Sugary tale of Maha Seeni Keliya

Much of the political talk in the past week was about Bajiri. The Gazette Minister Bandula Gunawardena was reminding us how our people ate in the World War time of colonialism. Why make such a fuss about not having ‘kaha’ or turmeric in our curries? Surely, you won’t die without kaha, he told a journalist. He gave the impression of having enjoyable memories about the wartime days in what was Ceylon? 

He must also remember the long queues to obtain regular food, including Bajiri, other seeds and flour, and how the first ration book for rice was introduced. The colonial rulers did it their own way. The cry against colonial rule was rising. Was that the time to demand turmeric in a bajiri meal, when the call was for freedom from the colonials. Or, is the Gazette Minister wanting a return to the colonial days, when he could enjoy his bajiri without any kaha?  

There is no need to go to any Bajiri Hatana today, as we have moved to the Sugar Battle or the Seeni Hatana.

We are now in the Age of Records or Record Breakers, not much in sports but very much in politics and governance. The Soubhagya Realm that established  a new global record in not allowing the burial of Covid deceased Muslims, suddenly made a record shattering shift, even beyond Imran Khan, when the Foreign Ministry spoke to an international Muslim organisation to thank it for the call for Muslim burials, and assured them the request has been granted. Geneva Sweet, is it? 

There was another shocker in diplomacy, when the Foreign Minister invited the Foreign Minister of the Myanmar military coup junta, for a virtual conference of BIMSTEC. Does our Foreign Ministry not know that the UN has twice condemned the Myanmar coup, and the ruthless military rule there has so far killed over 60 protesters and imprisoned several hundreds, and there is rising global condemnation of it?  Is our Foreign Ministry not aware of the overthrow of a democratically elected government and its leader Aung Saan Suu Kyi?  

Looks as if the Foreign Ministry needs plenty of turmeric to help its thinking, or has it gone back to a Bajiri Yugaya in foreign policy?

The Soubhagya Realm has now scored a huge record. The Yahapalana record of crooked governance has been clearly defeated. From the second year of the Yahapalana mis-governance, we have heard of the huge losses the country suffered from the Central Bank Bond Scams. From footnotes  in COPE reports, to a final Forensic Audit of the Central Bank functions, the frauds and losses are recorded.

Is it time to stop asking for the repatriation and arrest of Arjuna Mahendran from Singapore or wherever he is? Is Ranil Wickremesighe, the Prime Minister, who had kept the Central Bank under his portfolio, to be given the green light, and so to the then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, too.

All those names can now have a sigh of relief. The country is facing the Maha Seeni Vanchava – the Huge Sugar Fraud. A fraud of Rs 15 billion plus!

One thing to remember is that not even one cup of plain tea, with sugar in it or on a spoon, had been reduced in price, following this sugary fraud. The taste was not for the tongues of the people, but the pockets, purses and accounts of the huge importers. This is the greatest sugar deal in Sri Lankan history, nothing to do with a Buddhist Sinhala Deshaya, but that of a Hora Kelina Raajya. 

Is this the sugar pie promise for the future? Will the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa tell us the details of this sugary crookedness?  Is this the sugar goal of the Saubhagya players now that the leader is a clear winner in a Seeni Hatana? 

The people of Sri Lanka have always liked to have some honey or sugar on their tongues. Our children like the taste of sugar. Our confectioners make their profits from it. There are plenty of sweetmeats and sugar drinks that people enjoy. But never would they have imagined or believed that sugar could be the stuff of such huge corruption. 

Is this the sugar coating that the Saubhagya leadership is giving the people to hide the bitterness and pain of the destruction of forests, the grabbing of acres upon acres of protected nature reserves, the failure to help both elephants and people in the rising clashes on the elephant pathways or Alimankada? 

Is this Seeni Hatana the promise of sweetness and hope for those who are calling for the continued supply of elephants for temple processions and festivals?

Sugar can be given to a child for some sweetness to get over a little pain. But is this Maha Seeni Vanchava meant to show the people that the brains behind Saubhagya Dekma – Prosperity and Splendour – has not failed in governance, but is moving to more PhDs in an Age of Sugar Deception?

The Bajiri Keliya has certainly given way to the Seeni Hatana. How much more sugar profit is to be robbed from the people to ensure the certainty of Rajavasala Splendour –  with Seeni Saubhagya lining the pockets of the crooked? 

`I remember a Biblical quote that it is not good to eat much honey, nor seek one’s own glory. What we now have is the glory of sugar sweetened corruption in governance and power!