By Grusha Andrews –

There is a popular folk saying in Sinhalese that reads: “even if you take the coconut scraper to Europe, all you can do with it is scrape coconuts”. Our grand mothers who lived in an era where travelling to Europe was a mark of social mobility tried to infer that a limited man is a limited man in spite of changing location or position. Maithripala Sirisena, who showed his treacherous, undemocratic disposition by the coup he implemented against our very democracy proved our collective grannies correct when he stooped to a new low. In fact he stooped to the abysmal depths of human indecency showing the poverty of his soul. Yesterday at the Mahinda- Maithri rally at Battaramulla, he referred to Prime Minister Ranil Wikremesinghe and his political associates as “butterflies” – a derogatory term used to refer to gay men in the Sri Lankan context.

When this despicable, ill-disciplined statement which insults the very office he holds was delivered by the President of our republic, all the politicians visible in that video were laughing like hyenas, clapping. They were, namely, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Dinesh Gunawardena, Bandula Gunawardane, Susil Premjayanth and Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene. As expected the crowds gathered at this meeting were enthralled and they were screaming in ecstasy with their hands raised to the sky. To speculate the homosexuality of another, to insult a person based on that and to state that a weakness or a character flaw of a person is due to his or her purported sexual orientation shows how uneducated, imbecilic and narrow minded our President is.

So This Is The “Clash Of Cultures”!

To discriminate or debase another based on their race, religion, caste, sexual orientation or place of origin is a violation of their fundamental rights. Further it is lowly, unsophisticated, cruel and an act that can be carried out by an uncultured coward. By his own admission Sirisena confirmed that there were irreconcilable “cultural differences” between himself and Wickremesinghe. Sirisena was clearly correct. To keep what’s in the bedroom inside the bed room is cultured. To watch sexual intercourse through key holes and to fantasize of the same is uncultured. What we have in our republic is not a President but a Peeping Tom.

The Facebook page “Dedunu Sanwaada”, in an eloquent post summarizes the social tragedy of this uncultured-ness in the following manner:

“Our society that calls itself moral suffers from generalized sexual frustration. We are all experiencing it. While fathers sexually molest their daughters, clergy also molest children. Authorities seek sexual bribes from mothers to admit children to schools. The law maker politicians are even more sexually frustrated. They take sexual bribes even to enter a name to an electoral register. Meanwhile allegations of sexual exploitation are aimed at the police and the armed forces. Further ,the traditional family structure is also eroding. Even the judiciary that exists to deliver justice is full of sexual misconduct. On the surface all these appear as unsolvable problems. When the deer ransack the’ chena’s and escape ,the farmer, out of his frustration beats up the deer skin at home  to vent his anger. The homosexual in our society is the scapegoat or all of society’s apparently unresolvable ills”. 

So When Did Sirisena “Choose” His Sexuality?

From the sardonic statement he made and the sarcastically triumphant laughter he displayed, it appears that Sirisena thinks that homosexuality is a laughable weakness. He seems to believe that it’s a “faulty choice” and hence a laughable. This begs the question: does this uneducated President truly believe that sexual orientation is a conscious choice? That at the dawn of adolescence humans choose to be hetero or homosexuals? Like you choose between a blue shirt and a pink shirt? If so when did Sirisena choose his sexuality? 

Further, as stated by Sirisena, he first approached Karu Jayasuriya to become Prime Minister. Is he sure that Jayasuriya is heterosexual? How about Sajith Premadasa whom he also approached? Is he sure that Sajith is heterosexual? Was he a Peeping Tom at their doors too? What about Dinesh Gunawardena clapping away? Has he no brother, no relative who is a homosexual? Is Sirisena confident that the General Secretary of Pohottuwa, G.L. Peiris, sitting there is conclusively heterosexual? 

Also, is Sirisena quite sure that no child or grandchild of his will ever identify themselves with the LGBTQ+ community? What guarantee do any one of us have that someone we love may never have a sexual orientation different to our own? Is he going to get on a stage and laugh at his own if this hypothesis became a reality? Further, is it a part of the sexuality of the President to have sexual intercourse with government servants in his office, to give them opportunity to earn irregular monies, to offer them trips overseas and to betray the mandate of the people when his political foes get their hands on such evidence and black mail him? Sirisena, remember – fate is more unexpected, dramatic and full of poetic justice than you think. Think a thousand times before you insult another human being!

Return Of The Butterfly? 

Maithripala Sirisena, who was but a sniffling political caterpillar metamorphed in to a golden butterfly with the help of the UNP, SLFP and numerous other social forces. He did so in the face of a possible coronation of a Rajapaksa looming in the background. Sirisena who is dreaming of high flying in 2019 like a butterfly will no doubt be squashed like a mosquito in the palm of Mahinda Rajapaksa in no time. Today he proved his immense contribution to the breakdown of the co-habitation of the Yahapalana Government. He proved that he is a foul tongued, putrefied speaker in the ranks of Mervyn Silva, Ossie Abeygunasekera, Rajitha Senaratne, Chathura Senaratne and Pavithra Wanniarachchi. Little does he realize that he cannot affect Ranil who is a master at emotional management with a lowly, uneducated statement such as this. Conversely, may be all Ranil needs is to do absolutely nothing in the face of this crisis as he is accustomed to. This unsuccessful, shameless, uneducated President may bring upon himself his self-destruction without outside help.

However, no matter how many key holes he peeps in to, the butterfly called Maithripala Sirisena is most unlikely to prolong his life cycle.