The Sunday Leader last week scooped a story which stunned people who read it. In essence it said that a valuable painting, the Temple of Mulkirigala done in 1826 by William Daniell, that had been hanging at President’s House when President J. R. Jayewardene relinquished office had been spirited out of the country and been listed for auction in a Christie’s catalogue in London.

The story had all the ingredients of a top class news story. The painting, apparently, had been bought in 1984 by the Government of Sri Lanka on the advice of Mr. H. W. Jayewardene, JRJ’s brother, who had discovered it up for sale in London. Realising its value for this country, Mr. Jayewardene had advised the president that it should be acquired by the State. It was purchased for a sum of 14,000 pounds sterling and was hanging in a place of honour at the head of the stairs at President’s House when President Jayewardene retired. It was duly listed in the inventory of President’s House.

According to the Sunday Leader, the painting had passed through the hands of Mr. Rohan Jayakody, President Premadasa’s son-in-law, before it was listed for sale by Christie’s. High Commissioner S. K. Wickremesinghe in London had seen what was described as once the property of J. R. Jayewardene in the Christie’s catalogue and alerted Colombo. Many wheels had thereafter turned. Scotland Yard had come into the investigation, Mr. Jayakody’s statement had been recorded, two CID sleuths had been sent to London, the painting withdrawn from Christie’s sale and brought back to the country to which it rightfully belongs.

Mr. Jayakody had an explanation on how he had come to acquire the painting. He had said that he had bought it from a dealer in Portabello Road and this may well have been the case. By recounting what has already been published in another newspaper a week ago, and not rebutted up to the time that this is being written, we are not pointing a finger at anybody or making any allegations or imputations. We have no independent knowledge whatever of this business outside last Sunday’s report. It may well be that today’s issue of the Sunday Leader would carry some explanation shedding more light on the mystery.

What interests us is the deafening silence of the state media on a story it would normally have pounced on with undisguised glee. Nobody would be surprised that the government controlled press and electronic media, shamelessly manipulated by those holding political power, did not beat the Sunday Leader to the story. That does not usually happen. What does happen is that stories such as this, out of which the government can gain mileage, suitably dressed with parsley and potatoes, are usually handed over on a platter with either implicit or explicit instructions on how they are to be splashed.

In this case, the information was very much in the hands of the authorities. After all it was High Commissioner Wickremesinghe in London who drew Defence Secretary Chandrananda de Silva’s attention to the painting being listed in Christie’s catalogue.

Thereafter a CID SP and an Inspector were dispatched to London after the Attorney General had been consulted about clearing the way for the investigation. The fact that the painting allegedly passed through Mr. Jayakody’s hands and that he is no less than the son-in-law of President Premadasa who has long been the favourite whipping boy of the present incumbents of office, should have normally had PA politicos drooling at the mouth. But what do we get instead of drums and trumpets? A deafening silence.

It is not only we who are surprised by the way the government is handling this one. By all accounts even some members of the cabinet are. There have been some questions raised there and replies given about "strategy’’. It has even been alleged that the story was presented to the Sunday Leader no less than by Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe. The mystery becomes curiouser and curiouser. If there is a strategy of silence, what are the permutations and combinations? The story, after all, is now well known and a conspiracy of silence by the state media is not going to make it go away. Or are there new alliances taking shape?

Nothing surprises anybody about politics and the way the game is played. Take all the nice things about Mr. Maitripala Senanayake that the movers and shakers of the government have been falling over each other to say. He deserved all that and more for the quiet, dignified and moderate role he played in Sri Lanka’s post-Independence politics. Despite all his virtues now freely expressed, the PA who had him on their national list for the 1994 elections kept him out of parliament, breaking his heart and robbing him of the chance to have been the only Commonwealth parliamentarian to log 50 years of unbroken service in the legislature. But to hear them now!