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Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Parliamentarian Duminda Dissanayake on Friday said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa achieved something in two and a half years that LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had tried and failed to do in 30 years – ruin the country’s economy.  

“Velupillai wanted to bring this country’s economy to its knees. That is why he launched attacks in Colombo and committed so many other acts. But we understand now that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa did in two and a half years what Prabhakaran could not do in 30 years,” he told a media conference in Colombo. The MP launched a scathing attack on the President and called for all parties to unite to bring down the current government.

Mr Dissanayake seems to be suffering from selective amnesia, for he made no mention of the fact that he and his SLFP colleagues were at the forefront of campaigning for Gotabaya Rajapaksa during the 2019 Presidential election. There was also no mention of how the SLFP aligned itself with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) during the 2020 Parliamentary elections, and how its MPs including Mr Dissanayake contested under the SLPP’s pohottuwa symbol and having won, voted for the 20th Amendment to give the President almost absolute power. Even now, some members of Mr Dissanayake’s party hold Cabinet portfolios in the current government.

The Speaker and others at the workshop for Parliamentary correspondents

Speaker speaks out: Advises media to black out blaggard MPs

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has appealed to the media not to give publicity to unruly behaviour and crass speeches made by MPs in Parliament.

He made the request during a one-day workshop held for Parliamentary correspondents.

The Speaker said young MPs could learn much from going through speeches made by famous MPs such as Dr. N. M. Perera and Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, adding that he had instructed officials at the Parliament library to collect such speeches and provide copies to MPs.

The Speaker made no secret of how he felt about the quality of speeches made by MPs in the House to date.

“How many even stick to the topic they are supposed to be speaking on,” he asked.

The more publicity the media gives to vituperative speeches and unruly behaviour, the more emboldened those MPs would be to keep doing it because they are assured of more publicity, the Speaker said. Even former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya lamented on the quality of speeches and standard of behaviour of MPs of the previous Parliament.

It seems the voters keep sending the wrong people to represent them in the national legislature, or they have Hobson’s Choice considering the candidates presented to them by the different political parties.

No transport without fuel; Minister’s latest project comes to a halt

Minister Bandula Gunawardena is known to launch several projects that do not last long or for that matter seldom get off the ground.

When he was the Trade Minister he had several such projects mainly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them were issuing packs of food and coconuts at Sathosa outlets.

The latest non-starter comes in his capacity as the Transport Minister. Minister Gunawardena was recently seen opening a fuel station at the private bus stand at Bastian Mawatha in Pettah so that private buses could get fuel.

Two weeks after the opening, the National Transport Commission Director General Nilan Miranda said the fuel station was yet to receive fuel.

It may not be entirely the fault of the Minister that fuel was not available, but he might want to see that his innovative plans had half a chance of succeeding.

Work from home order but SLFEB to ignore

With the entire country in a crisis over the fuel supply, the Government decided to curtail several services including those in the public sector.

The Public Administration Ministry issued a circular requesting public servants to work from home.

The senior staff were advised to conduct meetings using technology instead of calling public servants for conferences and other in-person events.

For the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) however, it seemed these instructions did not apply.

The SLFEB General Manager summoned all managers and higher grade officials for what he called a workshop to explain the action plan to implement a 100 day programme.

The meeting had been called for yesterday from 8.00 a.m to 5.00 p.m at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute Auditorium in Colombo 07.

Senior staffers who had vehicles issued to them were told to use their official vehicles and those who were unable to use their vehicles due to the fuel shortage were told to contact the Bureau’s transport division or organise their own transport and the Bureau would meet their expenses.

Lunch had been organised at the Bureau’s expenses, and duty leave granted for the day. But at the last moment the event was put off for next week, even though the fuel issue has not been resolved.

CBK goes for micro-blogging to be in the spotlight

It seems that former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga or the one who is handling her verified official Twitter account is still trying to figure out how to use the world’s leading micro-blogging social media platform.

The account which was unusually active in recent weeks in the wake of the country wide protests against the Government was seen responding to the wrong tweets.

For some users, it was confusing why the former Head of the State was responding to some tweets without any context or meaning. One user suggested that maybe the user was still trying to get a hand on the platform dominated by the younger generation, to stay relevant to the current developments.

