels to be in a position of evading arrest even for a short while. That will show the new IGP means business. I am not in agreement with the frequent practice of the police in holding in custody the parents or a brother or sister of a suspect, if the person wanted cannot be found, until he or she surrenders or is brought to the police. This is standard practice when it comes to dealing with suspects of the less privileged class of people. Have the police even made a thinly veiled threat that another family member of these menacing ministerial brats, or even their parents, will be held by them, until the sons are produced? The idea would never even have struck them, because the paternity of the brats were ministers and had to be treated with the aura that goes with them, ignoring the fact that they are badly in need of counselling in good parenting, quite apart from clean politics. What concerns me most is that it is sons such as these who will be deciding on the destinies of the next generation in our country. With nepotism and family bandyism entrenched in our politics, and sons and daughters succeeding parents to elected office, these ruthless scoundrels who have the least regard for law and order will be sitting in future Cabinets and deciding of the fate of the nation, or what is left of it, after what their parents have done with it. These will be the people to decide how law and order should be enforced, if there is any law and order left. And, don't you believe these are the only culprits to contend with. For every identified scoundrel among ministerial offspring today, there must be many more in the making, on either side of the political divide, waiting to use their muscle on the people, damage State property and attack the minions of the law. Which raises the query as to what makes such scoundrels of ministerial sons? I'm not ready to blame it on the genes. No doubt the fact of being new rich, and spoilt by their parents who can give them what they never dreamt of in their own youth must be a contributory factor. But I think there is something more to this. I'm increasingly convinced it is largely caused by the food they consume. This was confirmed to a large extend by that distinctly vulgar and offensive TV advertisement for a well-known brand of local sausages that has been aired. It's an ad that glorifies a youth who breaks all the accepted norms and rules of a restaurant by bringing his own food in a Tiffin carrier, and threateningly insists the waiter that a place be laid at a table to have his favourite meal. "No outside food, here" says the waiter, and that's the clue to the youth for his real act. He shouts out the name of the sausage, and insists it is not outside food at all. There is a peal of his voice as he shouts that this is what all of us eat, meaning his kind, and have been brought up on. The waiter and hotel manager retreat, and others in the restaurant, curiously satisfied by this vulgar act, responds to his request to join him in this very national meal of our own. The sausage that everyone has been nourished on! The old tea planters of the name of Keells must be writhing wherever they are buried, at this abuse of their name for such decidedly disgusting behaviour. But, if you look at the age group of persons who are now ruling the underworld with their crime, and the sons of ministers and other politicians who resort to violence, literally at the drop of a sausage, or even less, it will not be difficult to find that they are of the generation brought up on junk food. I believe it is time that some researcher got into the act and tried to find the link between such sausages, and ever increasing violence of today. Quite unknowingly, the copywriter may have said the truth. "This is the food that we have all been nourished on". Not my generation that is on the wane, but the new generation that revels in so much violence. The generation that is so contemptuous of the decencies of public behaviour. How much does the underworld spend on these sausages, whether they are halal or not? And how much do ministerial parents pay to feed their darling sons with such daring stuff? If sausages can breed violence we are a society that proves it. With George W Bush so keen to make the American Way of Life the accepted norm the world over, I'm sure it was sign of a new trend of the culture of violence that among the latest weapons used by this trio of ministerial sons was a baseball bat. Now shouldn't we be so happy at being so modern and very American too? Sausages and baseball bats - the icons of an emerging culture of violence; icons that place society off an even keel. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
