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Sajin seeks forgiveness from Ranil
View(s):Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, UPFA Parliamentarian from the Ambalangoda District and Monitoring MP for the Ministry of External Affairs, has extended an unqualified apology to Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. This was for incidents connected with mobs preventing Mr. Wickremesinghe from attending funerals of fishermen in the Balapitiya area.
The Opposition Leader escaped personal harm when a mob surrounded his official vehicle. He was saved at the nick of time by his personal security detail and Police officials detailed along the Galle-Colombo highway near Ahungalla. He was travelling to the coastal town after calling off the visits to homes in Balapitiya area on the advice of personal security. They had said that mobs had surrounded the houses of the dead and missing fishermen.
Mr. Wickremesinghe, UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake and Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha were in the entourage when the incident occurred. A security officer said they staved off personal harm, soon after a mob opened the door of Mr. Wickremesinghe’s Mitsubishi Montero.
Last week, it was revealed in these columns that President Rajapaksa telephoned Mr. Wickremesinghe to assure him that a full investigation would be carried out. As a result, he made no reference to the episode in a statement in Parliament where he criticised the Government for not giving an early warning to the fishermen about an impending storm.
Early this week, Parliamentarian Vass Gunawardena telephoned Mr. Wickremesinghe to say, “I am extremely sorry” and asked that he be forgiven.
UPFA sources said Vass Gunawardena was admonished by President Rajapaksa over the incident. Ahead of the incident, he had told a television station that no opposition party representatives would be allowed to come to Balapitiya.
Power Secretary shocks President
“I am not Madam here,” thundered President Mahinda Rajapaksa as he spoke on the telephone to W.B. Ganegala, Secretary to the Ministry of Power and Energy. The occasion was a well-attended meeting of editors of national newspapers and heads of electronic media outlets at ‘Temple Trees’ on Friday.
It all began when a journalist told President Rajapaksa that they were trying to reach Mr. Ganegala to find out why electricity was not being generated from the turbines at the Victoria Reservoir after all the rain in recent days.
Mr. Rajapaksa promptly asked aides to get Mr. Ganegala on the telephone. When he was put through, the President said the media were complaining that they could not get through to him. Mr. Ganegala replied that he had spoken to some of them earlier. He was then asked to come over to ‘Temple Trees’.
Evidently Mr. Ganegala replied, “Yes Madam.” That prompted President Rajapaksa, who is more macho and would never be mistaken for a woman, to insist that “I am not a madam”, as the editors burst into laughter.Mr. Ganegala earlier served as Personal Secretary to former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Little wonder some say old habits do not die. They live longer.
MI6 spied on CHOGM delegates
With just five months to go for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka, comes the news that Britain’s intelligence agencies had spied on delegates at an earlier summit of this group. It was to “obtain information to give British ministers an advantage in talks with their Commonwealth counterparts.”
The revelation has come from Edward Snowden in the Guardian newspaper. Snowden is now hiding in Hong Kong as US authorities want him for blowing a top secret US National Security Agency operation code named “Prism” which spied on phone calls and e-mails of Americans.
The Guardian report adds: “The meeting (CHOGM) which takes place every two years, was held in Trinidad in 2009. The UK delegation was headed by the Queen, with Prince Philip also in attendance, along with Gordon Brown, the then prime minister, David Miliband, then foreign secretary, and Douglas Alexander, then international development secretary.
“A page from an internal top-secret intranet of GCHQ, shared with the NSA, discovered by the 29-year-old whistleblower Edward Snowden and seen by the Guardian, shows a list of “‘key intelligence requirements’ set out for the summit.
“Alongside notes to check for threats against the security of the UK delegation during the visit, the document lists ‘Intelligence to inform UK senior’s [sic] Bi-lats’, ‘Initelligence [sic] on South Africa’s views on Zimbabwe prior to Brown/Zuma meeting’ and ‘climate change reporting’.
“The revelation that UK intelligence agencies made plans to target ministers and officials from Commonwealth countries, as well as the targeting of G20 officials disclosed elsewhere, is likely to raise tensions among the Commonwealth nations, who may seek clarity over whether their officials were bugged, and if so to what extent.
“The note, which was prepared in advance of the meeting, also sets out a schedule for different UK agencies to set up their activities in Trinidad. MI6 were tasked to set up several days before the event, with GCHQ’s operation beginning with the arrival of delegates. The Guardian is not publishing the original document as it contains logistical details and some limited references to personnel.
“The 2009 Commonwealth meeting, which was also attended by Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of France, appears to have been the first time MI6 — formally known as SIS, or the Secret Intelligence Service — had been asked to gather intelligence from a Commonwealth heads of government gathering.
“SIS have no past history of targeting this meeting,” the document notes in an explanation of why operations might be limited in their scope. “As it was prepared in advance of the Commonwealth meeting, the memo does not confirm to what extent surveillance was carried out, or even whether planned operations actually took place. However, it does stress to agency staff that ‘”we will be measured on our ability to deliver’.”
Sajith makes last ditch effort to save dissidents
The United National Party’s former deputy leader, Sajith Premadasa, made a last ditch attempt to prevent the party’s main policy making body from sacking 19 members.
Give them a last chance, he said, only to be reminded by party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe that that they were given several.
However, Premadasa, the Hambantota Parliamentarian, continued. “You can do what you want but my view is that they should be given another chance,” he pleaded. When he continued to speak, General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said “Oya katha kerenney Maadyata” (You are speaking to the media). Sajith denied the accusation.
Then, Kalutara District Parliamentarian Ajith Perera rose to endorse what General Secretary Attanayake had said. He accused Premadasa of “always talking.”
When the meeting ended, Premadasa was walking along the hallway of ‘Siri Kotha’, the party headquarters. There was Ajith Perera talking to Badulla District MP Harin Fernando.
Premadasa had some choice words to tell Perera. The exact words in Sinhala are unprintable. Perera hit back saying that the description fitted the person who uttered the words.
In another episode, party leader Wickremesinghe was to rebuke actor-turned-politician Ranjan Ramanayake. The latter had remarked that those who said wrong things about the UNP leader died due to ill health. Mr. Wickremesinghe said it was wrong to make such sweeping statements. He cited the death of Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, a staunch supporter of Mr. Wickremesinghe and asked whether that too was because he was against the leader. He cautioned that no such comparisons be made.
Questions on claim by so-called journalist
A person calling himself a journalist has claimed in an interview on a local television channel that Britain’s Channel 4 and the ‘Tamil Diaspora’ offered him US dollars one million or a million Sterling Pounds to “testify” against Sri Lanka. Obviously, he was not aware of the differences in the value of US dollars and Sterling Pounds. He did not reveal where he was called upon to testify or say who in fact made the offer.
The interview was reportedly before he was on his way to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to make a complaint over the matter. He had claimed that he rejected the offer outright. The same person was arrested and questioned by CID detectives in 2011 when they probed an alleged attempt at subversion. He was, however, released later and no charges were preferred against him.
The man was closely associated with a military officer, now retired. He was described as a courier when the officer, then serving, was preparing to enter politics.
Remanded DIG given comfortable rest room
Former DIG Vas Gunawardena who is in remand custody for his alleged involvement in the murder of a businessman has got some privileges whilst in custody. A Prison Officer’s rest room with an attached toilet has been provided to him.
Originally the rest room accommodated eight prison officers who worked on a day/night roster. Seven of the beds have been removed to a part of the kitchen from the rest room to provide him more space.
Some prisoners do enjoy more privileges than others even if they are remanded for alleged murder. It is the Orwellian theory after all; All are equal, but some are more equal.
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