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Among those who have been asked to vacate their diplomatic posts is Chaminthri Rambukwella, the daughter of former Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.  She had been serving in New York since 2011 as the Second Secretary to the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN with an extension granted in 2013. She was recalled along with nearly 40 others after the new government took office and told that her term would end on March 10, this year.

However, the lady has made a vain attempt to continue her stay in New York. In response to the letter informing her of the end of her term, Ms. Rambukwella has written to the Foreign Ministry secretary. She has said that as she currently holds the post of Vice Chair of the Fifth Committee, representing the Asia-Pacific Group at the UN till July 2015, her being recalled before that date would mean Sri Lanka will cease to be part of the Bureau of the Fifth Committee.

“This is to inform you that the appointment of Vice Chair is not one that can be transferred to another diplomatic officer within the Sri Lanka Mission, as it was an appointment made on personal merit,” she has written. However, Foreign Service officers say this is not so.   The seat is given to the country, not to an individual. Therefore whoever is stationed there automatically gets the post.

Jayanthi continues to cook for President’s family
President Maithripala Sirisena who was in Colombo received a call this week from a lady doctor, who had been a close friend.
She said she found the President’s telephone number with great difficulty and wanted to congratulate him. With that over, she asked to speak for Ms. Jayanthi Sirisena to wish her.
However, the President said she could not speak now since she was cooking in the kitchen.
The astonished doctor asked, “Don’t you have cooks to do that work?” President Sirisena replied, “No, we like to cook our own food. We choose what we like. In fact we grow those vegetables in our garden.”

Rohan Perera new envoy to UN
When Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera met U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Friday, he took the opportunity to introduce Sri Lanka’s new Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dr. Rohan Perera, who has served as Legal Adviser to the Foreign Ministry for more than 32 years.
Dr. Perera was a member of the delegation that accompanied the Foreign Minister who is seeking both  U.S. and U.N. support to defer a likely international investigation of war crimes charges against Sri Lanka. But the Secretary-General made no commitment to help back the Sri Lankan request.
Dr. Perera, who will succeed outgoing Ambassador Palitha Kohona, has chaired the UN Adhoc Committee on Terrorism which has been pursuing a comprehensive international convention on terrorism.  When he was elected chair several decades ago, Dr. Perera’s predecessor, Canadian Ambassador Philippe Kirsch, patted him on the back and joked: “Congratulations Rohan, you are going to be chairman for life.”
The reason: the U.N. will never reach agreement on a definition of terrorism with Middle Eastern nations insisting on the inclusion of “state terrorism” which Israel is accused of. But that is unlikely to happen because Israel’s strongest supporters include the United States and Western powers.

SLFP revival committee: CBK angry, remarks not printable
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) patron Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga appears huffed that she had been told to serve in a eight-member Committee that included former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The purpose of the Committee was to reorganise the SLFP. Led by President Maithripala Sirisena, it includes two former Presidents (Mr. Rajapaksa and Ms. Kumaratunga) and two former Prime Ministers (Ratnasiri Wickremenayake and D.M. Jayaratne).
Ms. Kumaratunga was angry and declared she was not willing to serve on a team where there were “(not printable)”.
She left yesterday for Britain.

Commando guards for Rajapaksa sons in US
At last Wednesday’s meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) General Secretary and Minister Champaka Ranwaka asked why men from the Army’s Commando Regiment had been sent to the United States to protect the sons of former Minister Basil Rajpaksa and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
President Maithripala Sirisena promptly reached out to the phone and spoke to Defence Secretary B.M.U.D. Basnayake. He was to reply that the commandos had returned weeks before the Presidential election.

PM adds honour to Temple Trees dinner
The infrastructure facilities former President Mahinda Rajapaksa developed to entertain thousands of guests at ‘Temple Trees’ came handy to Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday night.
He entertained to dinner about 1,500 guests – United National Party electorate and district organisers who had worked at the January 8 Presidential election.
However, there was a distinct difference in the event. Premier Wickremesinghe spent his own money. Hence, no State  funds were involved.

Military type diplomat shuns President’s message
There was a ding dong battle in a Sri Lanka diplomatic mission overseas when observing the country’s National Day on February 4.
The head of the mission read out President Maithripala Sirisena’s National Day message. He had asked his deputy, a uniformed type, to read out the same message in Sinhala. The man flatly refused.
The matter has now been brought to the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

SriLankan: A SOP to passengers
Last week’s revelations headlined “National Carrier rapped for safety lapses” which referred to, inter-alia safety concerns expressed by the Director of Civil Aviation, has drawn a belated response from SriLankan Airlines Media Development Manager Deepal V. Perera. He had directed it to other media first though none of them except the Daily Mirror published the account. Here are relevant excerpts:

“….. Pre-set profiles are applicable to a particular aircraft type and sector and are in line with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the Airline.
“…….In this process the airline confirmed that it had not found any instances which exceeded the pre-set profiles which were safety critical nor any evidence of instances of Flight Crew deactivating certain functional and vital flight instruments/engines/systems in flights (including the IRS) engaged in commercial passenger operations with a view to getting an opportunity to practising certain abnormal and emergency conditions, as mentioned in the Article and as mentioned in quoted letter of the Director General of Civil Aviation.

“However, there was in fact a case of inflight turn back due to suspected high vibration. As the pilot’s concurrence report had not given sufficient details to identify the root cause of the said vibration SriLankan Engineering requested Airbus Industries for an in depth report of the Digital Flight Data Recordings (DFDR) pertaining to that particular flight. As per the report, the Airline found that the Flight Crew which operated that particular flight had deviated from the SOPs of the company. Immediately the Airline appointed a panel of inquiry consisting of the most senior instructor pilots, which, after due inquiry found that the Flight Crew had violated SOPs of the Company but not to the effect of simulating conditions with passengers on board as stated in the article. The Company based on the findings of the inquiring Panel has taken appropriate action vis-a-vis the Flight Crew to address such violation…..

“With regard to the other incident mentioned, SriLankan hereby refers to the entry logged in the Captain’s Report where the Captain, upon his return to the cockpit had found the door being opened manually by the first officer who has gotten up from her seat. The captain has de-briefed her thoroughly of the seriousness of the event and it was acknowledged by her. And the matter was handled then and there and closed…..”

Jamis Banda adds:  As is clear from my report, it was the Director General of Civil Aviation who brought to the attention of SriLankan Airlines the issues revealed on this page. The latter’s response, therefore, is in fact an answer to him.

However, the matter has not “ended then and there and closed” for those who fly SriLankan and those who want to do so. Fears of safety, despite all the good words by the amiable SriLankan PR, lurk in their minds and that too for some valid reasons confirmed by SriLankan itself. The use of words cannot dispel public perceptions. Action on the ground – and in the air — is required to fly safely.