A taste of your own medicine

Mervyn Silva got hammered yesterday: All of a sudden my day was starting to look a whole lot brighter.

For many months I’ve been reading about the Minister of Thuggery and Intimidation go about his business and get away with it all. It was finally nice to see that ‘people power’ came through from the most unlikeliest places, the state-run TV channel Rupavahini. They’ve succeeded in doing something that he cops have failed to do for years, which is to reign in a state-sponsored hooligan.

It was rough mob justice for a man who only understands brute force. Only hours earlier he had barged into the TV station with an armed sidekick, demanding why one of his speeches was not aired. The minister certainly has a flair for colourful characters - even his blonde-haired sidekick looked like a villain from a Ranjan Ramanayake movie set.

The Rupavahini staff, employing some very laudable guerilla tactics, didn’t let the minister leave without an apology and even cut the electricity to force him out. When the commandos did come in to take him away, poor Mervyn looked like he had become a big “byte”.  Here were people he had come to intimidate, now spraying paint all over him and calling him flattering names. How the mighty fall…, no , really he fell, …cutting his head in the process…

If more people step up to jokers like ol’ Mervyn, maybe this country would be a whole lot better off. As for the Rupavahini staff…I hope they all still get their year-end bonuses for a smashing job well done.