By

Don Manu

Even as Jayaram Jayalalithaa must be pondering over her future fate and wondering whether she has reached the end of her road, Lanka’s very own Minister Mervyn Silva was busy last week conducting his own last rites in preparation, perhaps, for his imminent departure.

Last Saturday at a meeting held in Peliyagoda, he declared that he had no use for big vehicles and security personnel and that though they were good for those in his own party who have been reduced to katussas, it meant nothing to him if he was denied the chance of being able to serve the people.

“I will easily give up these vehicles, I have my own vehicles,” he announced, “I received no help from the Government to serve the people. For the last one and a half years, I was not allowed to serve the people. It has pained me a lot; it has angered me a lot. In the coming days, if the Government does not give any hand to help me serve the people, I will give up these vehicles and this ministership and go home.”

But hang on. Has it slipped the minister’s mind that instead of being ignored, the Government had bestowed upon him another vital function which is right down his alley to serve the down trodden masses even better. In addition to his duties as Minister of Public Relations and Public Affairs, his new job was gazetted on August 14th this year. It carried the job description that he was responsible for “formulation of plans and programmes necessary for the uplift of the welfare conditions of the low income earning people living in houses deprived of minimum facilities.”

The main ‘minimum facilities’ lacking in houses of the low income group are latrine facilities and sewage disposal. This is a serious problem affecting those living in the ghettos of Colombo and creates many social and hygiene issues as well. It is the ideal challenge for any social service oriented minister to undertake to bring relief to the sorry lives led by those whom society has forgotten and condemned to the gutter. For any minister with a great desire to serve his people selflessly, it is the ideal portfolio to hold. As Minister of Latrines and Sewage, Mervyn Silva could have brought his vast wealth of experience and knowledge coupled with his philanthropic heart to alleviate the sufferings of his fellowmen.

But, alas, he has forgotten his heaven-sent role to perform divine duties amongst the poor, the sick and the unfortunate. He could have become the Mother Theresa of Lanka but instead missed the golden opportunity to answer his natural calling. But he cannot use his own negligence or his own forgetfulness, to accuse the Government that it has not allowed him to work when on the contrary the Government has, by gazetting his new duties and job description, given public legal notice of it; and, in recognition of his talent have bestowed upon him this singular honour which other ministers with the same admirable bent on serving the down trodden would have given their right arms gladly to receive.

But on Sunday morning he called a media conference. Once again he reiterated that he had not been allowed to work but the main purpose of the meeting was to disclose his umbrage over the fact that a liquor licence had been issued to a new hotel in Kelaniya without his knowledge.

“Is this the respect to be shown to the party’s chief organizer of the area,” he demanded to know, and stated he would be immediately writing to the President about it. “What’s the use of my staying in Kelaniya with the Government? If this licence is not cancelled I will not stay in this Government. I will go. This issue itself is enough for me to leave.” Then dramatically banging the table he declared: “This must be stopped. If it is not, I will not wait a second.”

What storms brew in the minister’s breast none knows. But it is clear that something is stirring and the strong blasts of air portend bad weather, unpredictable. Yet, rather than exist on a queered pitch, it is clear that he intends to make the liquor licence his swansong. No doubt he would like to show that, being the good Buddhist he claims he is, he cannot stomach a single dose of the potent stuff the Government is allegedly doling behind his back.

Courtesy:Sunday Times