Referring to rich and famous anorexics when talking of the Sri Lankan President may not be very apt, particularly when the Sri Lankan President is far from anorexic. But this is the post modern era, in which certain liberties can be taken.

So, with apologies to Londoners and all that, let's take Princess Diana. She wanted to keep her figure pencil thin, so whenever she wanted to indulge, she is said to have gone to the loo -- this part is gross even if it is about a Princess - and she is said to have vomited out her food so that she can eat a lot more. Some do that sort of thing, before closing time in bar, so that they can drink more……but that story is only something that I have heard and not seen happening.

So what are we trying to do here? Trying to compare the President to an anorexic? That will be like saying the Ratwatte sons have taken to ahimsa and meditation, but , this whole thing about the President and the anorexic habit of vomiting out all the food in order to eat more comes to mind sometimes when you hear the President verbalise her thoughts about Ranil and his government.

She is eminently like Diana in this respect, and she should have been campaigning against landmines to be called a 'Sri Lankan Rose' or 'Attanagalle carnation' or something like that. She says 15 good things about the peace process and the cohabitation, and then, even without going to a toilet, she vomits it all out in public with one huge statement like "Ranil held a gun to my head, I swear,'' or "I will sack Ranil Wickremesinghe anytime I want.'' It is as if she has to say a lot of good things before she can have a good nice big vomit of it all by saying "Ranil held a gun to my head'' after which she can go back and consume more homilies about how good the peace process is, or how great cohabitation can be.

This is a verbal anorexia, to go with the verbal diarrhoea that she along with all other politicians and all members of parliament suffer from in this country. It is not entirely inept, this analogy that has to do with the intake and emission of food, for the simple reason that it has a lot to do with eating. The eating of words, to be precise.

When she says 'I will sack Ranil', she eats her words fifteen times or so thereafter when she says she is 'supporting the peace process', or when she says that she 'hopes the peace overtures will succeed.' But the thing with anorexia is that you do not think about it at all, you just keep dong it (eating I mean) until you know it is time to throw up.

But she has good taste, something that cannot be said of her kitchen Cabinet for instance, which is an entire different kettle of fish altogether. Even when she eats her words, she has good taste, as in the final analysis she ends up eating some very London like post modern words such as 'Federalism', or 'cohabitation' or 'peace process.'

She is epicurean to the pith. You could say she wants it to taste good even in regurgitation.

Historians especially of the K. M. De Silva' Howard Wriggins type might say that this is genetic. Her father the late S. W. R. D. Bandarnaike made a good deal of off colour jokes from the political platform, even though he was known for some very memorable lines that will go down in history. But will SWRD be remembered for 'fanning the flickering flames of democracy'' or his joke about women without enough cloth for their bodice? Former I believe. But the problem with the daughter, is that she will forever be remembered for what she vomits out rather than for what she consumes before doing it. She will fan the flickering flames of federalism, but they will still remember her for that thing about the gun and Ranil's head.

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