Chanaka Bandarage

Kadawatha Weda Mahaththaya (KWM) states that because he received complaints that Wickramaarachchi Weda Mahaththaya (WWM) is promiscuous, he sent a woman to WWM in order to expose his alleged vulgarism nationally. KWM has achieved his objective.   WWM seems to be in hiding. He is very badly castigated nationally as a dirty, perverted man.

Is this fair?

No.

The allegation whether WWM is promiscuous is subjective; KWM has not proved it with clear-cut evidence. What he utters is mere hearsay.

The woman he telephoned in the Maldives could be dubious. If she is indeed in the Maldives, being out of the jurisdiction, she may not be able to give evidence in our Court of law.

To the best of the writer’s knowledge in social media, not a single woman has come forward alleging that she was a WWM’s sex victim.  On the contrary many of his female patients have posted very positive comments about him. These go to his good Credit. It is believed that WWM has dealt with thousands of women in his professional and social life.

KWM alleges that WWM sexually wooed the woman that he sent to him.  Surely, this would have been what he expected WWM to do.

Did he or anyone else coach the woman to arouse WWM sexually? We do not know.

The answer could be yes or no.

But, there is little doubt that the objective of the entire plot was to entrap WWM. The onus will be on KWM and the female participant to rebut this. There is a Civil course of action available for WWM.

We are unaware what exactly transpired between WWM and the woman at  Homagama and Kanthale; both of them have not divulged much information about it.  WWM correctly states that because the matter is now before the Police (he has lodged complaints against people), he cannot make comments.

If any sort of sexual conduct took place between them, WWM cannot be charged/blamed as a criminal pervert. This is because the key ingredient required for a sexual act – consent on the part of both of them – was present.

KWM states that WWM held the woman’s hand for 1 – 1 ½ hours and rubbed the same smoothly; surely no one can then say that the woman’s consent was non sensual. She could have easily grabbed the hand away. Why did she not remonstrate with WWM?

In a dating or relationship, men look for sex and women want security.

It is reasonable to raise the argument that in order to entrap WWM, the woman offered WWM sex or indicated a willingness to partake in some kind of a sexual act with him without seeking a commitment for security (KWM states everything was videographed by a hidden, secret camera; it is time that they disclose them – if not to the public, at least to the Police).

For WWM, it may had been an offer that was hard to turn down. For him, it could have been like someone offering him free money.

Men know deep down that having sex with their opposite outside of wedlock means costing them something. But, when it is offered without any consideration possibly by an attractive woman (according to KWM, she was also paying him loads of money for the Kanthale work), for many men it is like why am I saying no to this now?”

(By stating this, the writer in no way condones such behavior).

If any form of sexual act took place, then WWM being a married man was committing infidelity. It is being unfaithful to his wife – an immoral/unethical act.  Being a high profile individual, he should have behaved much better.  He often preaches people to lead a pious life.

Because he is married, this is an issue that must be sorted out by WWM and his wife. If the wife has no concerns about the incident or is willing to forgive him, the matter must rest then and there.  We are outsiders; we have no right to give them lessons. 

It may perhaps be that no sexual act whatsoever took place.

WWM is truly a national figure.  He is extremely popular in this country, especially among the common people. He has embarked on numerous good causes to promote Sinhala and Buddhism. He has helped people immensely during Corona. It was believed that he would soon enter politics and that his prospects as an emerging young political leader were very high. If he runs in the forthcoming local government election, his chances of entering the Homagama Pradeshiya Sabha and even becoming its President are very high.

It seems that those who despise him have been successful in taking action to avenge him?

Sri Lanka is a country where Tall Poppy Syndrome is in full swing. There is the expectation here that poppies should grow together in the same height. The moment one grows too tall, we are ever ready to cut it down to size.

When a person becomes successful, we relentlessly attack, resent and criticize them. We try our best to cut them down.

This very bad habit is more prevalent among the Sinhalese (the majority race) than among the Tamils and Muslims.

People do not understand that by these deeds we are digging our own graves.

It is high time that we get rid of these bad habits. If we continue to maintain them, the country cannot go forward.

There are about 15 million Sinhalese living in the entire world. It is like a drop in the ocean. But, we continue to quarrel among ourselves.

The behavour of KWM is suspicious. He seems stating that he will never release his secret camera recordings. If so, why? The woman who alleges that she was molested by WWM implies that she would not file a complaint against WWM with the Police. This is very strange. They are making massive accusations against a leading figure of our society. When they are challenged, they go backwards stating that they will never take the matter before a Court of Law.  They have not even filed a complaint against WWM with the Police!

WWM is accused of covering his legs with cricket pads and hitting them with a cane, after wearing a sarong over. This is not a serious charge.  Surely WWM would be able to explain this. What fool would hit their legs with a cane without any guard?

KWM admits that he forcibly took into custody of WWM’s car keys. They did not want him to flee the scene. The video clip shows that they were ill-treating him. This behavior amounts to falsely imprisoning WWM. It seems they had subjected him to common assault. These are clear breaches of our Criminal Code.