One-sided
shows
Political debates on state television are becoming more and more
one-sided. Last week the two guests on "Visanwadaya" were
Wimal Weerawansa and Mangala Samaraweera sitting with an obliging
moderator talking of the present woes of the country. Maybe the
station needs to change the name of its programme to "Sanvadaya
" or think more carefully about whom they have on the show
if they want to be taken seriously. Otherwise it will all be a "Sandanaya"
show.
Self
before party
National flags and blue flags were fluttering along the
Parliament road to herald the foundation stone laying ceremony for
the new SLFP headquarters. Four giant Sinhala letters were written
on the long vertical blue flags strung up on the lamp posts. Many
first thought they were the letters denoting the party name in Sinhala.
On closer look the letters spelled out the name of a prominent SLFP/UPFA
MP of the area. No longer party before self but self before party.
Going
through hell
Just a day before the Police Commission Chief declared
that the police was a hell of hells, journalists of the Wijeya group,
had a glimpse how difficult it was to get through the traffic orders
of 'hell' especially if the 'devil' in charge was as cumbersome
to deal with as the one we encountered.
Proceeding
towards the place where the ceremony of laying the foundation stone
for the new SLFP headquarters in Battaramulla, the journalists were
refused permission to proceed to the venue, by the police officer
who introduced himself as the 'chief of it all' - meaning traffic.
Despite
the vehicle carrying the name-board of the newspaper and the six
journalists in the vehicle all producing their media identification
the 'chief' who introduced himself as the OIC Traffic, Talangama
was adamant that the journalists should have passes to cover the
event.
Passes
issued from where he did not specify. It was finally after a good
fifteen minutes when the cameramen, three in all, got off the vehicle
to take a good picture of the clearly irrational police 'traffic
boss' that the man mellowed to clear his throat and say ' ok, ok,
go but remember it is because of me that you can go'.
And
with this incident fresh in our minds all we can do is agree with
the Police Commission chief when he said last Friday that the police
have become the yama rajjuruwo.
Battle
of the bosses
With the rumblings in the Rupavahini and many heads rolling,
Chairman M. Zuhair and Director General Nishantha Ranatunga are
at loggerheads. A meeting called to evaluate the crisis ended with
the two of them getting into a heated argument and the chairman
saying Mr. Ranatunga should not step into his office without a prior
appointment. |
