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Odds and ends

The big stink
News of alleged cheating and fraud by the top shot in the Fisheries Ministry has sailed across the oceans and reached foreign shores. "Fishing Boat World", an Australian based magazine on the international fishing industry features Sri Lanka under its news bites section but the article is far from flattering.

"Sri Lanka's Fisheries Minister Mahinda Wijesekara has been alleged to have used his position to cheat his country out of millions of rupees, from shady fish deals. The Prime Minister has been forced to turn a blind eye however, due to the lack of a significant Parliamentary majority that has curbed attempts to bring to an end the suspicious activities of several ministers," the magazine states. Looks like the big stink has begun to spread.

Loud sounds
From smells to loud sounds. When visiting Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham landed at the airport at Palali last Thursday to start his Jaffna tour he was greeted by a thundering sound. Everyone was shaken probably wondering whether the ceasefire had abruptly ended. Fortunately this was not so. The Army spokesman in Colombo confirmed the sounds were from routine military exercises in the area surrounding the airport.

Thirsty marchers
Sihala Urumaya members who undertook a protest march to Manirasakulam had to rely on local villagers to help them quench their thirst once they began their march by foot from the Surangal junction. However as the water they got was too salty for their liking many had to endure their march in thirst. Perhaps someone should've warned them that clean, drinkable water one could easily get off a tap in most urban areas are unheard of in these remote villages and advised them to carry their own water bottles.

When the tired SU followers reached the barriers at Surangal from which point they were not allowed to march forward, one of them queried from a policeman on duty where the controversial Manirasakulam camp was located. The policemen said he had no idea only to be told by the irritated SU supporters, "You don't know and you won't know till the terrorists come and attack you."

In the hot seat
A meeting was organised last week between local parliamentarians and a visiting Canadian Parliamentary delegation. A Colombo district UNP MP who was one of the key players in the meeting, who is also alleged to have been involved in beating up a policeman in the cool climes of Nuwara Eliya recently, was soon in the hot seat when the meeting got underway.

The uncomfortable situation came about when PA MP Nimal Siripala De Silva queried from one of the visitors whether there were were any cases in Canada where politicians walked into police stations to get their supporters released or beat up policemen on duty.

"No", was the response from the shocked foreigners who queried whether there were such instances in Sri Lanka. " Yes and quite regularly," said Mr. De Silva and proceeded to hand over a report containing 61 instances where ruling party MPs had acted in an extra judicial manner. The Canadians will have to stick around longer than they intend to stay to get more oriented with the behaviour of local politicians.

Allegations, counter allegations
Another politician making the news in a popular Jaffna based daily is Hindu Affairs Minister T. Maheswaran. A tussle between the Minister and the paper which has a sister paper printed in Colombo began as a result of a speech Mr. Maheswaran had allegedly made when addressing a felicitation ceremony for a senior Tamil journalist, organised by the Tamil Media Alliance and held at the Ramakrishna Hall in Colombo last Sunday. Mr. Maheswaran had said that it was only these two papers that did not allow their journalists to join the alliance and said it was undemocratic.

The next morning the paper in question launched a scathing attack on the politician exposing alleged shady deals of Mr. Maheswaran carried out during the economic embargo on the northern peninsula. One such activity was transporting kerosene in coca-cola bottles. Mr. Maheswaran did not want to be outdone so the next day he wrote a letter to the paper calling it the one time stooge of the EPDP which spent Rs. 1.6 million on a poster campaign for that party during the last general election in order to get favours. The matter is unlikely to end there with more allegations and counter allegations likely to fly around in the coming days.

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