{"id":163204,"date":"2016-05-30T15:51:25","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T10:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=163204"},"modified":"2016-06-06T16:11:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T10:41:26","slug":"behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/","title":{"rendered":"Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Shyamon+Jayasinghe&amp;x=16&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Shyamon Jayasinghe<\/span><\/a> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_146092\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-illusionist\/shyamon-jayasinghe-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-146092\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-146092\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-146092\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Shyamon Jayasinghe\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-146092\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shyamon Jayasinghe<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Did any of you readers see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/abrighterfuturesl\/videos\/1764812037088010\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the video<\/span><\/a> of Deputy Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sujeewa+Senasinghe&amp;x=7&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sujeewa Senasinghe<\/span><\/a> 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 <em>Walawwe Hamumahattaya<\/em> or like <em>Loku Baby Mahattay<\/em>a. Shifting to a serious note, aren\u2019t you shaken up by Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rajitha+Senaratne&amp;x=12&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Rajitha Senaratne<\/span><\/a> having an open duel with the doctors of the GMOA?<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Harin+Fernando&amp;x=9&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Harin Fernando<\/span><\/a> mercifully apologised for his use of raw filth in Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>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. <strong>Democracy is predicated on one major premise,namely, that the broad populace are engaged with what politicians do<\/strong>. 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\u2019t let politicians off the hook. If even as simple as a prominent tree is felled down for \u201cdevelopment\u201d one witnesses hordes of protestors. The media,in turn, falls in line with a conscientious public.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-163204-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13299896_1405381756429862_1185184443_n.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13299896_1405381756429862_1185184443_n.mp4\">https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/13299896_1405381756429862_1185184443_n.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Maduluwave+Sobitha&amp;x=13&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Maduluwawe Sobitha<\/span><\/a>! 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.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand when politicians like those three above dance the devil why don\u2019t 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\u2019t a dangerous thing especially when now we don\u2019t have White Vans.<\/p>\n<p>Dayasiri and Senasinghe distribute not their personal donations but the givings of others not in powerful positions like them. What are they doing but exploiting the situation for the upping of their political image? They should realise it is unethical to prosper on others\u2019 misery. In these instances it was literally a case of \u201cbora diye maalu banawa\u201d (fishing in muddy waters). Shame on them.!Besides, aren\u2019t these illustrations harking back to the Rajapaksa era when MR and his fellows became such accomplished actors whom Oscar winners would have envied? Kissing the tarmac at the airport. Hugging babies and touching old men and women with \u201ccompassion.\u201d Didn\u2019t Senasinghe criticise such episodes of acting and fooling around? I remember him on a TV program doing just that. As long as our people are naive and stupid these cheap tactics work. But why not lift the people from such a state of naivety and show the latter the respect that\u2019s due to them?<\/p>\n<p>And now we come to the serious from the jocular. In a way, it is jocular again. This is the unnecessary warfare waged by Rajitha against his doctor colleagues. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gmoa-wants-rajitha-removed-as-chathura-abuses-ministry-vehicles-and-medicines-for-flood-relief\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The GMOA charges that Rajitha\u2019s son is also unduly going about with Ministry resources<\/span><\/a>. If true, this is another betrayal of yahapalanaya. Was Yahapalanaya gone wrong only when in the hands of the Rajapaksa family? And good when it is in the hands of Rajitha\u2019s family? What a sensible Rajitha should have done is, firstly, to clear his personal life away from his public life. These are two different things which our politicians always conflate to their advantage. We had ten years to see the result. Secondly, Rajitha should have kept his ego behind and dealt with the GMOA with the respect it deserves. Every conflict can be sorted out on a win-win basis but for that, one must send one\u2019s ego on holiday. The GMOA leaders, undoubtedly have been getting into political mode with inflated egos themselves. It spent a lot of unnecessary energy in battling against the ETCA without knowing even what the nature of that animal was. That was pure blunder. On the other hand, the Minister must be above the level of conflict and he must deal professionally and not like a Chandiya. In this instance, Minister Rajitha Senaratne does not appear in good light. His competence is in serious question. He has brought the conflict to the point of bringing in a mediator. That mediation might end his sense of pride.<\/p>\n<p><em>sjturaus@optusnet.com.au<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":146092,"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-163204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya - 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\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-30T10:21:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-06T10:41:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\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=\"4 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\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/\",\"name\":\"Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-30T10:21:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-06T10:41:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg\",\"width\":336,\"height\":427,\"caption\":\"Shyamon Jayasinghe\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2016-05-30T10:21:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-06-06T10:41:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":336,"height":427,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/","name":"Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-30T10:21:25+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-06T10:41:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg","width":336,"height":427,"caption":"Shyamon Jayasinghe"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/behold-the-crazy-guys-of-yahapalanaya\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Behold The Crazy Guys Of Yahap\u0101lanaya"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Shyamon-Jayasinghe.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163204"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163213,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163204\/revisions\/163213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}