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Six months ago they were political arch enemies. Like the saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows. So it was.
Last Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena agreed to allow his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa to contest the August 17 parliamentary elections.

Now, they appear to be not only chummy, but concerned of each other. After the official announcement of Rajapaksa’s candidature, UPFA leaders, with the exception of Sirisena, met on Friday night at the official residence of Western Provincial Council Chief Minister Prasanna Ranatunga. It will be recalled that on an earlier occasion, it was he who floated the idea if the leadership of the SLFP itself should be called into question.

For moments the gathering took a formal air. They adopted a unanimous resolution thanking UPFA and SLFP leader President Maithripala Sirisena for nominating Rajapaksa as a candidate. They resolved that no statements detrimental to him (President Sirisena) should be made by any member of the Alliance. Then the mood took a festive air.

At the same time, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who had earlier believed that Rajapaksa might not get together with Sirisena, and in fact, repeatedly assured accordingly by Sirisena himself, was at a dinner at the official residence of Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera at Colombo’s Stanmore Crescent off Bauddhaloka Mawatha.

The guest of honour at the event was to be President Maithripala Sirisena. He had confirmed his presence. When he was getting late, a call was made to his residence at Wijerama Mawatha to check. An aide said Mr. Sirisena had retired to bed early that day. He was having a back ache, the aide had said.

Samaraweera was hosting and toasting former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who had turned 70 on June 29. Among others present were Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrema, Minister Arjuna Ranatunga, Pathma Maharajah and Mano Tittawala.

Ms. Kumaratunga did not hide her feelings about Sirisena agreeing to Rajapaksa’s candidature earlier in the day. She was critical and opined that the SLFPers should defeat Rajapaksa. President Sirisena was clearly in no mood to sup that night with Ms. Kumaratunga — or his Prime Minister, who had given the septuagenarian birthday girl a gift and made a hurried exit for another function.

UPFA forms nominations board
The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has named a seven member Nomination Board to select candidates.
They will serve sometimes as small committees to interview prospective candidates.

The seven members are Susil Premajayantha, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Dilan Perera, John Seneviratne, S.B. Dissanayake and A.H.M. Fowzie.

Ven. Sobitha furious, cuts off ties with President
The Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, who played a leading role in the campaign to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa, wrote to President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday seeking an appointment.

He indicated that, before he could say anything publicly about moves to give Mr. Rajapaksa nomination, he would like to meet the incumbent president to know his position. It is learnt that Chandrika Kumaratunga, the former president, had also asked to meet Mr. Sirisena on the same day.

In the current environment of utmost secrecy and political intrigue, it is not known whether Ms. Kumaratunga had got her appointment. The Ven. Sobitha Thera, however, had not. Instead, President Sirisena telephoned him around 5 pm on Friday, well after it was made publicly known that Mr. Rajapaksa would receive nomination from the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA).

“You have sent me a letter, apey hamuduruwane,” Mr. Sirisena said, adding that it would be possible to grant the prelate a meeting in a day or two. The irate prelate, feeling thorughly let down by the President, replied that the two of them now had nothing left to talk about.

“You have already gone and done it, what more can we talk about,” he said. Mr. Sirisena had then maintained that the decision to nominate Mr. Rajapaksa as a UPFA nominee had “nothing to do with me”, but that it had come from the Alliance. “So make a public statement to that effect,” the Ven Sobitha Thera told him. No such undertaking was forthcoming and, not unsurprisingly, the meeting never took place.

What’s India doing in Jaffna
The office of the Consulate General for India in Jaffna is conducting a survey of residents who can read, write and speak Hindi.
Forms are being sent out to residents to obtain details, including their names, dates of birth and addresses.
Wonder what that’s all about.

Height of cheek
Check: According to the dictionary, it means examining something to determine its accuracy, quality, or condition, or to detect the presence of something. But the height of checking is not when one checks what has already been checked, again and again in what psychiatrists call Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or (OCD). It is about checking the word check to see whether it has been spelt correctly. Well, it does not happen in Sri Lanka, at least at the official level.

On Monday, visitors to the Iftar function at Temple Trees were frisked at the entrance and a sticker was pasted on their upper garment to indicate they posed no security threat. The sticker read: “Prime Minister’s Security Division — Security Cheeked.”
Now whoever has designed the sticker or is responsible for printing it, it appears, must have had a cheek to go ahead with this public shame. He or she has not bothered to check whether the word check has been spelt correctly.

It was only last week that the Sunday Times on its page one reported how the Air Force got passengers travelling on its Helitours aircraft sign a document written in broken English. There again the Air Force displays some security cheek to make that gibberish an official document.

Chamal to retire
UPFA insiders say the position of a prime ministerial candidate was offered to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, but he declined.
His son, former Sabaragamuwa Chief Minister Shashindra had persuaded him not to accept the offer. Minister Sarath Amunugama went on record saying that as president Sirisena would not be giving Mahinda Rajapaksa nomination, it would be a good idea to offer ex-Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa the job of PM should the UPFA win the next election. Chamal will, however retire from politics, it is said.
His second son Shaminda, according to these sources, is to seek nominations as a candidate from the Hambantota District.

Army Chief in Moscow
Army Commander Chrisanthe de Silva has undertaken a visit to Russia at the invitation of Moscow. He is due to return to Colombo in the coming week.