{"id":124001,"date":"2014-05-03T00:12:31","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T18:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=124001"},"modified":"2014-05-10T00:16:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T18:46:51","slug":"sajiths-laughter-and-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sajiths-laughter-and-tears\/","title":{"rendered":"Sajith\u2019s Laughter And Tears"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Meanwhile in a parallel universe<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be frank I don\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry.\u00a0 I could laugh for many reasons.\u00a0 I could cry too.\u00a0 Let me explain why.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently some of my colleagues in the United National Party visited Hambantota<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Now President Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>, his brothers, sons and other relatives act as though Hambantota belongs to them.\u00a0 Sure, they\u2019ve been there for generations. I am a relative newcomer.\u00a0 But then again, it\u2019s my \u2018home base\u2019 now and the people have thought fit to elect me to represent them.\u00a0 I have a claim.\u00a0 Since I have a claim, I have a say.\u00a0 I have a right to a tear. Or a smile.<\/p>\n

The gentlemen from the UNP didn\u2019t come anywhere near during the Southern Provincial Council election.\u00a0 They hadn\u2019t scheduled a courtesy call either.\u00a0 That\u2019s bad.\u00a0 Made me want to cry.<\/p>\n

\"Sajith<\/a>Maybe that\u2019s because I have not been kind to them.\u00a0 They probably know that I invited people kicked out of the party to speak at my rallies.\u00a0 The invitees blasted the party leaders, including the Leadership Council.\u00a0 The good MPs who visited Hambantota would not have been pleased.\u00a0 Still, they had to come to MY backyard.\u00a0 That made me smile.<\/p>\n

They were attacked and some of them manhandled by some local thugs led by the Mayor of Hambantota Eraj Fernando<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 That made me sad.\u00a0 Made me want to cry.\u00a0 On the other hand, I know as almost everyone knows that there\u2019s no love lost between that set of gentlemen and myself.\u00a0 They don\u2019t exactly love me and I don\u2019t love them either.\u00a0 I am an electorate man and some of them are national-list men.\u00a0 I am a people\u2019s person and some of them are release-writers.\u00a0 I talk, I walk.\u00a0 Now they know what real politics is like. Now they know what kind of challenges the rank and file of the party, the men and women on the ground, have to face when taking on the regime.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t stop the smirk, sorry.\u00a0 Still, there\u2019s a tear that swells to ear and that swelling wipes off smirk. I am sad they had to face a barrage of rotten eggs and tomatoes. It makes me cry to think they had to see a man brandishing a pistol running at them.<\/p>\n

I have other reasons to be sad too.\u00a0 The media made me sad. Some media institutions tried to implicate me in the attack. I am not an attacking person.\u00a0 I won\u2019t attack anyone. I didn\u2019t bring thugs to Sirikotha.\u00a0 I prefer to put in a word here and there, look the other way, and when it gets so hot that I might get burnt, I appeal for calm.\u00a0 I am sad that it was suggested that I sent thugs to \u2018receive\u2019 my UNP colleagues.<\/p>\n

It made me laugh too.\u00a0 I mean, who would swallow that kind of lie?\u00a0 No one believed it.\u00a0 As anyone would have expected, there was stuff caught on camera. It was clear who was armed and who was throwing the punches. Sajith Premadasa was nowhere near.<\/p>\n

All this made me sad. Some of it made me laugh.\u00a0 The saddest thing for me, however, is the fact that the UPFA thugs have not seen me as a big enough reason to worry about to attack me.\u00a0 They have ample opportunity because I spend a lot of time in Hambantota.\u00a0 They\u2019ve never bothered me. I\u2019ve not been attacked.\u00a0 I feel bad.\u00a0 I wish I caught a rotten egg on my face once in a while.\u00a0 That would mean that someone takes me seriously, someone considered me a threat.\u00a0\u00a0 I am livid that these thugs consider the visiting MPs to constitute threat.\u00a0 I am even more angry that they have not even tossed a pebble in my direction.\u00a0 AM I NOT A THREAT?\u00a0 AM I NOT A CHALLENGE?\u00a0 WHY IS NO ONE TAKING ANY NOTICE OF ME? WHY, WHY, WHY?<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t take it. I can\u2019t go on.\u00a0 I need tissues.\u00a0 A boxful of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nSajith\u2019s Laughter And Tears - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sajiths-laughter-and-tears\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sajith\u2019s Laughter And Tears - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sajiths-laughter-and-tears\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-02T18:42:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-09T18:46:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sajiths-laughter-and-tears\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sajiths-laughter-and-tears\/\",\"name\":\"Sajith\u2019s Laughter And Tears - 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