It was the witches in Shakespeare’s great tragedy Macbeth that answered their own query of Where shall we three meet again prefaced with their oft repeated refrain Fair is foul and foul is fair that they would meet When the hurly burly’s done; when the battles lost and won.
Meeting after the mini-battle
So this cat meets you via newsprint after the mini polls battle which all acknowledged had proportionately greater significance as it is a presage to the bigger polls to come in 2020 and also a test of yahapalanaya and the continuance or dissolution of the so called shot gun marriage of the two largest political parties exemplified by the blue President and the green Prime Minister.
This feline sits down to write this before the polls and thus long before results of local election results are known. It looks as if predictions vary vastly. Some say, the UNP will win majority Municipal and Urban Councils, some say Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP/UPFA will come tops while a few predict the pohottuwa will open its closed petals to savour the honey of success once more. God forbid is this cat’s reaction to the last prediction. Wonder what the planet tracing astrologers predict. They are a somewhat disgraced lot after what happened to the previous Prez’s soothsayer who from his elevated public presence predicted the continuance of MR’s raja yogaya (or whatever it is) and he would rule the Sri Lankan roost for another five years and perhaps, another term as Prez for Life, until his son and heir was ready to assume his mantle of Dictator of Free Sree Lanka. This reminds this literary cat of Macbeth going aghast seeing king after king of Banquo’s issue wearing the Scottish crown and parading in the mirror held up by the chief witch for him to see the future. He mutters with deep frustration and anger –is this for which I murdered my king? This cat prefers not to see a mirror image of Rajapaksa sons parading as leaders of our land.
A surprise it was to see a whole host of intellectuals asking us the people to vote in the JVP, in a newspaper article. True, they, the second generation of dissenters and murderers lustily and smoothly stand up for justice and honesty, but one simply cannot forget what their older generation - and some of them too - did to this country in the late 1980s. Their first uprising in 1971 was more or less honourable, but definitely not the horrific and unjustified blood baths they enacted in 1989, particularly, causing an exodus of the educated and to-be-educated to foreign lands.
Women in the fray
Politics, especially, during election time, was luridly dirty, so women, except the truly intrepid or foolish refrained from coming forward in previous mini polls and even at the general elections. This cat uses the adjective ‘foolish’ since some disgraced themselves with a couple of their remarks and even announcements. Remember the TV star Pabha who won a seat in Kelaniya in parliamentary elections garnering more manapes than even the veteran honest politician Karu Jayasuriya? As MP she was asked something about Parliament. Her reply (not verbatim): Aney don’t ask me such questions. Then the sexy actress who won a southern Parliamentary seat not knowing a rudimentary rule of being Sri Lankan and nothing but solely Sri Lankan. Her Swedish double citizenship was brought to light. Remember Anarkali Akarsha who entered the political fray in Galle only because Namal Aiya told her to do so. Rumour is, she had to flee. Fled to the US and made a rich marriage. Three cheers! She as one who danced the ‘follow my leader’ with CB Gov Cabraal and Namal Aiya when they were bidding to host the Commonwealth Games. Thank goodness our bid was rejected.
This time around, a rule has come in increasing women representation in polls, at least. Thus, many more dedicated, (we hope) women joined the fray. Also, thanks to a firm Election Commission Chairman, rules of eligibility have been strictly enforced, so also do-s and don’t-s in campaigning. It is expected he will ensure a peaceful polls on Saturday 10th.
Everyone, irrespective of political slants, especially women, should be glad Thalata Atukorale is in Parliament and recently given the portfolio of Minister of Justice in addition to her previous Ministry – that of Foreign Employment.
We now come to our contestant for the Mayorship of the Colombo MC – Her Beauty Rosy Senanayake. She is contesting a strong opponent, the often pontificating, honest seeming Azath Sally. Both fine, but a choice has to be made. Fortunately, we remember Rosy for her efficiency. She gets a job done and she was highly praised when she was Ambassador to Malaysia. Rosy did house to house campaigning. She had called at this cat’s flat climbing a flight of steps. Finding the occupant out, she slipped a letter in, regretting not having met so-and-so but seeking her vote, addressed to her personally. That was great. True to her feminine gender, this cat prefers to vote for a woman contestant.
Other news
All other concerns have been subsumed to the election to be held on Saturday. I have complained earlier about a certain TV Channel claiming the honour of first detecting and exposing the CB bond issue and flogging that horse. They are at it still in their 9 O’clock news – sickeningly boring to say the least. Is it a flogging of dead meat with the mean aim of revenge against one individual? So this cat’s paw is on the remote control button to change channels the moment the two or three TV journalists switch on the superior sounding verbal flow, a change of channel she never indulged in.
Thus, it is goodbye till we meet again once the hurly burly’s done and we know who will be tackling the garbage issue and such like in the Municipality of Colombo and who is islandwide tops – Maithri, Ranil or Mahinda – the latter not of the newly formed SLPP but holds a bunch of lotus buds and vituperates. Poor Lotus! What a fate to be GL’s symbol!
Menika