POLITICAL SKETCHBOOK

POLITICAL SKETCHBOOK by Rajpal Abeynayaka

Talk until the cows are in your home...
In another country, they might have called them the great unwanted, the washed out, the near men, the has-beens, or the nearly have been or the never have been. In Sri Lanka people such as Sreepathi Sooriarachchi are still given the benefit of the doubt, and Anura Dissanayake, they think, might yet make it by a whisker some day.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene cannot still be called a has-been - - - because he is still there, even if the question is how he manages to accomplish that task. He says with a granite expression that the LTTE is the most powerful terrorist organisation in the world. Have no doubt as to why Prabhakaran never becomes a has-been, even if Sreepathi Sooriarachchi might qualify for the epithet. There is always a Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene cheering squad even if Prabhakaran decamps to Chennai, and Yapa Abeywardene is the last man left on this island.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardne has a receding hairline. It is not a sign of a receding brain -- but yet, is the receding hairline directly proportional to statements like this?: "Our government has achieved a great deal since we took oath of office. Prabhakaran appeared on television in April and held a press conference. Yes, he did that.''

Anura Dissanayake, now that's another man with a terribly talking head. The JVP has always said that it likes to possess the remote control. Ok then. Take that remote control and press the mute button. How does it look like?

You can just keep watching them -- mute television people -- like watching the goldfish in goldfish bowls. You can see they are excited, they are animated, that they have a life of their own, but that's all - - and you don't hear what the beejeezus they are saying and you don't exactly give a damn.

Anura Dissanayake gets to be like that even if you don't press the mute button on your TV set. He wags his head, he thrusts his hands, and he talks and he talks and he talks -- but finally his language skills (or the lack of it -- I don't know which) has overcome his substance. So he goes on endlessly like that MUTE picture, pastorally even, even though the remote control is in his hand. You don't have the heart to press the mute button anyway on a guy like that.

What can one do when a truly intelligent man like Sunanda Deshapriya talks, and he has to share that stage with these mute television types (.. not Anura Dissanayaka, but his lesser evil, Attanayake or somebody that answers to such a description last week.) Sunanda cuts them up. You may or may not agree with his views, but he is a man with a heart - so his head tends to speak sense.

When Deshapriya cuts them up, the Anura Dissanayakes and the Attanayakes of this world beam, grin and smirk as if they were Alice In Wonderland characters. It is as if they can somehow lift the discourse to a higher level just by grinning in condescension like Cheshire cats who had yesterday learnt the art of politics.

The problem is, they may or may not understand what Sunanda is really trying to say. Judging by the things they have already said, they may or may not be able to get that razor-sharp incisive response through to their talking heads. In which case, I suppose, what else can be done except to say they can be excused, maybe placed on probation at best?

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