By Shyamon Jayasinghe –

Shyamon Jayasinghe

Keheliya Rambukwella,MP, has proposed to the Speaker that all MPs should go through a psychiatric test. One can speculate that the proposal came from self-realisation.

This gentleman came to Australia while he was Minister under Mahinda Rajapaksa. His son,in the cricket team, was undergoing surgery and fatherly love brought him Down Under at taxpayer expense. He stayed in a Five Star for some days and one fine such day he was reported as having fallen off the third floor of the hotel down to the bushes in the ground floor. Down the palling!

Gossip being the blood of Sri Lankans, stories were constructed about how The Honourable could have had this strange fall. Some gossipers said he was drunk because he had a reputation for intoxication. Others alleged Keheliya stealthily went to peep into the neighbouring room and missed his step. Whatever the truth of all these are The Honourable managed to get some Twenty Million Rupees from the President’s Fund! It is alleged he had also got over a hundred thousand dollars as settlement from the hotel that kept his body and mind. We do not know if he had private insurance, in addition. If so, he is entitled to that,too. Well, let us not envy the poor Honourable bloke. The point is that he fell from floor number three down to floor zero and so one must sympathise.

We have to guess the condition of the mind of a man who would have undertaken such a Quixotic adventure. By the way, this is the 100th death anniversary of the famous Spanish novelist, Cervantes, who wrote the classic Don Quixote. It is appropriate time to analyse this. I wish we had the services of the psychiatrist. Was it a DNA condition? Didn’t Keheliya’s cricketer- son try to open the window of an aeroplane while flying over 30,000 feet high? Whatever, let’s hope Keheliya sets the example, goes to a psychiatrist and assure us that he is fit and running for the post of MP.

Honourable Keheliya’s medical proposal evidently came up after the recent Thevarapperuma episode. The latter gentleman who was elevated to the position of Deputy Minister by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has misbehaved badly. Remember how during the black days when Ranil was Leader of the Opposition and considered fated to remain in the opposition for eternity this same gentleman reportedly lugged forward to attack his UNP leader?

Here is a news report of Honourable Thewa’s recent Quixotic episode:

“Deputy Minister Palitha Thewarapperuma reportedly walked out from a private hospital in Colombo yesterday despite objections by doctors after hearing the arrest of the mothers of nine students who were denied admission to Grade 1 of the Meegastenna Primary School.

Contacted by the Daily News, the deputy minister said  he was heading for the Matugama Magsitrate’s Court in support of the arrested parents.

Thewarapperuma said he was even prepared to surrender to the Police and added that he would decide on what action to take after reaching courts.

He said he was slated to undergo surgery when he heard about the arrest of the parents. Thewarapperuma accused a local politician and some officials of the provincial education office of instigating the whole fiasco for petty gain and as a personal vendetta against him. He said the children had all the qualifications for school admittance.

The Police arrested the parents of the nine students denied admission to Grade 1 of Meegastenna Primary School yesterday.

The Police said the arrests were made on charges of unlawful assembly and entry.

They will be produced before the Matugama Magistrate. On June 27, Thewarapperuma drew attention to the issue, by embarking on a satyagraha that culminated in a bid to commit suicide four days later. The deputy minister speaking on behalf of the parents of the 10 students denied admission said that the students had met all the requirements set out by the school, and that the school authorities’ refusal to grant them admission was unfair and arbitrary.

The arrest of the parents comes on the heels of a protest by the All Ceylon Teachers’ Union asking that the deputy minister be investigated and arrested for his involvement in the incident.

Meanwhile, the mothers of the nine students arrested by the police on charges of unlawful assembly and illegal entry to the Meegastenna Primary school were remanded till July 7 by the

Matugama Magistrate. However, upon arriving at the Matugama Magistrate’s Court, the Deputy Minister was informed that the Court was closed.”

The story is that Honourable Thewa had hanged himself on the ceiling fan to commit suicide until a bunch of his supporters endowed with extra sensory telepathic powers arrived at the right time to save a national disaster from happening. The supporters must be deemed national heroes in an island already so full of heroes. But, then, we are told the yahapalnaya government has locked him in jail.

Not to worry Sri Lanka, Paradise has plenty of such extraordinary MPs like Honourable Keheliya and Honourable Thewa. We had good old Honourable Dr Mervyn, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s macho backer, who once owned the whole of Kelaniya and who is a descent from none other than Dutugemunu. How Dr Mervyn tied a starving Public servant to a tree! This Honourable now goes about with files under his arm that contain damning evidence of murder by Rajapaksa.

Then we have the Pivithuru (pure) Honourable now unfortunately a jail bird temporarily released. He has been jumping up and down for Rajapaksa saying everything negative about Yahapalanaya. A once sworn JHUer our Pivithuru Honourable one fine night stealthily left his mat and performed an abinikmana or renunciation to leave the JHU. He has been unfairly charged with embezzlement whereas the real truth is he maybe psychotic.

Of course, one cannot miss old Wimal Weerawansa who challenged “Ranilayo,” and “Sirisenayo” to try and win the general election that his party lost. Although a diminutive individual, Wimalayo has a powerful tongue that makes you see black as white and white as black. He roars in thunder. He is a specialist in going on death-fasts without dying. The last time he tried that was before the Colombo UN office. Unfortunately, Rajapaksa arrived right on time, like Honourable Thewa’s supporters, to force him to take a sip of orange juice. Mahinda, too, had telepathic powers. Wimal also calls “foul’” of others when he is himself facing charges of forging passports and giving away government houses to relatives. This proclivity to go on death-fast and to accuse others with skeletons in one’s own cupboard calls for psychiatric scrutiny.

Wimal’s big boss is another one! He is deeply into Black Magic and spells and astrology. These things went overboard when he acted on the astrologer Sumane’s advice and opted for elections. He is said to invite VIPs for hopper to find the invitee missing the next day. The bird on my tree says this is all weird needing psychiatric scrutiny.

A national problem has been created as a result of the prevalence of psycho cases both in Parliament and even outside. Particularly with so many Honourables now in Diyawanna, yahapalanaya democracy has become a comedy.We have read of the comedy of freedom. Here one observes it in full glare. Taking advantage of the disappearance of white vans, there are strikes everyday for the slightest reason. The other day, hundreds of fishermen slept on railway tracks to protest about the government not removing a rock close by that impeded their activity. Like the fishermen, the GMOA is in strike mode more than looking after the sick and the dying. The latter are not Honourables but yet they can control all the Honourables in Parliament so much so that they dare oppose government trade policy. GMOA might soon go on strike against the education policy planned for schools or a policy for local government.

The irony of freedom is that it consumes itself.

*The writer can be contacted on sjturaus@optusnet.com.au