Minister Ahamed wants to tap the Saudis for oil

The Government is still repairing diplomatic mishaps caused due to arbitrary decisions taken by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government with countries such as Japan and West Asian nations, amid the economic crisis Sri Lanka is going through.

The latest in the process of mending ties is with Saudi Arabia. On Thursday, when Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris met the Saudi Arabian Embassy’s Charge d’ Affaires Abdulelah A. A. Orkobi, he sought avenues for urgent energy cooperation, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Not only that, he also urged the Saudi envoy to facilitate the visit of the Environment Minister Nazeer Ahamed to Saudi Arabia from Saturday (July 2) to Tuesday (July 5) as a Special Envoy of the President of Sri Lanka.

Earlier this week, he and the Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara were in Qatar where they held ministerial-level meetings with the Petroleum Minister and Labour Minister of Qatar to secure urgent fuel supplies and employment opportunities for Sri Lankans.

Minister Ahamed, who is fluent in Arabic and tried to secure the Energy Ministry portfolio unsuccessfully, somehow convinced government leaders that he could get the job done with Saudi authorities through his influence.

Ontario court dismisses motion against Tamil Genocide Education Week Act

This week Superior Court of Justice of Ontario in Canada dismissed a motion filed by groups challenging the controversial Tamil Genocide Education Week Act.

The motion was filed by the Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition and other groups while at least sixty Tamil diaspora outfits came forward to defend the bill.

Delivering the verdict, Justice Akbarali said Ontario was permitted to recognise a Tamil genocide for the purpose of legislating with respect to educational initiatives related to it or indeed for commemorating it. This was no different than provincial legislation that recognised and commemorated the Holocaust or the provincial education policy of focusing on international aspects of world wars or any other international conflicts, they said.

Even though Ontario’s higher court upheld the law, one wonders what the Foreign Ministry was able to achieve in this regard through diplomatic channels other than summoning respective diplomatic staff and merely “expressing severe concerns” over the matter alone.

Daisy daisy; No carriage but a bicycle built for two
A leading band’s musician was stranded after a performance held at a hotel in Colombo. He went halfway with his band mates and reached Orugodawatta, from where he was planning to walk towards Kadawatha to reach his home.
Meanwhile his father, an executive officer of a state institute, learning that his son was walking home had asked for a bicycle from a neighbour as both of his cars had run out of petrol. He reached his son by riding from Kadawatha to Orugodawatta.

The roads were pitch dark as the road lamps had been switched off to conserve power, while three wheel drivers who were at fuel queues were enjoying liquor and meals. On his way back after getting his son on board the bicycle and his guitar and music equipment on to his back. A Police officer suddenly stopped him and asked “Where are the lights for the bicycle?”. The Police officer also asked whether they were carrying explosives.

The executive officer who happened to be tired had replied to the Police officer and asked whether the street lights were operative or whether he took action against the people enjoying liquor on the road. He also remarked that in a crisis situation where there was no fuel and people were using other modes of transport the Police officer’s only concern was the lamp on the bike.

The musician had told the Police officer that Police should not be putting pressure on affected people, but should be assisting them. He also asked the Police officer not to play a comedic role by trying to act like a Policeman in an Indian action film. With that homily, the understanding Policeman allowed them to go.
We wonder whether he was aware of the words from the famous song titled, “Daisy, Daisy.”

State bank executive’s Toronto trip cancelled; no trophy either

The Government has been looking at cutting down on expenses and has issued circulars with this in mind. As a result, some foreign trips too have been put on hold. Early last month a state bank’s executive officer had sought permission from the Finance Ministry to travel to Canada on an 11-day visit.

The journey was in connection with a series of bilateral talks with several leading business establishments in Canada aimed at establishing new business relationships to improve the foreign currency inflow to the country and the bank. Besides, the official was expected to receive the BIZZA trophy presented by Texas based business developer WORLDCOB in Toronto.
The cost of the trip included air ticket expenses of Rs. 1.4 million, Rs 1.8 million as subsistence and Rs. 297,000 as incidental expenses.

Alas, the request failed to receive the nod from the Finance Ministry, after it took into consideration the expenses involved.