Another swashbuckling political hero had a great deal of humble pie rammed down his throat courtesy of the Supreme Court yesterday.

Minister Mervyn Silva given to making a public display of his pathological aversion to the media may have thought the sky was the limit in his quixotic media bashing with his goons assaulting journalists and smashing TV cameras. But, like the proverbial woodpecker that found itself in the soup after a reckless peck at a banana tree, he landed himself in trouble a few months ago: His backers in his presence roughed up a Sirasa TV crew at Kelaniya, which he seems to consider his grandma's estate written in his name, and he was taken to the Supreme Court over that vile act of rowdyism.

He tried every trick in the book to escape, perhaps emboldened by the fact that he had managed to do so on a previous occasion as regards a fraud case in a lower court. But, he pathetically failed in his endeavour this time around and had no alternative but to give in.

Yesterday, he was lucky that he managed to reach a settlement by swallowing his pride to offer Rs. 750,000 to his bête noire, the MTV (Pvt.) Ltd. and by undertaking to behave in future. What a comedown! He is reported to have said he will maintain good relations with the media, but we bet our bottom dollar that no decent journalist will want to touch him with a barge pole, unless and until he reforms himself.

The moral of the hideously revolting Mervyn Saga, which came to an end yesterday, is that a president’s legal immunity does not cover the sycophants and thugs licking his or her sandals and there are ways and means of bringing them to account even though the police are too servile to act against them. Detestable political vermins remain heroes riding rough shod over people so long as their undemocratic actions go unchallenged. Roaring lions, when properly tackled, begin to mew, as we saw yesterday.

However asinine a politician may be, he is not entitled to the freedom of the wild ass in a democratic society.