Buddadasa (far right) and Wimal (goatee) on the same stage, separated by Mahinda. From his site
The Mayor of Kaduwela is on Twitter, and now he’s taking on Wimal Weerawansa in the mainstream media. He’s SLFP (government party), but so far I think he’s cool. Wimal, if you don’t know, is Mahinda’s big dog, top vote-getter in Colombo and general purveyor of viciousness and division. Hard core.
G.H. Buddadasa is the new mayor of Kaduwela, elected in the recent local government elections. I know him because he followed me on Twitter and I followed back. He’s the only politician I know on Twitter that actually uses it personally. So far I think he’s quite cool. Here are a few tweets:
it is time to forget rivelries and oppositons and look forward and the way ahead..i consider all my opponents ,elected&lost ,as partners!!
@udaraumd thank you Sir for your wishes!i’m new to this technology but will start to use these things our youth master!
So, I dig it. Then I got up in the morning and found a link to this video from Sirasa TV which is also quite cool. The relevant part is at about 19:04:10.
I think that Wimal backed his (SLFP) opponent in the race, using state resources and security forces (as is their wont). Buddadasa, however, is not taking it (like everybody else does). In this he’s calling Wimal out and basically asking him to fight. Which is pretty ballsy, seeing as bullying is what Wimal does for a living. Here is a rough paraphrasic translation:
Consider the next tokka [knock on the head] to be done on Wimal Weerawansa my third knock on the head will be to get rid of Wimal Weerawansa. This election he made it a joke, using state resources, STF [military police] guys for campaigning.
My mother has hinted at tokkas since I was young and it’s an especially apt phrase. That’s exactly what the government needs. It’s important to note here that the SLFP is not uniform (and the ruling coalition less so) and that the government is not uniformly bad. I’m not saying that Buddadasa is good, I really don’t know that much about. But he’s on Twitter, he’s standing up against the crude parts of the government on TV, and, so far, is quite entertaining to watch.
I think ‘tokka’ would be similar in meaning to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rapped+on+the+knuckles
yeah, except on the head
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