Ranil The Caesarist Deals With L’Affair Arjun: Paradox Of Citizen Kane & Gamarala

By Sarath De Alwis -March 19, 2015

Sarath De Alwis

Carl Sandburg – the Pulitzer winning biographer of Lincoln Carl Sandburg once noted that a politician should have three hats. “One for throwing in to the ring, one for talking through and one for pulling rabbits out if elected”

Soon after the Presidential Election Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe threw his first hat into the ring. On Monday March 17th he used the second to speak through.

No doubt if elected Prime Minister, he will use his third.

Besieged by growing demands for accountability in the Bond trading fiasco Prime Minister Ranil Wiskremesinghe decided that attack was the best form of defense. Sadly his use of bombastic banalities as cluster bombs has not helped him to diffuse the crisis. The charge of ‘Ugly’ governance persists.

His parliamentary performance was intentionally made in English. A few concise amplifications made in Sinhala with colloquial appellations were meant to earn the headlines in the Sinhala press.

සදාචාරය ගැන පාඩම් කියල දෙන්න එනවා.

And then throwing the gauntlet තැන් තැන්වලහැංගී මඩ ගහන්නේ නැතිව මහ මැතිවරණයකට

පැමිණ අප සමග මුහුණටමුහුණ සටනකට එන ලෙස මම ඔවුන්ට අභියෝගකරනවා .

Given the furor of the storm he managed a long rambling delivery with hardly an interruption. In our parliament speaking in English is as safe and as effective as the American drone attacks over the Khyber. Hardly effective and definitely counterproductive. It also makes the fundamental error that ‘Gamaralas’ have no idea of bond trading while it may be home turf in fifth avenue Colombo and Manipay Jaffna.

He started off with a moral without a fable – Article 148 of the Constitution. “Parliament shall have full control over public finance.”Read More