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Wrong priorities
It was the day of the ceremonial opening of Parliament and the Speaker’s Gallery - the vantage point from where the Speaker’s table can be seen - was made available for political supporters and family members of politicians.
And as for ambassadors and commanders of the three forces and the IGP, they had to sit in the public galleries. So much for getting priorities right.

Hard to change!
The Government has two spokesmen now – the newly appointed Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa as well as Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva.

Their first press conference was focussed on detailing discussions that took place at the first Cabinet meeting of President Mahinda Rajapakse. Mr. De Silva started off by saying Her Excellency the Pre……………..and soon switched to His Excellency. That’s a change that will take some getting used to after eleven years.

No red carpet welcome
It was full house at the Presidential Secretariat when Mahinda Rajapakse was sworn in as President on November19. There were the singers and film makers who supported the new President during his campaign too lining up to get inside the building where the function was to take place but there was utter chaos as media personnel, guests, catering staff, military men and women etc., were forced to use one single small entrance and go through an arduous process of checking if their names were on a list and go through body checks prior to gaining admission.

So the celebrities were also made to stand in line sweating it out in all their finery. A male singer present was heard quipping to a film director who was in the forefront of President’s Rajapakse’s campaign, “It seems we were the chief organisers only before the election.”

If they were expecting a red carpet welcome, they sure didn’t get it once inside too, with many left standing as there was nowhere to sit.

Short supply
The Presidential Secretariat seems to be having a shortage of rubber bands and gloves. First, media personnel who had to leave their phones at the entrance on the day of the President’s swearing in were asked to hand in a rubber band when they handed in mobile phones so that the number tag could be kept in place with the phone.

And despite that fact that there were several women police personnel on duty, only one of them could carry out body checks on female visitors, the reason being there was only one pair of gloves.

When millions of rupees are spent for all kinds of decorative work, why cannot a few thousand rupees be spent to buy some rubber bands and gloves?
Or next time the journalists should be asked to bring a rubber band with them when they come to cover functions at the Secretariat.

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