I love the people and the people love me: Mervyn
Public Relations Minister Dr. Mervyn Silva, speaks to the Daily Mirror in a no holds barred interview about animal sacrifice, allegations of extortion against himself, and the government’s non-involvement in assaults and murders of journalists among other
I eat a bit of fish and sometimes I have some wine when I go for a party. I don’t preach the fifth precept - if there isn’t wine and there is only whisky at the party I will drink it
If they show one place where it is preached in Hinduism to kill animals I will commit suicide tomorrow I challenge all these Samis to try and punish me; after I’m punished then they could achieve what they want
Q: What are your views about the issue in Munneshwaram?
This is an issue I spoke about a long time ago. Even last year, my friends and I rescued the animals from the Kovil and returned them to their owners a few weeks later. A lot of people are afraid of the ‘Poosari’ and the evil that can follow. But I know for a fact that “Kali Amma’ is a pious deity, and that deity doesn’t want blood. There are no gods who want blood. The ‘Samis’ frighten people in order to make money. They do this every year and an animal which usually costs Rs.2000 is sold at Rs.20,000. People buy them because of their devotion. This time they threatened to kill me if I went. We could have seen what would have happened if they did that. I thank our gracious President for listening to me and appealing to the Samis. I thank them also for accepting the appeal.
Q: But they had said that they would conduct the sacrifice after the exposition of the sacred relics is concluded?
They have to hold this traditionally on a given date each year. If they plan to do that, tell them that I’m not asleep and that I’m always awake. I’m ready. They have said they would be armed with bombs, knives and bottles of acid but I plan to go there unarmed. I have the support of the people and I will go there with a sea of people. I won’t take any weapons - not even the weapon I legally possess.
Q: Now that you are against all of this, are you a vegetarian?
No, it’s like this - I eat a bit of fish and sometimes I have some wine when I go for a party. I don’t preach the fifth precept - if there isn’t wine and there is only whisky at the party I will drink it. Why should I lie? However I don’t have any sort of meat. I eat only vegetables on Poya days, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays because those are days of the gods that I pray to. I abstain from eating meat because of the simple fact that we all believe in rebirth and the meat that we eat could be of our children, parents friends or other people we knew in our previous birth.
Q: Your reaction to this issue however, seems to give the impression that you’re creating racial disharmony?
These are people who don’t have brains and who are hypocrites. I don’t understand how this is racist. If they show one place where it is preached in Hinduism to kill animals I will commit suicide tomorrow. It’s Hakeem who is creating racial tension in the East. It’s our President who gathered all communities and brought together a country that was on the brink of destruction - he is our king. He is the only leader of the State who speaks in Tamil. I am a member of his cabinet and came from his village, how could I be creating racial tensions? Q: You have said publicly that animal sacrifice is not suitable for the 21st century and that it is a practice of the dark ages, and on the other hand you address the President as our king and various other terms used by people in those ages. Isn’t this contradictory?
My point is that after Parakramabahu the sixth, the President is the only leader who united our country- a country that was on the brink of disaster. What is wrong in calling the bravest leader of our times a king? That isn’t following the dark ages. We took a word used in history and gave it a new meaning by addressing a person who is fit to be called that. Q: My question is, are we not giving the President a licence to behave in a way that a king would have in those times? A sort of absolute power - by addressing him in that manner?
Well there were kings who were not very good but the majority of kings did a lot of good for the country. Just because your father and mother are old wouldn’t you address them in the same way? Do you not have almsgivings for those who are dead? You have to take the good things from the old days and not the bad. Killing of animals is not a good thing and should be rejected. Now if you take Europe or the Middle East they didn’t have vegetables like we do, so I don’t blame them for killing animals because their environment warranted it. But we don’t have that.
Q: Recently the Mahaynayake Thera of the Malwatta chapter had publicly said that ‘Pancha Maha Balavegaya” are all on the street due to the actions of the government, what do you have to say?
Yes, I know that the university lecturers are an important class of people and believe that they should be considered as a special category. You can’t import them like importing vehicles. I invited them to come and talk to me but I don’t know - might be because they don’t want to talk to a small man like me they refused to do so. I was the first man to publicly declare that they are a special category of people.
Q: Do you respect democracy? I don’t respect a five star democracy. I believe there should be freedom of speech, religion and all others but even the media should be used as media, not to take revenge or to satisfy personal agendas of some people.
Q: What exactly do you mean when you say that you don’t respect a five star democracy?
A good example is the non use of capital punishment for heinous crimes in our country. This is because we have a five star democracy and I believe that this should not be a case. Murderers, rapists and childabusers must be hanged. People who rob state property should also be included in this special category and should be executed irrespective of democracy.
Q: What do you think about the country’s opposition?
