The news will no doubt shock unsuspecting Sri Lankans, particularly those who love being domestic tourists. The management of tourist resorts countrywide is now required to report to the Police Station in their area whenever bookings are made by local guests. Besides their names, the address, the date of arrival and departure are among the [...]

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No privacy for Lankan holidaymakers: Big Brother to be informed

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The news will no doubt shock unsuspecting Sri Lankans, particularly those who love being domestic tourists. The management of tourist resorts countrywide is now required to report to the Police Station in their area whenever bookings are made by local guests. Besides their names, the address, the date of arrival and departure are among the data sought.

One well-informed source said such data were often transmitted by the Police Station concerned to the District Intelligence Bureau (DIB). They in turn forward that information to the State Intelligence Service (SIS) at Cambridge Place, Colombo.

In other words, Police will know when a Sri Lankan with or without their family are holidaying and in which resort in the country. Needless to say, professionals, politicians and even ordinary citizens will not be entitled to their privacy when they have to spend time at a tourist hotel or resort. A resort manager said yesterday “we don’t like the idea of compromising the privacy of our clients. However, that is a new requirement by the Police and we have to comply. Otherwise they find fault with us.”

Another resort operator claimed that few countries in the world, those with highly authoritarian regimes, have this requirement enforced. In Russia, for instance, hotels will keep a foreigner’s passport, and locals from different provinces require a permit to visit Moscow. There were times when Stassi, the notorious then East German intelligence agency resorted to this practice. With the re-unification of East and West Germanies that has become a matter of the past. Sections of the Opposition complained that such practices are common in a Police State. “How can it happen in a country which is becoming a five star democracy and a Wonder of Asia?” asked one of them sarcastically.


 

CBK’s beloved Cookie also buried at Horagolla
If there indeed was a kingdom for the canines in the years past, Cookie would have been among royalty. Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s pet dog was not only adored but even revered by the then Cabinet of Ministers. It was Cookie who walked ahead of Ms. Kumaratunga when she came for ministerial meetings. She would walk from her bedroom led by Cookie. One former Minister recalled that on one occasion ministers were seated and awaiting the arrival of Ms. Kumaratunga.

Cookie entered the meeting room. Ministers stood up. After some moments, they had to sit down when they realised madam president was not there. It seemed like an honour for Cookie. Ms. Kumaratunga walked into the room a few seconds later for the ministerial meeting. She had turned back to pick up a document.

Then Foreign Minister late Lakshman Kadirgamar’s request to a staffer at ‘Temple Trees’ was to phone him the moment he sees Cookie coming out. He didn’t want to be wasting his time waiting for the President to show up at Cabinet meetings given her chronic sense of time. Like the tolling of the bell tied by a chain around an elephant’s neck is forewarning that a pachyderm is round the corner that was confirmation Ms. Kumaratunga would be around.

Cookie passed away last month. There were tears among those present as they gave Cookie a burial in the historic precincts of the Bandaranaike Walauwwa in Horagolla.


Black night at BIA
There was chaos at the Bandaranaike International Airport at midnight signalling the dawn of Wednesday September 10. Five different flights had arrived. Passengers queued up outside the desks of immigration officers.  A reported breakdown in their computers led to long delays before both Sri Lankans and overseas visitors could enter Sri Lanka.

A Sri Lankan passenger said, “the time we spent in the immigration queue, two and half hours, would have been enough for us to travel to Singapore. We had to just wait.”
After the immigration officers failed to re-boot their computers, papers were processed manually. These meant even Sri Lankan passengers, who were earlier not required to fill in forms, were forced to do so. An irate tourist was heard to remark that a three-hour wait in an immigration queue was the longest he had experienced so far.


‘Domestic Republic’ of Sri Lanka
With so many plaques bearing the names of ruling UPFA politicians becoming a common feature as development projects get under way, errors in them seldom get noticed.
Here is one where those involved in promoting Sri Lanka as a resplendent isle placed at the site of where reconstruction work began on the Anuradhapura National Holiday Resort on February 2012. That was the same year the Deyata Kirula exhibition was held there.
They were so smart that they changed the name of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to “Domestic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.” Ever heard of domestic socialist republics? Of all things, they have named Basil Rajapaksa as the Minister of Economic Development of the domestic republics.
Imagine if the name was carried in all tourist brochures. Tourists might trot the globe looking for that utopian state.


Thonda’s nephew plays filmstar for polls
Senthil Thondaman, the nephew of Livestock Development Minister Arumugam Thondaman, is vying for a seat in the Uva Provincial Council. He has fashioned his campaign on popular South Indian film idols.

