 It was bad news for parliamentarians this week.
No longer can they bring their mobile phones, switch them to silent mode to make or receive telephone calls. Some even used the facility to let colleagues and friends outside the House hear some making speeches.
Jammers have now been installed in the Well of the House.
All what the MPs see on the screens of their mobile phones now is that there is no
signal.
Thai bombshell
This is the story of another man who is at the centre of a hedging deal that shook Sri Lanka some months ago.
This time he is in the news, not for hedging but over an issue that could seriously strain relations between Sri Lanka and Thailand. Buddhist ties bind the two countries close.
Insiders say the man concerned arranged official formalities for former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinwatra’s two-day visit to Colombo. He had arrived in a
private jet.
Disgraced Shinwatra is now a convict in Thailand and is one of the most wanted men in that country.
What had irked the Thai authorities, insiders say, are the official courtesies afforded to him.
KP’s arrest in KL hotel
confirmed
It is now official. LTTE arms procurer Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP “was arrested at a Kuala Lumpur Hotel.”
The confirmation came in the Defence Ministry’s website which said in a story that KP had revealed that Raj Rajaratnam was a leading contributor of money to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The report has been filed by former journalist Walter Jayawardhana, now a member of the staff at the Sri Lanka High Commission in the UK. Until the report appeared, at least officially, the Government had refused to confirm where KP was arrested.
Name game behind the bridge
Another little known record became known when President Mahinda Rajapaksa flew to Trincomalee on Tuesday to open Sri Lanka’s longest bridge in Kinniya.
The construction, with funding from Saudi Arabia, had begun only after different politicians of various hues laid 18 different foundation stones. The last was by Mr. Rajapaksa himself, when he was Minister of Highways in the Cabinet of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.
Little wonder, politicians in the area did not want to be left out when history of the bridge is being written. The invitation for the event bore only three names – T.B. Ekanayake, Minister of Highways and Development, W.B. Ekanayake, Deputy Minister and retired Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, the Ministry Secretary.
Najeeb Abdul Majeed, Minister of Co-operatives (non Cabinet rank), the MP of the area found his name was not on the invitation list. He rang Karannagoda to protest. “Orders from the top,” Admiral (retd.) Karannagoda replied in typical military fashion.
Najeeb then telephoned senior presidential advisor Basil Rajapaksa. The problem was soon resolved.
Besides a plaque on the bridge which said it was declared open by President Rajapaksa, came three more in English, Sinhala and Tamil. Those bore the names of Majeed, the Minister, Deputy Minister, the Secretary and even Susantha Punchinilame, Minister of Nation Building. That is not all. Basil Rajapaksa who is involved in development activity in the area added his name too.
Word had spread that President Rajapaksa would say a few words in Tamil too. So Majeed, sought the help of a well known Moulavi (a Muslim scholar) in the area and had a speech written in Arabic. He delivered it at the ceremony. Even if most did not know what he said, the honoured Chief Guest, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman Jamnaz did.
“Marhabah” (welcome) the Amabssador would have felt. However, there was no word on the man who negotiated the aid for the bridge – Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), when he was a Minister in the Cabinet of then Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Dayan fired and hired
To use a political phrase in a lighter vein, Sri Lanka’s then Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Dayan Jayatilleke, was “persona non grata” with the Government in Sri Lanka and was re-called to Colombo.
The exact reasons remain a mystery though many said it was over his strong views in favour of the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
Others felt it had something to do with attacking the Israelis over their incursions into the Gaza. Israel was a supplier of weapons for the war against the LTTE.
However, there was good news for him last week. President Rajapaksa invited him to join his entourage for the three-day official visit to Vietnam.
Therefore, for the first time he was able to see a country where, as he often said in his writings earlier, “the Yankee imperialists” held sway. That is not all. He is in the Government fold again!! He has been rehabilitated, it seems.
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