Laksiri Warnakula 

Before going any further, I should thank the editor for his editorial titled ‘Shortages, half-truths and mistruths (07/09)’, which gave me the idea of looking at ‘moles and mountains’ slightly differently,  and then with a dash of slight humour too, here and there.   

Now please allow me to share my own two cents’ worth (pardon me for the cliché) involving mountains and molehills. It is a fairly complex game of downplaying and exaggerating depending on who is talking and the subject and the specific outcomes.   

Generally, the former is a favourite weapon of engagement of the opposition and the latter, mostly and for obvious reasons, of the government.  

How the opposition’s response to the commendable performance of the military personnel (an idea coming from the president himself, it is said) working alongside our dedicated health workers in our ongoing and excellent vaccination programme, is a case in point in support of the former. And as for the government, I do not wish to touch on anything specific as their achievements and claims have always been on the exaggeration-mode.   

Now this molehill-mountain exchange, so to speak, must have come into being quite possibly long time ago, when our distant ancestors finally gained the ability to downplay and exaggerate too and now it has been well-established in all spheres of human society and politics is no exception, and in the land like no other, in particular  

In passing, I must also say that we Sri Lankans are said to be generally good at giving, but not when it comes to criticism and praise, where the former is preferred by many to the latter, even when it doesn’t seem right to many a fair-minded person and our politicians and many other bigwigs have been exemplary in this regard. 

Lastly the ‘molehill-mountain’ will have many more years ahead of it for sure, as long as we have people and of course, governments and oppositions.