With Tamil films quite a rage among estate workers who get a daily dose of entertainment via the cable networks now easily available in the estate areas, the younger Thondaman’s ploy seems to be paying off.  His posters and newspaper advertisements in different poses dressed with dark glasses in typical South Indian film star style are enduring him to many voters in the sector.


President Xi: More time in Maldives than in Lanka
China’s President Xi Jinping will spend only one night in Sri Lanka as against two nights in the neighbouring Maldives.
Mr. Xi arrives in Male on September 14. He will depart there only on the morning of September 16.

Due to arrive at 11.30 a.m. at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), he will depart Sri Lanka on September 17 at 10.30 a.m. That will mean that his visit to Sri Lanka will be for 23 hours. He will spend the night at the Presidential suite of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo where sophisticated telecom equipment has already been installed and Chinese guards have sealed the room already.

Diplomatic sources say China is attaching great significance to the Maldives in view of Chinese nationals forming the largest volume of tourist arrivals in the archipelago. Chinese edged out Italians who were earlier on top of the list by as much as 25 per cent of tourist arrivals.


Self-styled intelligence advisor exposed
Defence and security authorities have been puzzled with repeated inquiries about a Sri Lankan academic resident in Singapore styling himself as “Intelligence advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka.”
According to an authoritative source, such a position did not exist and therefore any claim was false.
Inquiries are already being made to ascertain why he was making the false claim and insisting that he even maintained close links with key players in the establishment.
If he was a welcome invitee at official events in the past, this time he had not been asked to a much publicised discussion in Colombo. However, that did not deter him trying to grab headlines at side events with calls for the implementation of his own ‘revolutionary’ policies for national reconciliation.


Gotabaya did what Premadasa did
The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) was in receipt of Rs. 460 million worth of vehicles and equipment — Double cabs, crew cabs, road pavers and rollers — at a ceremony on Wednesday. It was under the Metro Colombo Development Programme.
Speaking at the ceremony, Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga made a disclosure. He said that after the 2010 Parliamentary elections, President Rajapaksa had told him to ask Gotabaya Rajapaksa what he wanted to do now that he had finished the war. The Defence Secretary had said he would like to undertake development work. He therefore preferred urban development be one of his subjects.
Colombo Mayor A.J.M. Muzzamil who thanked both the Presidential Secretary and the Defence Secretary for the gift of vehicles added a postscript. When he won the 1977 Parliamentary elections, the late J.R. Jayewardene had asked Ranasinghe Premadasa (who later succeeded him) what he wanted as a portfolio. He had sought housing and urban development.
“So, Mr.Gotabaya Rajapaksa has chosen the right path. He is fully qualified to enter politics,” he declared.


Monks reveal what polls chief fears to
It was a news conference summoned by Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya last Wednesday.
He was to speak on the September 20 polls to the Uva Provincial Council.
The media representatives who had gathered in large numbers waited with baited breath.
Mr. Deshapriya walked in with four Buddhist monks. There were raised eye brows from media personnel accompanying him. He asked whether the clergymen could talk to the media instead of him. With unanimity, the media nodded.

The four monks were members of the Jathika Sangha Sabha or the National Sangha Council.
The four monks were to make some damning revelations. Candidates were not only offering liquor to would-be voters but “even women.” Some candidates have spent as much as ten million rupees each on liquor. This was a cause for the spike in violence.
In marked contrast, there were some who were distributing white cloth to observe Sil on Poya Days. Funny enough, they said, some candidates distributed lunch packets with the preference numbers marked on the wrapper. There was a glut of bottled water too.
What Elections Commissioner Deshapriya could not say, it seems he has got the monks to say.


 

Badulla Imam demands no-crossover assurance
Two Muslim ministers, arch-rivals at one time, have joined together under the banner of the Democratic Unity Alliance (DUA) to contest the Uva Provincial Council polls.
The two are Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem and All Ceylon People’s Congress (ACPC) leader Rishad Bathiuddin.
Last week, Mr. Bathiuddin and Ameer Ali (SLMC – Eastern Provincial Councillor) were visiting mosques in the Badulla area.
At one of them, the Imam (prayer leader) was told by the duo that Muslim representation in the Uva Provincial Council was essential. Hence, he sought an assurance that the Imam and devotees in that mosque would vote for DUA at the September 20 polls.
The man who conducts prayers turned to Mr. Ali and asked whether he also could give him an assurance. That was to say that the elected Provincial Councillors would not cross over to the Government side. “How can anyone give an assurance like that?” replied Mr. Ali.

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