The opposition has failed in its duty - take this Kovil issue for example. The UNP is a party that looks all over for petty slogans but on this issue they were all silent. That is because they were frightened of the Poosari.
I challenge all these Samis to try and punish me; after I’m punished then they could achieve what they want. Until that they should stop doing this. From today onwards I challenge them to sing ‘Vas kavi’, thrash coconuts and do everything possible to punish me. I’m willing to take up that challenge.
Q: What do you have to say about the allegations levelled by members of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha?
I have nothing to say. Can I stop a dog from barking? Can I stop a crow from crowing? There is nothing that happened to me after what they did. I’m still the organiser for Kelaniya and still the minister of Public Relations. Nothing has changed.
Q: There is a serious allegation against about your involvement in extortion?
People can go to courts, or complaint to the commission against bribery and corruption. Not even a single complaint has been made against me at any police station. I challenge anyone to go and lodge a complaint.
Q: Isn’t that because people are afraid of you? If they were afraid why would they come out in the open and say these things? They weren’t scared to do that. What is there to be scared about writing something in a book? In order to extort there should be a person who lays claim to having been a victim of extortion. They should provide some sort of proof but even that they haven’t done. They’ve just lied all along.
Q: You were appointed Media Minister at one point. What did you feel at the time?
I was looking forward to doing a lot of things. The media is a country’s government and it is a university in itself. It has the ability to bring out wrong doings and educate the public. The journalists are the professors and doctors of this univer- sity and they should be strengthened and that is the duty of a government. But there is more to do, they should be given more freedom. We can’t expect the media to always extol our virtues. I don’t think there was any President in this country who had treated journalists as well as our President has. Q: But isn’t it under this President that so many journalists have been killed, assaulted, abducted and where media institutions have been damaged?
That is a good question. Please don’t hold the President responsible for murders. There might be various reasons for this like personal grudges between people which lead to a killing. These people who commit these crimes must be brought before the law; many of them have been apprehended.
Q: No. Many of them have not been apprehended, Minister?
Well some of them have, and others are still at large. If you look at what happened from the time of D.S. Senanayake, I think this is the era where the least amount of crimes of this sort against journalists have been committed. I think we should apologise to the nation for these crimes. Our police are very strong and so is our Defence Secretary; now there is a steady decline in murders, rapes, and other crimes of the sort. But there will always be certain elements committing these.
Q: Minister, one thing that brought international attention was the threat you made against some individuals who went to Geneva. In that statement you said that you assaulted Journalist Poddala Jayantha?
That is a very wrong interpretation. What I said was that he should be hit, not that I hit him. The punishment for those who betray their motherland should be death. People who betray their country for dollars or for foreign visas is similar to selling your mother for prostitution. These people should be punished and I’m sad that I don’t have the opportunity to punish them. This is why I’m saying that this foolish democracy is wrong. This foolish democracy should be done away with. We call for the head of a person who commits a murder but what do we do about those who murder their country?
Q: But Minister, aren’t those whom you term traitors in actual fact people who oppose the government?
No. that is not true. If they are against the government why couldn’t they point it out within the country? They could have easily spoken to the President and raised their concerns because the President is very accommodating. Is it wrong that the LTTE were defeated? It’s obvious that during a war both sides would suffer casualties.
Q: But the main concern is that after the end of the war the reconciliation has not taken place as it ideally should have?
I ask these people if they have visited the war- affected areas and seen the development. You have to go and see the development taking place in these places. Everything can’t be done overnight and it will take time. All these people who talk big have to take a look at how long it took for other countries to develop after the end of a conflict. I am certain that we were the country that took the shortest time to recover from the destruction. I urge the Daily Mirror website and the paper which many people follow to highlight these facts.
Q: Minister there are allegations against you to the effect that you are involved with drug peddling?
I haven’t heard anything of the sort. No one has told me anything like that. If there is anyone who says something like that, he was not borne by a human. There is no reason for me to do anything of that sort. I’m not ready to give answers to these people. I want them to continue to say these kinds of things, it’s good. I don’t have houses abroad nor do I have estates. I haven’t earned property.
Q: Many Ministers including those like Minister Wimal Weerawansa have criticised some of your actions, why is that?
Anyone can criticise me but I’m not going to stop what I’m doing. These people were not my political gurus and they didn’t teach me anything. So I don’t care about what these “Weda Beri Tarzans” say. None of these people opened their mouths against this animal slaughter. They should act proper before they point fingers at me.
Q: People accuse you of trying to attract cheap media publicity by your actions?
Why would I want to do that? I received 152,000 votes during the last election, the previous election I got only 2000 but everyone knows that I didn’t campaign for it. I’m married now, I am also a grandfather why would I want cheap publicity? People who say these things are people who aren’t with the masses of this country. Everyone knows who Mervyn Silva is. I love the people and the people loveme.