A BYOF call to rising Seetha

By SENA THORADENIYA

In my professional career I have conducted hundreds of orientation programmes for trainees as well as new recruits, but I have never met participants like the new members of Parliament who participated in the recently concluded orientation programme conducted by Parliament. They voiced their opinions regarding the value of the food served to them.

Are we moving to the Bring Your Own Food – BYOF – epoch in Parliament?

A furore was reported after a Parliament official had stated that a meal that costs 3000 rupees is given to MPs at the heavily subsidised rate of 200 rupees. Disputing that statement, some new MPs, including our amiable State Minister for Research and Innovation Seetha Arambepola, has stated that the food given to them is not worth that much, and after returning home pondered where she had taken her meals from, whether she had gone to the wrong eatery. Some have even threatened to bring their own food from home. For them it was a “rip-off”. Some have volunteered to do a cost analysis and prepare a cost-effective menu. For Dr. Seetha Arambepola this can be the beginning of her new Research work (cost analysis of the meal) and Innovation (preparing a cost-effective menu or a “buthgediya”).

According to one vociferous SJB (telephone) parliamentarian he “eats better at home”. This statement provides us with information on the amount of money he spends for a food plate at home. If there are a minimum of five members in his household, he spends 15000 rupees for a single meal at home! In these mundane matters we see unity in the two opposing camps. This person has complained that every day they get the same tropical fruits such as banana, pineapple and papaya for dessert. The Parliament Secretary General should import shiploads of apples, grapes, pears, plums, strawberries, cherries, nectarine, blueberries, peaches and apricots to satisfy the taste buds of these MP. (In my Peradeniya days, a demand put forward to Sir Nicholas was to provide avocado pears for dessert!). Complaining about food is a very bad beginning for these young MPs. They should be reminded of the Sinhala saying that, “what one has already eaten smells foul; only good deeds remain flagrant”. It was reported that stationery, including docket covers and pens for the participants were provided by the USAID. It was not an issue for those who wax eloquent with their Dhamma School oratory. Gevindu should be credited for raising this matter in the parliament. A few years ago an UNP MP who represented Colombo District, proposed a tongue-twisting menu for the Parliament cafeteria. We see no difference and any progression thereafter.

As some MPs have puffed up, it would be better if they are allowed to bring their own food from home (BYOF). It will be a big saving of tax payers’ money. The Parliament can adopt the BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle/ Booze/Beer/Beverage) policy. Hosts can include BYOB in their invitation cards, to indicate that they are not serving liquor to their guests or simply to allow the connoisseurs to bring their choicest varieties of beer, wine, cognac, rum, vodka and scotch. A person who enjoys Hennessey, Remi Martin, Courvoisier or Martell, Balvenie, Glenfiddich or any other single malt variety or any Johnny Walker colour including Blue Label, will not be happy to be served with either gal or pol like our young MPs. Origins of the acronym BYOB and its etiquette can be discussed later.

Furore over food signifies the immaturity of these politicians. According to an interview that appeared in the Sunday Observer some months ago, we cannot expect marvels from someone who was on the verge of migrating to the UK with her family, who did not have any clear cut political ideology and a political legacy, either endowed from parents or built-up as an undergraduate, who was accidentally introduced to a group of activists by a friend. Her political immaturity was shown as she hailed the entry into parliament of a JJB (compass) nominee, an ardent NGO activist who fought tooth and nail against GR’s entry into politics, who were in the group attempting to thwart SLPP (Pohottuwa) gaining a two-third majority at the August elections, and a frontline campaigner of LGBTIQ rights. What the JJB (compass) did was not providing more space to women activists, as reported by Shamindra Ferdinando on 14 August in The Island, but succumbing to external pressures betraying their own seasoned politicians such as Bimal Ratnayake who was the first in the compass national list. It further reflects the inner party crisis in the JJB. A politician should be able to understand these intricacies in politics before jumping into conclusions. Mao had taught men and women of this genre as early as 1926. He asked: “Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?” “This is a question of the first importance in politics”.

In the same token we would ask whether she hails it, had the voters elected the wives of Soosai or Pottu Amman to the Parliament as providing more space to women?