Short Story: Dream Of Mahinda

By Koom Kankesan -July 25, 2012

Koom Kankesan

Mahinda Rajapaksa took tea with his newly appointed Secretary of Mass Media, Charitha Herath. Herath had not touched his tea yet and fiddled with a stack of dossiers, clipped articles, and e-mail printouts. Two sugar cubes still sat on his saucer, unstirred, and the man’s sleepy eyes belied a nervous cough. Rajapaksa had always been suspicious of men whose complexion was too light; he looked at the Minister’s large ears and acorn shaped head, waved him to go on.

“What other news?” he asked the secretary as he stirred his own tea with a stick of cinnamon, taking an impossibly long time to soften. He liked the cinnamon because it was so hard and tart.

“Some offers from India,” replied Herath, coughing into his right fist and riffling through the printed e-mails.

“No need to show me. Just tell me about it.”

“Well, I informed them you weren’t probably interested, but one of the larger networks proposed doing a big big Reality TV show with Gota, your brother.”

“Oh yes?” Why not me? thought Rajapaksa.

“It’s not something you’d want to do,” stated Herath boldly. He had read Rajapaksa’s mind and realizing he had been too forward, dialled backwards on himself and simpered appeasingly: “They want to make it like The Apprentice in America with Donald Trump. They would call it The Fourth Estate and journalists would compete to write a story on current events. They would compete each week, overseen by Gota, and if he didn’t like what they wrote, he’d fire them. One by one, they’re all fired and the lone winner, with Ministry approval, gets to publish his article. It’s nonsense. The catchphrase they want to use is ‘You’re censored!‘ Mark my words. Nothing will come of it.”

“Okay. What else?”                       Read More