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No change after a decade
President Chandrika Kumaratunga unveiled a portrait of the late former Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike at the Parliamentary complex on Thursday.

A booklet containing a speech made by Mrs. Bandaranaike on November 16, 1995 containing some advice for unruly MPs, was given to all present on the occasion. "I think ours is the worst Parliament in the world the way we are behaving since late. People are shocked. They ask did we send them to Parliament for this?

“So, let us behave ourselves or let those who can run the Parliament properly come here. Otherwise the people will catch us by the scruff of our necks and throw us out," were some of her words.

Ten years on, nothing seems to have changed but instead worsened. And as for the anticipated reaction of the people, they too seem equally apathetic at the behaviour of their elected representatives.

People's reps -what a sight!
Parliament has become a place for many backbenchers, especially among those in opposition UNP benches, to spend their time messing round with their fancy mobile phones.

Many confine themselves to their 'annual' speech delivered mostly during the budget debate while on other sitting days they put their legs up and warm their seats in air-conditioned comfort, phones in hand.

We can only feel sorry for the poor man who stands in a queue to cast a vote on behalf of such people whose only qualifications to enter the Legislature are either family connections or plenty of cash.

Clashes continue
The clashes between the Chairman and the Director General of the state-run Rupavahini Corporation are hotting up once gain over who should preside at the senior managers' weekly meeting.

Even though it is the DG who normally presides, the chairman also insists he should be the presiding officer. Now the senior managers have to attend two meetings, one called by the DG and one by the chairman and at each meeting they are asked not to attend the meeting called by the other. And this has led to scurrilous posters against the chairman appearing on the walls of the toilets at the Corporation .

Deputy saving dollars?
The one time boss of a local intelligence agency has now ended up with a top job - the deputy chairman of a precious state corporation. Intelligence operatives were surprised when the new appointee went to a leading Asian capital. Instead of checking into a hotel and utilizing the rich resources of the new Corporation, the former spy boss chose to stay with an intelligence colleague.

Now the word is out in the intelligence community in the city. Did he want to save a few dollars and claim it from the Corporation? Or was it for safety reasons? Well, well. One local sleuth said it was for both.

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