ECONOMYNEXT, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena today launched a scathing attack on the organisers of pop star Enrique Iglesias’s Love and Sex concert in Colombo and said they should be "whipped with toxic stingray tails."
President Sirisena said he was shocked to learn that local women removed their bras in public and threw the underwear at the pop icon who put on a one-hour performance at the CR and FC stadium on December 20.
He was also stunned that some women had thrown themselves at the singer by kissing him. There were unconfirmed reports that one of the women was the daughter of a top military commander who had been elevated to the position by Sirisena.
"This is most uncivilised behaviour that goes against our culture," President Sirisena said "I don’t advocate that these uncivilised women who removed their brassieres should be beaten with toxic stingray tails, but those who organised such an event should be."
There was no immediate comment from the local organiser, Live Events, a company co-owned by Sri Lankan cricket stars Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.
Incidentally, Sangakkara is the man President Sirisena had in an unguarded moment chosen to represent Sri Lanka and its traditional values as its High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Sangakkara, who has lent his name to endorse restaurants, almost all the mobile telephone networks in the country and even rickety three-wheel contraptions, had turned down the diplomatic post preferring to play lucrative county cricket abroad.
According to Sirisena’s demand, both Sangakkara and Jayawardene should be lined up for a public flogging.
Whipping with the tails of stingrays was reserved for hardened criminals in medieval Sri Lanka and is used as a popular idiom for extreme punishment of wrongdoing.
In traditional Sri Lankan society, public displays of affection, even among married couples, is frowned upon. Police are known to have arrested courting couples for kissing at Galle Face green and the Vihara Maha Devi park.
Enrique fans had paid prices ranging from 5,000 rupees to 35,000 rupees to get to the live one-hour performance which was part his world tour, "Love and Sex".
"I know I will be criticised for what I am saying, but I must tell these things," the President said in his scathing criticism of the event organisers. "Our young people were so possessed during the one hour show that the women gave their brassieres to the singer.
"This is uncivilised behaviour that goes against our traditional values."
Local media reports said the Colombo Municipal Council was also taking action against the company for alleged tax fraud.
The Sunday Times quoted officials saying that the company of the two cricket legends had underpaid nearly 30 million rupees by way of entertainment tax owed to the local body.
The organisers have also been panned for poor crowd-management and undue delays. The audience included fans who had flown in from neighbouring South Asian nations. (COLOMBO, December 27, 2015)