Heartening news! Another association of doctors has been formed, or so we were told on Wednesday TV night news. This association has the blessings of the Minister of Health. This cat mewed and purred approval. If you cannot beat ’em play the same game is a good maxim to follow. There must have been plenty healers who welcomed the move since it was obvious to even the deaf and the blind that sane docs were getting tired of the intransigence and obduracy of the GMOA, once the most powerful trade union. It is now tattered and torn of the respect people had for it. It held its knife to the throat of the Minister of Health too often, and flayed the dead horse of the SAITM issue too long. Now, they are quibbling over the magnanimity of Dr Neville Fernando and his teaching hospital being vested in the government.
Breakaways invariably good
We remember the heady news flash and detailed presentation on TV of the breakaway group from the autocratic grip of the previous Prez headed by Maithripala Sirisena who had only the previous night broken bread in the form of hoppers with the Prez. In December 2014, he departed to assume the mantle of Common Candidate with Madam Chandrika Kumaratunga’s and the public’s blessings, flanked on the right by Dr Rajitha Senaratne. Hearing the then Prez on this, it looked as if Maithripala’s greater sin than even splitting the SLFP/UPFA was partaking of his hoppers and then even before they were fully digested, giving his seat a kick and moving out! We were faced with more than a generational curse with the president-for-life bid through the passing of the 18th Amendment, and the throne and crown to be handed down with no by-your-leave-Sri-Lankans, to the elder son and so forth, once the old Satakaya got too worn out to rule. Maithripala S. looked so like the sacrificial lamb but he and the people rose valiantly to the occasion. We swept away the rapacious extended family and slipper-licking sycophants. Some were banished from the old party due to too much verbal spouting and not welcomed by the new joint group.
There was this court jester then. His jests turning to torture had people dreading him and also secretly scorning him. Except once bathing him in red paint by a corporation where he had burst into to smack the head for not showing him speaking at the opening of a bridge or some such thing, he went his pissu way. He tied a man to a tree as punishment in full view of some policemen for no great crime and then said, the man willingly tied himself. He proposed marriage to a visiting UN VVIP and the entire country got a ticking off. And his big boss, just laughed at his antics. The elections came; he got no nomination and was not pulled through the back door National List either – most mercifully. He surfaces once in a while with black hair and white moustache or vice versa, and recently all black. This chappie goes a-calling on the Ven Mahanayakes in the Hill Capital and emerges and spouts another mouthful or two of exaggerations and untruths. We suppose the Mahanayake Theras have to often suffer fools and appear to gracefully accept their baskets of fruit and atapirikaras.
This cat listened to what Merv Silva told the press in Kandy in front of the Dalada Maligawa, but it went in through one ear and out the other, without registering one bit in the feline brain. He is now spouting the Buddhist Dhamma, another sacrilege like constructing Buddha statues at every corner with brothels and liquor joints close at hand.
Talking of which reminds this cat of a person on YouTube pleading with Nangi not to get carried away by social media messages of rallying to save Buddhism and the Sinhala race. He mentions statues cheek by jowl with ra thabaarum and that he can talk as he gave ten of his life’s years to saving both, the country and religion, by serving in the armed forces. Pithy and apt.
Going far too far
Yes, in the name of preserving the religiosity of Buddhism, an Indian tourist was recently given the fright of her life. A young girl with her brother and aunt were happily shopping prior to departure when the police grabbed her, handcuffed her and insisted she accompany them to the police station. Her crime? Wearing a dress with a picture of the Buddha on it. She should have known better, but was that a crime. Not even disrespect since she knew no better. The brother bought her a T-Shirt. The police should have allowed her to wear it and go her way; OK with a fine if a log book entry was really necessary, and some pocket money. What about chain snatchers and bebaddas in large entourages entering the holiest of Buddhist precincts, such as, the Dalada Maligawa and upper maluwa of the Sacred Bo Tree, stinking of crime and alcohol?
As this cat has said many a time before, Buddhism is in no danger of dying out in this country. The correct type of the religion barring rites and rituals, worship of statues and taking to reflection and meditation is ongoing. Numbers observing sil on poya days increase, not only proportionate to the increase in population but due to people being made aware of the real religion as preached by the Buddha. We have pious monks among us who preach the philosophy realized by Siddhartha Gautama and explained by him for 45 years after his enlightenment at age 35. They are full of sila and they also look to the poor and the disadvantaged. If Buddhism is threatened and the Sinhala race, it is from within by zealots and extremists who usually have hidden agendas.
Once, either the President or Prime Minister or both, yes the President, noted very correctly that news broadcast is invariably bad news, frightening info and maybe, though he did not borrow the term from across the oceans, fake news! We were frightened out of our wits by constant drumming that so very many people succumbed to dengue, so many died, hospitals and nursing homes were overflowing with sufferers of the dreaded disease. Sure, it’s abating with the precautions taken and the sun shining through drying up larvae infected water and the mosqui too. No, all quiet on the TV front. No relief news as yet. The old adage still holds: man bites dog is news; the more alarming the better! Let’s have a ray or two of hope and joy, like reminding us no white vans cruise on the lookout for victims, usually harmless and minding their own business; no killings reported as suicides, no cruel-beyond-words murder by piercing the brain officially reported as a shooting.
- Menika