{"id":141481,"date":"2015-03-22T00:01:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T18:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=141481"},"modified":"2015-03-28T00:04:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T18:34:59","slug":"the-soap-opera-unfolds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-soap-opera-unfolds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Soap Opera Unfolds"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emil van der Poorten<\/span><\/a> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Emil<\/a>

Emil van der Poorten<\/p><\/div>\n

I suppose I should have used the local terminology, \u201cteledrama,\u201d rather than the Euro-American (and pejorative) term. However, I do believe that my choice is more reflective of the really nasty events that are beginning to unfold, complete with what appears to be maliciousness bordering on the psychopathic, seemingly balanced off by abject cowardice parading as \u201cpatience\u201d and \u201cadroit maneuvering.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a previous occasion I described how Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> was being accorded preferential treatment in the matter of interrogation by the Criminal Investigation Department who, rather than summon him to their offices as they would any ordinary Banda or Biso, were making house calls at his convenience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, we have the spectacle of \u201cspecial considerations\u201d being accorded the self-same individual at the behest at no less a person than the Prime Minister of this country. If that worthy\u2019s compass needed setting he had to look no further than Wijedasa Rajapakshe<\/span><\/a>, one time Rajapaksa acolyte who bailed out, absolutely ignominiously, from the highest elected position in the BASL after his house was allegedly fired on and after what I distinctly remember was a personal \u201ccourtesy call\u201d from Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>. Wijedasa Rajapakshe and Lakshman Kiriella come bearing the same burden, both being old henchmen of Mahinda, who might have left his side but who obviously know on which side their bread is buttered: on both sides if they had their druthers! Both are now buying \u201cinsurance\u201d from the Rajapaksa horde to cover any \u201cadverse eventualities.\u201d I have proof positive of Mr Kiriella buying his particular piece of \u201cinsurance\u201d through a favour to a superannuated member of the soon-to-be-consummated dynastic coming together! As they say, \u201cany port in a storm\u201d and one takes one\u2019s opportunities as they come along! It is now also very apparent<\/strong> that for reasons that have been documented by other writers to Colombo Telegraph and other publications not attached to the hind teat of whichever group happens to be in power (and that likely to succeed it, too) that circumstantial evidence points to the Prime Minister being complicit in this enterprise.<\/p>\n

\"Wijedasa\"<\/a>

If that worthy\u2019s compass needed setting he had to look no further than Wijedasa Rajapakshe, one time Rajapaksa acolyte who bailed out, absolutely ignominiously, from the highest elected position in the BASL after his house was allegedly fired on and after what I distinctly remember was a personal \u201ccourtesy call\u201d from Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p><\/div>\n

These are simply opportunistic and abject cowards \u2013 from \u201cleader\u201d to common-or-garden \u201cfoot soldiers\u201d – parading as political strategists, feathering their own nests at the expense of those who put them in power in the expectation of Justitia omnibus<\/em>. As each day passes, their colours are becoming more evident to anyone pretending to anything resembling grey matter in their cranial cavity. One doesn\u2019t need to go far back in time for examples of those who, in one breath, denounced some political leader and the next moment was seen in that very person\u2019s fond embrace, literally! Remember the ranting and raving of, first, Johnston Fernando and then Dayasiri Jayasekera against Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former even being accused of plotting to take the then-President\u2019s life! Remember what they did next? If you don\u2019t, remember where they still are, perhaps, pending another migration into the embrace of some other leader capable of handing out something \u201csuitable!\u201d<\/p>\n

One can but hope that the Sujeewa Senasinghes and Harin Fernandos of the United National Party display some of the intestinal fortitude that they have already given evidence of possessing and raise the concerns of the people of this country within their party circles because if that doesn\u2019t happen and the inevitable denouement follows, the Rajapaksa horde will not extend to them anything like the courtesies that their self-appointed \u201cseniors\u201d are extending to those who raped and pillaged this country.<\/p>\n

Many of us have already been accused of impatience in the matter of holding to the fire the feet of those who claimed to be ready to remove from the body politic all that the Rajapaksa regime stood for. Considering the escalation of pandering to the law-breakers and the unbelievable equivocating that is unfolding before our very eyes, we should have been even harder on our \u201csaviours\u201d in the hope that they wouldn\u2019t betray us. Many of my friends lapse into \u201cdidn\u2019t I tell you so?\u201d every time I cross their paths and I have to admit that the term \u201cchagrined\u201d comes to mind when I am confronted with what they keep reminding me of.<\/p>\n

However, in practical terms, the Ranil<\/span><\/a>\/Maithripala<\/span><\/a> duo are the only game in town for the foreseeable future and we need to do everything in our power to ensure that, even if they aren\u2019t progressing at the speed they promised at the inception, that they don\u2019t deviate from the promised path. NOTHING LESS WILL SUFFICE. They have begun to provide us with pretty substantial evidence of their capacity to betray us and every man, woman and child with expectations that justice, civility and decency were to prevail after the Rajapaksas were sent packing has just cause to complain. To suggest that they are doing us some kind of \u201cfavour\u201d by mouthing platitudes while pandering to the very people they were mandated to remove from the day to day affairs and governance of this country is beyond ludicrous! If they haven\u2019t got the cojones to do what needs to be done or if they feel that it would pay them better NOT to fulfill the people\u2019s mandate they should, in the name of God, GO!<\/strong> If they refuse to do what they promised to do they should be REMOVED<\/strong> and the sooner the better.<\/p>\n

The irony of the Kiriellas, Vasantha Senanayakes, Navin Dissanayakes and Wijedasa Rajapakshes pandering to the Medamulana Mafia (MM) is that the MM didn\u2019t think them fit to hold anything resembling important (and lucrative?) office when awarding such positions was not only in the jurisdiction of the MM but exercised more than freely insofar as people of that ilk were concerned! 0ne form of \u201cjustice\u201d one might see in the event of a return to power of Mahinda Rajapaksa and co. would be these purchasers being left out in the cold or, at best, being tolerated no further than the Rajapaksa pilikanne<\/em>! That <\/strong> would be rich indeed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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