The double superlative used by the Bard (‘...the most unkindest cut of all...’ Act III Scene II: Julius Caesar) for added emphasis may be used by us as well to describe the cryptic behaviour of our electricity people these days. After lifting the official power cut they have now resorted to a more subtle kind of cut which is clamped down abruptly without warning - sometimes for nearly an hour once in two days, etc.

We know that in the run up to the election the government went on a mammoth philanthropic spree doling out goodies to all and sundry - pay rises, new appointments, permanency status to casual hands, etc., etc. and the almost incredible releasing of the power cut was also obviously attributed to part of that magnanimity.

If it is the case the lift must have been something effected as a political expedient rather than one stemming from a genuine capacity to do so gained through arrival of rains.

If this were the state of affairs we would be back at square number one with officially imposed power cuts as soon as the next government is formed. Two points arise from this:

Are our politicians of the view that the people of this country are fools to swallow their baits hook, line and sinker? Are they so daft as to imagine that the dark days are gone for good, thanks to the efficiency of the government and so the ‘Hora Cut’ imposed off and on these days are just routine failures?

Secondly, who is responsible for these gimmicks? Several readers the other day had commented in this column castigating the minister and even urging him to resign - one had quite derisively said that he even deserves a doctorate for the mighty blunders he is making putting people in untold perils - highway thefts, bottle lamp mishaps, etc., etc. I do not think a minister in Sri Lanka will resign whatever happens owing to their clumsiness or foibles.

There is a fine Sinhala aphorism that the pinch from Kohila thorns is more painful than the bite of the crocodile! To insult the intelligence of the masses is a greater sin than causing serious hardships to them.
Vijaya Jayasuriya
Kalutara