Elections and new take on Covid-19-it’s an army!

It’s all quiet on the Sri Lankan front. No belting out at election meetings; no screaming and greeting; no thrusting babies forward (poor, helpless dears) for blessings from the Rajapaksa leaders; no unwelcome telephone calls. One knows the calls are replays of taped messages but one gets annoyed. Cass had a pohottu bud mention that name in introducing himself. She shot back mata kehelmal pottuwak epa and rued her answer. Would her telephone number be recorded and revenge reward her presumptuous show of spirit once the buds reign the land, she shivered.

Yes, quiet reigns over the island and we hope peace accompanies it all through ‘Maco’s’ Big Day and later as results are announced. As all forecasts foretell, the SLPP would probably get a majority of seats and the likelihood of rioting and mayhem are greatly reduced. No other party has such violent rioters. We hope those prone to violence, and there definitely are these, mostly in the pohottu party who even held Cabinet posts in previous governments, will not win their seats. We most earnestly and pleadingly ask for decent MPs returned/sent to Parliament.

Went to the polls early and found everything spot on. Excellent planning and management. Cass awoke on the wrong side of her bed, as we used to say as giddy schoolgirls, if we messed the day for ourselves. The saying implies you are to blame if you encounter difficulty. Well, why does Cass say she slipped off the wrong side of the bed, though very early and keen to use her franchise? She went to her polling station at 8.00 am presuming polling started at this hour. Her skull-capped charioteer corrected her: polls started at 7.00 and the lady he conveyed to the polling booth at that time was the second to vote. Well, Cass had to get into a queue but perfectly maintained – two according to numbers on poll cards. In her queue there was a temporary gap because the girl, two ahead of her, stopped to read a notice. A smart dame, middle aged with short hair and in an orange coloured smart blouse with handbag strung on a multihued woven strap slipped in front of the girl. Cass wanted to move forwards and tell the sophisticate she was in the wrong position; had broken the queue but as we law-abiding, decent folk hardly ever break queues, Cass was reluctant to even reprimand the dame and show her place. ‘I’ll tell her later’ did not happen as Cass delayed in her voting. She had not noted the numbers of names she had selected to vote for, so she had to ask to see a list, which was very politely pointed to by a presiding officer and Cass cast her vote with four crosses: one for party symbol and three for candidates. She remembered names were prominently displayed on a board as you entered the polling room, previously. Coming back to the queue breaking woman, if by any remote chance the orange bloused woman reads this piece, take it that you are scum who broke the voting queue at College House, Colombo 3! That will assuage the ache in Cass’ derriere where she kicked herself for not ticking her off in the queue.

We need to congratulate the Commissioner of Elections for the excellent planning he and his men did; Covid-19 demanding extra precautions.

War against drugs

How rampant the drug menace has been and how widespread both underground and over. And as those who know say, it certainly is not confined to drug lords, couriers, peddlers and drug takers. Politicians are in it. Shocking but true; from long ago. Remember a certain prime minister issuing a signed letter to allow a cargo off a ship to be cleared without investigation. Even before this damning letter he was spurned as an ineffectual PM. The cargo was ethanol.

Some members of the police force have been found to be hand in glove with drug kingpins. Unbelievable but very true. And jailbirds direct the trafficking from behind bars. The monies accrued are stupendous. And the latest – old techniques used in modern times: the hawk for transport of packets of dangerous drugs with even the cat conscripted. Cassandra who has seen much and heard more is suitably stunned with these latest tidbits.

President Sirisena started on the trail of drug lords and wanted to oust them. Even went to the Philippines to be tutored on catching them from Prez Duarte with his draconian methods. But Sirisena failed as he did in most everything. President Gotabaya has taken over and is successfully waging war, aided by dedicated police personal and the tri-forces. The eradication of the curse of dangerous drugs will be a big boon and mercy to all SL’s 22 million population.

War with Covid-19

Labelled the best message regards Covid-19 and navigating the world is one from the President of Uganda, Yoweni Museveni (Prez since 1986 -) now aged 75. He sure had much to trample under winning foot and make people forget his predecessors Milton Obote and Idi Amin. However the name Uganda invariably, even now, sends shivers down the spine, and one tends to look down as one does on most African states, sad to say.

Museveni, graduate of the Dar-el-Salam University, has written comparing the Covid-19 pandemic to the onslaught of an army in war. He writes: “The army in this war is without mercy… It is indiscriminate; it has no respect for life, for children and women, or places of worship… This army is not interested in spoils of war; it has no interest in regime change.… It is invisibly fleet footed and ruthlessly effective. Its only agenda is a harvest of death. It will be satiated only after turning the world into one large field of death. Its capacity to achieve its aim is not in doubt…. Thankfully the army has a weakness and can be defeated. It only requires our collective action, discipline and forbearance.”

Thank goodness we Sri Lankans have resorted to collective action and are disciplined. We have trusted what the heads of our health services said. But where are they of late? Not seen on TV nor heard from. Have they been muzzled for the duration of the last stretch of electioneering and polling? Not fair, don’t you think to them and us. We depended on them and believed they told us the truth. Mercifully, thankfully, Dr Jasinghe is no Dr Fauci to our President unlike the American MD who has advised six Presidents but has immense trouble with the latest. So let us have the truth about the state of the pandemic in this fair isle. Some suspect the truth is hidden, but Cass feels sure Dr Jasinghe and others in the health services will not let us down, just as they have struggled to keep infection from spreading.

And so, when we meet again to chat in this column, you and Cassandra, who has been silent with her forecasts, and nary a curse, we will have a new set in the august House by the Diyawanne. Oh please, please deities make them decent politicians!