Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahapālanaya

By Shyamon Jayasinghe –May 30, 2016

Shyamon Jayasinghe

Did any of you readers see the video of Deputy Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe going in a boat in a flood affected area in Colombo and distributing donations? Did you see the video of Minister Dayasiri engaged in cleaning up muck in a residential block somewhere? Both these gentlemen are well dressed with the cameras turned on them. Serasinghe,in shorts, looks like a Walawwe Hamumahattaya or like Loku Baby Mahattaya. Shifting to a serious note, aren’t you shaken up by Minister Rajitha Senaratne having an open duel with the doctors of the GMOA?

These blokes, (and I am sure there are many of them in the yahapalanaya government) if allowed to go on overdrive like this will surely blow up Yahapalanaya. Young Minister Harin Fernando mercifully apologised for his use of raw filth in Parliament.

The first two performances are all over Facebook and social media. One has to be thankful for these social media outlets. The word spreads like wildfire in a summer Australian bush country. At least social media is acting as a break where our civil society has gone to slumber. Democracy is predicated on one major premise,namely, that the broad populace are engaged with what politicians do. They watch them. They pull them up if they go wrong. Here, in Australia one reason why democracy works reasonably well is that civil society organisations and organised trade unions don’t let politicians off the hook. If even as simple as a prominent tree is felled down for “development” one witnesses hordes of protestors. The media,in turn, falls in line with a conscientious public.

Its not all lost in Sri Lanka, however. The Corruption Decade was brought down partly by Facebook and the civil society organisations. A huge salute to the memory of Venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha! While other prominent monks were aligned directly and impliedly with the corruption regime this monk made the sacrifice. Praise to the monk and shame on others.

On the other hand when politicians like those three above dance the devil why don’t we have some civil society boys hooting them down. I remember in the old campus days boys hooted Sir John Kotelawala when he came as Prime Minister. A little hooting isn’t a dangerous thing especially when now we don’t have White Vans.

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